22nd
When Reality Nearly Sinks
Doctor Foster went to Gloucester, so it is said. Either there were a lot of sick people in Gloucester in need of medical attention or he was a psychiatrist, either way he was obviously no bloody good.
When Jack got back to his boat (3.5 mile hike) this time something was wrong, different. That was it! The boat was facing the opposite way. Jack soon found out that the heavy rains that re-visited Gloucester had loosened the mooring pins and with the strong winds, more dangerous than currents, had untethered The Black Tie and she had swung out into the canal. Canal officials had rescued her before she was lost in the murky murk, but had to moor her the best way they could. “Next time tie her to the metal railing”. ‘Okay’.
Jack moved the boat further into town a few hundred yards from a pub. Got sozzled, woke up back on the boat in his armchair at 4am with chicken kebab down his front and on the floor. He certainly knew how to throw a party for one.
This evening he said ‘goodbye’ to Gloucester. Cast off, entered the Docks and navigated through the main lock and out onto The Severn again. This is the part of the Severn that suffered so badly from the recent flooding. The lock keeper had said “All the pubs are closed along The Severn”, Jack wondered what sobriety was like, and could reality be as bad as people say it is, only time would tell as the journey progressed and the river came back into focus.
