Nearly ready

At nine o'clock, a bunch of us walked across to the marina and made a start on rigging the banners and so forth on the gazebo. Chris was already washing Eleventh Heaven, and he was soon joined by a small squad to help him along. Once the rinse water had dried, the cabin sides and fore and aft bulkheads were polished.

The weather has been threatening and occasionally drizzling, but nothing that we can't handle. If anything, it's felt warmer as the humidity went up.

We're mostly ready for the off tomorrow, which promises to be the best day, weatherwise. The laminated descriptions of the show boat proved to have an error, so we've retyped it on board Sanity Again and laminated them all over again; the little home/office laminator we bought a few years ago certainly earns its keep.

Final job of the afternoon was yet again sweeping hawthorn petals off the boats on the towpath. They look very pretty at first, like organic confetti, but if they get wet, they'll coat the boats in a brown soggy mess.

Tonight, we're all having a session in The Moorings (formerly Edwards); just a bar snack and a drink, so hopefully there won't be too many sore heads in the morning.

/blur