Retail Therapy….

In the last week we have been conducting some very serious retail therapy buying things required to make the boat a live aboard. The only problem being that a lot of the retailers only carry display stock and have to order the stock in for you, which might take up to a week, which of course is no good to us because we are hoping to be on the move by the end of the week. Some things will have to wait until we find a mooring for winter and then it won’t matter about delivery time.
Today we are still waiting at Farncombe boats waiting for some electrical gear to be delivered. Our new batteries (840 amp/hr) are now sitting on the stern deck awaiting installation but we cannot install them until we get a new alternator from Isuzu and the battery management system from Sterling Electrical. All ordered last week.
The river Wey has been closed to navigation for the last 24 hours due to flooding. It’s apparently flowing in excess of 15 knots making things a little tricky. We came through Guildford a few hours before they closed the river and due to a clogged air filter reducing the engine power and the flow of the river it took us 20 minutes to travel about 300 yards. However we survived and live to tell the tale.
This afternoon the rain stopped and the sun re-appeared so we went for a walk to a motor home dealer we had seen on the main road on our drive in from Heathrow last week. We were hoping that he might have some parts that we could use on the boat but no , the old story, they had to be ordered in and would take a week for delivery. While we were there we did browse around the motor homes on display and did find one that could be a replacement for Gypsy Rover in 3 or 4 years time.
On our way back to the boat we walked around a large lake where there were numerous fisherman trying their luck. At the top end of the lake we found 2 signs stating “Please don’t feed the birds or fish with bread”. Now I ask you, you take kids to a pond or waterway and the first thing they want to do is feed the ducks, it’s only natural. Anyway, there were some mum’s and a grandad with kids trying to feed the ducks but the ducks were being hassled from below. Huge carp were taking the bread before the ducks even got a look in. After this we walked on a bit further and found a fisherman who had hooked a fish and was in the process of trying to land it. We stood and watched the battle unfold to see who was going to win, the man or the fish. The man eventually won to land a 15lb 8oz common carp. He told us that he had caught 8 fish during the day, the biggest being 22lb so he was going home a happy chappie.

Hope our spare parts arrive tomorrow but I won’t hold my breath waiting.