Britain’s Waterways Chaplains, about 70 of them now, find that winter can be a time when they are really needed by some continuous cruisers.

How about that for a February then folks? Did you break out the flip flops and the sun tan lotion? A lot better than last year don’t you think? The ‘Beast from the East’ was about to come roaring through if you remember. Mind you, I think we brought that upon ourselves to a great extent and that we ought to pay better attention to our use of rhyming couplets. Naming it 'The Least from the East’ might have lessened its impact. Or better still, reducing it to a fungal infection, ‘The Yeast from the East,’  would surely have resulted in warmer weather - albeit a little itchy.

I met up with an old colleague of mine Gavin Beat, who has moved on from the Canal & River Trust to join Frog Environmental as a Senior Technical Specialist. This role involves delivering innovative environmental management, pollution control and sustainable water quality solutions. This month, he has taken the time to share his knowledge and use of using bubble screens in waterbodies.

As the weather begins to warm and more boaters get their ‘babies’ out of hibernation ready to cruise the cut, I thought I’d share with you a little snippet of ‘Breaking News’ I’ve come across.

Many of you ‘old hands’ at the tiller (hopefully all of you!) will be familiar with the Considerate Boater on Willow Wren Training’s website. If you’re not, or are new to cruising the canals, please take a look.

Well how lucky are you who are living on your boats throughout the winter months? You will be enjoying a warm cosy boat and I bet some of you will even being opening the windows to let some of the heat out. Not only that, you will be enjoying the changing scenery of our lovely waterways as the winter sets in.

As long as there has been inland waterway navigation, there has been equine motive power. It makes sense; by water, the weight of the load is significantly reduced. In 1810 someone did the calculations and came to the conclusion that one horse and three men could move as much by water as sixty horses and ten men could by road.