Another non-moving day, and another very sunny one. The chap moored in front of us was setting off, so I asked if he’d like a hand up the locks. He did, so I got a windlass and walked round to set the bottom staircase, to find the old working boat, Elk, coming down.
As he was also single handed, he was grateful for the help, and that he didn’t have to come back to shut the gates. He headed off down the river, and our neighbour (who I think was called Bill — his thirteen year old Border Terrier was definitely Peanut) came into the lock.
I worked the boat up both staircases, and in no time he was heading off to get diesel.
There are some nice houses around the basins in Stourport. I like this one in Severn Side — although it appears to back onto the house behind it, so there’s no proper back garden.
This afternoon I took Macc for a walk and Adrian went for a haircut, although as usual it was less than satisfactory. When I got back, the solar had got the batteries up to 100 per cent, so I put the immersion heater on for an hour for some free hot water.
We’ve also discovered an odd issue with our loo. A few times (and in fact three times this morning) the overflow alarm went off, and there was water in the base where there shouldn’t have been. It turned out to be river water. The vent outlet is rather low, and each time a boat went past some went in and ran down the pipe. Braidbar say they’ll put a swan neck fitting on the pipe at some point, but as a temporary measure we’ll probably cover the vent tomorrow before we head down the river.
It’s our anniversary today — 20 years since our Civil Partnership — so as Macc prevents us from going out for dinner we’re planning a Chinese takeaway. The locals we’ve asked have all suggested different ones, so we’ll probably go for the one that’s most convenient.
0 miles, 0 locks. (116 miles, 117 locks)