....and so to sleep

One thing about buying a second hand boat is the quality of the mattress.

On Waterlily it was not too bad but when we had the bed extension added we opted for a new mattress. The fact it had an infill made it sumptuous but a pain in the bum to get out and back.... I liked sleeping on it I did not like the faff of getting it out and back.

So when we got Percy a new mattress was on the shopping list. Gill, Tony's wife said she thought we would be replacing it and to be honest I think it might have been the original one that was put on board twenty years ago when Percy was fitted out.

Just before we did the blacking cruise we ordered two new mattresses, one for the back cabin and one for the main bed. Rather selfishly as we knew we would be having my mum and partner for one week then a mate for the other sleeping on the main bed so we kept the old mattress and just fitted the new one to the rear cabin drop down bed.

So today I nipped back over to Elite Furnishings to collect the main mattress and took it with the memory foam topper (hey we might live on this boat one day !!) to Percy.

Due to poor planning I had to do all this myself.... On getting to Fradley I carried the 6x4 mattress to Hunts lock. I met a jolly boater who said... take care getting that over the lock and then walked on to open the Junction lock paddles for his boat !! So no other option other than balance the mattress on my head and walk the top gate.... a one chance journey completed I am happy to say without mishap. Of course I chose to do this on the hottest day of the year. I was able to use the wheels we keep in the forecabin to return the old mattress to the car and it was heavier than the new one... I think horse hair or similar but blimey was it heavy. A further return journey with the topper and all is now set for hopefully a weekend visit to try out the bed !

Another expensive but necessary personalisation of Percy for us.