Through dirty weather to Marple and back

22nd & 23rd November

It’s going to be one of those shortish blogs today because we’re both very tired. Yesterday, we made a very lazy start in the face of rather uninviting weather. After lunch, we wandered down to the tip with our bags of recycling. On the way back, we took an unscheduled peep inside Sanity Again, she having been spray foamed the day before.

Everything is indeed covered in dense yellow foam, and I don’t envy the boatyard guys the job of cutting it all back to reveal the battens again.

The rest of the day was spent lurking in the boat. Sheila got a bit more fender made and we both did various things on the net.

For a number of reasons neither of us slept particularly well last night, which was awkward as we needed to make a decent start this morning. Fortunately, the weather, although still not pleasant, had moderated sufficiently to make boating reasonably feasible. At half eight I backed Sanity off her mooring and we made brisk progress to Marple, arriving just before ten o’clock.

This meant we had time for an initial shopping trip and then a cup of coffee before I had to get ready for my physio appointment. Whilst Matthew was hauling my bones about, Sheila paid another visit to the shops so that we are now more or less fully stocked again.

When I told Matthew that we lived on a boat, he looked at me a shade suspiciously and asked “Do you write a blog?”. It seems that he had been googling “Marple physio” and had been a little surprised to find my blog mention of the other week.

I’m happy to say that not only was I able to be complimentary about the practice on that occasion, I can be so again. Matthew proved to be as helpful and effective as his colleague and my shoulder is showing the benefit.

Back at the boat, we had lunch and then Sheila winded Sanity, an evolution which was even trickier than usual because of the cross wind, which forced her to turn clockwise in the junction when she has a preference for going widdershins at that location. Nonetheless, she got round without hitting anything and we then sat on the water point for half an hour or so whilst the hose dribbled into the tank.

On physio days Sheila steers back so as not to stress my newly hauled about shoulder. She certainly got the worst of the deal today as the weather enthusiastically reverted to its wet and windy mode. Typically, when she handed over to me to dock Sanity, the wind died away, it stopped raining and Sanity slid into her berth in a single smooth move. Since then we’ve devoted our time to tea drinking and recovery.

We’ve no very firm plans for the rest of the week, apart from the usual Friday inspection of Sanity Again. Looking at the forecast I suspect we’ll be having a pretty quiet time in the haven of the cabin whilst the wind and rain do their worst outside.