Rain rain

It's been tipping it down here all day. Never have I watched the weather reports for the west Midlands with such morbid interest. However, the sort-out we had over the last couple of days unearthed a Rule bilge pump - with float switch! It's not as powerful as the pump we currently have installed, but would have the inestimable advantage of us not having to go up and switch it on every time it rained... The hold offers a large catchment area for rainwater, which then all collects in the back end and once above the level of the floor - four inches, which doesn't take long - it's lapping about the bottom of the paint tins etc, making them rusty.

Of course, the ideal situation is to minimise the collection of water by diverting it over the sides with some cloths, but I need to regroup the finances a bit first; the gunnels are going to set us back a round thousand pounds, and pretty much the same again for the cloths. So for this winter, I reckon it'll be a case of keep pumping.