Tuesday 30th July
Today we have stayed at Gloucester and the first thing we did this morning was move from the West Quay to the pontoon mooring near the lock. We discovered the electric points are on the West Quay, we didn’t want to use the electric, although there was some credit left by someone leaving this morning, so we decided to move so anyone who wanted to go on the electric could get in. The cruisers like to be on the electric to keep the freezer going for ice for their G and T’s! That’s what the woman who left this morning on her cruiser told us anyway!
After we had moved Ken titted about with the tv aerial as it was on the top of the pole at a jaunty angle and I did the hoovering and mopping. We then went off shopping. Ken didn’t want to do a ‘Father Ted’ in the lingerie department of BHS so I went in there and he went to the fishing tackle shop.
I had to go to the bank and put some change in so we agreed to meet there later. I had hardly got started on the knickers when Ken phoned to say he was outside Barclays! No time for a sneaky look at the sale rail then, I hot footed it to the checkout.
After a rather lengthy spell in the bank (everyone seemed to be doing complicated transactions today) we had to go off up Bristol Rd in search of another fishing tackle shop as it transpired the first one hadn’t sold maggots for years! On the way we passed what was once the Moreland’s Match factory, remember England’s Glory?
The second tackle shop was more forthcoming on the maggot front and Ken went off contented. We stopped at Dr Foster’s bar (yes I know, groan) in the dock on the way back and did a bit of people watching. We met a couple from Yorkshire who are in Gloucester for the Three Choirs Festival at the cathedral. We had a very interesting conversation with them about the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (although they are not boaters), cathedrals (they have been to Norwich cathedral), this canal and our boat before they had to go to their concert.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the comings and goings in the dock. We had a bit of amusement when a chap tried to reverse into the finger moorings. It was quite windy today and as the pontoons aren’t full length a lot of his boat was still sticking out when a gust of wind caught the front and it swung round at right angles to the pontoons. The back lumped into a Canaltime on one side and the front lumped into the boat on the other. The chap had to creep along the gunwales to try and push himself off. If he had gone in bow first he wouldn’t have had so much trouble in front of a large audience outside the bar as well!
This evening we went for a steak at Wetherspoon’s which was, as usual, really good. Tomorrow we are going back to Saul Junction.
