Score is now 5-0

and David is learning what it is like to constantly lose at cards, and he doesn't like it ...

He is an excellent card player (it was his major at university**), and from the time we met, I have always lost when we have played cards, whether it's casino, gin rummy, euchre, 500, hearts, switch, crib. About the only game I can win against him consistently is snap, and that's because I can see the cards faster as they fall.

In the main, I think it's because he counts cards as they are played and can always work out what cards are left and who has them. However in 5 Crowns, there are two packs of 58 cards with 5 suits, no 2s or aces, several jokers. So the techniques don't (yet) work.

Therefore I am pressing home my advantage hard while I still can!

** This is why he qualifies as a founder member of the Zero Degrees Club.

This was the view from the dinette last night as the sun went down behind the trees on the edge of Gayton Marina.

We decided to stay put today - it is Bank Holiday Monday and we were unsure of how busy it would be where we wanted to moor up further down the cut. And it is a bit windy, and boating in the wind is not fun, especially when there are lots of moored boats.

The biggest issue for staying put is that our water tank is low; but we decided that we could cope. We have a 5 litre bottle and 4x1 litre bottles, plus some in the tank and some in a couple of saucepans. We are a 5 minute walk from the services at the junction, and if we run out and are desperate, we can go and refill the bottles.

All it takes is not showering and not doing laundry, only doing dishes once a day, and being frugal with what we do have - a bit like being in the motorhome actually. Our tank on the boat is about 400+ litres and in the motorhome it's 95. So we are well practised!

We didn't fill up before we left the marina in Northampton yesterday because we were aware that the lock pounds were most likely going to be low - yes, they were - and 400 extra kilograms of weight would have made the boat lower in the water. And we thought our tank was pretty near empty when we left, and we decided we would fill at Gayton Junction and then head to Blisworth. But by the time we got here yesterday, David was b*ggered, so we decided not to bother getting water or moving on.

So far we are doing fine and I don't think we smell ...

We headed out for a walk to Blisworth along the towpath at about noon today. We walked to the tunnel entrance and then up the path that leads across the top of the tunnel. We headed back along a road into Blisworth which is a lovely village. It looks even better from within the village than it does from the cut.

This was one of the first houses we came to and there were a number of other thatched cottages along the way.

I am not sure, but I think thi is a peony - beautiful. Love the colour!

We saw the Royal Oak pub which I remember our going in to for dinner one night when we were on our first ever hire boat with my Aunt Daphne back in 1990. My main memory is that she asked for a salad, as everything else had onions** and she asked for no cucumber, so they took off the cucumber that it was already made with - and being Daphne, she should could still taste it ...

** Daphne was not an easy person to cater for. At one point when she was in NZ on holiday, Derek and Derral invited us all to dinner, and Derek asked me what she didn't eat. She happily declared it was easier to tell him what she did eat. So she was served with a yummy roast beef dinner and several large G&Ts, so large that she needed to lean on the doorframe when entering the kitchen to plate up her meal ...

We are now back on board and David is fixing the bike that came adrift from its chain yesterday as we were coming up the locks. His first task was to untangle the locking cords I fitted late yesterday ...

It's a fasting day and now it is only 2.5 hours till dinner time - aaarrrggghhh!!! I am looking forward very much to salad with salmon steaks marinated in sweet chilli sauce, grated ginger, soy sauce, lemon juice and coriander.