Friday 13th March 2020 Another day off so set off for storage at 7:30. Not really ready to try putting the mast up as we will need to have some wood to act as props or a davit to help getting it upright so I didn’t bring Rathenice home just yet. I did tidy up the bits that are an almost permanent fixture on the table so the cabin is sufficiently 
secure to be able to trail the boat with only a little organising. Painted the remainder of the large locker and the hanging locker. Then sanded and varnished the top of the table. There will need to be some more work done on the table as part of the leg has fallen off where there had been a previous repair and the holes that help lock the table in place need repairing and reinforcing. Even though it is only the first coat the table is hardly recognisable as the same one without the paint and resin spills, random screws & nuts and boxes of parts.
Helen to school at 12:45 then I had lunch, got my hair cut and went to Matt’s to start fitting the lounge door.
Saturday Went to the boat first thing and did a fairly major tidy out of the boxes that typically lived on the table. Everything inside should now be stable enough to tow the boat with about 5 minutes effort to move paint tins around. Slightly limited on stowing properly because the paint in the big locker was still sticky. Took the table home and also a large bag of metal recycling and rubbish.
Got home about 10 with a little time before Helen wanted to be shopping. I collected Matt to do the driving for that so I was free to repair the table leg and do some wiring on the Arduino board.
Having dropped Helen off to do the baby sitting I went to Matt’s house to finish fitting the lounge door and the high level cupboard doors in the kitchen.
Eventually finished off the Arduino wires after collecting Helen. Now have a system with a few un-attached wires (mainly the ones involved in generating interrupt signals for the clock and bilge pumps. Don’t actually need those yet but they will be needed once I move on to reducing the electrical consumption by putting the processor to sleep. The current setup is capable of running the timer triggered pump control process but does not yet log to the SD card.
Sunday Another rather strange day. Started with getting ready about an hour earlier than usual because there is no breakfast at church today due to the precautions around the virus pandemic. During that hour I was intending to make progress with soldering the remaining wires on the board but then the cat decided to move from the bed to the leather chair and knocked the soldering iron onto the floor burning a hole in the carpet and the foam underlay. I had turned it off but still a good thing I was only gone a couple of minutes.
Church was mainly focussed on the precautions for the virus and particularly any up-coming self quarantine arrangements for the over 70’s. We were experimenting with recording services so any self isolated congregation members can be involved via the website. Those sort of actions will be discussed at PCC tomorrow although the government will be making more announcements before then so we might not even have the meeting. We already have some leaflets to distribute with the magazine to encourage anyone in the parish to contact the church for any practical help that they need. Delivering around 200 of those will keep me busy tomorrow.
I spent the afternoon sorting out some small boat jobs, mainly trying to find parts for the temporary rigging install but I also managed to solder together the two fittings involved in attaching the grease gun to the stern gland.
Kathrine was at the vicarage for lunch and to help with knitting but we had to break the news to her that her friend from Thailand will be going home as her parents don’t think she is safe here. Neither Petch nor her host family wanted to tell Kathrine that news because she was upset just as they had anticipated. I think she was half expecting it though at as her Norwegian friend Amalia is already leaving and will fly home on Tuesday. Shows how other countries are worried about the virus because both of them needed to complete the exchange year to help get into university and will have stopped 3 months before the end of the program. Not sure whether or not the second friend leaving has changed her mind about staying until the end but I have tried to re-assure her that even if international flights get stopped it is still possible for her to get home by train or ferry to Europe and then car or train from France, Belgium or Holland.
Monday 16th March Today was going normally until about 5:00 when Grace finally got an email to say the university were going to award the degrees based on past performance and written finals were therefore cancelled. Matt is doing the pickup for the kids to Lakeside orchestra and I am collecting Grace from Norwich. Home around 11pm after a trouble free journey in each direction.
Tuesday Started the day with a trip to take parcels to the delivery shop and then off to storage to collect the boat. Spent most of the rest of the day working on trying to get the mast sorted and erected however the wind is forecast as 23 knots and certainly seemed to be that much. Mast keeps blowing around as we try to lift it causing it to jam in the tabernacle. I initially couldn’t find the winch handle so gave up for today.
After lunch I sorted out the broken mudguard strut. Made the table fit (inserted the aluminium into the plywood as the additions were too thick for the slot and also re-drilled the holes as the reality is that the holes in the cabin liner are not vertical) and did some grinding work on the pushpit (Now need to do some more welding as there was quite a bit of flux which fell out after grinding).
Put the starting battery on charge overnight so I can test the Arduino system properly tomorrow when I have installed it. This would also be a good time to install the second lead acid battery as the leisure power source.
Around 8:00 Matt has decided Annabel probably has the virus as she has a continuous dry cough. Lending them our thermometer although it is not working particularly well. Does seem to be working on Matt as he gets a sensible reading but her temperature has been variable but high.
22:00 we are calling NHS 111 about Helen as she is breathless and dizzy. no fever but much worse than her normal asthma problems. Looks like we will be self isolating for 2 weeks too. At least I can work from home to some extent while waiting to be clear.