Friday, I took out the lifeboat and travelled to foreign parts (England to you) to collect the Deckhand. The journey was mostly uneventful though lingering snow on the sides of the road and some flooding in nearby fields did give me some concern. In my part of Wales, it was 4C, this was at 6.30am. After 90 minutes, I joined the motorway and stopped for a comfort break at the usual place, had a little coffee, and set off again.

Just as I was approaching the busiest and more complex part of my journey, the Satnav fell off the dashboard. What a pain! You’re supposed to stick them to the windscreen, however if I do that, then I can’t reach it, especially if I’m driving so I bought a ‘disc’ that is stuck to the dash, and the Satnav gets stuck to that, in theory… I pulled into the next services, and had to start breaking gently but quickly as it was now down to 1C and the road and car park were covered in deep, frozen slush. They really should grit these places.

With the unit stuck firmly back on, I set off again only to be held up in the usual bottleneck where we’re down to one lane on the motorway – thank goodness I don’t have too many more of these journeys to take! At an elevated stretch of motorway, in roadworks, I was travelling at 15mph. As I approached the Uni, I was then sat in roadworks for almost 10 minutes, making me almost 30 minutes late for my estimated arrival.

The Deckhand was waiting by the patio doors, and I surreptitiously looked around, saw we were alone, and gave him a big hug. Man, I’ve missed him! The Deckhand was all packed up, barring some food (I had the cool bag) and we quickly packed up the car and left. I wanted to pop to his local supermarket to get petrol but went the wrong way and ended up near the motorway junction so joined that instead. A little further on I recognised a place name that I’d been to on one of his training days, knew there was a supermarket nearby, so we left the motorway.

Well, my memory isn’t great, and we took a wrong turn, and had to double back on ourselves. All the while the Satnav is telling me to turn around lol as I was going the wrong way. I eventually found the supermarket filling station and filled up though that proved ‘fun’. I couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t set to zero, and start filling. The van man behind me was becoming impatient. Eventually I realised you had to press a button for pay at pump, or kiosk. What a numpty lol. By this time the van man had reversed and gone to another pump. Goodness knows what he must have thought, though he could have told me what to do and saved us both the wait. After a nice little tour along some very icy roads, the Satnav eventually took us back to the motorway and we had an uneventful journey home.

Once home, the Deckhand unlocked the back door and let out a very excited Ship’s Dog, whilst I went in the front door and started to unload. Once the Ship’s Dog had let half the street know we were home (barking until he was almost sick with excitement) we both set to unloading the lifeboat. By 4pm we were all unloaded and unpacked, and it was like he’d never left. The Deckhand bought home a very nice bottle of Welsh whisky that was cheaper in England that it is here in Wales – typical! Another gift – 10 days’ worth of laundry. Oh my…

Anyway, I’m happy, and I have the pleasure of his company for about 3 weeks. Happy happy happy