And the Tall Ships came past.

Swans flying over the observation tower at Slimbridge

 Not a good start to the day what with the rain and Ian's back. Yep he's gone and done his back in and it's all because he was trying to get the cable for my bait fridge battery through to the locker in the bow. It was drilling holes in the steel again that did it. You may remember the trouble he had putting the grill in the lockers to stop the condensation! Well he had the same problems again. Of course it's all my fault! If I didn't have a bait fridge, and if I hadn't gone to Slimbridge I would have been there to help. Mind you, if he allowed me to put my maggots in the galley fridge in the first place........... Oh well I'm just going to have to give him a lot of TLC.

So we have set off again. First across to other side to fill the water tank then, with a lull in the rain, winding to head back towards Sharpness. Through two swing bridges in the dry and then as we arrived at the mooring and was securing FS we got soaked. Typical, if we had been 5 minutes earlier we would have stayed dry.

Not a forest fire but wispy low clouds.

Torrential rain which gave us a soaking, heading off in the distance

 Now you may wonder why we have changed direction again. Well chatting to James at Slimbridge (wetland warden) he just happened to mention it could be a good time to watch the Severn Bore what with the Spring tides happening all this week. There should be a rise of 9.8 mtrs and with the Severn narrowing all the way to Gloucester and beyond the bore could be a two star ( 5 being a surfing wave). Unfortunately we cant get to the best place 'cause we have no car and walking 3 miles at the moment is out of the question. So we have returned to Purton where the river is more accessible  (remember Purton Hulks?). Now there is no guarantee that the wave will be visible as the river is still quite wide at this point but all we can do is hope and stand on the bank at the allotted time (7.15pm)

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. Two of the tall ships destined for the Flagship Festival at Gloucester dock this weekend came past. Ian managed to snap these photos as they sailed off into the distance. (ignore the 'photo by Irene' caption 'cause Ian gets quite cross saying it's his photo not mine)  Shame we wont be able to stay for the event. It's Thomas (Grandson's) first birthday on the 23rd and we have a car hired from Enterprise at Worcester so we don't want to miss that.