The sun showed up but the people didn't

Day one of the bank holiday weekend and the IWA Festival of Water at Waltham Abbey is open to the public. It's a shame no-one told the public they could come. Numbers were disappointing, to say the least. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Still, here's a view from the footbridge looking towards Waltham Common Lock. Many boats were decorated with bunting.

I divided my time between the Boaters' Christian Fellowship stand …

… and the rope throwing stand. This is the IWA's Mike Moorse, festival director, showing how it's done.

It was a really hot and sunny day, perfect conditions to bring in the crowds you'd think. But where were they? The traders were not happy.

This was the view looking south from the footbridge. The unmistakeable bluetop, Kew, is below the flag left of centre.

Tomorrow is forecast to be even hotter than today, and we're out in the sun most of the time. We'll be up early to take part in a communion service in the entertainments marquee before the festival opens; then there's an open-air songs of praise service in the afternoon.

Medium-sized galley disaster

Important things first: we've booked a table at the local curry house for tomorrow evening. So far there are four of us, but I expect that number will rise …

Today I spent a lot of time on the festival site helping to mark out the pitches for traders' stalls. It was hot work (but I'm certainly not complaining about the weather: warm and sunny - thank you!).

I came back to the boat just as Jan was going to the site to help stuff bags with flyers and programmes. I was left with instructions to take the chicken out of the oven in fifteen minutes. This I did with no problem. Unfortunately … I was trying to pour myself a cup of tea at about the same time. I needed a bit of worktop space and so must have moved something slightly. The next thing I knew, a jugful of hot greasy liquid was pouring all over the floor, running over the worktop and down the front of the fridge, getting my shorts and one shoe in the process. Help! I grabbed the dishcloth and started mopping up. This wasn't much good so I pulled off heaps of paper towel and used that. Eventually I had cleared most of it - chicken stock which Jan had earlier removed from the roasting tray - and then discovered a pool of it in the fridge handle. Hmm. Jan wasn't too pleased to find that most of the stock had gone. Still, it could have been worse: if it had gone the other way it would have soaked into books and papers on the table - and run off onto cushions and seats.

No photo: I was rather busy.

Arriving at Waltham Abbey

We're back on board after three days at home. There's a useful informal car park by Carthagena Lock, so that's where we left the car while we took the boat to the festival moorings between Waltham Common Lock and Waltham Town Lock.

On the way here we encountered a dozen small powered boats from Broxbourne.

Many in the boats were obviously Jews; at Aqueduct Lock a group of them helped with the gates. I talked to them about lock operation and let the children wind the paddle up - under close supervision. Jan asked if she could take the photo; permission was granted.

After tea we walked in to Waltham Abbey town centre and revisited King Harold's tomb. A lump of rock. (No photo - I didn't have my camera and it was almost dark anyway.)

Tomorrow I expect I'll be helping to put fencing up at the festival site.