Wish I had a waterproof camera!

We could hear the rain on the roof, so there was no hurry to get up!  Once up it was off to the sanitation block to do the business with the cassette, which we both find strangely satisfying!  I am really glad we have got the cassette system; I did have my doubts, but it is just so easy and well......clean! It stinks a bit but what do you expect!  Once we got back to the boat the weather looked OK so we took off and headed north.  Once we got going it absolutely hammered down, so it was a quick change into the Manly Ferry oilskins and all was well!   I had the full rear cover on with a small partition zipped open for me to stand in, so it was quite cosy.

Elaine was busy below cooking washing and hoovering, in her words ... boring.

Nothing really eventful happened - we passed one boat coming the other way (in a bridge hole!)

Back to the camera, I was going to start taking pictures of all the different birds but it was just too wet!  I am a bit crap at birds ...all the other narrowboat bloggers seem quite au fait with the multitude of different bird types and don't even get excited when they spot a Rough Faced Shag.....it is a real bird!

We were feeding a coot last night and it had a white dot on its head rather than the more common red dotted one. Also yesterday we spotted a couple of white geese and we are not sure whether they were mating or it was trying to drown its foe - whichever one it was I think you would have a bit of a problem explaining to a little kiddie what was going on.

We eventually stopped by the Anchor Pub at bridge 29; we took the boys for a walk through the fields, they both went crazy chasing rabbits and are now feeling very sorry for themselves as they got stung to bits on the nettles.  We had to give them anti-histamines to help them as they were going mental!

I also used the commando saw for the first time - what a great bit of kit!  I sliced through the rope and other bits of crap that were caught around the prop and shaft!

We are vegging out on the boat tonight as it is still pouring down and although the pub is only 100 metres away we're going nowhere!

Night all.