Wed 19 Jan 2011 Shackerstone

Walking the dog last night and the grass was all frosty except where we had moored, I think we were sheltered by the hedge. It was just about a full moon last night so was quite light all night. This morning when I checked the max/min the temperature didn't quite make freezing on the bow of the boat, but the puddles on the offside fields were all icy.
We made an early start to beat the rush, five to ten and the sunny start to the day was just changing to 100% cloud cover, damp and cold, this lasted to about lunch time when things picked up.

The first 10 miles of this canal have been easy going, averaging 3 mph. including slowing down for lots of moored boats, but the bit between the 10 and 14 mile markers was different with the bottom to close to the top. We only just managed 2 mph. on this section, stirring the mud all the way.
All the visitor moorings at Stoke Golding have been turned over to winter mooring and were all full.
Due to the slow progress we decided to stop at Congerstone and eat at The Horse and Jockey, we moored up at quarter to three a bit earlier than planned, the last couple of miles were easy going again and Diana took Magic for a walk down to the pub to see if they were doing food tonight. What she found was the pub was not only closed but had been sold, if it will reopen as a pub I don't know. When she returned to the boat we decided to carry on to Shackerstone to The Rising Sun, there was room for a couple of boats on the visitor moorings when we pulled in at quarter to four and again Diana went to investigate the pub.
On her return I found out that the pub does food from Wednesday to Sunday, so that's OK and all these moorings are also winter moorings, so we are just waiting for a knock on the boat from someone returning from the water point or something.