hm.... doesn’t really have the same ring to it, but that’s the thought I had as soon as I finished work this afternoon. It has been more than two weeks since I was last on the boat and I need to check that she's safe and sound. I set off sharpish, the light doesn't last long at this time of the afternoon in late January, but I did remember to take a charge of charcoal with me for the heater.

The wind was light to nonexistent and the only ripples on the water were caused by the water fowl swimming or the fish breaking the surface.

As usual I lit the heater and put the kettle on and then sat down in the cockpit for a cup of tea. I'm not averse to leaving the heater on when I'm not on the boat but since I was only going to be there for a short period of time, I only put in half the charge of charcoal.

Cold today it is and despite there being little wind I soon had freezing hands from trying to type this on my iPhone, so excuse me for a minute whilst I don my gloves.

So, I hear you say, if he is wearing gloves how can he be typing this? Does he have one of those special gloves that work with touch screens?

The answer is no I don’t have fancy gloves, just ones with a hole in the finger, see photo below. I don’t have cold hands anymore but I do have a cold finger!. I think I’ll write the rest of this when I get back home!

In fact, having said that I then looked up form the phone to see dark and ominous clouds with attached rain approaching, you know the ones I mean, dark clouds with the rain falling underneath, so suiting words to actions I packed up and left for home, this time remembering to take the paddle with me. That's going to be the first thing that is sanded and revarnished as I have a second one on Naiad and so won't miss one whilst it is being worked upon. Unlike the tiller which I may need to make a spare so that I can still go sailing even though the tiller is in the workshop.

I did forget to bring the quant but now that I think about it, I need to put a couple of cross bars on the roof bars first before that can come back to the workshop.

Here, for your edification, is the hole-y glove.

I did take a couple of shots of the river when I arrived at the mooring, as you can see there's not a lot of wind here although the wind generator is turning so there must be wind down that way.

Here's a shot in the other direction. Not much wind that way either.