Do you have that sinking feeling?

Thursday 11th December 2014

The wind and then the rain continued throughout the night, with the wind predominating; so much so that Diane actually questioned was the water coming into the engine bay - I have to admit that the water was being lashed against the stern - seemingly 3m waves crashing over the back deck - I say seemingly, as we were both still inside, it was still quite dark, and it sounded a lot worse than either of us thought it might have been.
True enough, as when light did finally make an appearance, the biggest of the waves was barely 5cm.
On top of all of that, if there had been water in the engine bay, the automatic bilge pump would have started up - no such sound.

The previous night I had a disastrous event occur - I was not able to save any of the work that I wanted to do - no amount of frustration would help the situation. Even the backup laptop had developed the same problem - there is an uncanny bond between them and some things are changed on one and then they appear on the other.
Whenever I have computer problems that I cannot resolve, it is generally a restless night - partially so for last night.

There were no overnight miracles this morning when I turned them both on - still the same as last night.
I had contacted Australia and they asked the fellow in India to come online and have a look - it is a marvellous system - he resolved it in barely a minute; showed me how to fix it, so the second laptop was also fixed.
It seems that when I changed from a 12-hour based time to the 24-hour version, the system mode didn't translate properly to the program - go back and redefine it and that was that.
A day to celebrate!!

No cruising today as we were due to pick up a hire car - we really do like all of the people who work at Enterprise - the pick up service is fantastic - and everyone is ready for a bit of laugh.

Exterminate, exterminate - a dalek made from haybales

So we have spent most of the free time today visiting Chester (again) - mainly because we were not going to make it down to there in the boat.

and carollers as well

This year they have some Christmas markets - we think that they must be English or even Welsh - the items for sale and the food is not German and not the same as those in Birmingham. It was all quite interesting - it would have been nice to sample some of the products except for the fact that we were on our fasting day - trying to undo some of the excesses of our 3 months away.

We made use of the Park and Ride parking and bus at Boughton Heath, so it was really quite easy all round.

With the cold biting wind I was more than eager to be inside and out of it, so Diane had a good enough chance to look at more shops than I might otherwise have submitted to.

A visit to the Cathedral for our first look in 6 years and as is usual (almost) custom we lit a candle for Lauren back in Australia - Lauren who is only 28, suffered a stroke over 2 years ago and is making remarkable progress in her struggle to lead as normal a life as possible.
 

A candle for Lauren

We noticed this lovely mosaic and observed...

...the strategic placement of the hands of the infant

Just a little more time left before we were ready to come back - bus to the car and then car to the boat - back on board; fuel tanks checked; mykuni ignited to heat the boat - all is well with the world and a vast improvement on how were felt in the morning.

No travel today