Beverley and I had got to Waterford, so that I could get off as soon as I could and get back to the UK. This meant that Beverley was on her own into what I can only describe as a holding pattern. This meant that I was in the UK, dealing with my mothers passing which I unfortunately missed by ½ hour and then organising her funeral, which took ages to sort out as there was a lot of delays, for example, it took a week to get the death certificate, but I got it done and started sorting out some of the other items that needed to get sorted.
While I was sorting out stuff, Beverley did little boat tasks like re-caulk the cockpit soul, aired the clothes in the cupboards and waxed Salty Lass. She aimed to do a small task every day and although the tasks were small, it kept her occupied.
When I returned to Salty Lass, the day after I arrived we asked Yvonne from Wave dancer to join us. She knew Waterford very well, so she showed us a building that has retained a roof, since the Viking times, very impressive record and we saw a few other sights, along with an impressive amount of blue plaques. That night we took Yvonne out for a meal, but the only place that I could get gluten free found was the curry house.
The day after Yvonne's visit, we set out on the trip back to the UK. I have to say that I was really looking forward to it as it would mean that the only thing in my head was sailing and looking after Salty Lass, rather than the 101 other things that were going through my head. I wanted to start our trip at slack, so I decided to throw bits of bread into the water because I reckoned that slack might be just a little bit before high water and it was but only by ½hour so not much really.
Traversing the river was exactly what I needed, when you are on the helm then you can only concentrate on what is in front of you and not the thousand and one other things that goes through your head. I certainly had a lot to concentrate on with deeper parts and shallower sections all in the same part of the river. We also tried to put the sails up, but with the twists and turns of the river coupled with fluky winds, it was really difficult, but we tried and it certainly kept Beverley on her toes.
We had hoped that when we got to the wider section of the river we would be able to sail, but it was very lumpy with swell and it was really tricky to steer Salty Lass. As it was so difficult I decided to go to Dunmore East, which has a new pontoon for visitors, but it does not have fuel, but we did meet a really nice subscriber which was nice. It was only a short passage, but I can tell you I was shattered. I think with the travelling, the visit from Yvonne and everything else that I am just tireder than I realise.
