Day 135 and we are on the mooring because of a problem with the alternator D found a blown fuse but wasn’t sure what caused it. Boat yard across from mooring said they could look at it for a couple of days so rang rescue service. In the mean time J went foraging and then D went to chandlery and then scrumped some apples, J made some apple and blackberry for the freezer and some elderberry and blackberry cordial. This wasn’t as sweet as the elderberry cordial made previously. Engineer eventually turned up at 1630 and replaced fuse and decided a loose wire must have caused it to blow. Not done much today but at least we had cake!

Day 136 dawned clear, another lovely morning. Waited for a boat half way down Seend flight but they decided to water before the next lock so we wised we hadn’t bothered. Later caught up a single hander and also waited for some boats coming the other way. Did feel sorry for the single hander going the other way after we helped him and a day boat with eight people on board through the lock. At the bottom of this lock is where the Wilts and Berks canal will come out when (if) ever gets fully restored.

We continued on to Bradford on Avon. Quite a slow trip today but had a good mooring and went for a little walk before eating.

Day 137 and another clear sunny day to start. Saw a lot more hire boats today. Unfortunately one of them was in front of us; although he seemed to have listened to the bit about slowing down past moored boats (good) he either didn’t hear or didn’t remember the bit about letting boats that catch you up go past (bad). On several occasions with J on the tiller we were going faster than him with the boat out of gear. Later he cut a corner and as D had no steering way we had a gentle coming together as he came across our bow. Eventually he moored but almost immediately someone else pulled out in front of us and went nearly as slowly. Followed this into Bath. The canal goes through Sydney gardens and under a rather nice building. Don’t think the resident of Bath were keen on the canal.

Moored and watered just above the locks which take you down to the river Avon in Bath. This includes one of the deepest, if not the deepest, lock on the system. It is 19′ 5″ deep.

Moored on the river with minutes to spare before it really started to rain.

Day 138 and we wake up to a clear and really still morning. We had perfect reflections, you could see the leaves on bushes and birds looked like they were flying in the water.

The river was really quiet, except for kingfishers of which we saw four between us. The last lock on the K&A leads onto the tidal Avon. After passing though a fully open Netham lock we stopped briefly to pick up J’s sister Clare just near Temple Meads station. Made our way to Brunel Quay to moor – within sight of the SS Great Britain. It was a bit windy and D had a bit of difficulty mooring. The pontoons are a bit short so we have four lines trying to hold us against the wind. Went for a rapid, some of you have met Clare, walk up to see Clifton suspension bridge before a fabulous supper at a small restaurant called Tare.

Tare is one among many small restaurants and businesses set up in old shipping containers on the south bank of the floating harbour. Once we had finished our meal we were walking back to the boat when we came across a silent disco – so after cocktails and a couple of bottles of wine what else were we going to do but join in. Have I mentioned Clare is a bad influence……