All last season, and for most of this, the Captain’s usual cruising position has been fast asleep on the bed, or on a chair in the saloon. The same was true when he came on motorhome holidays too, Venturing outside or ashore was pretty much a nocturnal activity, unless it was so hot in the cabin that he really didn’t want to cruise, then he’d do a runner and hide in the bushes until it got cooler.

Latterly, he’s been finding it harder to hide his true nature, and taken to venturing outside a little more often in the daylight hours when there was no one around. Extremely reluctant to use his indoor bathroom facilities, more recently he’s even been jumping ship at locks or service points and disappearing, only to jump back on five or six minutes later with a relieved smile on his face.

But the last fortnight, he’s finally accepted that it can be warmer in the glorious October sunshine than in the cabin, and following the success of his day spent line-checking the crew, has decided to come out properly. He now spends most of the time being a real boat cat, sitting up on the roof in the sunshine while we cruise, studiously ignoring all the dog walkers, and soaking up all the admiring glances.

So, as October 11th is the internationally observed but confusingly named National Coming Out Day, Biggles has acknowledged publically what we’d known all along, spending the days outside even when on a busy tow-path or cruising, and allowed us to put up some more pictures of him boating.