Bartimaeus

The start of the day was misty and grey, and neither of us felt very energetic.  In my case I’m pretty sure it was yesterday’s ‘flu vaccine giving my system better things to do.  I joined a coffee-time chat with former workmates for the first time in a while – it was good to catch up again.

By the middle of the afternoon, I was starting to feel like doing something.  I decided to see if I could work out what was wrong with the tunnel light.  While I was crawling round in the engine room, Clare went to the supermarket (other supermarkets are available).  I learned nothing in the engine room, but decided to also investigate replacing the bow thruster joystick.  I had been told it was fairly easy, and so it proved.  Now if only we had a replacement joystick I’d feel confident to install it.

While I was putting the screws back in place I heard a strange splashing noise.  Eventually I got up to investigate.  We are moored using our wheel fenders so there is a gap of about a foot between the boat and the bank.  In that space, an otter was wrestling with an eel.

At that moment an official of the Canal and River Trust was recording our location.  We agreed that this was an amazing sight.  I got the best pictures I could, but things were moving pretty fast.  The otter was fighting with the eel for the whole length of the boat.  It then pulled its prize under our wheel-fender, around the front of the boat and across the canal.

I haven’t resolved the electrical problems, but I’m glad I happened to be outside just at that moment.