Windy basin and David Bowie.

On Saturday morning we were awoken out of a very good night's sleep by violent shaking of the boat. Very strong winds were whipping around the basin. The boat was chilly, so I lit the bubble stove, but the wind caused smokey blow-back into the cabin, so I had to turn it off again. There's a cowl on the chimney to stop that happening, but the wind in the basin was such that the cowl couldn't keep up with its rapid changes of direction. I couldn't use the Alde because I knew the gas bottle to be too close to empty, and this gas stove is rather gas-greedy when used for a major spell of heating. We needed what gas remained for cooking, so we dressed unusually heavily and ignored the fact that the temperature inside was only 15℃.

The biggest problem was that we had no hot water, so showers and washing-up had to be postponed until after we'd run the engine for a while. This served to charge the batteries, too, and our laptops and other devices.

Before lunch, we went shopping in the city centre. Aylesbury is a dramatic confusion of architectures; medieval, Victorian and the early 20th century's worst. The ancient market square hosted various stalls - though the very strong wind was something of an issue for the store-holders - and the two shopping centres and numerous shops were scattered around the rest of the centre in rather haphazard fashion. Some beautiful old buildings have been made to hide behind modern monstrosities.

In an ancient, covered walkway off the market square, opposite the entrance to the old theatre stands a fabulous bronze statue of David Bowie. In fact two David Bowies. One in normal attire and one as Ziggy Stardust, with a montage behind them of sculpted images of others of his characters, and visual references to some of his greatest songs. The statue's called Earthly Messenger.

An accompanying plaque explains how Aylesbury played a major part in Bowie's early career. He and his band in their early years performed regularly in a local club, Friars, and played the world debuts of both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust there. Bowie fans should read the story in the Bucks Herald.

High above the statue is a pair of loudspeakers, and every day on the hour between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm a random Bowie track is played. We waited to hear the mid-day song. I was hoping for Heroes or Life on Mars, but it was Modern Love. And it was great!

After lunch and back on Kantara, the wind had dropped, so I lit the fire again, the boat warmed up and comfort was restored!