Thursday 26^th July – Plymouth

50:21.854N 4:07.915W

The bad weather continued overnight.  This morning we had breakfast whilst winds up to gale force 8 ripped through the marina.  We registered 40.6 knots at one point – 41knots is the start of severe gale force 9!  No, we won’t be going anywhere today.  Just hope the cockpit enclosure holds out.

I decided to have a leisurely shower to cheer myself up whilst Richard continued working on the boat.  On my way to the shower block, the heavens opened and, by the time I reached the shower block, I was drenched from head to foot – my deck shoes still haven’t dried out. 

Unfortunately things were only to get worse...  I had the shower block to myself (no one else venturing out in such weather) so cornered one of the family units (self contained shower/ toilet with no windows).  Half way through my shower, the lights went out and I was plunged into pitch black.  I thought maybe the light was on some sort of timer and I’d been in there too long, so I reached out of the shower and waved my arms around like the village idiot – nothing happened. 

I opened the door and realised all the electrics were out.  This allowed some natural light into the unit and so I finished my shower with the door propped open, hoping that the electrician wouldn’t be too efficient turning up to fix things, otherwise he would have been horror-stricken, poor thing. Fortunately he turned up just as I was leaving.  Was it the torrential rain, or was it me, I wonder.

The sun came out this afternoon but still very windy, so I read a book for the first time this holiday and sat in the cockpit enclosure trying to dry out my deck shoes and coat from the morning down-pour.

Richard had a long walk this afternoon in search of the remaining parts needed to finish plumbing in the watermaker to the existing pipework on the boat.  Amongst other things he now knows there is a finite difference between an American ¼” NPT thread and a UK ¼” BSP thread – the watermaker had come with a ¼” NPT fitting which was not to be found.  He can also tell you where all the chandlers, d-i-y stores, and specialist plumbers merchants in the vicinity of the marina are situated. He hopes he now has what may be euphemistically described as a “workaround”.