Another trip to Marple, and not much progress on Sanity Again

12th & 13th November

Yesterday we made a prompt start on a brilliantly sunny morning (Sheila was steering) and were soon at Marple. The only problem was that being early meant that there was no space on our favourite moorings opposite the service block. Since the weather was scheduled to deteriorate, Sheila opted to wind and return to the visitor moorings west of bridge 2.

I had another successful visit to the physio, although sadly the guy I have been seeing, Alan, told me that he is leaving the practice and I will be seeing Matthew next week. I just hope that he is as pleasant and effective as Alan has been.

Whilst I was paying to be set upon, Sheila made a shopping trip. Back at the boat we had a coffee break and then did a further visit to the Co-op. This brought us to lunchtime; after we’d eaten we started the engine and a washload. Once the washing machine had finished its heat cycle we set off to return to Poynton.

As forecast, conditions began to deteriorate, with a cold wind and smirrs of rain; Sheila’s luck in getting the fine days for her steering seems to have run out. We watered at Poynton, not having had a chance to do so at Marple, and then winded again and I returned Sanity to her mooring in what were now really quite tricky conditions.

It’s a good job we have had plenty of practice at turning her in her own length to get alongside. Even so Sheila had to hop onto the stern of the next boat to shove the bow over into the wind.

Today, we made a very lazy start and then went over to the yard and took a handful of pictures of Sanity Again. Not a lot has happened; as explained last time, until the portholes are installed there’s not much can be done to the shell. Matt has, however, done his contortion act and painted the inside of the bow locker and the gas locker, a process which inevitably involves getting covered in grey paint as you crouch in the confined space.

Back on Sanity we’ve had a pottering and tidying up session. I’ve uploaded this week’s pictures to Flickr and a blog post to Building Sanity Again. I’ve also ordered the marine VHF radio.

The desk has finally been sorted out so that all the knitting of the cables is hidden behind the monitor. Sanity Again will have an arrangement of cable ports and trunking below the desktop to manage these more tidily.

It’s going to be a wild night, so we shall snuggle down in the boat. I got a piece of gammon from one of the Marple butchers and made soup with it yesterday, so today’s dinner will be a couple of bowls apiece of that and some ham sandwiches.