A thin layer of ice across the Ashby Canal, broken by the first boat of the morning. Traditional canal boats, narrow boats, have steel hulls, easily capable of slicing through ice that is a lot thicker than this,but we came across a more modern boat with a "plastic" hull, fibreglass, less robust than traditional hulls. The owner has planned to travel to the nearest major town, but had slowed down to push gently through the ice, and there was no chance of achieving his destination in daylight. He asked if we knew whether the nearest local village had public transport links. Fortunately another boat owner was passing, walking his dogs, and was able to provide advice. The owner of the plastic boat finished his journey by bus, no doubt planning to return the following weekend to continue his canal trip.
Ice! That's just silly! (we are not used to that here in the antipodes). Interesting backstory, however. I would have picked fibreglass as being tougher than that.
