April 17

I’m moored at Medway Bridge Marina, on the Medway just downstream of the motorway and train bridge.  This is the place where the electronic people have been to install my chartplotter (read sat-NAV (or GPS) for boats). That is matched with a new set of radios for boats, and a special piece of gear, called an AIS transponder. This automatically warns every commercial ship and many recreational boats, that I am on the high seas and in their way. Then they can aim for me and ram me (or avoid as they choose). I also get info about them and we can play dodge-em, if bored.

Ok, reality, this gear is to enable me to more safely cross the busiest shipping lanes of the channel, as I have to move back and forth.

We discovered that there are further electrical issues, mainly because the boat is 20 years old, and the former owner didn’t depend on the built-in systems for more than part of a day or so. I’ll try and deal with them this coming week, and have them resolved before I move across to Belgium.

I don’t have pictures yet: the ones from our trip down the Thames are on Facebook, and I cannot download them to re-post here. I’ll keep working on that to share with you all.

I also had one of those GREAT experiences today. While shopping for groceries, and finishing the scanning at a self-checkout, I reached for my wallet. Missing! Panic. When had I seen it last for sure? So, I let the nice check-out lady know that I was abandoning my cart, and off to see where my wallet might be (I had travelled across the country by train, fetched the car, dealt with deliveries, etc. etc.). As I was reporting to customer service (in case I had dropped the thing in the store) a very nice lady said she would pay for the groceries, as long as I would send the money on when I had dealt with the missing wallet. I was astounded! Elizabeth just heard me reporting the missing wallet to customer service and offered to help. This angel made my day, and her kindness was a special reminder that there are awesome people everywhere (sometimes hard to find, though!). The wallet was left on the boat, I’m an idiot, but this lady made my day. Thanks, Elizabeth!

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