The plan for a couple of days was to make a short trip up to Stourbridge today and back tomorrow. We untied, went up though Hyde lock. (Where BW workmen were installing a new handrail as a result of the accident at Stourport). As we came up in the lock it was obvious that beyond the lock the canal was frozen. We tested the thickness and it was enough to cause paint damage. The BW guys said that it was frozen all the way to Stewpony. So we winded and went back to our mooring!

I spend some of today re-installing my monitoring box. I have designed and developed a system based on an embedded microcomputer which monitors the temperature and battery voltage on board. It then sends the info via SMS text message to a computer at home. This enables me to check that all is OK onboard. Below is a graph drawn from the data.

You can see that the Eberspacher heater came on at 3:00, 6:00 & 8:00. It also monitors the battery voltage to make sure that the solar panels are charging the batteries sufficiently to keep the heater going. I’m planning later versions with will be more interactive. You can see the live data here: http://asgard.thornet.co.uk/boat/

We walked down to Whittington Horse bridge to check the ice situation, but it was impassable, so we’re staying here until tomorrow.