I got it into my head that we needed to do a Peter Kay “Big shop”. A full on purchasing extravaganza so we could avoid supermarkets for a couple of eons. The cupboards, fridge and freezer would bulge like a 1970’s orange space hopper on a particularly warm day. We could stock up for the next two months on the boat meaning no more big shops till we come back from our month in the UK in October. What a dreamy prospect.

The flip side of achieving stock up heaven is you have to spend actual time in supermarkets. Home delivery to a boat anchored in the middle of a waterway is currently not a Walmart option. From compiling a list, dinghy-ing to the shore, walking to the requisite food emporium, buying stuff, reversing the travel logistics and finally hiding our purchases in appropriate places, 6 hours had passed! 6 hours. We had visited 4 shops in total; a wholesalers, two supermarkets and the liquor store. We’d made two trips with a rucksack and two shopping bags each. That’s 3 hours for each trip. My arms are now 4cms longer. I look like a gibbon.

Our time in Halifax ends tomorrow. We will start to sail East up the coast towards the Bras d’Or lake. The inland lake sits inside Cape Breton Island. It’s maybe 150 miles to get there but we plan to day sail it rather than do an overnight passage.

Halifax has been good to us. We have become part locals, having built up a little network of friends. Yesterday, some friends from the Armdale yacht club took us to their fabulous home overlooking the water and fed us tea and cake while we watched the 3rd place play off match. Well done Belgium. You were the better team. Then in the afternoon we walked down to a local park and then into town along the waterfront. We spotted a local boat know to us, shouted to Dan it’s owner and ended up having a beer with his extended family.

And today in the bar where we have watched the previous England games, we spoke to our Brazilian football friend who was enjoying the final and the barman came out to chat to us as he’d seen us on the water in our dinghy a few days ago. It’s been easy to fit in and relax.

Even though we have a boat rammed to the gunnels with food, we bought and shared a slice of pizza on the way home from the watching the World Cup final. That’s unnecessarily extravagant.