JawsOrca

too right... how dare you scummy hirers disturb my beauty sleep, I've worked hard to have a boat.. lol I don't get any them and us.. any owner (I hate the private term) started off hiring (we did for 8 years).. it still makes more sense to hire, personally I just hated giving the thing back! Just off, hopefully see some of you soon!

LOL Iain! I'm more worried about the rain and lightning though... I'll be a good boy

Grace. Really are looking forward to all things norfolk.. zigzagging hat where bathtubs overtaking sailboats overtaking wherrys all on the river ant lol I think at the back of our minds we should really be working but we can't really work a whole year After the first wherry we will be fine!

Lol Thanks Iain.. Grace that last bit was certainly fluent It really has been hot and the forecast today is 30dc (gulp)..thunderstorm and yet again the worry of the windows leaking (I thought getting a plastic boat I wont have to worry about the rain again Thankfully there doesn't appear to be any leaks We had the day away from the boat and went to the seaside, it reached 35dc on the car temperature! So I think it was the best choice! On the way home though we picked up the loo (we went for a nice electric one). I think we have done well this week it would have been nice to get more done but considering how hot its been and the hours we put in (and I underestimated the amount of time needed on the sidelining), we didn't do too bad. Now the sidelining is in we have really opened up a huge tin of potential work! We are just about to pack and will leave early in the morning to miss the traffic.. so hopefully Rockland st Mary for lunch tomorrow (Loddon for the evening), I want it to cool down a bit though..35dc is too hot! Don't forget to wave if you see is we are on "sweet kingfisher". Couple of pictures attached showing as she is now.., this isn't the final finish on the bulkheads, the loo will have a nice neat vinyl covering and the main bulkheads wall will get a real oak veneer.

Thankfully today was a bit cooler or the nice breeze helped cool us down a bit.. We started with a little shopping trip.. £80 on three sheets of ply for the bulkheads. We made good progress on the bulkheads for the loo and shower compartment. We have make it 3 inches bigger than before to make it more useable and we have had to make it slant too because the windows don't allow it to be square so its been a pain. Someone at the club showed us how to use a tickstick to make perfect bulkeads.. we did try and do it before but never fully got it... I got it first board though and it was perfect.. Well happy.. bulkheads have always been a pain but now its easy I'll put some pictures up tomorrow

Lol Mark.. Pain in the ass is an understatement.. The amount of time spent wasting on messing around with these stupid things but its done now and the bloody things aren't coming off again

What a hot day.. From early this morning I've been stuck inside finishing of the sidelining. For some stupid reason this boat doesnt any opening windows forward only a hatch so what ever it was outside today (27dc apparently) I bet it was at least 10dc hotter... I had a little fan heater than had a fan setting and was living off that! Hard hard work! But see pictures.. Proper job as the commodore said! I'm happy.. couple of little bits I messed up on but still pleased with it.. This is all sides and underneath the decks... The hull sides will be covered with a carpet so I'll trim these when I get the carpet. Daves been doing some wiring work whilst I was doing this.. Nice to see it coming together though!

Todays quick update. We just finished.. We managed to complete all sides (excluding the heads which will have a separate type of covering). We designed and done a bit of a feature on the front windows to make live a bit easier for ourselves.. I'm very very happy with the outcome (and I'm never happy!) its very neat and I think looks a proper job! It has been a hard day though despite the insulation on the boat (it's already cooler inside) it was hot inside and the interscrews where a nightmare on the windows, despite a range of 4 screw sizes we had to cut some screws down. We also didn't manage to get the trims back on the front window so first thing tomorrow that needs doing. We need to glue the sidelining under the deck parts so will finish that tomorrow. Times already ticking on so we may not get as much done as we wanted but as long the sidelining is done then we are happy. I'll upload pictures tomorrow.

John.. I think 12:30 sounds even better.. I'd get even more of a lay in! Thanks Alan. I'll take a look.

Why on earth are the BA doing that!! Surely it should just be Great yarmouth bridges! (Does it really take an hour for the tide to squeeze through gorleston?)... Thanks though that really has answered a bugging question. So Yarmouth for about 12pm and we should be spot on slack water?

Good Morning All, I'm confused (easily done). I can't seem to obtain a coherent tide table from the internet for yarmouth for next weekend. Sunday 20th July Broads Authority Website says 09:50am Norfolk Broads Org says 10.53am Silverline website (came up on google) says 10:45am Mum says 10.50am (although sorry mum you got it wrong before ) Easytide website shows 10.27am I can understand these being 15 mins out but an hours gap is confusing! (They are all apparently adjusted for BST - Although my bet is the BA one isn't) so if we aim for yarmouth for about 11.45 we should be ok.. Although I like hitting slack bang on because I'm tight with fuel money lol Any ideas though? Can anyone suggest a trust worthy website/calculation?

Lol i said no to replacing their kitchen! Hope to catch you both though. Have a brilliant time up there.. Hope the weather is good although please save some sun for us next week!

Today started early.. Off to the marine window company near tonbridge (Highly recommended.. the chap has everything window and can even repair windows - He's in Hadlow He even has a talking parot which is cool! We got our screws and we so needed them..! So today we got one side all done with sidelining... Oh (I'm not religious) but when I said earlier it was easy.. I was joking.. Please still kicking me..! It was harder today .. not sure why but we got it done.. and it looks lovely. Dave (Nothing to do with me!) found a dinghy which floated in on an earlier high tide.. The commodore of the club told (him) to take it.. He's already called it "Flotsam" or "Jetsam" still trying to work out whats what.. I think its Flotsam... Also on todays high tide one of our neighbours came back to the marina after being in a dry dock .. I did the usual jokes; your going the wrong way. Lovely cruise?, You can't leave that there!.. But it was nice to watch the little tug boats at work they did really well! More sidelining tomorrow.

Hello, It seems it was only both (engine and hydraulic) heat changer tubes where clogged with mud (in eastwoods they had a semi mud berth).. they looked ok to us but graham had the guts to opened them up and noticed it. Also she was over proped which mean the engine was labouring too much and overheating. So Graham cleaned it out changed the prop (plus notice the cutless bearing was worn out and needed changing) .. Mums saying its all fine and doesn't over heat now.. Clearly they were very lucky and also lucky not to get ripped off by a mechanic to fix it too. Needless to say we highly recommend maffets though he has been brilliant and very professional (good fair price too). Looking forward to see what its like now.

Sorry Alan.. Moderator.. I've messaged her

I'm still kinda a saily myself (Just don't like wet weather) . I enjoy dodging them on the broads! Dave any my mum is the same though.. it is easy though just pass at the stern We are spending this week on orca and off to norfolk saturday morning, just hope we can get alot of work done though

Today was mento be a wet day and it started cloudy so we didn't have the guts to play around with the windows, although we have a couple of screws which wouldnt bed into the interscrews correctly so we had a play to work out whats what and we noticed we needed more screws. It was actually good to do today though and not panicking when installing the sidelining ... Thankfully/strangley we have a marine window company close by (well Hadlow near tonbridge), thankfully he has more stock (M5 8 and 10 mm raised countersunk machine screws and M5 10mm interscrew - Not something everyone sells!) and I'll be there at 9.30 tomorrow morning to collect supplies then we can spend the rest of the day installing the sidelining! Else today, Dave did boring bits in the engine room, remade up the masthead light as we decided to install he forward facing masthead light on the all round pole (Thanks Ranworth Alan , he also installed the air horns.. (We have two.. One nice polite one.. "Excuse me" and another true air horn from a truck which is "Pardon me I asked you nicely now get the out of the way"... (Perfect for when sailing boats under engine try and make me move!)) Oh I sat in the sun and sanded the door and door frames up. We also did some wiring (Dave tried out a flash soldering iron) and whilst I was nattering to other boat owners here Dave varnished the door frame. Couple of pics attached.

Last summer we left Beccles at about 4pm, the sun started to set at about Reedham and by Cantley we was sitting on the flybridge watching an amazing sun setting over the fens. It was really magical and personally I think everyone should experience that, It's also really nice to know that you can do some good distance without the restriction of the pesky night) Hope you manage to get your boat up there Gracie Saying that though because there's no navaids (Bouys/lights) on the broads rivers they are pitch black and its hard work to navigate. We done a bit on the tidal medway here with Jessica and its much easier as there's always a channel marker or light somewhere.

Thanks Alan, The boats at brundall (eastwoods) and we will probably be at loddon for saturday night then through breydon sunday (I need to check the tides though)! I can't explain how much I hold back ripping the kitchen and the aft bathroom out lol but that's for my folks to have the pleasure doing.. Shes a lovely boat actually brings back a ton of memories as is a sister to Alpha firefly which was my favourite up there and we hired the most.. shes looks a proper boat! Fingers crossed on the weather though. this week is looking better

Thanks Grace. Yup it sounds like all is good and they are overnighting in Reedham tonight.. (So if anyones there go tap on the side and wake them up lol!). Graham put a better a prop on and it sounds like it goes a bit better too. Certainly looking forward to relaxing next week

Wow the headlining was easy... cough.. it wasn't too bad actually ... to glue it and put it up took all of 30 seconds... as once it stuck.. it stuck! We done about 3/4 of one side.. the fidderly bit was trimming around the window and screwing the trims back on so all in all the job took 4.5 hours... My fear that the screws wouldn't refit was almost founded. of about 50 screws 3 were a pain but we made do. Also today dave made the all round white light (we brought a little stumpy plastic one but it was too short so dave found a alloy bar and made it longer, He also fit the port and starboard nav lights and I sanded half of the door down so it can be re varnished. We have a full week on the boat so I'll probably post daily.. hope it doesn't annoy anyone though... Pics attached

Hi Speedtriple (have you got a trihull?) Thanks for this and that's very true and a annoying issue. Painting is a bloody nightmare.. I really hate it! This is the logic we used for this.. (Although it's a black art!).. the external paint was mostly done in the summer (those two weeks back in june..!) and we did this mainly around 3pm (so the structures warm.. but the suns cooling down so it doesn't bake it on) and the touch drying of this paint is about 2 hours (ish) so it should be dry enough not to be affected by condensation. Annoyingly for us too because we still want get about the boat during the day we can't really do in the morning as we would lose the day.. but otherwise painting in the morning would would be good (unless its too warm because it may dry too quick). The decks and internal painting has been done a bit late in the day but we aren't overly concerned about the finish on these (they maybe covered in timber later).. Thankfully we appear to have got away without problems as she is now all painted apart from the final covering on the decks which will just be the rough non slip coat (we will just add non slip granules in the topcoat) and that will be a rough finish so we will do quickly when the rain stops! (or next june!). Your certainly right though if its done too late it can spoil.. Some guys at the club (No hard feelings guys if you are reading this (gulp)) spray painted with 2 pack under car headlights at night between rainstorms.. it looks ok (ish Thanks for your comments though.. We have a whole week on the boat this week.. aiming on installing the sidelining.. hoping to cut about the floor in the loo, install the Bulkheads and make a big dent on the electrics! hopefully some more! (Then we are off to norfolk for a week recovering!)

Iain.. I'll be a good boy.. promise! Alan we are up there 19th/26th though so look out for us Grace it's even funnier sending her a message from geldeston and reading her replies.. considering the boat only has a couple of inches spare under beccles bridge at normal low tide lol.. Hopefully we will stay down there for one night this time (Unless it rains... I will be killed if I get it suck on that tiny stretch all summer!)...

Certainly appears so and happened because some idiot on the south coast hit a boat and speed and was wasted.. (Hope the threw away the key). "Anyone found guilty of the offences would face a maximum fine of £5,000 at a magistrates court." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4591613/Yacht-owners-to-be-subject-to-breathalyser-drink-drive-rules.html Realistically though on the broads I suspect the police will just give a right telling off unless anything dangerous has occurred (and maybe moreso if a young crew is aboard), but the message is still clear (you) shouldn't drink and drive. Lol grace.. it really is only shandy.. I'm not a heavy drinker so I can't drink too much..

I'm sure it is as illegal as driving a car. I think someone reminded me last year when they noticed a fosters glass on the dashboard.. **Disclaimer** It was only a shandy...(Reminds me I need to return that glass!)... i think they breath test you and you get a serious telling off... Seriously and obviously boating can be very dangerous.. people do die on the broads and no one should be anywhere near water when they are drunk.