I chugged off from my mooring several weeks ago to get to Audlem in time for Wriggley's birthday but despite that I have ended up about 1.5 mile short..

I helped Wriggley move her boat on Thursday as she has done something to her rudder and it's very stiff, by the time we had done that and had a cuppa it was too late to chug Casper the last 1.5 miles. The next morning ice was forming on the canal but as it was only thin by the boat I set off. Through the first bridge it got alot thicker and 300 yards further I found it difficult to steer and ended up in the bank. The ice was only about 8mm thick but I decided to moor up.

The next day the ice had got thicker, now being 20mm thick... I stayed put. It meant a 30 minute walk to the pub to meet up with the others for the do and it was very cold..

Today the ice had again got even thicker, this time I had to use my axe to break it and it was almost 2 inches thick. The boat is now froze solid and doesn't even rock. My brother who slept in the back cabin said it was very cold as the back has large areas which are un-insulated..