Getting settled back in

Back in Penarth it all felt like home somehow. We ended up on the same berth, the same nice neighbours, all was well. We checked out the genset, giving it a run to do a lot of washing and cooking and also used the neat feature on the new meter boards to check the  frequency of the AC power that the genset was putting out. Here it is at a very light load:

a couple of Hertz above the normal UK supply. As the load increased, so the frequency dropped a bit:

and at the full load of around 50 amps, it was sitting nicely on 50 Hz. No need to adjust the genset rpm setting even after many years and hours of service (it has done over 2700  so far).

Life deteriorated a bit when we headed through the city for a bike ride. It seems that folks have to smash bottles and glasses after consuming their contents nowadays and leave the debris all over the paths and roads. The captain had a nice shard of glass that slit open the heavy duty front tyre and made a mess of the tube too: He was delighted to have to remove the wheel (with the motor inside it) and exhume the poorly tube:

The little Brompton tool kit is great - having all the kit needed to do the job and good quality stuff too. The nice little lump of glass was duly removed and photographed for posterity too:

Then it all went wrong. We had a nice new inner tube with us as an emergency replacement in case of a puncture. The old rather shredded one was removed and the captain then tried to pump a little air into the new tube to help insert it into the tyre. Only the standard pump supplied with the bike would not fit onto the valve properly. Some bad words ensued. Having carted around all the things we needed (so we thought) and got suitably grubby as well, we couldn't complete the job. No other cyclists around to borrow a pump from so we gave up. The crew cycled back (amazing really as she had to find her own way) and the captain folded the bike, caught the train and wheeled it back to the boat. The repair then took only a few minutes, using a different pump.  We live and learn.

To collect our car, we booked a train ticket back to Hythe. We'd never done that during the summer holiday season and have no desire to do it again. The train was busy, plenty of annoying children squealing and running around although we have no idea how as the corridor was full of luggage. Why? Because they are using old commuter trains that used to run from Reading into London and guess what, commuters were packed in tightly and didn't tend to carry luggage. Horrid rolling stock, not at all suitable for the longer Cardiff to Portsmouth services. They were not looking too good either, this was one of the notices, hanging down from the ceiling:

The double sided tape gave up between Salisbury and Romsey and the thing half fell out of the window, luckily not hitting anyone on the way. However, we had the very best "Train Manager" ever. He really tried to make folks smile on the overcrowded unsuitable old train. As an example, here is one of his announcements which he delivered with excellent comic timing:

"Ladies and gentlemen we are now approaching my favourite place, one that I would love to live in but will never be able to afford to. Each time I go through on the train it is like a dagger being driven into my heart. Where is this glorious place I hear you ask? Well, we are now approaching the lovely Bath Spa".  

He was the best bit of a grim GWR service.

We recovered the car from its summer captivity and had a much nicer ride back - quicker too. Suddenly it felt as though we had settled back in.

The local man who took several great pictures of us arriving by boat sent us these too. This one shows the Cardiff Bay barrage, the three entrance locks, protected by the breakwaters and immediately to the left, Penarth Marina. You can see how horribly muddy and brown the Bristol channel water is compared to the fresh water in the bay which looks appealing and blue:

Our resident photographer also captured us during the monster polishing session that was needed on the port side of the hull. Look carefully and you can see the join:

Luckily the transom was done, although you can still enjoy the half fender stopping rain from getting into the exhaust pipe - classy stuff: