Lymm to Preston Brook

21st & 22nd January

After a quiet night's sleep, we had a relaxed day, recovering from all the excitement. We'd noticed that the boater's enemy, condensation, was appearing in the storage under the side berth once more. It's been better since we had decorative ventilation holes put in the drop down doors to the storage under there, but the recent weather, alternating pouring rain and brief cold snaps, has been too much even for Sanity's efficient spray foam lining. When we came to reassemble the berth in its normal mode, taking down the cot side, and uncovering the mattress so that it looks like a settee again, there were visible drops of water on the wall at the back of the storage.

We'd left the mattress standing on edge for 24 hours to ventilate the space, but it hadn't been enough, so we turned out the cupboards and mopped away the wet. Putting the cot side under the mattress , we took care not to push it right to the back, and did the same with the mattress itself.

Some of the cardboard storage boxes were damp, so we left them out in the saloon overnight to air. When I went to put them back today, things were much better under there, but what we really need is a decent spell of warm weather to give us a chance to air everything, and to really dry out the compartment.

Whilst shopping in Lymm, we'd noticed that the new Post Office come stationers did document laminating, so I took our new BW licences in there and they obliged. This had worked very well last year – in previous years, condensation has again led to the cards getting first damp and then mouldy, whereas last year they remained immaculate to the end of the year. It cost all of £1.29 ($2.53, €1.73) to do, so well worth it.

After lunch we made a trip to the local recycling bank, and otherwise loafed around in the boat (i.e. knitted, did the photo album, read books – it's all go really).

This morning, we planned to make a prompt start, so I set the heating to come on at 7.30, and we did in fact manage to get up before 8, just. I nipped out to get a paper and some bread from the nice bakery – it was good bread, which is just as well, as I paid more than £2 for a granary loaf for the first time in my life. In fact it was £2.16 ($4.23, €2.90) – and my back tooth broke on a seed from it at lunchtime, so a pricey loaf indeed.

(Don't worry – it's only the repair from before Christmas, and I'm not in any pain – it's a toss up whether I bother to get it patched again before we get back to Alrewas in March).

Back to the boating: we were away by 9.30, and I had a good morning's steering along the nice deep canal, despite the large amount of linear mooring with which the Bridgewater is blessed. By 12 we were back at Preston Brook, and popped into Midland Chandlers to pick up the shower pump impeller they'd got in for us. Then we moored just through the bridges, on the route to the tunnel, and had lunch.

This afternoon has been taken up with indoor activity again. I've now finished the photo album, but guess what, this is a very slow connection area, so there'll be a wait until I can actually upload it to the site.