Finding more leaks in The Lady’s roof and tending to a family of hedgehogs and then cruising off downstream on The Lady to Buckden Marina only to find we arrived too late for craning out this afternoon and now it will be done in the morning. Iran rejects the UN resolution and all eyes are on the fete of the US-flagged oil tankers threatened by Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. The Bradwell nuclear reactor has to undergo further safety work after an inspection as it is vulnerable to earthquakes and English schools have deteriorated due to poor buildings and shortage of specialist teachers
A bit earlier when called with my tea this morning, but I had still gone to bed at midnight after watching TV. Dressed after showering and shaving in good time for breakfast and got the children to tidy their bedrooms, before eating, for the first time in a long while. After breakfast I retired to my office to read the paper on another dreary and drizzly day. Out later to check The Lady and was happy to see that there were no leaks over Di’s bunk where I had sealed it yesterday. Troubled, however, to see a leek above my bunk and another in the children’s cabin.
This weather that is alternately burning hot and dry, then soaking wet is taking its toll. As I pulled out two drawers in the front cabin, there was actually extensive fungus growth that must have been there a long time. This morning we had the unusual sight of two young hedgehogs trapped in our sunken lawn. One was active and lively, running around frantically to find a way out, the other curled up, damp and exposed, obviously the worse for wear. We put the latter in a cardboard box in the pool boiler room and, once recovered, put it back with its brother/sister. They remained scampering around all day, even when lifted out of the lawn. At dusk, the weaker one called out in a sort of rapidly repeated quacking noise and I hope its parents return tonight to gather them up and take them away. It is a mystery how they got here, as the back garden is virtually enclosed. I made a salad lunch for myself and then packed up The Lady for the trip to the crane at Buckden Marina. It teemed with rain again, but there were brief breaks in the weather. At 3.15 we left a note for Di, then I cruised off downstream with Daniel and his friend Steven. The Offord lock was against us, but we moored by the crane at 4.30. Manager, Richard Allan, was in a meeting, but I phoned him on my return finding a message on my answering machine. It seems that they had intended to crane it out and load it up this afternoon, but I was too late. I shall go there again at 8.30, when they open in the morning, to watch it being lifted out and keep my fingers crossed. This evening, I worked in my shed, sharpening my chisels, plane & spoke shave and re-stocking my tool box with screws, nails and bolts, so as to be complete for any eventuality during our month in Norfolk. The news today is of mounting tension in the Gulf as the US fleet protect ‘adopted’ Kuwaiti tankers. Iran has rejected the UN resolution and the first two tankers will pass through the Straits of Hormuz tomorrow. The USSR have offered joint talks on the situation in the Gulf, but the US has rejected the idea, saying that the Security Council was the ‘proper forum’. In the House of Commons today the spectre of Iraqi ships re-registering under the British Flag was raised and, despite being pressed by opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, Mrs Thatcher and Sir Geoffrey Howe would not rule out the possibility, saying that each case would be dealt with in the customary way on its merits. In a new turn in the Cleveland child abuse crisis, a woman social worker at the centre of the row, Mrs Kath Angrain, has gone missing with her car on the edge of the moors. The pressure of the cases seems to have been too much for her. The Finchley miners have voted to return to work tomorrow after failing to get the support of the Yorkshire area NUM. Bulgarian Defence Attaché in London, Colonel Ivan Pavlov Djambov, has been expelled with 14 days notice for spying. Sheffield solicitor, Alan Wood, is on trial for the murder of his French girlfriend, Danielle Lloyd, her daughter and the attempted murder of her son. His claim that this was all part of a suicide pact is disputed by the prosecution. The Bradwell nuclear power station in Essex has been required by the Nuclear Inspectorate to undertake further safety work by the end of this year, if it wants to remain open. It is evidently vulnerable to earthquake stress. England’s schools have received bad reports from inspectors for poor condition of the buildings and shortage of specialist teachers.