Still iced in at Atherstone

Well we're still frozen in - day 6 now.  I can think of worse places to be stuck - tho' not sure about the ducks - here they are, going for a walk on the ice.  It's cold & the ice is now quite thick, but there's hardly any snow.

One boat made a break for it last Sunday morning, closely followed by a hire boat from Valley Cruises (a couple of miles further on, between Atherstone and Nuneaton).  We decided not to follow, as we had all the services here at the top of the locks.  So here we are, awaiting the coldest night of the year. We've topped up the water using our container, as luckily the water tap hasn't (yet) frozen.  We had hoped to chase Gosty Hill down the Coventry to get coal & diesel, we don't know where he'll turn up next - assuming they're frozen in too.  We had to buy coal from the garage which is an expensive way of doing it, but got a load of logs from 'a bloke in the pub' which were reasonably priced, and very good burners!  Next problem could be diesel, but we hope to get unlocked from the ice and make it to Valley Cruisers over the weekend - fingers crossed, but we'l find out where Gosty Hill is first.  Dave loves it here - the Market Tavern serves Lady Godiva.