Escape is planned for tomorrow

 11th Jan

The thaw has arrived! Into plus figures this morning, and now the countdown to our escape was on. Yesterday, we contacted Kat on Bagus to see where she was. Unfortunately, she is stuck on the wrong side of the river Trent at Burton I think, and notification arrived in my email inbox to say the Wychnor lock connecting the River Trent and Alrewas lock were closed due to high and dangerous river levels. So our coal situation may get a bit dire! Good job we have diesel central heating, at least we won't freeze!

Not long after lunch, a crashing of ice was heard. Yesterday a boat had arrived and tucked itself behind FS. We had no idea what the boat was but this morning, when the noise was followed by a bow, the boat looked to be an icebreaker and the only boat we knew was Pilot.

For an icebreaker, it had a lot of difficulty in getting away from the mooring. At one point, Ian went out to help keep the bow away from our stern and from the conversation he had with the owner, Pilot had never been planned as an icebreaker. It was built as a tunnel tugboat before being used to break ice at a later date. Anyway, they were heading to Alrewas so it looks like our getaway will definitely be on for tomorrow after all.