We set off this morning at about quarter past ten so that we arrived at Preston Brook tunnel on the hour, Although we have not had an air frost for about 3 days it was still cold enough overnight for the floating ice to freeze together into one lump.
CRT have been along this section of canal cutting back the off side vegetation which is good.
Dutton lock was against us but its the smallest head I have ever seen across the gates, I am sure two of us could have pushed the gates open each end, once through the lock I continued on slowly towards the tunnel mouth while Diana walked to the tunnel to look through and reported there was a boat coming through so we held back, it was five minutes to eleven so I think he may have been a couple of minutes late entering as it took us twelve minutes to transit the tunnel without hurrying. its the straightest of the three on this stretch and you can clearly see end to end.
The weather felt much warmer as we came out onto the Bridgewater Canal, or CRT Licence entitles us to spend up to 7 days on the Bridgewater without buying a licence, but once we leave we must not return for 4 weeks which I think is fair. Claymoore Navigation like most hire companies have their boats all back at base (except one in Dutton Dry Dock) so are moored over quite a bit of the canal, but still plenty of space to get through.
We passed our first fishing match of the year, it was a little after mid day and they had been at it since 10am and it was still a dead heat, no one had caught anything. One of the chaps said to me he had mentioned to his mate they would see someone daft as them out in the cold and we had just come by. To the very last man they were a friendly bunch.
Some dogs just cant resist picking up and carrying sticks, this one had half a tree and it didn't just walk along the towpath with it, it kept shooting off down the bank through the trees, but it didn't drop it.
We have used more diesel than normal due to running the diesel heating higher in this cold weather, also we haven't moved for 4 or 5 days due to ice so less engine hours so more diesel use per engine hour run, because of this I decided to stop at Thorn Marine and fill up, we also filled with water and bought a couple of engraved brass notices while we were there. As the water tap is on their meter and not a Peal Holdings tap they make a charge of £1 for half an hours use of the tap to fill a boats tank with water.
I was rather taken by this garden seat, its only big enough for one but I think it is carved out of one length of tree trunk, I hate to think what it must have cost to buy. As you can see its the prow of a Viking Long Boat.
We pushed on to our planned mooring for the night at Lymn, there is only one other boat here, unlike when we have been in the summer months and its been full. More shops have closed since we were here last, one of them being Rolando’s Gelato shop which is a shame.
Today's Journey 
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