Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th October
Thursday we had a consolidation day in Gloucester, Ken checked the batteries and filled the greaser and I gave the cooker a very overdue clean!
Ken ran across a bit of a problem when he was half way through doing the batteries. He needed more distilled water but when he looked under the dinette for his spare container it wasn’t there. Suddenly he remembered he had lent it to Cathy when she ran out of distilled water while she was doing her batteries at Tixall a few weeks ago!
He may have said something like – ‘Oh dear I haven’t got any distilled water, I will have to go out and buy some,’ or words to that effect before he went off to Wilkinson’s. He returned a little while later and finished the job.
After we had done our various chores we went in to town. I had to take my coat in to Tailors Alterations because I ripped the pocket off going through the bathroom and getting the handle of the shower caught in it some time ago. I will be needing it again soon now the Summer is over.
I also went to the computer shop for a bluetooth adapter so I could download all the photos we both have on our phones to the computer. It was not as easy as I thought getting the phones and the computer to recognise each other (even with the bluetooth adapter) and I spent ages titting about with driver downloads, pairing codes etc before I managed to get Ken’s phone connected.
Mine didn’t want to know so I bluetoothed my photos to Ken’s phone then downloaded them from there. As it turned out Ken’s photos were a lot better than mine because my phone camera is only 1.3 pixels so I needn’t have bothered with mine really!
After a fortune spending trip into Wilkinson’s we went to The Regal for a sit down and a pint. We started off sitting outside but it soon started raining so we had to go in. We spent a happy hour or so people watching, as we do, before braving the elements to return to the boat. It was still raining and the wind had got up quite a lot and was gusty. We battened down the hatches when we got in. The wind was coming at us side on, rocking the boat and making me feel sea sick!
In the early hours of Friday morning we were awoken by an enormous clap of thunder. There was only the one and a few more flashes of lightning and that was it. Later when we woke up properly it was still very windy and raining a bit too but as we were on 48 hour moorings we would have to leave regardless.
I had just got into the bathroom when there was an almighty bang on the side of the boat and I nearly fell off the loo! The hire boat which had been moored behind us the night before was trying to leave. Unfortunately they hadn’t given themselves enough of a push off and as they passed us there was a gust of wind, pushing them right into the side of us. Then they bumped all the way along the full length of us because the wind was holding them there. Bless!
By the time we were ready to go it had stopped raining but it was still windy. Despite this we made it off the moorings ok and headed for Saul Junction with a stop at the service wharf beyond Llanthony Bridge and another at Sainsbury’s.
When we arrived at Saul Junction we moored near the facilities so I could do some washing later. By this time it was a really lovely (if breezy) afternoon and we enjoyed walking the round trip past the marina to Frampton village, stopping for a couple at The Bell (be churlish not to) and back to the boat via Fretherne and Sandfield Bridges.
This afternoon I have done 3 loads of washing and drying using the laundry here and one load of hand washing as well so I am up to date for now. Shame about the ironing!
Tomorrow we are going to take a walk over to Davis’ boatyard opposite here and make enquiries about getting a service done and a few other things as well.
