Three days to cover

16th, 17th & 18th December

I’m going to cover three days in this blog post so as to catch up, having missed doing one yesterday. On Wednesday I saw the GP in Poynton; it’s a big health centre that seems well run, and well used to dealing with passing boaters.

I’m happy to say that there’s probably nothing wrong with my skin, though I’m going to be seen again in the New Year once the scratch has healed. I was in and out of the doctor’s, and able to collect a prescription from the pharmacy just down the road, in a total of 45 minutes so that I could catch the 11.13 bus back to Higher Poynton.

In the afternoon, we pulled off the mooring, winded at the far end of the Deeps and filled the water tank. I then steered Sanity through some rather grotty sleet showers to Deer Farm Bend where we spent the night.

We made an early start yesterday morning and were pleasantly surprised to find space on the visitor moorings opposite the service block just after 9.00. We then had two shopping sessions in the morning and one in the afternoon, so that we are beginning to stock up for Christmas.

They are making steady progress with the improvement to the side of the canal by bridge 2. A lot of Armco piling has been driven and with luck it will mean an effective increase of usable mooring in this nice town. As we approached the work site we were bemused to see that two of the guys appeared to have Day-Glo orange shorts peeping out beneath their hi vis jackets.

The general effect was that Superman had been got at by the Health and Safety Executive. When we got closer, however, it transpired that they were wearing orange waterproof trousers with brown leather thigh waders pulled on over them.

I’m happy to report that our experience of shopping at White’s the butchers was further improved when we were recognised as having bought kangaroo rump there some weeks ago. Apparently we’d been charged for a kilo when we bought a pound of meat and they were pleased to give us £5.50 off our bill this time. An honest butcher indeed.

My physio appointment wasn’t until late afternoon, and we’d planned to stop overnight in Marple, coming back this morning. However, the forecast was for freezing conditions overnight and we didn’t want to get stuck there over the weekend.

Accordingly, when I got back from the physio just before 5.00 we set off into the snowstorm with the tunnel light blazing. (Actually, it went out after a bit owing to a dirty contact. Sheila, who was steering, was not amused.)

We got back to Poynton just after six, winded and stopped on the shop mooring overnight. Being by now tired, cold and hungry, we did the only obvious thing which was to retire on the Boar’s Head for a drink and a meal.

This morning, Sheila went off to buy the paper whilst I reversed Sanity onto the water point. I’d just finished watering and was starting to wind up the hose when she got back. We moved forward onto the shop mooring again and sought diesel and a pump out. The diesel was no problem, but the pump out pump was frozen, so having filled the fuel tank we tied Sanity outside the hire boat whilst we did our regular weekly visit to examine progress on Sanity Again.

After lunch, the pump was still not working, so we have returned to our mooring, and backed down onto it. This enabled us to use our own pump to transfer about half a tank into the septic tank provided for people to empty their toilet cassettes. This should at least see us through Christmas, and we can always repeat this procedure if need be. We are now relaxing with the stove well stoked and the prospect of a quiet day tomorrow.