The new boat safely moored at Heronshaw
The new boat safely moored at Heronshaw

After a quiet and comfortable night at our Heronshaw moorings, the boys and I worked to clean off and stow the large dinghy, lay a power line to the new boat dock and then buy some chandlery in Wroxham for the new boat, to leave it safely protected from frost. Home for dinner and to report on our new acquisition. The situations in Romania and Panama are dangerous and uncertain

We slept wonderfully soundly in the quiet and sheltered moorings of Heronshaw. It really is a very quiet and charming place with little to disturb anyone. It was nearly 9am before I awoke and put the heating on and well towards 9:30am before the party was up, showered and dressed. I made the breakfast of toast and cereal with tea and drink and the boys did the washing up before the workday started. Being so close to the shortest day, there was little daylight, but we achieved quite a lot considering all of this. We started by cleaning off the large dinghy and putting it in the boat shed, trimming back the largest branch of the willow tree and then laying a shoreline of electricity from the boathouse to the Rolyat Princess under the ground to terminate by the boat dock.

** PRESS "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **

This done, we went off into Wroxham to get some lunch and chandlery. We needed the break by this time. I had been a bit ratty with the boys (were actually doing their best to help) after hitting my left thumb hard with a large hammer! We bought some more fenders, to greenhouse fan heaters, mooring cleats for the boat dock, a new super omnidirectional boat aerial for the TV and many other items and then came back and successfully moored the Princess in the centre of the boat dock between the spring warps.

In failing light, we loaded up the Range Rover, locked up Heronshaw and the boat and left the fan heaters at a temperature above freezing to protect the boat, plugged into our new shore power supply. A tiring journey home after our exertions but happy in the knowledge we had achieved a lot in these last two days and enjoyed ourselves into the bargain. Daniel and I are both pleased with the new boat, which is just about everything that we expected. We phoned Diana and Mum on the way and also dropped Gary Skinner off at Coton. Di had some food ready for us and we chatted excitedly about our new acquisition.

The news today is of the whole world looking a very unstable place: today mass demonstrations, backed by defecting army, seem to overthrow the tyrant, President Ceausescu of Romania, only to find that the elite security forces were fighting back later in the day so that the outcome is unsure. Also in Panama, the Americans are far from incomplete control with resistance from the supporters of the deposed (but elusive) former president Noriega, the Americans are having to send thousands of additional troops. The US military headquarters in Panama had to suffer a mortar attack as President Bush is intended quick ambush could turn into a politically damaging and protracted affair.