Tag: bedfordshire

Welcome to 2023

We said goodbye to 2022 quietly just above Leighton Lock, still feeling a bit washed out after our brush with covid. It would have been a nice place to stay, except we couldn’t get any tv reception. But when the New Year dawns with crisp clear blue sky, we couldn’t resist the desire to cruise.

January 1st 2023

But it was still cold, so we only clocked 2 miles and moored up just beyond the Soulbury 3 Locks.

Soulbury 3 locks


We’ve enjoyed nice meals there in the past but we try to avoid eating out on a bank holiday so gave it a miss this time, and found us a rural beauty spot instead.

Stoke Hammond

We mooched on slowly until we got to civilization at Fenny Stratford. We’d planned to spend a few days with family in Suffolk and this was a good place to arrange car hire. I went ahead first by train so I could see some friends as well, the train took me through Ely…. now theres a thought for another summers cruise….We’ve been aboard Firecrest since January 2017, thats 6 years, and still plenty of water left to explore.

Ely from the train

But for now we were back in Suffolk, where the Vikings arrived in their Long boats,

Frosty River Deben

And the fishermen still go out in little wooden boats

Aldeburgh


And we take the family out for breakfast at the farm cafe

Happy families

this is almost as far East in the country that you can get

Looking towards Thorpness

And looking north you can see where all the icy winds come whistling down to freeze the country… and the canals

Freezing Fenny

Oh no, another 10 days frozen in, we eventually managed to break free and move on.

But if the rest of the year is like January, we arent going to get very far. Its taken us a whole month to move 9 miles.

Not quite the Christmas we had expected

After enjoying the magic of snow and ice for over 2 weeks Eric went down with a stinking cold, two days later so did I… except it wasn’t a just a cold. After 2 years of escaping the dreaded Covid, it finally caught us. Being fully vaccinated, were leading pretty much our normal lifestyle, and to be honest we were surprised that we hadnt already had it. We’d had the odd snuffle, but each time I tested it came back negative. But there was something about the pounding headache accompanying this cold that prompted me to reveal the double line.

Hum. Not what we wanted to see

As luck would have it, knowing a thaw in the ice was imminent and we might be moving on, I had walked up to M&S and done a big Christmas food shop. I’d splashed out on some of their part cooked range and plenty of little nibbly bits, all with good use by dates. The only thing I’d forgotten to get was brussel sprouts, but it was only the 20th so there was plenty of time….


But it wasn’t to be. Covid knocked us for 6, the temperatures went up and the rain came down, the debris thrown onto the ice held on for as long as possible, whilst we retired under the duvet feeling sorry for ourselves.

It might have been a game for the kids, but theres going to be a lot of rubbish in the cut to foul our prop

And we can’t even say there was anything worth watching on tv this year. Our biggest worry was that we had just come through 2 weeks of water rationing. Using the local launderette and enjoying a swim and a shower at the leisure centre, making sure our tank lasted longer than our period of being frozen in. But even now, if we had felt well enough to move, morally, we felt it our duty not to go outside and share our germs, so yet again we were grateful that Firecrest had been built with a large water tank as we eeked out our supply to last another week. Fortunately fuel hadn’t been an issue during the freeze. Juel’s had delivered just as the ice was forming and then they also got stuck. But they were going past us a week after Eric succumbed so he masked up, unlocked the fuel cap and retreated back inside whilst they topped up the diesel. (£1.32l)

Juels fuels

And once the awful headache had passed I was able to get on with knitting my Christmas gnome.

Meet Gnova the gnome

Christmas Day was very subdued, Santa Claus hadn’t been able to do his usual stuff but we still managed an orange and a chocolate to start the day

And Id found something suitable for us to drink with lunch

We finally felt fit enough to make it to the water point on 27th. That was exactly 28 days since we last filled up. We reckon we could have managed another day or two, but my temperament was sorely frayed at not being able to have a proper wash. Good job we didn’t have much of a sense of smell

We’re now looking forward to a new year. Taking things easy cause we still feel washed out.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dreaming of a White Christmas
Moving closer to town was a good move because as the temperatures dropped , the ice got thicker and we became well and truly stuck fast. Ironically when the ice is thinner it feels worse, because as it moves we hear the cracking, creaking and groaning as it moves against the hull. We try to smash the ice that’s close around the boat to give us a bit of wriggle room to float freely in but we were fighting a loosing battle.

We’ll not get through that

We could tell it was getting colder because the hoar frost was looking so pretty.

Hard to tell, Hoar Frost or Snow

And then we woke up to snow.

That’s a lovely sight to wake up to

Of course I wanted to go out to play instantly, but it was barely a few inches deep, if that.

Not quite deep enough for a snowman

the rough ground made it difficult to build a snowman so I gave up and walked into town instead

Leighton buzzard

Leighton Buzzard is a pretty town, with a good market on Tuesdays and Saturdays and at this time of year the salvation army band are playing carols as well.

But of course its always nice to come back to a snug warm boat

Amanda came for a visit as she lives reasonably close

Ladies that lunch

An ideal opportunity to go for a pub lunch at The Grove and a catch up

The forecast is set to warm up drastically, so its unlikely that we’ll get our white Christmas, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s still too much ice in the canal for us to break free

Thats too much ice for my G&T

But its been lovely place to stay.