This morning we awoke to the sound of screaming gulls (in fact Joy said they hadn’t shut up all night) they must think Gloucester is a Port 😀
After a very light breakfast we set to work hoovering and cleaning the boat, we were expecting visitors you see. Our friends (and previously near neighbours from Dursley) Mike and Myra travelled up to Gloucester by bus and we cruised down the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal together as far as Patch Bridge at Slimbridge, stopping [successfully this time] for a pub lunch at The Pilot at Sellars Bridge, Hardwicke.
For those of you not familiar with the area the G & S is actually a ship canal, although not many ships are seen these days, and wide enough for our 63’ boat to turn practically anywhere. The Dock area in Gloucester has undergone and is still undergoing redevelopment. The new Gloucester Quays , with its designer outlets, is up and running and Sainsburys have their own moorings although they were full and we couldn’t stop to go shopping.
It was an easy cruise down to Slimbridge, (famous for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) as the bridges are all manned and have traffic lights, and I can’t help mentioning Splatt Bridge, another of my favourite names! By teatime we were at the Patch and had found a mooring near the bridge with a water point adjacent.
Patch Bridge is named after Shepherds Patch developed during the nineteenth century, providing homes for canal workers. Near the bridge are the Black Shed Café Bar and Glevum Boat & Cycle Hire on Patch Wharf and the Tudor Arms a few yards away.
We got a taxi back to Dursley, took Myra and Mike home and picked up Matilda, Jer’s 1972 VW Beetle which we are borrowing for a few days and of course to wish our grandson, Morley, 
happy 7th birthday. Then we had to get back at the boat to meet Alison, Joy’s niece at the pub (officially The Tudor Arms, but locally it’s universally simply referred to as going down The Patch) we then gave her the conducted tour of the boat before bidding her goodnight and retiring to bed.