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The simple reason I cannot attend is that on 17th May all day I will be at Lambton on a team clay shooting event which Griffs Growlers are attending, I'm team captain and all four of us must be in attendance. This was booked (And paid for) ages ago now On the upside however the following weekend I will be onboard for a long weekend afloat Griff

Sunday morning 21st April Up fresh, heating and morning tv on - No issues and new batteries held up to full expectations. Did some more bank clearance, I can report that I am now well past that tree and reckon I have cleared another good ten feet - Until the next time then I then produced a FCE for the pair of us, then after clearing up we sailed for the wetshed. No need for a pump out as the heads had hardly been used What was it with the blasted wind? not only was there too much of it, it was just far too cold. I wanted to give the topsides a proper wipe down as apparently it had rained overnight but had to give it up as my hands were going numb Into Wetshed - Quick clean through and we departed for home. I left at 1250 and got home for 1600 so only just made a family dinner in a local pub at 1615 - that was a close call So, a good if short weekend afloat. For those of you that have not yet met 'Aboattime' - He is a thoroughly nice chap (For a southerner), good company an experienced helm, and a former boat owner. It was a pleasure to have made his acquaintance Griff

Saturday 20th April Up and at em early on. Batteries changed over, the old ones were collected and away. Forumite 'Aboattime' arrived as planned, off we went to the Rainbow cafe on Stalham high street, then to Tesco's for victuals to see us through to Sunday forenoon so didn't need much. Filled 'B.A's water tanks, completed our pre sailing preps then set sail around lunchtime with aboattime on t helm. It was windy and the wind was proper cold so the heating was firmly on. Ludham bridge was showing 7ft8" at best which should have meant just 1" clearance there was of course more like 3" clearance so we could thankfully leave the canopy up We arrived with no dramas at Thurne Dyke. However by now I had consumed far more vodka and orange than I really should have. No reason other than it was there and I didn't want it going out of date and I was taking advantage of having an experienced helm onboard too. Add in the fact that I don't really consume much alcohol at home either so not used to it. Two pints in the Lion and I was done for. So I left my helm with some fellow pub customers and staggered back to 'B.A' with Purdey dog in tow. Then it happened. I fell over a blade of grass, it was a particular tough blade of grass to actually leg me up. I was about twenty yards from 'B.A's well deck at the time. I thought to mysen, you know what? I'll just lie her for a while. Trouble with that was Purdey thought this was some kind of new game and proceeded to charge round at breakneck speed puppy like woofing her head off. All that succeeded in doing was drawing attention the the pair of us. Goodness knows how many attempts it took me to find mysen in the well deck but I can assure you it was way more than one. I do hope some bystander was videoing this sequence of events as it must have been hilarious Once inboard I had to snib the galley / well deck doors shut as the wind kept blowing them open, made my way to the wheelhouse which was nice and warm and collapsed into a slumber I was woken sometime later by receiving blows around the dish from one of our draft excluder sausages wielded by the helm. He claimed I had locked him out in the rain/wind, and could only raise me by leaning in under the canopy to reach said draft excluder sausage. You couldn't make any of this up could you? The daft thing was the doors on the sash sides were unlocked and all he had to do was give them a proper firm push and he would have been in! The next issue I faced was getting 'B.A' astern out of the dyke, I couldn't really ask the brand new hem to attempt this as it was his first time onboard and he had not got the feel of her, well not going astern anyhow. Somehow we made it and off we went to Griffs Corner with our new helm doing his thing. By the time we got there I was near back to normal operating capability and we moored up safe and secure on the rhond anchors it was by now 1820. A huge thanks to Aboattme for all his helming skills, mind you if he had not been onboard I would have never got mysen into that kind of mess in the first place I took mysen to task and got stuck into some bank clearance until dusk. We got the goggle box on the go, the heating was on, along with upper deck lights and plenty of inboard lighting I needed to give the 12 and 240v systems a proper long test. Helm produced evening dinner whilst I was bank clearing, Well past midnight both systems were just fine and dandy Lights out for around 0030 Griff

It's worth correcting as you've got brand new batteries. As it stands, anything with large inrush current (particularly motorised loads or inverters) will tend to pull the top battery down more than the others. Once the load is off, the voltage will level out across the batteries, but the repeated demand on the top battery will wear it out faster than the others. When one battery dies, it pulls the overall voltage down, killing the others by excess sulphation. I can't see how much slack there is on the earth lead, but if you're really lucky, there might be enough to flip the lead assembly 180 degrees without the need to modify.

Yes I saw that too. Maybe we ought to alter them to the perfectly balanced connection method rather than the way they are now Griff

We were so glad you were there to help out this morning. It wasn’t easy trying to moor on the BA side at Acle this morning with the wind pushing us off. I don’t think we’d have managed otherwise. It didn’t help that a squall hit when we were approaching and I’m sure you must have got very wet helping us out, so an extra thank you for that. It was lovely meeting up with you and Tony.

I may be wrong, but it looks to me like your battery connections are not completely optimal (which might result in one battery failing sooner). Annv's post a while back had a diagram showing the best way to connect. Judging by the image, it looks like the earth take-off wants to move to the opposite end of the bank.

Quite possibly but I would guess the extra toll is still cheaper than a marina berth, also while residential moorings are permitted and have existed for longer than I can remember there are nowhere near enough to accomodate the escalation in livaboards in recent years. Fred

Out wi t'old 110 amph 'Travelbatt' batteries and and in wi t new 'Snappy' 130amph jobbies Couldn't test out the new small window vac as - sodding typical there was no condensation Saturday or Sunday morning, but the good news is that the blade is small enough (just) to fit between the canopy ribs, so best guess paid off for once Griff

I guess that's why the C&RT are whacking a hefty toll on permanent cruisers to get them into marinas out of the way.

Moving on •••••• Why is Acle Bridge always so windy? I don’t think I’ve ever moored there without at least a breeze. This morning it was blowing directly into the Pedro’s bank which was where I was moored. An extra fender had been put out last night to stop the potential bumping. No breakfast as we were meeting Helen and son Harry with Moonlight Shadow for a breakfast in the Dunes cafe. That gave me plenty of free time to take the dogs for a run up the riverbank towards Upton dyke. I spotted MS coming and just about got over the bridge in time to catch a stern line from Harry. My, it was windy. Breakfast done and dusted, leaving the dogs onboard as I had mistakenly thought I couldn’t take them inside (it is dog friendly after all) and then we had maybe another hour on MS before going our separate ways. Thanks for coming all that way down to Acle, Helen. I anticipated it’d be awkward getting off the mooring in the wind but it was fine. We flew up the Bure and Thurne on the tide towards our destination of Womack, taking a detour up to Potter Heigham first as Tony hadn’t been there by river. We didn’t stop, turning by the bridge as the tide also turned, so we seemed to fly back down the Thurne, only feeling the engine work as I turned up Womack dyke. Womack staithe won the discussion between staithe and dyke moorings. The dogs had another walk with both of us this time, up the bridleway towards Fritton Lane, over the main road and back along the lane that runs parallel, to the village; a walk I’ve done many times. I sometimes think I know the broads footpaths better than mine at home. I filled my rucsac with shopping before we popped into the Kings Arms for a drink. It was very busy for a midweek late afternoon. We’d already decided we couldn’t do the carvery justice after our late breakfast. Greetings from Womack staithe. Two private boats (both forum members but I won’t name the other as I haven’t seen him to ask) and the rest are hire boats. A turnaround from a few weeks ago when private boats were outnumbering the hire boats. The season is well underway.

What a shame as it’s a lovely walk. That’s a very strange place for it to flood. Must have been that rain last night as I walked along there not long ago with it being ok. We too very much enjoyed our meet up and your showing Tony round Moonlight Shadow. She certainly looks bigger inside without the dogs!

It looks as though my daughters and their families have chosen the weekend of 17th May to descend on us at home, so we won't now be able to attend this year's meet.

While I agree they are far more suitable the 2 week rule is a joke, regardless of what C&RT state on the canalised stretches of my local river most boats are in residence for months on end denying anglers etc access to the waterway, this is a national problem not just a Broads one. While action is often taken against land based squatters and travellers little seems to be done to control liveaboards, I have no issue with anyone who chooses to live on a boat but they should abide by the same rules that apply to everyone else. Fred

I do have seasickness pills onboard, after a friend onboard suffered from it down the Ant in the warm sunshine one summer. Tony should have taken one.

My front well was slopping about in water. Good thing there’s a couple of drain holes. And the boat was covered in salt, I washed it off at Beccles.

I’ll show Tony that to let him know what he missed!

It was a north westerly wind, directly hitting the side. Going across Breydon in the buildup to the beast for the east would not be an experience to repeat!

I don’t want to be responsible for putting you off Jean. From the comments, it looks like it could have been worse 😂😂😂, but that was enough for me.

Well well, I never knew that. So I could go across earlier then just tie up and wait. I’ll take more note next time over. Thanks.

Been in the dinghy again then?

I appreciate what Fred, Dom and Cheesy say but there is one salient point : All the river banks on the Broads are privately owned and there is no towpath, since they were originally made navigable for commercial traffic by sail power, not horses. This alone, makes the Broads unique. On all of the canal system, both the waterway and its banks are wholly owned by the waterway authority. So they have complete control over who moors there and under what conditions. The Thames also has a public towpath along all of its length. Marinas on the Broads already provide facilities for mooring customers : water, shore power, shore toilets and showers, car parking and waste disposal - even wifi - all included in the rent. So living on a boat there (as opposed to spending a week on one's boat on the same mooring) does not put any extra strain on the facilities at all. You think I keep going on about Jenners Basin? Let's consider it for a moment : An off river, quay headed basin, built with full planning permission exclusively for private moorings. All the land around on an otherwise un-inhabited island. Access by road for island parking over its own private road bridge. Drinking water from artesian well. 10 minutes by bus for those with jobs in Norwich. Boatyard facilities such as diesel and pumpout easily available at the other end of the island, since all boats were tolled, insured and had a current BSS. Yes, they did! They weren't doing anyone any harm at all and were not even disturbing the badgers that live in the railway embankment, nor the foxes, nor the pheasants. It is a lovely, tranquil and private place to live. I know - I grew up there. But their peace was shattered by the BA, whose then Chair decided they were "feral people" and set about 10 years of deliberate persecution until they were finally thrown out onto the river system and the landowner himself had to sell up to pay his legal fees. And now we sit here, wondering what to do about "the live-aboard problem"? @BroadsAuthority need to embrace the fact that their persecution of Jenners moorings has, sure enough, rebounded on them and allow flexibility in the use of residential moorings, which have been a tradition on the Broads for literally hundreds of years. It's not a problem. Unless they want to make it one.

that was just me- I went for a swim.

One of my targets - never found it empty yet .....

But do watch out for the sea monsters........