Alisha and I abandoned our narrowboat for the Christmas week during the freeze. If a boat isn’t lived on during winter you’re supposed to protect it against damage by winterising it. Good news is that on our return there were no problems, no cracked pipes or leaks, and the engine started first time.
On the Leeds and Liverpool canal
Thaw and freeze
A week before Christmas the ice had thawed just enough to move the boat from where we’d been frozen in for two weeks. British Waterways phoned to say we might be able to travel back to Leeds in a couple of days, and they booked us in to travel through the staircase locks. Things were looking up: we might be back on our winter mooring soon.
Surviving winter on a narrowboat
The last winter I spent on a narrowboat, four years ago, was mild compared to this one. This time the canal has frozen over, and has been frozen for a week and a half, and it could take a while before the ice thaws.
Narrowboat in the snow
Narrowboat Audrey Too yesterday, stuck in ice, covered in snow. It’s supposed to be -11 degrees tonight so the diesel heater will stay on all night. Already, some windows are freezing up on the inside.
Swans and ducks on the frozen canal
Swans charge at the ice to break it, so they can reach bread scattered on the surface of the frozen canal. Ducks try to waddle across the top of the ice. Filmed from my narrowboat, moored opposite the boatyard in Rodley on the Leeds and Liverpool canal.
Stuck in the ice at Rodley
Our narrowboat is stuck in the ice at Rodley. We only came up here to get some diesel, and had booked to go back through the locks to our winter mooring in Leeds Clarence Dock. But there’s snow and freezing temperatures forecast for the next week at least so we might be stuck here.
Leeds to Rodley by narrowboat in the cold and snow
During the winter months, in order to travel up the Leeds and Liverpool canal you need to book passage in advance with British Waterways. We did this today, travelling up to Rodley to fill up with fuel. As well as several single locks there are a couple of staircases with three locks each.