Back to Lymm

The wait-a-day strategy was certainly a success; it was very pleasant indeed this morning, cool and fresh. We got away from the mooring a bit before seven, and an hour and twenty minutes boating took us to the winding hole and back.

Shortly after that we were tied once more on the water point at The Old No 3. The pressure water-wise was a bit better and boat queue-wise a lot less, so we were able to fill the tank to the brim with a clear conscience.

Sheila then steered us most of the way to Lymm, handing over to me for the final stretch past the moored boats of Lymm Cruising Club. This was quite astute of her, as one of said boats promptly pulled off its mooring in front of me, turned in the width of the canal and then waved us through.

Why not wait until we’d gone by, then?

Heigh ho, no big deal.

/nobigdeal

It was just before ten when we came through Lymm Bridge to find a space just long enough for Sanity Again on the offside moorings. The boat we were cooching up to looked familiar and indeed was; it was Three No Trumps with Mick and Alison on board.

After the statutory natter, we all went our separate shopping ways, in our case once Sheila had put the washing out on the whirligig and I’d made a quick coffee. Main discovery of the morning; the Co-op is now a Sainsbury's Local.

By the time we got back it was lunch time; afterwards I took most of our recycling to the skip in the car park (all bar paper and cardboard – it’s weird what some places will take and others won’t).

We’ve had a quiet afternoon, watching boats going and coming. Three No Trumps has had to leave as they need to get back to their marina at Church Minshull by Friday.

Following the hacking of kitchenware site Lakeland’s databases and possible consequent compromising of passwords, Sheila’s been busy changing passwords on all the other sites where we'd used the same one. There was no sign of unauthorised access to any of them, which is a relief.

We may carry on to Stockton Heath tomorrow, though if the weather looks wet we may stay here for another day.

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.

Dunham Massey to Lymm

19th & 20th January

What a good weekend that was - did I say I was tired at the end of the last post? You should see me now.

Elanor duly turned up for dinner on Friday night, bearing the usual collection of post and my replacement LavNav, the fiendish device she gave me for my birthday which then broke down and has been replaced without demur by IWOOT.com. It goes under the toilet seat lid, and shines green in the dark when the lid is up, but red if the seat is up as well.

Very useful in the middle of the night.

Saturday (yesterday) was a family event and a half, a postponed bit of Christmas, really. We already had Elanor with us, and then Peter and Jan came bearing some goodies for lunch, and finally Graeme, Cathy and Daniel rocked up for a late lunch. Not their fault, they'd had a very slow journey of it from Lincoln due to the Trent being in flood.

So we had a great family lunch on board, and Peter and Jan were able to meet Daniel for the first time. Daniel as usual was incredibly well behaved, and held court with aplomb.

After Elanor and Peter and Jan had left, we had a very pleasant afternoon and evening catching up with Cathy and Graeme. Daniel experienced his first night in the side berth with its new cot side arrangement – he wasn't too sure of it at first, but settled quite quickly and then slept well.

He also gave us a relaxed start this morning, waking at five or so for a nappy change, and then joining his parents in their bed on the saloon floor for about another three hours kip.

What a star.

After they'd gone, we boated on to Lymm, getting here in nice time for lunch. The forecast is a bit dodgy for tomorrow, but we can sit it out here with shops and stuff to hand.

The afternoon has passed in a bit of a daze. Sheila was knitting and watching a DVD Cathy and Graeme had brought, and I did some more work on the photo album of last year's cruising – I'm about half way through it now, dealing with the floods on the Nene.

Soup and bread for dinner tonight, I think, after the pig out of the rest of the weekend, and an early night.