Managing chores of overhauling two outboard motors, repairing the Blue Peter dinghy and supervising Daniel’s maths studies as I gradually deteriorate with a chill and can only read magazines later as efforts to raise the Herald of Free Enterprise are also accompanied by arguments about compensation for the victims’ families, the good news concerning the arrival of the Lebanese relief convoy is tempered by the death of one of their escorts and a warden is still held hostage in a stand-off at Magilligan Prison.
A very poor night’s sleep, and I had a cold/sore throat coming on. Eventually to sleep, but was awoken early, at 6.45am, by Di anxious to get Deb off to school. Up, dressed and to breakfast with the family. I limited my meal to a small bowl of cereal and then read today’s paper afterwards. Got Daniel to join me outside on a sunny, yet cool day and we started to clean up the Blue Peter dinghy that had suffered in the winter gales (being blown onto the slipway from its trolley). We also started to overhaul the two 2hp outboard motors (the Evinrude and Mariner) and then had to go off in the Daimler to Colnworth and St Neots for spark plugs and resin filler gel coat. Once back, we used some blue stain to tint the gel coat and filled the dents and scrapes on the dinghy, using thin matting to support a cracked section. Then we tried out the two motors and both worked fine.
Lunch of salad, after which we cleared up. Later, I sat with Daniella, who now prefers to stay in the house rather than go on Di’s ferrying trips. After tea, I made Daniel resume his mathematics work to complete his ‘sets’ and ‘matrices’ topics. As the day wore on, I got weaker with my chill and could only read my magazines, write postcards of enquiry over conservatories and then write up my journal. On the eve of the efforts to right the wreck, the news tonight is of the ‘Herald’ aftermath, with negotiations due tomorrow between P&O, the owners, and solicitors, representing the next of kin, over the amount of compensation. The £38,000 maximum allowed by international conventions is under attack as being far too little. Meanwhile, there are reports of the five minutes before sinking, with a steward’s alarm and warnings not acted upon. The relief columns got through to the besieged Chatila camp in the Lebanon, but one of the escorting men was shot dead, which spoilt the achievement of getting five lorries through. In Northern Ireland, two hostages are still held at Magilligan Prison and there were bomb alerts in Belfast, during a war of nerves between the IRA and security forces, over the arrangements to hold or thwart the holding of a paramilitary funeral. Civil servants have begun a six week strike campaign in South Wales and north-west England, after rejecting a 4.6% pay offer. Flamboyant snooker player, Alex (Hurricane) Higgins, has been banned from the game for a period of six months.