Sparks, fireworks and rain.

RA lively night in Barton Marina. Somewhere close by there was a firework party which was as spectacular as it was noisy, upsetting Sadie somewhat. On top of that there was a very noisy fight in the Marina car park between a girl and a boy, adjacent to our boat. It only broke-up when Lynne threatened to call the police from the relative safety of Tardis Two stern whilst using her "severe" voice at high decibels. Scary.

Both events are virtually unheard of in and around the Marina, normally  church-quiet 24/7. All this kerfuffle, together with our return to the boat, obviously upset Sadie who was determined we would not sleep by doing her Yoko Ono singing impressions all night, on top of which heavy ,continuous rain on the boat roof compounded the situation until both Lynne and I opted to make tea and coffee at the unearthly hour of 0600, when I discovered I had a cold, coughing and sneezing heavily. An encouraging start to our "holiday"s

The rain abated but there was a strong breeze, despite which we opted to leave the Marina for our illicit meeting with the Shobnall Marina electrician tomorrow. Big mistake. Any small breeze becomes a gale force wind on the wide expanses of Barton Marina and we suffered the ignominy of being blown into the reeds. A couple of friendly boaters helped us pull the boat against another pontoon, all of 12 feet from our original position so we have decided to stay here until the breeze drops and make a formula one start at the first opportunity 

The forecast is largely showers and overcast skies,slightly warmer but breezier, which is hardly likely to raise expectancy levels.

In the event the wind got even stronger so our wait proved in vain, as do our hopes of ever getting back onto the canals.