Gales!

Went to bed last night with the boat rocking and banging in extremely high winds! Found it very hard to get to sleep but just about dropped off at 3.00am to be woken by banging and crashing. My 'Save Our Waterways banner ont he side of the boat had broken free and was flying in the wind on the end of a piece of string! I braved the weather and went out to cut it free and haul it inside for safe keeping. Also found that my satellite dish was perilously close to the edge of the boat about to drop in - Idutifully disconnected that and pulled it in also.

Finally woke up again this morning to find that 2 buckets I had on the pontoon had vanished! A white plastic one, I used to wash the car and a green metal one had vanished and presumably sunk having been liberated by the wind. More high winds forecast this evening so watch this space! I have now attached bungee straps to said satellite dish to keep it in place and placed large logs on everything that looks as if it might move.

Only 2 weeks till the end of term when I travel down south for Christmas with my father. He plans to come up at the end of term to see our Christmas show that we are busy rehearsing at school. He will aslo then take Simba down with him as he travels better in dads van than my car and it will also leave one one less thing to hassle with when I load my car up for the journey down.

I plan to take my laptop down with me as with this 3G card, I can use it in London to keep the blog up to date and work on things more usefully.

Be warned of any marina who has to advertise that they have available moorings! In this current climate where mooring are highly sought after, it is ironic to notice that Trinity Marina has splashed across their front page of the website, 'available 4 X 50ft. non residential moorings' There will probably be about 6 more soon! When are they going to realise their reputation on the cut is now tarnished. I was speaking to someone the other day and they asked where I was based. When I told them, they asked me how I found it -to which I told them. Their reply was, 'yes, I've heard a lot of people saying that about it out on the canal.' How tragic that a fantastic facility on a fantastic canal can become such a non boating facility. It's not far off Charity Dock' already!
Well, I'm off to try and relax - if possible over the loud drum of the unserviced engine from a cheap ex-hire boat that has just started up at five to eight to charge its batteries for the next few hours; a boat that has never moved since it arrived a couple of years ago.

If proof was needed as to many of the 'boaters' who live on this estate, here's just a few of the true stories of the local residents.

1. The person who bought a 24V water pump to replace their 12V one thinking it was more powerful and not realising that 12V and 24V were totally different systems!
2. The person who complained they couldn't keep a fire in. Someone went to help and found that they had laid the throat plate on the grate and were trying to light the fire on that.
3. The person who stripped the paint from their roof prior to a re-paint before realising it was a fibre glass roof and they had melted it all.
4. The person who dropped an entire can of red paint in the marina resulting in us all cruising around with red striped round the bow for months on end, (not to mention the swans!)
5. The person who drilled a hole in the hull in order to drain their bilge which had a bit of water in. This had been advised as a joke and the person took it literally!
6. The person, (still unknown,) who keeps stealing the toilet rolls from the wash block, (not that this bothers me as I don't use it!)
7. The person who has just started stealing the shower heads from the shower block!
8. The person who had a drunken party where the guests couldn't get out as you need a key fob to exit so they simply smashed the emergency glass open.
9. The person whose mooring lines resemble tinsel draped over a Christmas tree.
10. The person who allowed their dog to constantly foul the pontoon as they were too drunk to take the dog for regular walks.
11. The person who has no idea as to BW regulations and constantly runs their engine well after 8.00pm to charge batteries, (they have to - they're down the pub getting drunk every night until at least 8.00!)

Watch this space for more hilarious and true recounts. Moorings available - take my advice, they're best left empty!