Re-fuelling

Our first planned task today was to re-fuel. The diesel tank was quite low (though perhaps not as much as we had anticipated but we did not want to get caught short) so mid morning we went for one of the shortest journeys we have ever done! About 60 m from our pontoon mooring to the service wharf!

It was a reasonably warm day but quite damp in the air with a fair bit of mist hanging over the area. Hope that it was not too difficult for the travellers on the nearby motorway.

We not only filled up with diesel but also disposed of rubbish, emptied the elsan and added a bag of smokeless fuel to our store for the stove - which keeps the main cabin nicely warm. Mike also took advantage of the solid concrete pathway to chop a few sticks - not easy on the boat itself and the pontoon is not suitable for that task. Just as we were setting off back to our mooring - another long trip , another boat came down from the other end of the marina also looking for fuel so we did a do-si-do around each other before we could reverse back and connect back to our services. Finally we filled the water tank.

A short while later as Christine stepped off the boat planning to empty the Dyson, she slipped on the pontoon  boards and fell heavily, cutting her lip and bruising her knee in the process. Fortunately(?) only one toe of her slippers went into the water. The weather and the birds have a lot to answer for! Christine needed a good bit of TLC until later in the day. A little later the people who own the boat next to us arrived just to check it out and without a word offered Christine a strong door mat to put down where we step off the stern.

A hearty soup had already been made before all this happened and was most welcome when lunch time arrived.

Mid afternoon we went into Droitwich again. We did not feel much like doing 'the big shop' today and left that until tomorrow. This year the calendar is a bit strange as Christmas Eve is a Sunday and some shops were making sure that their customers did not forget and get caught out at the last moment! So we mostly looked for some of the harder-to-find items (failed again on the bun tin but the shallower one worked OK last night)

However, we spotted that St Andrew's Church in the town centre also had a Christmas Tree display so we took a look. There were about 20 from all sorts of organisations and made the church look very seasonal.

As we wandered along the older side streets we came across this remnant of the brine pumping history of the town.

On the way back to the marina we took a diversion to locate St Peter's church which is on the edge of town and serves a substantial modern housing estate. The local group of parishes hold the midnight service here  - perhaps because there is a good car park alongside.