A surprise arrival

Hurricane Gonzala? Just wondering what all the fuss was about? Here in Kilby it was a bit blowy overnight and we had very little rain. The wind picked up mid morning but the weather stayed dry in fact it would have been a lovely morning for cruising. I expect other parts of the country were feeling the brunt of it but I do wish the met office for this region didn't make such a song and dance of what they thought was coming our way. There was talk of high sided vehicles being in danger of blowing over, possibility of small trees and branches coming down and tiles being stripped off the roof. Hardly think that's likely in the gusts we were experiencing! Thankfully this time we didn't strip the roof of all the furniture as we did back in October last year!

Calm conditions mid morning

 Then in the Navigation and enjoying a curry for lunch with best friend Pat the wind picked up and we had proper waves. Still not the predicted gusts but strong enough to blow our a clamped aerial round to face the other way.

Proper waves!

Took a bit of skilled handling loading the pan in the wind this afternoon.

Leaving the Navigation the wind fare took my breath away and played havoc with my hair on the short walk back to FS. Looked as if I had been dragged through a hedge backward! Still once inside and all cosy and warm Pat, Ian and yours truly had just settled down to after dinner coffee when Ian saw two familiar boats approaching. Turned out to be Dave and Heather on new boat Vixen (old boat was called Bracken) and Carole and Michael on Electra 

 They had had an interesting journey from leaving Thurmaston this morning. Took 7.5 hours to reach Kilby in trying conditions. Leicester was devoid of the local youths (and boats) because of the weather and lets hope they wont be around when we go through tomorrow, it's Leicesters half term week after all!!! After a meet and greet, tea and coffee round FS, we decided to all get together tonight in the Navigation for drinks. Looks like we could be in for another good night.

Not quite a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. More like sacks of sand!