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Shopping for antique silver and pictures in Huntingdon before our cruise home, stopping at Godmanchester for lunch and at Buckden Marina for supplies before home to Paxton to find our young dove chick dead through starvation and its mother dead from predation, returning to a mountain of mail as the government is saved by the Civil Service union opting not to strike
Myself awake first at our Huntingdon moorings and to put the kettle on and switch the batteries over so as to start the heating. The children already awake and the boat cold, but it soon warms up with our new heating. Our morning routine and then the children out after breakfast to play on the adventure playground as we clear up The Lady and get ready for the walk to Huntingdon. A bright morning with a cold wind as we set off and Daniella has the cover fixed to her pushchair to stop her cough and cold getting any worse through the weather. We divide and I make for the antique shops. I spot an old silver knife at the small shop near the river bridge, but go on up to the antique galleries near Barclays bank, where the assistant serves me a cup of coffee and I look at fiddle spoons and an old set of six tea knives. Eventually I buy a pair of 1819 London spoons, another pair of 1813 (which I later find to be of 1833), an 8oze 1923 ladle, made by William Chawner of London, and also the pistol-handled tea knives said to be of 1893, but I believe really of 1918. They cost me respectively £44, £65, £110 and £40, which is less than the asking and at the trade prices in view of the purchase size. Well pleased with my purchase I rendezvous with Diana at the coffee bar and after, back to buy a miniature of St Neots Bridge for £30, which print comes from an old engraving, which shows the bridge before it was widened and extended in the last century. We walk down to buy the single silver knife for £2.75 and, whilst the family make for The Lady, I drop in at Headley Stokes to see the drawings for our house connection and learn that they have been posted already and await our return.
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Traumatic dunking for little Debbie we try to sail the Blue Peter on a brighter , but cool and showery day but a warm recovery and trip to the cinema for her to see 101 Dalmatians, which she loves as Thatcher is Britain’s enemy abroad with the anti-union and anti-Tory youth comments but the Geneva arms talks get under-way
A slightly restless night and after a better sleep in the early hours, up at 7.00am to make the drinks and start the heating. We had decided to stay at St Ives again last night and set off this morning and so, after breakfast, I prepared the dinghy when the boat had been refilled with drinking water and the other chores done. I invited Debbie to sail with me and we donned our life jackets and waterproofs and set off. A good time sailing as we tacked to and fro upwind and then, with Debbie wanting to go home, I turned the dinghy downwind for home. Unfortunately, as I brought the boat across wind, a gust took it right over, pitching us both into the water. Poor Debbie was wet and frightened as we bobbed about in the water, but we were quite safe with our buoyancy aids. Alas the water was very cold and Debbie howled. I turned the upturned dinghy into the wind and at the third attempt pulled down successfully on the dagger board and managed to reach the gunwhale and pull it upright. The main sheet was running loose and the sail flapped in the wind. I helped Debbie aboard, but she was too frightened to let me come aboard from the stern, worrying that it would capsize again. I swam with the wind and pulled the dinghy to the river bank and scrambled back, but by this time the oars and bailer had floated out of reach. I would have spent time trying to retrieve them, but Debbie’s teeth were chattering and she was begging to go back and so I left them behind, using a reefed sail and the rudder as sculling propulsion. Diana was away from the boat shopping, but Daniel helped us hang our clothes out to dry, as we stripped off, put the heating on and warmed up.
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The morning at St Ives Fair and buying silver from Knights, the antique shop, before an inaugural cruise in The Blue Peter sailing dinghy and then a family swimming trip to St Ivo Centre where Daniel found Jason and spent the rest of the day with his family as there are more Molesworth arrests
A lay in until woken by Diana at 7.15 with a sorry tale of the battery being low and unable to pump water or run the heating. I asked her to switch to the reserve battery, which was fine and drank my morning tea and looked after Daniella whilst Di got on. The normal routine and then I started the engine and charged the battery for a while. All ready and then out together to St Ives fair and a good look round in the morning. I was looking for rugs for the boat and saw a few, but none really suitable; but bought some fibreglass polish, rags and a few sausage-shaped draught excluders for the boat. All together at the Girl Guides Hut for morning coffee and cakes, then a further look round until back together at The Lady for 12.00pm. Lunch of plaice and chips from the takeaway and then I rigged up the sailing dinghy for the first time and took it out onto the main river to sail. After a few tricky movements, and with a life jacket and well reefed sail, I managed to cruise around and really enjoyed it.
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Cruising from The Old West River to Waits Quay St Ives in The Lady in a flood on a wet day, but warmer and more comfortable than most whilst I make some repairs and fit some upgrades as the clergy lock horns over the controversies surrounding Thatcher.
A cold, clear night and awake during the middle of it for the toilet and awoke Diana too. A good lay in eventually, until I boiled the kettle and started the central heating at 7.15am. Funny to see how little Daniella was laying awake and quiet in her cot until I went in, when she smiled to say good morning. What a good baby to wait like that. The normal morning routine, but slightly brisker as we intended to leave early. An Easter egg each to the children and eventually away at 8.45am, which was good. A cold and rainy morning, which was a drastic comparison with yesterday and we kept the heating on as we cruised slowly through the Old West River and on to Hermitage Lock. The rain poured as we locked through and then we were in the tidal section in a spring high tide, with the surrounding fields flooded and water high. Brownhills was fully open and we cruised straight through, getting a helping hand from the lock keeper eager to win his 50p tip, which the flood tide seemed intent on denying him. Up to St Ives, but the queue just denied us from locking through before the keeper’s 12.30pm lunch time and so we moored up at the loading stage and Diana prepared the lunch as I walked with an empty gas cylinder to L H Jones to look around the chandlery. Besides a new store of gas, I bought some pump gaskets/seals and chatted about the repair bits needed for the COMPACT/waterloos. Back to The Lady and to appreciate again our heating on a cold day. The two smaller boats alongside were wet and shivering and we lunched in indoor clothes and great comfort. Through the St Ives lock, on to the Waits Quay where, after a certain amount of manoeuvring, we took the place of the cruisers who were leaving and obtained our accustomed pole position.