SV Laurin: 06/08/21 to 08/08/21 Still in Woodbridge!

Friday we decided to visit the Woodbridge museum which is free but you are encouraged to make a donation which we obviously did. AJ wanted a lazy day on the boat so we left him home alone whilst Patrick, Esmé and I headed out. The museum told the stories of various locals and Esmé spent a lovely little while in the family area writing on slate before investigating the Thames Barge Model.

We then treated ourselves to delicious Suffolk ice cream before heading back to Laurin.

Saturday we were supposed to leave.... it was windy... and wet... and a low risk of thunderstorms but we were determined to head to Shotley. Woodbridge is one of the more expensive marinas on the East Coast and Shotley is free for us as Burnham berth holders. It's also really convenient as an all tide port. If we want to head south then we really want to leave at low water. This isn't possible from the Deben so Shotley would leave us with many more options. But it was wet, and windy, and unpleasant.

As Patrick and I were so undecided we asked the kids what they wanted to do... we stayed!

In the afternoon we walked along the riverbank to Robertsons Boatyard who had some things going on as part of the Deben Summer Festival. There were a few stalls, a group singing Sea Shanties and yet more cake! There were also some guys from the Nancy Blackett Trust so we spent some time talking with them and bought "Secret Water".

A random tea followed clearing out the fridge a little for the next day's Asda delivery (Tesco failing to provide on this occasion... always good to have a back up!) Finally we went for an evening walk where the kids played and I caught up on some exercise.

Sunday

Time to get some domestic chores done. Patrick (with a tiny bit of help) has been scraping down some of the woodwork on deck... we put woodskin on before travelling but it is looking really tatty now so have decided to go back to bare wood as a low maintenance option whilst we are living up north. We also did a partial fix on the downstairs manual bilge pump which had been playing up. It's still leaking a little but at least now it pumps. We will hunt for replacement parts when we are next at a chandlery. We also replaced the water filter on the galley tap but it seemed a bit suspect so will look for another ASAP

Next up was laundry and stowing the Asda delivery, I think the driver enjoyed the drive and the view. The boat was now looking like chaos as the tumble drier had not quite done the job and intermittent showers meant hanging the clothes on the guard rail had to be abandoned. Luckily tidying out the food cupboard produced some of Nana's Anzac biscuits so all was good in the world.

Once the food was away it was a quick change in to smart clothes ready to head out to A-Listers where we had booked a table to listen to some live music which was also part of the Deben Summer Festival. Peter Hepworth was playing and having had a quick listen on YouTube we'd decided it would be a pleasant way to spend the evening.