Isn't it always the way?

Sitting in the marina, using their wi-fi, my laptop is fine. No problems. Hardly ever. And the last time we were out on the cut, our 3G dongle worked just fine, too. But this time, the dongle works perfectly for Grace, but my computer refuses even to notice that it's plugged into it. And, just to make things worse, when we tried the 3G router, that wouldn't work for either of us!

I gave up and swore I wouldn't bother with the internet while we're out. Grace told me off for swearing, and spent the next hour making our laptops talk to the router. And she did it, of course!

>>>===<<<

So, where was I? Wednesday...

On Wednesday, we took the boat back to bridge 17, where I painted the port rubbing strake and Grace primed the scratches on the panel above it. We're seriously considering having the hull hot zinc sprayed. Pricey, but guaranteed to protect the entire hull from rust for 10 years - and probably longer.

Barry arrived not long after us, Barry from NB Blue Moon, moored at Yelvertoft. He was in need of a break, he said, and he spent many hours fishing from the bank.

Thursday's weather didn't deter Barry from fishing, but it almost stopped us making any further progress with the painting. But after some hours of indecision, Grace took a gamble with the elements, and painted the port side below the gunnel.

The paint was dry on Friday morning, so we moved on to moor just before the Welford Junction. The weather was cold but largely dry, though when we left, it hadn't tempted Barry to get out for some more fishing.

The next day, it was very cold, but dry and bright. Spring was very evident again. Tiny lambs gambolled as only lambs can, calves lay next to their mothers, blackthorn blossomed whitely in the hedgerows, and the trees and skies were full of birdsong. It was a beautiful day in so many ways.

Our journey from just before Husbands Bosworth Tunnel was slowed considerably when we caught up with a very slow day-boat. As they entered the tunnel ahead of us, we pulled over to wait for them to get well ahead of us, because Grace didn't want to go through the tunnel at tickover, which is what the other boat was doing all of the time. Mercifully, they did speed up eventually. That is, until the final stretch between bridges 59 and 60, and we arrived at Foxton in crawl mode once more.

Seeing the moorings before bridge 60 to be rather full, and with no empty spaces visible beyond the bridge, we took no risks, and hauled and squeezed into a space before the bridge, a space which was precisely the right length, so tight that we were literally fender-to-fender with the boats at both ends of Kantara.

After lunch, we took a stroll down the locks and back. The moorings beyond the bridge were, in fact, all taken, having been reserved for boats in a floating market. We met Roger and Cindy again, the painter and his wife on NB Blue Belle. He was displaying many of his paintings and drawings right down the length of the boat. We really couldn't imagine just how they managed to store them all on board. There were two or three pictures we'd have loved to have bought, but we really don't have the wall space for them.

Several of the traders said that business had been slow over the first two days of the long Easter weekend. The weather tomorrow is going to be less pleasant. At least, so the BBC forecast says. Let's hope they're wrong yet again!