Norfolk motorcyclist Ride-Out gathering
Norfolk motorcyclist Ride-Out gathering

A slow start after a sound night’s sleep, tending to my log book and stowing equipment aboard The Paxton Princess ready to leave her unattended for a while. Leaving Heronshaw after lunch and a chat with Freda, I tussled with a swarm of motor-cyclists in Norwich and then arrived with Mum at Stanton for an afternoon visit and settled her before driving home to find the children missing me and wanting things. Mowing the lawns this evening in Peter’s absence.

Thatcher at last being persuaded by her colleagues to drop her veto of full entry by Britain into the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System, Gorbachev is setting up a 4bn Roubles plan to redeploy up to two million redundant workers due to be shed by the bankrupt and reformed state industries and the Iraqi "Supergun" row continues as Italian police seize over 90 tonnes of steel components

Another sound sleep after a late night and this time I was not the only one to be later up in the morning. Freda and Alf had stayed in and I was the first to stir. I added to my Log Book entries for the voyage and did a few things before they were ready. There was then quite a big job removing all the ropes, fenders etc and stowing them in the boat-house for safekeeping. It was mid-day before I had de-commissioned the boat and left it ready for being unattended for a while and so Freda offered me lunch before I left and we had another good chance for a chat about old times which I hope was a comfort and a re-assurance for her rather than bringing back too many unhappy memories. I also saw Jack, my caretaker, this morning, and we chatted for a while. He told the story of another boat-owner from Ropes Hill Dyke who had gone to Blakeney and gone aground and, being a single-keeled boat with screws out each side, it had taken quite a bit of damage to one of the shafts and the owner had pledged never to return there again.

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I left Heronshaw in early afternoon and made my way back west, telephoning Mum and Diana as I went to know when to expect me. I was doing this on the Norwich Ring Road when the peace was shattered by a crowd of several hundred motorcyclists who had swarmed together for the seaside run, intimidating all onlookers with their noisy engines and exhausts. At a junction where the traffic lights were in our favour (and against them) several of them had shot across the red lights and screeched to halt to stop us proceeding. They had chosen the wrong person in me to do this trick to (and the wrong  car in the Range Rover) and I rounded the blockade and held them up so as to encourage other car owners to follow and exercise their legal right of way. Of course, the motorcyclists were doing this so as not to get delayed and separated by the traffic lights, but this was exactly what the public interest required as they are too intimidating together.

I arrived with Mum in the afternoon, made her a cup of tea, and stayed with her quite a while. She was all right but depressed and I got her out of it sufficiently to see the wood for the trees. I showed her my charts and logbooks and the passage that I had made and she was interested to see where the old Norfolk resorts were from our holidays of times gone by. This achieved, I made my way home, quite tired, and arrived around tea-time. Daniel was out, Della was pleased to see her Daddy again, running up to me and bouncing all over me like a big dog; and Deborah was soon with me demanding that I fix her slide and reproduce her map as I had promised. It had been a cool and dull day, but the sun had come through when I was in Stanton and it was quite fine by this evening. I went through my desk of mail and messages and returned a few calls but left most of the activity for tomorrow. The main job that I did this evening was to do most of the grass-mowing on the lawns. Now that the gardener has left it is mostly down to me and I wanted it to look reasonable before Joan returned tomorrow.

The news in the country is of Thatcher at last being persuaded by her colleagues to drop her veto of full entry by Britain into the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System. Now the UK is planning to reduce its forces in Germany due to the Eastern European reforms but Gorbachev has got his own problems in Russia and is setting up a 4bn Roubles plan to redeploy up to two million redundant workers due to be shed by the bankrupt and reformed state industries. The IRA are coming back into the headlines. Republic of Ireland Premier, Charles Haughey, is coming under pressure from his coalition partner, Des O'Malley and opposition leader, Alan Dukes, alike over the Irish judicial protection of terrorists from extradition. The Iraqi "Supergun" row continues as Italian police seize over 90 tonnes of steel components made by a subsidiary of the State steel company and said to be destined for the project.