Saturday 4th June 2011 Péronnes. Helen came to visit.

Boatyard crane rail crossing, moveable points.

Hot and sunny. Snail’s engine started up at 8.30 a.m. and they ran it for an hour for heating water. Mike took Anne with him (she’d got a large pile of empty bottles to take to the big booze shop and wanted to replenish their stocks of beer and wine) to collect Helen from the station in Antoing. I tidied up and made a start on catching up on the log, which hadn’t been done since Wednesday. Helen arrived and came up the ladder on to the boat. I made a coffee and we had a good old catch up. She said they were flying to Scotland for her nephew Ben’s wedding at a Catholic church in Edinburgh, then they would do a bit of exploring in Scotland as her brother doesn’t mind driving so they thought they might go and see the Falkirk Wheel. Mike told her to take a boat trip up the lift, through the tunnel and back as it was well worth doing. I made sandwiches for lunch and we carried on chatting. She went to have a chat with Olly who was still slogging away down the starboard side of Snail as she’d already had a good natter with Anne in the car, and then Mike took her to catch her train in Antoing back to Gent. When he returned he said we’d better finish the painting before the weather breaks and we got into our old clothes and painted the port side. It was 7.30 p.m. when we finished. Got washed and changed and turned the chicken and pork I’d defrosted into kebabs and Mike lit our Hibachi. Anne did some steaks. We’d just finished eating when it started raining and it bucketed down. Mike went up and closed the side doors but didn’t bring a brolly down so we got soaked to the skin in minutes just loading the tray up to take up the ladder! Mike asked Anne and Olly on board for a drink and we sat chatting until 12.30 a.m. At least it had stopped raining for them to take Woody for a stroll before bedtime.