Ding your dong and get merrily on high etc. 'Tis the season to be jolly - Bah humbug, and any other confectionery of your choice.

Not leaning much in the Christian way the crew of the good boat Wych Way decided that rather than watch endless repeats on TV we'd go for a cruise, so setting off on the 24th (Christmas Eve to the conventional amongst you) here's how it unfolds :-

We did intend to moor up after the top of Tatenhill Lock, opposite Marley Roof Tiles but were thwarted by the shallow edges that promised us a night of gravelly grinding noises so we continued on towards Windy City (known to many as Barton Turns) where after setting up the aerial the lads settled down to watch tv while we 'oldies' curled up with a good read amidships - a cosy evening was had by all!

Sun 25th December

Woke up at around 2.00 a.m.  to the sound of the fridge trying and failing to start. Immediately suspecting the tv and inverter for draining the domestic batteries, turn the fridge off and go back to bed. At 6.00 a.m. Sally and I are awake and decide to get up, switched on the heating - nothing - Eberspachers do not like low battery voltages. On with the engine, power restored as the alternator starts to charge everything up. By 6.45 a.m. we are mobile, entertained by many inflatable Santas, snowmen etc. hanging earily over the nearby marina. By mid morning we had turned onto the Coventry canal and by early afternoon turned right onto the Birmingham & Fazeley and made for Drayton foot bridge, mooring there for the night. Tried to start the gen set but it played up badly, coughing and spluttering away until I take its little house off at which point it settles down straight away, purring away for an hour or so, charging batteries, running the electric radiators powering the tv etc. Switched the gen set off at around 8.00 p.m. and restricted tv watching severely in the hope of retaining some battery power for the heating tomorrow morning.

Drayton foot bridge

Mon 26th December

We had a lie in, went to turn the heating on and - nothing. This is becoming annoying now. **Technobabble warning - feel free to proceed to next paragraph** When we brought the boat up from Reading a year ago power-wise things were pretty much as they are now. If anything we draw less power now as we have replaced some of the twin 9w fluourescent fittings consuming 18w each with single bulb 10w halogens. The only difference is that we are now running the tv from the inverter. The tv data plate states it wants 35w at 12v or around 3 amps. Running from mains it wants 50w, around 0.2 amps. However creating that mains via the inverter uses 20 times the 12v current to create the same 240v but even allowing for some efficiency losses at the inverter end of things that's still no more than 5 amps - certainly not enough to flatten the batteries in an hour or two. The mystery deepens. ** End of technobabble**

Anyhow - on with the cruise. Left the moorings at 8:20 a.m. and proceeded as far as the winding hole near Curdworth lock where we turned around, heading back towards Drayton foot bridge again. Here we stop to measure the battery voltages in an attempt to work out where all the power is going. The currrent (pun intended!) theory is that we have a dead battery in the domestic bank and this is dragging the other two down. Well at least that was the theory - isolating each battery in turn and metering them reveals a healthy 13 + volts in each of them - if a cell had been down I'd have expected one of the batteries to be down to around 10volts. Much miffed by that simple theory going out of the window we carry on and by the end of the day we reach the outskirts of Fradley. We try to moor up and once more are thwarted by a very shallow edge. In the growing darkness, after using the tunnel light as a headlight to scour the bank ahead,  the closest we can get is around 18 inches and Rob - he who leaps off of anything - into anything - across anything, decides that this is too far for him to jump. I do try and explain that 'walking the plank' is far worse than jumping 18 inches but to no avail so set up the boarding plank. We decide to go to bed and then find out that Ollie has got a serious dose of indigestion. Spend a 'happy' half hour trying to massage his flexible outlet pipe and finally give up. Rob now decides he wants a wee and soon discovers that I was right about the plank walking. During all of this we work out that the inverter has been switched on since we moored up and despite there being no tv watching the batteries are seriously down again. Then I remember that the UPS for the computer and the monitor power supply don't like the 220 volts the inverter puts out. The latest theory is that these two have been dragging out power so I unplug everything from the inverter feed and we run the engine for half an hour to try and recharge.

Tues 27th December

We turn the heating on and - nothing - batteries too low. Latest theory is that last night's inverter hitch was to blame. Setting off, we discover that it was cold overnight - so cold that the mooring ropes had frozen stiff. Cruising through ice is an odd experience, seeing whole sheets slide over and under each other as you push them aside is a rare sight.  We turn left onto the Trent & Mersey here, stopping a short distance after Shadehouse lock to perform open Ollie surgery.  If you've read other pages of this site you will know that I am now an expert in getting Ollie in and out so this is accomplished in a mere 10 minutes. Jason decides that how long 10 minutes lasts does indeed depend on which side of the toilet door you are and sets off along the towpath for an 'economy widdle'. The problem it seems is the little valve in the outlet pipe (that stops what we send to the holding tank coming back) is jammed. Closer investigation shows that it is seriously lime scaled and very smelly. We treat it to a 'fizz bomb' lime scale treatment tablet and re-install everything. Happiness, as I recall saying more than once, is a working toilet.

With one of our problems solved we carry on cruising, and then we're delighted to see that it starts snowing - lots! Cruising through snow is a very bizarre experience and in a masochistic kind of way, great fun. The snow doesn't last long though and we cruise on through a pleasantly sunny, if not slightly cold day. We treat ourselves to a fish and chip lunch from Handsacre, finally ending up at the top of Colwich lock for the night. Start up the gen set and can now switch on the electric radiators, tv, dehumidifier, battery charger and settle in for a relaxing evening. Half an hour later the gen set shuts down of its own accord. Hmmmm - I take it's little 'house' off and with more air around it, it's immediately happy once more. So, the new, revised plan is to run the gen set while we want any sort of mains so that overnight all we run is the fridge. In this way we should have power for the heating in the morning.

Wed 28th December

Hmmm . . . So much for that plan then - woke up in the morning and the heating still won't work. However - that means that the only thing running overnight was - dramatic pause - The Fridge. Three guesses as to what's going to get turned down tonight then.

Our own version of the Indian Rope Trick

Anyhow, that's the least of our problems now, a visit to the big, wide outdoors reveals that the canal is frozen solid. Stones thrown at the ice bounce away at crazy speeds making a wonderful 'ping' as they go. We push on as far as Great Haywood junction, passing this rather nice lock keeper's cottage on the way. Progress is made at the cost of the paint from the bow of the boat and much effort on my behalf, quite literally smashing our way through the ice as we go using the boat hook. We take the decision to turn around at Great Haywood junction as the implications of ending up on the wrong side of the lock closure at Barton Turn if we get delayed by the ice are serious. So with much smashing and crashing we duly turn around and start back.

Some impressive lock keeper's cottage

Success ! ! Woke up this morning and switched the heating on and we have heat. Went back to bed and relished in the sound of a happy little Eberspacher doing its' thing. This, it turns out is just as well. If we thought Wednesday night was on the chilly side we are at a loss for words to describe last nights' effort. We agree that turning around was a good plan and decide that we are going to run for home. Spent most of the day smashing through even more ice until we reach the river section of the Trent & Mersey where the continual flow has kept a clear channel  for us. We stop off temporarily to take on water and discover that whilst the stand pipe may not be frozen our water pipe is. Several kettles of hot water later and we are in business, top up with water and make for home, arriving with much crashing and smashing of ice. Would we do it again ? Too damn right we would.