One giant jigsaw puzzle

I drove to the Anchor last night. It was the first night that I had been in since August and I must say that I hadn't realised how much I had missed it. I sat drinking a pint of 6X infront of one of the two roaring fires, talking to friends and listening to musical interludes is just very special - it feels like home... I much prefer pubs to be like the Anchor; down to earth and friendly atmosphere, than being like a pub in one of these large chains like Punch taverns...

I knew it was going to be cold this morning, but apparently it dropped as low as -5°C during the night, which left the arm frozen over (as the picture below) shows.

We have currently got an interesting collection of boats down the arm. Firstly we have got the big Woolwich motor boat Calstock tied abreast of the little Woolwich butty boat Nebulae. Both of these boats were built by Harland and Wolff at Woolwich, London (yes, they also built the Titanic, but they built that in Belfast) for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company during the 1930s. Also built for the same company was Canis Major. She was originally a butty, but converted to a BCN style tug in the 1970s. Lurking down behind Calstock is the Ant, built for British Waterways by EC Jones of Brentford in 1960 and unfortunately due to her design she wasn't popular with the boatmen due to her bluff design. Ant was one of the last carrying boats to be built. We have two boats built by Malcolm Braine at Norton Canes and I believe both of them were built in the 1970s. Finally we have a Fellows, Morton and Clayton replica motor boat called Arabia that was built by Roger Fuller in the 1990s. We also have a selection of shared owned boats, hire boats and private boats - It's one giant jigsaw puzzle to get into the dock...

Here's a view looking towards Gnosall at about 8.30 this morning. Everywhere was extremely peaceful and by looking at the smoking belching out of the chimney's on the boats, I guess everyone was tucked up in the warm...

Staverton has also been out on her maiden voyage with her new owners today. She has been getting plenty of tlc over the weekend in preparation for her journey to her home mooring in the weeks to come. I was lucky to get this picture as I was walking back over from the dry dock this afternoon - luckily I had the camera in my hand!

The sky has been amazingly clear again today as the picture below shows. Those are our Brokerage boats in the foreground looking over the top of the fleet and our shop front. I reckon it will be a cold one again tonight!

I hope that you have all had an enjoyable weekend and are looking forward to what this week may bring.

Until next week. Best regards.

David.