Bletchley Park

As Catherine's visit was coming to an end there was a place she really wanted to see. Bletchley Park is the UK location that was dedicated to decoding enemy transmissions during WWII. It is said that the work of these codebreakers shortened the war by at least 2 years and saved many lives. There is a great tribute to Alan Turing, a genius of his time with such a sad story after the was.

 

There was also much credit given to the women involved in both decoding and the transport of messages. Hiring was determined solely on the basis of ability.

Up to 10,000 people lived and worked on the grounds of Bletchley Park.

In spite of the fact that it was the opposite direction of rush hour, the 45 minute train ride was standing room only.

We stopped at Honest Burger for supper on the way home. Tasty with really good french fries (chips)

Friday is food court day at St Kats so we all enjoyed sitting in the sun with our lunch. Catherine took off to make sure she filled up the last spaces in her luggage.

Up early for a Saturday departure and then Voila was just the two of us again. It was wonderful having company for those two weeks.

Back to boat chores, the biggest being the filling of tanks. Our diesel tanks needed to be filled up for the winter. We use diesel to heat the boat most of the time.

We were pleasantly surprised when the fuel barge actually pulled up to our boat while we were still tied in our slip. Such an easy process.

Our propane tanks were also in need of filling. That process was a little more complicated. We have been using one 6KG exchangeable bottle and what was left in our 2 17LB American fibreglass tanks. We have not been able to find somewhere to refill the US tanks so when we were in Canada last winter we ordered a custom hose to fill them ourselves. We ordered a replacement bottle for the empty 6KG and a larger tank to use to refill the two fibreglass tanks. It was really successful. We now have the 2 US tanks full and the exchangeable one about 1/2 full. We will trade that in when it gets empty or before we begin in the spring. We use a lot less propane now that we are tied to a dock and can use our induction burner for many things.

We have some fun things planned and will add to the blog when we have something to share.