I HAD TO BREAK FREE

The time had come when enough was enough after being trapped by the ice for 9 days. I was moored just back from that blue BW work boat and just the very short journey to the jct. of the Leicester Arm took 1hr 40mins and from where the photo below was taken I was about half way.
Most of the time was taken going back and forth on the mooring breaking the ice with the boat pole so the boat could be pushed away from the towpath to enable some steerage. Once this was done i could get the front end pointing to the centre of the canal and by forward and reverse I gradually forced the boat through the ice.
Once past the jct. the ice was not to bad as towpath work was going on with work boats going
back and forth to edge the bank with sandbags as the towpath along this stretch has been eroding quite a lot recently. Still it was nice to be moving again and heading for Braunston with the chance to stock up the galley with a major supermarket shop.
As I arrived in Braunston I met Pete a fellow blogger from PICKLES 2 out walking his dog.
Just leaving the following day Jo & Keith again bloggers on HADAR.
So nice to have a galley full of food and see water flowing not just solid ice. The canal has iced over at night but with boat movements the ice is not around long enough to build up.