A slow start to the day at Brundall on a milder and duller day where I talk to Norfolk Yacht Agency about my forthcoming sea trip and change of boat details for insurance purposes and use a call box to check my home telephone answering machine for messages. We then set off up the river Yare to Norwich with Diana at the helm as I worked aboard and arrive to a warm welcome from our old friend at the Yacht Station and then went into Norwich, with me giving Debbie a "piggy-back" as she was coughing uncontrollably which was an exhausting experience. As the girls shopped, I returned to Paxton Princess with Daniel to work on more faults to the point of exhaustion as he now has Debbie’s cold and was possibly allergic from drinking cow’s milk as Di spilt all of his goats milk!
News of Estonia setting itself on a collision course with Moscow, declaring independence, Customs at Teesport, Middlesbrough, impounded a consignment of parts that they believe are nuclear gun components for Iraq ad Mother Theresa has to resign from her charity because of failing health. The Strangeways Prison riot continues and Apricot Computers sells off its computer hardware company to Japan
A long night's sleep and lay in this morning for me after a late night staying up reading my navigation books. Diana eventually got up to make the drinks and, after breakfast, popped over to the riverside store whilst I walked over to the Brundall office of the Norfolk Yacht Agency to talk to them about my forthcoming sea trip. I informed them of the name change to the boat and also that I would be taking it to sea in May so that they could inform the insurance company. I also walked up to the call box to remotely scan my answering machine for messages.
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We then set off up the river Yare to Norwich with Diana at the helm whilst I first used our mobile telephone to return calls picked up on my answering machine and then spliced the ends of my mooring ropes. The bridge at Norwich did not swing for us and I had to come to Diana's assistance at the helm and arrange for the canopy and mast to be dropped. I then cruised on to the Yacht Station where we got a warm welcome from the Harbourmaster who recognised us from previous years and wanted to know where "Our Lady" was. We took our moorings and then went into Norwich, with me giving Debbie a "piggy-back" as she was coughing uncontrollably. This proved to be quite an exhausting experience which also made my back stiff and sore as a result, but it helped Debbie.
I then left the family continuing their shopping expedition and came back to the Paxton Princess to have a look at some faults which had developed. A faulty echo-sounder was traced to a poor adhesive seating on the sensor fixed inside on the hull; but I could not get the faulty log to work and suspect that there is something wrapped around the sensing impeller on the hull. Daniel helped me and we both wore ourselves out. This evening, I had a rest, watching TV football with only moderate reception and read more of my books. Today's weather was milder and duller but better for it and we were out of the northerly wind for once. Poor Daniel has got the cold now from Deborah and it is made worse by him having to drink cow's milk (which is supposed to make his Hay Fever worse) as Diana succeeded in tipping over the goats milk in the fridge and losing it all!
The news today was of Estonia setting itself on a collision course with Moscow by rejecting Gorbachev's demand that the unilateral declaration of independence be rescinded. Customs at Teesport, Middlesbrough, tonight impounded a consignment of parts that they believe are nuclear gun components for Iraq. This comes only three weeks after the seizure of nuclear triggers from Heathrow and is a major embarrassment for Thatchers free-trade policy. Mother Teresa, the 79-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner had resigned her job as the Superior-General of her "Missionaries of Charity" nuns' order (which runs more than 400 homes around the world) due to failing health which is sad. As the Strangeways Prison riot continues and another prison officer is released after being a hostage for a day at Shotts prison, Scotland; Home Secretary David Waddington announces an increase of 200 more prison officers but it is denounced as insufficient by the officers' union. Apricot Computers sells off its computer hardware company to Mitsubishi of Japan for £39million in cash and reverts to being a computer services company. I had always said that they did not understand the hardware business which had cost them a fortune.