Bartimaeus

At night I was lying awake thinking of the starting sequence to setting off. I knew that we would go to the marina in the morning as there was heavy rain forecast for the afternoon. Yet despite thinking about it to plan setting off, I still felt reluctant to actually do it. We didn’t need to use diesel. Still I knew it was a short distance and nothing harder than I had done before, so Shane cast off the front and stayed at the front as spotter and I headed into the marina. I had been advised to go to the chandlery mooring which was easiest to reach and near the entrance, then make my way to the office. However there was already a boat there and the jetty was only suitable for one boat at a time so I headed on round to the jetties for trading boats. It was a bit windy which added to my apprehension. Turning the corner went fine and the wind didn’t seem to bother us . I pulled in slowly expecting a smooth arrival at the wooden jetty, but heard a scraping noise as we slid into place. Shane identified that there were nail heads sticking out  proud from the wood. We tied up and I went to look at the side of the boat. There was a 4 inch scar showing shiny metal with the paint scraped right off! Dispiriting when we had just painted!

The lady in the office was very nice though and we got everything sorted out quickly. Instead of going right to our allocated berth (Moorhen 08) we turned right round to go back towards the entrance and turn in for pump out and diesel. There was a boat already there and I thought I was going to have to hover around, which wasn’t appealing on a windy day but the boat was about to leave. Good timing and on arrival there we saw another customer had already called the diesel attendant and we had a chat while waiting. Then when we were all filled and emptied, it was another turnaround to wiggle our way  back to the correct berth. It is a very large marina but our berth was not too far away and they are nicely spaced out with ample space for turning. Within moments of arriving we had been cheerily greeted by several different people. I will be pleased to get to Edinburgh but it felt sad that the people were so friendly and we were not going to stay. 

After lunch, Shane decided to fix the scratch on the side. There wasn’t time to put blue on but the undercoat will patch it over and prevent rusting. It dries fast so he reckons it would be hardened before the rain started.

We also managed a walk before the rain bedded in. It is a good marina for short walks around with daffodils out nearby and small community raised vegetable beds and an area for attracting bees with herbs and I stopped to sniff the sage. There were bird feeders too and I saw some goldfinches. If it hadn’t been so stormy this would have been an excellent place for the garden bird watch.  We had seen a cormorant, geese, coots, ducks and swans already but then we saw a larger than life swan. Moorings are paid by the foot so not sure if the swan cost extra.

The predicted rain came but we were all sorted out. I was trying to use up the last of our fresh food and had an eclectic mix for our last meal so concocted a roast beetroot base with a cheese soufflé on top with some fresh baked baguette. I felt able to use the oven more when I knew we would be hooked up to the electric. We had baked pains au chocolat for breakfast and the packet said there were 6 but when I opened the pack to roll and bake them, I found there were actually 8 so we have some of those left over. It will be another eclectic mix for breakfast.