Paxton Princess back where it was built at Barnes in Wroxham
Paxton Princess back where it was built at Barnes in Wroxham

A long working day, driving to Norfolk, organising an auto-pilot installation on Paxton Princess as I collected it from Barnes and took it home to Horning. Then a hectic day working on the garage before a mad scramble to pack up and collect Daniel from UEA who came with me back to Paxton, shared a meal on the way and helped me unload once home.

I had planned to get up early this morning and I did not do too badly, rising at just after 6.00am. I had a quick shower and shave and then snatched a bowl of cereal and glass of apple juice but, by the time I had loaded up the car and made ready to leave, it was after 7.00am. Being Saturday morning, the roads were pretty clear to start with and I made a fast trip to Norfolk. Just into that county boundary however, I ran into quite a bit of fog which made things a little dangerous and, then, as I approached Norwich, the traffic appeared. I stopped off at Barnes boat yard in Wroxham and saw that the boat was all right and back in the water with all of the jobs done. As there was no-one around, I drove on to Horning and saw that Mr Lincoln had wreaked even more damage to the trees and had begun to in-fill the area for use, I believe, as a car park. It was still a bit foggy then, but I took some photographs later for planning evidence.

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I was due to meet John Coulling, my auto-pilot installation engineer, at 10.00am but I had a little time to check around the property and plan how to finish off the garage. In fact. I also jacked the front of the building up and moved the sleepers to be square with the front, deciding that it was better to have a slight gap in the middle rather than at the end. To Wroxham where I first found Mathew Thwaites and was shown over the boat work and the davits in particular. It is difficult to strengthen the mounting positions further without taking most of the aft trim apart, but he showed me what they had done and suggested a different mounting bracket on another yacht which would be the final solution.

Then John Coulling, who was already on board, surveying the job of installing the auto-pilot. We went from stem to stern and worked out the best positions for the various components, but we will have to move a few things to get the best installation. I invited him for a cup of coffee afterwards and took along my portable computer and the PC Maritime Wayplan auto-log cable and he advised me how to wire it up to act as a further plotter. Steven Bloom and Christine were up at their boats this weekend and I asked them to join us as well. All these fun and games over with, I got Mathew Thwaites to help drop my car back at Heronshaw and then cast off the Paxton Princess for the short river trip back to Ropes Hill Dyke.

It was a nice sunny spell and there was plenty of anglers in small boats, fishing for pike mainly. With so many after them, I wonder that these fish are not made nervous and wise to resist catching. I noticed that there were no boat anglers in Ropes Hill Dyke on my return. The new sign that I got the Residents Association to install at the entrance seems to have done the trick. A hectic day working on the garage. I managed to secure the floor and winch the structure into shape so that the doors fitted squarely into their frames. Then I replaced the boards along the base of the walls and nailed back into position the large elm lap-boarding that made up the rest of the lower walls. Next was the repairs to the fence which relied on the garage for its support and last was the positioning of boards along the bottom of this fence, to the side of the new drive, so that when I get this drive built up, the material will be retained and not damage it.

All this took until nearly dusk and there followed a mad scramble to put everything away and to secure the boat and all buildings before I was ready to pick up Daniel. I was about half an hour late to meet him at UEA, but he had telephoned me in the car and so we found each other all right. A pleasant-enough trip back, stopping for a meal on the way, but I did not call in on Mum due to the day being already very long and tiring. Once back, Daniel helped me to unload and then I returned three calls to colleagues before having my bed-time drink with Diana in the lounge. To bed, after some further TV relief, with Daniel out seeing his friends.