Back to Drayton, and a sealing task

16th & 17th February

The morning dawned bright and cold once more. The night before we'd had a post call from Elanor which had revealed some problems with a couple of finance things, such that we needed to get the relevant letters sent on to us. The obvious address to use was Market Drayton PO, but at 5 o'clock they weren't answering their phone to confirm that they accept Poste Restante.

Accordingly, we tried again at 9, but still no joy. Thinking that perhaps they didn't open until 9.30, we set off on the return trip to Drayton, Sheila steering and me trying to ring from time to time. We'd also had some trouble with the internet connection last night, though it had been all right, if slow, before. However, it at least was now working OK – I even downloaded some email and uploaded the last blog as we slid into the depths of Woodseaves cutting.

We got to Tyrley just behind Ysbryd Rhydd (= Free Spirit in Welsh), but they stopped on the water point, only to make the same discovery as ourselves two days ago. This did mean that we passed them and set off down the flight, but it made no odds, as it was against us anyway.

Notwithstanding, we made good time down it, and before 11 we were on the water point in Drayton. Sheila left me with the boat, and set off into Drayton to ask in the PO if they would take a Poste Restante letter.

I'd just finished watering and was reversing Sanity back through the bridge 'ole to moor when she came back, a little out of breath, but with good news (and a newspaper). Having passed this info on to Elanor together with the address of the PO, we had lunch and went back into town for a successful shop for a mixed bag of stuff, including a new warm shirt for me (factory outlet shop), various bits of cleaning stuff (Wilko's) and some silicon sealant (Homebase) as well as some general groceries from the Lidl.

We need the sealant for the shower tray – the current bead is looking a) tired and b) mouldy. I'd been putting the job off, as I hate using sealant, but Sheila volunteered to have a go, which, as it's more like piping with Royal icing than anything else, seemed fair enough.

Today again dawned cold and bright, indeed even colder and brighter if anything. The cut wasn't actually frozen across, but there were thin sheets of ice drifting down. As we weren't planning to boat anywhere, we decided to skip our usual argument about whether such conditions would damage the blacking, and got on with getting breakfast.

Before setting off to shop again, we took it in turns to strip out the old sealant from around the shower tray. It proved to be well stuck on, so hadn't been leaking, at least, but it was good to get rid of the nasty black mould that seems to form even when we are punctilious about drying off the walls and tray of the shower after every use.

After a trip to Morrisons, we had lunch and then resealed the tray, Sheila wielding the gun, and me being the mate, handing things to her and taking them off her. It looks much better for the work, though Sanity filled with the niff of the acetic acid that is given off as the sealant cures – next time we must do this job in high summer, when we can have all the hatches open to ventilate the boat.

The rest of the afternoon's been taken up with the weekly IT housekeeping, knitting, cooking and running the engine whilst doing a washload.

The forecast is for a freeze again tonight, so it's not clear if we'll get away from here tomorrow. If we can, we'll go back to Adderley for the night and come back on Tuesday, by which time the stuff from Elanor should have arrived at the PO.