Early October Start

30th September

We had delayed the start of this break because Mike had the rehearsal for the Canon Installation on October 11th to attend on Tuesday afternoon in the cathedral.

We had packed most of the car the evening before so we were ready to set off by 8:30. The journey was uneventful - needing an extra loo stop at Stow-on-the-Wold were surprised to discover that the main public toilets in the town centre required 20p coins! If only we had known, we would have made sure that we had some!

The satellite system we bought early this year had never managed to work on the boat but, during the 'final' attempt at home to sort it out, the wind blew the dish over the railings and made a small - it seemed - indent. Alas this was enough for the shop where we bought it to disown any responsibility - not unreasonably. Not willing to buy anything else which we could not see working, we had arranged to meet with a specialist whose advert in Towpath Talk (a canal special monthly newspaper) had caught our attention. He was due at 2 pm.

Although he was a bit late - nothing much in canal terms! - he quickly set about testing our dish and concluded that it was not very good! We agreed to buy another from him (we have seen a number installed on boats before) on the basis that he set it up and demonstrated it working.

So, we now have a working system although we have occasional signal loss - perhaps as the boat moves around. At this stage, we are happy to recommend Martyn as seen in Towpath Talk.

By now it was too late to set off - we are in no hurry to go too far so there was no pressure to get away. So, we stayed put and spent time setting up channels on the TV, setting up the computer etc ready for the morning and then settled down in the warmth of a small fire to have a relaxing evening!