HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Jo and Keith would like to wish our customers, family and friends a very Happy New Year. Thank you for your support throughout 2010 and we look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

A Very Happy Christmas.

Keith and Jo would like to wish all their Customers and Friends a Very Happy Christmas and all the very best for the New Year.

We hope that you have a wonderful festive time and it is a happy and safe one.

We look forward to seeing you all in 2011.

Here we go again.....

Hi Folks.

Here we go again, I feel a song coming on.

The temperature here at the moment is almost -4°C and the canal is solid, but if your living on a boat you will already know all of this. I think we can safely say that this is a hard one. We have had two Winter's in one year and for some it is a Winter too far. We are however prepared for what this cold snap has to throw at us. If the online forecasts are correct, then this is going to continue until at least Christmas and who knows it maybe a White Christmas for a change. It has been a blessing for us being moored in the right place at the right time, in our case Market Harborough. We have been stuck here ever since we ploughed through ice from Foxton on the 26th November. Gosh it seems like an age ago. The downside to being frozen in, we cannot get to our customers at Crick or Welford, but we have been in touch with them and given them other alternatives if they are in need of fuel. We do not like letting people down, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the weather. No sooner we can move, we will be back on track with our deliveries.

Ice Breaking in the basin for the hire company.

Keith had fun breaking the ice up for the hire company, so they can get their hire boats pumpouts done on Monday.

Coal delivery and Ice breaking.

It has been a very busy day because we filled our hold with a new coal delivery this morning. Tom and Chris arrived and immediately began unloading the coal. It was so much easier because the lorry had a crane arm lifting each pallette off the lorry and down to the wharfside. Then Keith and Tom handed the coal sacks to me and I stacked them in the hold. This should keep us going until after Christmas. Afterwards Keith did some ice breaking in the basin so the hire company can move some of their boats to the service area Monday as they need pumpouts, he then reversed the boat back down the canal to our original mooring, where I think we will be for a while yet, because the canal is still frozen.

Breaking Ice.

We managed to move Hadar 200 metres into the basin ready for a coal delivery tomorrow, but it did take all of 1hr 15mins!! Most of that was trying to get away from the towpath mooring, but once into the middle of the canal and deeper water I was breaking the 3" thick ice quite comfortably. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us break the ice this morning to get us moving. It was very much appreciated.

Tomorrow we will be taking on a coal delivery, which will be very welcome to all of our customers, who are depending on us at the moment to keep them warm.

Radio Interview.

Last year Keith and I were invited to appear on the local radio station Hfm. Moley one of the Dj's asked us if we would like to be on his show and we of course jumped at the opportunity. But because Keith was ill most of last Winter, we never got the chance to go into the radio station. Today we put that right and at 1pm we were on air with Moley answering the listeners questions and discussing the Waterway's with Moley. Time really does fly when your having fun, because before we knew it the clock was showing 3pm and time for Moley to wrap up his show. Keith and I had a really good time and were made to feel very welcome by everyone at the station. It is definitely something I would do again.
Before we left for the radio station, we enjoyed a coffee and a natter on NB Acen with Jo and John, who also invited along Chrissie and Richard from NB Digitalis and Jill and Don from NB Idunno, a good time was had by all. We had to cut our visit short to go to the radio station.

Christmas comes to our boat.

With the weather being the way it is, it seemed like the right time to put up the fairy lights and Christmas Tree. If only Christmas Day was here, because with the snow we have it would be very festive.

Is it a lane or is it the canal........................... It's the canal.

Frozen in and going nowhere. As someone said to me today. We are all in the same boat. The weather forecast is not hopeful of this ending anytime soon, so it looks like we will be here for sometime. Thank you all of our customers who have driven to us to collect their coal. If we could move we would, but at the moment it is just not possible.

Market Harborough in the Ice.

We are now moored at Market Harborough on the towpath outside of the basin, having left Bridge 14. We managed to plough through the ice. Overnight we had some snow, so we are now in a Winter wonderland. We have had a busy day supplying our customers with coal and kindling.

Foxton to Bridge 14 near Market Harborough.

We are now moored at Bridge 14 near Market Harborough having moved in the dark and ice after being filmed by a film crew for most of the day at Foxton. 4.3 miles, 2 swingbridges in 2 hrs 25 mins.
We had a fantastic day with Ian, Tony and Bertil, who came and did some filming with us at Foxton. It was an absolute pleasure to spend the day with them. They wanted to capture us delivering to some of our customers. The weather certainly played the part, because it was freezing. There was even ice on the canal. Having said cheerio to them at 3.20pm, we headed for Market Harborough with the light fading fast. We found we then had a problem, our temperature gauge was rising rapidly, which meant one thing. The impeller had broken up in the water cooling pump, so we stopped the boat in the middle of the canal and set about finding the cause. We had guessed right the impeller was shot, so we replaced it and were soon on our way again. We arrived at bridge 14 in the dark, so moored up in front of NB Lady Gwendolyn, who we ill be supplying with coal in the morning. We have had dinner and a nice hot shower. All's we want to do now is relax until bedtime. Tomorrow we will try and get into Market Harborough.

Top of Foxton Locks to Rainbow Bridge.

We are now moored at the bottom of Foxton Locks near Rainbow Bridge 62, having descended the locks this morning. We had a very heavy over night frost, but it meant we had a stunning sunrise. There was no one else around, so we had the flight to ourselves. After leaving the locks we cruised down to Debdale, on doing so we passed NB Wilver. Bill stuck his head out of the side door's and said good morning to us. We had a quick chat and headed to the winding hole at Debdale, where we turned the boat around. We then returned to the bottom of Foxton Locks where we will be for a few days as we have people coming to see us. After mooring up, we shut the boat up and headed to bridge 61 for a coffee and a chat with Tony Matts. Jo then decided to use the laundrette, so that she could do all of the washing at once. It was well worth the £3 for the wash, as it got everything done at once.
Mo and Nessa on NB Balmaha are now moored behind us, so we will catch up with them tomorrow. It will be wonderful to catch up on all their news.
The day is now drawing to a close as the light is fading fast and the temperature is dropping rapidly, so we will be staying inside tonight.

Welford Arm to the top of Foxton Locks.

Hadar has a lovely full hold after taking on 6 tonne this morning from Hills Coal Merchants. Now moored at the top of Foxton Locks having done 8.58 in 4 hrs 20 mins. Keith and Jo have had a busy day. and are now relaxing.

Welford Junction to Kilsby Bridge No 8.

After another very foggy start to the day, we moved from Welford Junction to Kilsby Bridge No 8, after a very busy day supplying coal to regular and new customers. My hold is almost empty, so I am looking forward to a refill on Tuesday. Jo and Keith need to order more coal.

Bridge 57 to Welford Junction

We are now moored at Welford Junction after a pleasant mornings cruise. It was foggy to begin with, but once the sun burnt through the haze it turned into a beautiful day. We stocked up customers with coal on route and met another at Welford Junction. We will be here for tonight, tomorrow we are heading to Crick to supply customers with fuel. Keith is still struggling with his back. The sack truck with towels inside the tyre has been tried and tested and it will do until we can get another sack truck sorted out.

Market Harborough to Bridge 57.

Jo set off early this morning on foot into Harborough to get a puncture repair kit so Keith can repair the puncture in the trolley tyre. Keith was going to go into town to try to get another trolley, but his back decided to go again yesterday, and having to unload 32 bags of coal and deliver them didn't help. When Jo returned with said puncture repair kit we set off for Foxton locks. as we were ascending them a boat started down from the top, so we had to pull into the side at the middle pound and wait for them to pass. We had intended no stopping just above the locks, but decided to carry on a bit further asn we had a coal delivery to make, and having found the customers boat at Bridge 57 we decided to moor there for the night, and to get the puncture repaired so we can deliver the coal.

Trolley Tyre Update:-

Having tried 2 puncture repairs, and both having failed, the 2nd more dramatically by ripping the inner tube, We have given up on that score. The problem is that unlike cycle tyres where the tube is similar in size to the tyre, so doesn't expand too much. However the inner tube of our trolley is far smaller than the tyre and has to inflate and expand quite a bit to fill the tyre, thus any repair gets stretched and fails. As a temporary fix we have stuffed towels inside the tyre and will try it out with our next customer to see if it works. Keith is rather surprised that the inner tube is that much smaller than the tyre, he will take it up with ATS who supplied the new tubes and tyres at the first opportunity.

Black Horse Bridge to Gallows Hill

Having had our Tesco's delivery at Black Horse Bridge, we have moved to Gallows Hill for the night, having crept through the thick fog this morning. We had coffee and a chat with Bill and Virginia on Wilvir and delivered them some coal.

Foxton Locks to Black Horse Bridge

Having had the broken wheel of our sack barrow successfully repaired by Sam Matts of Foxton Boat Services we moved Hadar to Black Horse Bridge Foxton, ready for our Tesco Delivery tomorrow morning. We are contemplating getting another sack barrow as a standby as we can't cope without one.

Top of Foxton Lock to Foxton Junction.

We moved down through Foxton locks this morning and are now moored at the junction for the weekend. Despite being a bit chilly and a still quite strong winds, it has been a lovely sunny morning trip down through the locks.

Keith's Mushroom and Bacon Omelettes

Keith attempted to make mushroom and bacon omelettes for breakfast today.







He needs more practice!

Bridge 51 to Top of Foxton Locks

After the buffeting winds of the past couple of days this morning was dead calm, not a breathe of wind disturbed a single leaf, which made for a pleasant run to the top of Foxton Locks. Keith entered a competition on our local Radio Station Hfm to win a pair of tickets to watch Leicester play the Derby at the Walkers Stadium in Leicester. He didn't win, boo hoo. Neither of us has ever been to a football match, perhaps one day we will, just for the experience.