Many kindnesses get us going again.

Tomorrow afternoon our cruise resumes, and if the Met Office is to be believe we're in for a soaking for the first hours. That'll be going down the Buckby flight, which according to another boater on the web this week are the heaviest and most difficult locks on the GU. I remember on the way up we could hardly move one or two of the gates.

This week we have been on family duties as Jacob has been in hospital in Oxford under 24 hour ( times five days) observation for a sleep disorder that occasionally toubles him. They suspect his body clock is out of sync. We have had to have a family member with him day and night. His head has been covered with sensors wired up into an umbilical loom which attaches to a laptop and records his brainwave patterns. He has also been on continuous video observation. It has been fun to watch the graphs move as we say things which might excite or annoy him! Anyway it has all gone well and finishes tomorrow morning and we are released to return to the boat and complete our journey back to Iver. I have to say that the hospital facilities have been superb and they have done everything to keep Jacob comfortable and amused. I can't begin to imagine what the cost to the NHS has been - all that technical gear, a private room, specialist attention etc.

Everyone has been so helpful to us and we have to thank Priscilla for letting us use her lovely end of garden mooring, and especially Rick and Marilyn who have tended Herbie in our absence, done a lot of washing for us and got in essential supplies because we won't be able to carry much by public transport tomorrow. All very humbling and we don't deserve it.