Thursday and Friday

Mooring where we did, we'd had to pass the spot where we'd spent a night on the way down, because other boats had got there first. The place we chose wasn't that far away, but it was only after we'd tied up that we realised we were just the other side of a fence from something called "Works" on the map. There were loud noises of heavy objects being moved, of vehicles coming and going, often in reverse with the annoying beep-beep-beep warning. It wasn't too bad until it came to bed time - they worked throughout the night!

On Thursday, we moved on 22 lock miles, up through Nash Mills and Hemel Hempstead.

We had an uninvited visitor en route. A pigeon flew under the cratch cover and landed on the foredeck lockers. When I went to encourage it to leave, it huddled up under the gunwales, behind a gas pipe. I left it there for some time, hoping it would leave of its own accord, but I finally had to lift it out and release it to the sky again.

The journey was all very straightforward and enjoyable, and the weather was fine until we moored again at Berkhamsted, when the heavens opened just as were pinning. We spent the whole of Friday there, too. It's a good place to spend some time.

Nash Mills

When we woke up on Friday morning, Grace was experiencing considerable pain in her face. She'd had something in the corner of her eye the day before, and now that was apparently gone, but the tear duct felt blocked, and this created pain through the whole of that side of her face. Or perhaps it was blocked sinuses, she couldn't be sure. But after taking painkillers, Sudafed to unblock sinuses, eyewash and nasal spray, she was still in a lot of pain. We vacuum cleaned the boat, and hoped it would soon clear up.

During the day, we were almost adopted by a beautiful cat who wanted to come aboard and join us, but we resisted the temptation to let it!