The sun shines on the righteous

 Herbie has been naughty.  When our daughter borrowed the boat recently, they got caught by the wind coming back into our slot at the marina and Herbie clouted the adjacent boat.  No particular blame there as it is a difficult manoeuvre in a sideways wind and our particular slot was always a bit of a challenge to get in and out of.  A bit of paintwork damage to the other boat occurred and like a good girl, Claire immediately told the marina about it, and to cut a long story short, we are paying for the necessary touch up to the cream tunnel band on the other boat.  (Not as cheap as you might think)

That's us being righteous.  Now for the sun shine bit.

This weekend has been particularly windy and we took Herbie out on the towpath just outside the marina to do a bit of painting.  Not ideal painting weather with all the crab apple blossom blowing about like snow flakes, but the right weather for boat painting is a rare thing.  At least it was warm and dry so our freshly painted port handrail now looks a lot better in its red gloss.

The other thing Claire did was to forget to tell us that she had left Herbie's water tank virtually empty so this morning we were forced to come back in to take on fresh supplies.  This was a fairly brave thing to do as the wind was quite strong and we didn't want another coming together with our neighbours boat.  We knew the slot two boats along was vacant so it being easier we headed for that and got in smoothly.  I pooped along to the lovely Karen in the marina office to tell her we were temporarily in the wrong spot, and casually enquired whether other berths might be available which were not so perilous to get in and out of.  "Well there's one just become vacant by that weeping willow tree opposite the marina entrance" she said.  "Stone me", quoth I, " That's the very spot Kath has always coveted!  We'll take it."  It actually costs a little bit more, I think because it's an 'end' pitch with no other boat on one side, so you get more light and a much wider gap to steer into.  Worth the extra we think. Even in today's strong wind, getting in was a breeze. (Sorry).

Herbie's new berth

with the marina entrance virtually opposite.

So despite the unfortunate business of hitting another boat and ending up out of pocket, we end up getting lucky and we're very pleased with our new berth.