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A fine and warm day after a chilly night Cruising upstream to River Mill and then downstream dropping by our own moorings for a few things before locking down through Offord and Brampton to arrive at Godmanchester for an evening reading and writing as the children played alongside. The Labour Party appeal to teachers for a moratorium on strikes and to work for a Labour victory in the forthcoming election, a Scottish engineer is freed after 15years jail in Libya and Argentinean President Raul Alfonsin has thanked the public for their support in overcoming the recent rebellion
A poor night, trying to sleep on The Lady. The night started warm and then turned cold and I had trouble getting within the sleeping bag, which was quite small and narrow. Slept for a while and then woke early to put on the central heating and boil a kettle for Di’s coffee and my morning tea. The warm air heating system worked fine and we needed it on this cold and foggy morning. The slow process of the family getting used to washing on the boat and then a nice breakfast with Debbie and Di sharing my melon, as well as having toast and cereal. Daniel joined us from Little Lady for use of the toilets and then for breakfast. Once we had cleared up, we all boarded Little Lady and made off for the town quay, where we moored to do some shopping in St Neots. Bought two new sleeping bags, waterproofs for Daniel, then had coffee at Tooks. More shopping at Martins, Boots and then Waitrose, before back to the dayboat and upstream to unload our goodies at The Lady for storage.
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Good Friday – The last day with our French guests was a fine one, starting misty but then fine and sunny for the open day at Little Paxton Wood and then to start our boating holiday aboard The Lady. We cruised upstream to start with, through the Paper Mill Lock to moor at Coneygear and then took The Little Lady to St Neots for fuel and shopping. An attempted rebellion today against Presdient Alfonsin of Argentina and a cache of IRA weapons had been uncovered
Slept well and awoke to my morning tea. The day was cool to start with, but foggy and the humidity was high. Soon the sun shone through the mist and we had a very fine day on our hands. Showered and shaved for breakfast, the last we were to have with our French guests. Then the start of our efforts to load the boat. I changed the water again by leaving all of the taps open, then refilling it. Out with the fenders, the red ensign, the flag mast, then on with the refrigerator, water pump etc. I ran the engine a while more and there was no problem with core plug, which now seems to be holding fast. A hectic time, but eventually we had it loaded with all of our things and the house locked up and alarmed, so that we could leave. We took the Range Rover first to Little Paxton woods, which are always open to the public on Good Friday.
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A glorious day of weather working on The Lady repairing an engine water leak, as Di takes the children to Cambridge and The French girls take a coach to Norwich before we get together later to tidy up the boat, fit the curtains and run the heating and lighting in preparation for our forthcoming Easter boat trip. The UK will still retain The Trident nuclear deterrent after any successful Nuclear Arms limitation talks and more letter bombs plague senior civil servants but are intercepted
Slept well, even though it was a warm and mild night and was woken by Daniella coming in to try to find ‘her mummy’. Showered and shaved a little late, but just managed to get down in time for breakfast. After another quiet meal, the two French girls left for a coach to Norwich, Di took Daniel and the girls to the shops and I stayed in. Avoiding distractions for too long, I went out and started work on The Lady. Found the bilges full of water and oil and started a painstaking morning pumping her out and using bags of detergent to disperse the oil slick everywhere. A long job wiping and washing the internals and it took me easily up to lunchtime. After a quick lunch, I returned and filled up The Lady’s drinking water system and ensured that it was working properly with no leak. I had secured the water hose to a post and added a length of hose to the end and it is very convenient having fresh water right alongside the moorings. Started the engine then and found out the cause of the trouble. The ‘core plug’ near the heat exchanger had been popped out by the winter frosts and coolant was pumping out into the bilges.
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A trying day for Diana suffering with her condition, my chores for her and the worry of our visiting French girls but the boys enjoyed the swimming pool and Debbie had a long riding hack as an arms deal talks between Shultz US/USSR Foreign Minister look close to a successfully conclusion, the Royal family attend the Herald of Free Enterprise victims memorial service at Canterbury Cathedral and general election speculation rises
Slept well, but poor Di had started a period and has been most put out with the French girls and all else to worry about. Another awkward and fairly silent breakfast, but at least Della has lost her shyness. Gary stayed the night and also joined us at the meal. After breakfast, I went out to hose down The Lady, then got a bucket of water and leather and washed and wiped the windows and varnish until it looked quite reasonable. Rather tired, I went back in at lunch time and read a little more on conservatories and their plants. I had previously sat out for morning coffee in the sunshine on a warm and muggy day. Daniel and Gary had been swimming and boating this morning and we were all hungry.