Making the best of it

Day 6; Still 586 miles from Oxfordshire

Imagine being memorialised as "Benefactor, recluse and eccentric". I think I would settle for that - at least it's not boring. The words come from an Iske of Man web page headed "The 'New' Manx Worthies" and refer to a man called Robert Alfred Colby Cubbin (deceased 1951). He seems to have been a colourful millionaire with a passion for boats who funded a lifeboat and a merchant navy training college

He also bought a bankrupt stock steam-powered trawler that had never caught a fish and converted her to a private yacht. During WWII, she became an anti-submarine ship but, after the war he used her for cruises between the Isle of Man and Scotland. I have not discovered which particular part of Scotland but, given that he has a plaque to the memory of him and his yacht in Stornoway, I think it must have included here. The ship was eventually scuttled and blown up outside Plymouth, but its boilers are intact and used as a home by conger eels. I feel he would approve

The plaque accompanies this drinking fountain. Only after tasting the water did I ser the 'Don't drink' sign. It's possible he would also be amused by a non-potable drinking fountain

We hope a windscreen is in transit and might arrive and be fitted tomorrow. We (well, my friends) spent the morning re-organising all out travel and camp sites. In the afternoon we explored some of the town's green space and fell upon Colby Cubbin, making the best of the hiatus and enjoying (at last) some sunshine. Colby would understand our trip, I think