Saturday 4th May get the suncream out!

Blue skies shinin` at me, nothing but blue skies do I see!

A trip to the loo and spotting the river soon brings me down to earth. The river is running at an incredible rate, Later confirmed at 10km per hour, the boats in the river are straining on their lines and the river buoy desperately seeks escape from its sinker bound ropes. It succeeds shortly afterwards and is lost down river. The river is also rising and is just 4 inches below the quay. It is normally 6ft.

 

I finish off the speaker shelves and get them fitted and stained. Collette risks all by doing some washing. We get the relaxers out and enjoy a long lunch of avocado and prawns before settling down for a sun bathing hour.

 We keep getting drawn to the quay where the water has now reached the level of the quay. Lots of jokes about Noah and saving money on craneage. But its not really funny!

 

 Of course the shaft has not arrived so at least I am not being overly frustrated by not being able to move the boat.  By mid afternoon the water is starting to lap over the quay and Simon and his crew are urgently adding wooden fenders down the sides of the alongside craft as their fenders are no longer protecting anything. Long planks are put in place to provide access and there is a general hub of little groups stroking chins and watching the water slowly creeping across the quay towards the workshops. Collette takes some pics of our salubrious shower and toilet facilities situated in one of the workshops, "just in case we never see them again" she jokes.

 

Big chief Si now confirms that the Armencon has gone to orange alert and that Vieux, the first town on the Nivernais is a flooded village. We are now getting seriously concerned about Mums visit but Simon tells me he will bring in a special old`s platform and stairs to enable her access onto the boat. She will be delighted with that I muse whilst thanking him genuinely for his consideration when under pressure of imminent flooding. Collette takes more pictures of the boatyard.

 

This is an Uffa Fox mark 2 airborne liferaft which Simon is renovating. A fascinating and quite remarkable story. Hung from aircraft they saved 600 odd airmen in WW2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/sjl8hS03Te2tBbBNK93j5w

We get some more coats of varnish on the wheelhouse floor and the upper helm rails and the flag pole before cracking and a large G & T and a Bacardi and coke signal its Saturday night. The crew settles down to the voice whilst I set about dinner. I par boil a fennel bulb and some potato slices and add them to a roasting tin with sliced tomatoes and courgettes. Some lemon, a couple of spoonfuls of capers and good splash of oil and into roast for 20 minutes before topping with the well seasoned fish for a further twenty minutes. It was one of those use whats in the cupboard jobs but gave a great result according to the grateful crew.