Date - Day - Start - End - About half ten this morning I walked round to the Marina office and introduced myself, its the first time the office has been open since we arrived. Just as I was walking back to the boat NB Balmaha turned into the marina, they had cut a fine channel all the way from Black Horse Bridge at Foxton right into Debdale Marina. On the strength of this we decided to go cruising and reversed through the ice and out of the marina. We stopped at Foxton and again tried to fill with water but none of the taps were operational still, even the one in the entrance to the basin at the bottom of the incline plane was dry. We decided that we would take a run down to Market Harborough and fill there. On the way we spotted another BW waste of money, a sign saying the speed limit is 6.43 KPH. We pulled in against the services block in the basin only to find our hose pipe was frozen solid, we always drain it after use but a few dregs must have formed an ice plug, so it was into the oven with it to thaw while we dumped the rubbish etc. We were considering doing a pump out but the power lamp on the panel was out and the office is only open now and again so we may try again Monday. We took on enough water for the weekend as I didn't want to hang about to long and get caught returning in the dark. On the way back we saw saw NB Caxton's Kingfisher sitting on a branch, I have never seen such a tame one before, it made no attempt to move as we slid past. We were planning to head back to the marina for the night as we don't want to get caught in the ice at this stage of our plans, however as we continued on along the arm towards Foxton there was a good covering of cloud so it shouldn't be any colder tonight than it was last night so we stopped at Black Horse Bridge just after 4 PM with a view to eating at the Black Horse Pub or The Shoulder of Mutton that has its own Chinese restaurant.
You will find our latest position at http://tinyurl.com/Harnser-s-route -- Brian <[email protected]> Visit my Web site at http://www.harnser.info
