Vigour and Sloth in the Sun

It's been a day of two halves. With no plans to move on until at least Monday, we had a relaxed start this morning. It had been very chilly indeed overnight; indeed there was a bit of frozen condensation under the galley Houdini when I took the bung out. Fortunately, we'd dropped the cratch cover last evening, so the frost had not reached the plants stowed in there.

It was also very sunny, and by the time we'd finished breakfast, it was warmer under the cratch cover in the well deck than inside the cabin. We rolled the cover back up and I gave Sheila a hand to pot up yesterday's plant purchases in the troughs.

It was now very pleasant in the sun, so we took advantage of the situation by turning to and washing,rinsing and drying the port side (no one except Sheila seems to have noticed my "deliberately" mistaken reference to the starboard side yesterday...)

The sun was already strong enough to make this a little challenging. We had to work in short sections, especially between rinsing and drying to avoid the moisture steaming off before we'd finished. We'd thought of polishing the side after lunch, but a mixture of fatigue and the warmth of the steel made it inadvisable.

Instead, some constructive loafing in the sun was undertaken. There was a very chill wind blowing by now, but by placing the folding chairs on the towpath in the lee of the boat we escaped its malign impact.

In the meantime,the solar panel did its bit by recharging the battery bank from 85% to 100% by mid afternoon.

Tomorrow is expected to be cloudier but still dry, so the rejuvenated team should be able to get the polishing done then.