JennyMorgan

I am well chuffed that so many of you enjoyed my rambling. It's the Broads in winter, a touch of brightness, even on a hazy day, and it becomes magical. There is so much to see for those who are prepared to look and savour what is around them. Granted that we have now laid one boat up but extensive varnish work and frost make for poor companions, the old girl, built in 1908, will soon be under wraps and waiting for another spring. In the meantime Jenny Morgan is ready to go, spot of fishing or a pootle around the manor, a lot to be said for fibre-glass!

Today was good, a trip from Oulton Broad to St Olaves & back to take Spray up to a yard there for winter storage. I was on board by eight this morning, washing ice and shy-talk waste from the decks of Spray and lashing Jenny Morgan alongside for the tow up river. With a Westerly wind, and a need to return home later, my daughter & I decided on power rather than sail. St Olaves bridge is fixed so we lowered all three masts before setting off at the top of the tide. The subdued colours of early winter are a joy, we had the river to ourselves as we went and just one fellow sailing boat as I returned later in the day. Neither of us are twitchers but we both enjoyed the spectacle of a pair of marsh harriers working a marsh, the low sun beautifully illuminating their plumage. We were also to see a snipe, a kestrel, scores of coots, some reed buntings and hundreds of feral geese, a good day's tally for my I-Spy birds book! We dropped through Somerleyton Bridge, the tide by now ebbing a pace as we passed between the bridge piers. By the time we went under St Olaves bridge the tide was fairly hossing past our intended mooring. We went past the wind pump before turning, the idea being that we would have a soft bank to push up against should we not be able to turn in the river but my concerns were unfounded as the forward momentum of Spray and the reverse pull of Jenny Morgan helped us turn with yards to spare. We then worked the tide as we nudged the 'tow' into the vacant berth outside the yard and close to the bridge. One of the yard staff saw us coming alongside and took our lines, much appreciated, and we were soon made fast before upping Spray's mast. My daughter was being picked up by car so I was alone for the trip back. It wasn't long before I felt my beard icing up with the vapour from my breath, brrrrr, the wind was cold! Suitably dressed I was warm, cosy and thoroughly enjoying myself. A flask of hot coffee laced with Morgans Spice was a welcome companion. As I motored along Oulton Dyke the setting sun dropped through the haze and below the horizon, a ball of vivid orange. Nothing spectacular but still a pleasure to witness. In the last few minutes before passing the old Dutch Tea Gardens moorings an unusually large barn owl glided across my bow before gracefully and eerily quartering the adjacent marsh in the quickly fading light, that made my day. I was nearly home, the end of a good trip out on the water. All in all a good day, ending with a welcome hot pot and an hour with my youngest grandson. Life can be good!

I feel a lot better now, I was only taken for four hundred.

Re BT I eventually left the letter writing to my local MP and even he couldn't make any headway! BT, grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

There are older than I, indeed much older! This light hearted thread a joke? It didn't start off that way, still, a touch of levity does nobody any harm.

If my memory serves me well the judgement suggested that the term National Park had become a generic one. That being the case then I am surprised that the 'real' national parks didn't make moves to protect the term. Seemingly the term 'national park' has been devalued as the judgement appears to mean that any tin-pot organisation can now choose to use the NP term for marketing purposes, even when the description is patently not true. Personally I thought that the Harris's case was both poorly worded and thought out whilst the Authority's clearly illustrated the backdoor approach to getting its own way much used and favoured by the man at the top.

Boat with a blue flashing light, we'll all think that he's a BA Ranger!

Jeff, he's a year younger than me so he's pretty darned ancient.

Egyptian cotton, of course! The old flax ones loose their shape even if they only smell rain coming! As for faking it, another reason that a boat is called 'she'!

Interestingly Forester was not built on the Broads, rather she was built down at Southampton. Can't remember much about her ancient history but her history during the 60's & 70's was pretty colourful!

Another reason that boats are she's!

In my days we maintained hire-boats in the winter and built private boats during the summer. We never provided moorings but we did provide DIY winter storage. Would we have survived if we hadn't sold out? I don't know the answer to that but the original Waveney River Centre was largely my creation and that is still going strong but what a change from the 'round the bay' speed boat that was the start of Fowlers boatyard after WWII.

Tim, one of the joys of modern communications systems is that they can be remarkably small. I had a good friend for whom ham radio was more than an obsession, it was a way of life. As a child I well remember his radio shack, a room with one wall a mass of 'essential' equipment from left to right and floor to ceiling. By the time he died some ten years ago that mass was compressed into a suitcase and that included the addition of computer equipment that allowed him access to the edge of the universe. His old sailing boat was suitably equipped but you would have been hard pushed to know it unless shown. The joy of wood is that you can have reversible panels and false linings thus retaining the appearance of original in an old wood boat. Enjoy the project, my old friend did,

Blinkin' heck, Tim, you're talkin' a bit clever here, especially for those of us brought up on lead pipes, aluminium saucepans and having straight family trees. Actually I made one of those boxes at school and yes, I think that you are right. Got to be accurate though, my school project wasn't. You can buy 'em in Dunelms, they work too, guaranteed!

David, I think that it soon became clear that the yard in question was Pearsons and not Sandersons. http://www.hoseasons.co.uk/boat-holidays/united-kingdom/the-broads/reedham/?adult=2&child=0&infant=0&nights=7&range=3&pets=0&start=03-06-2017 I have horrible memories of mooring up those old Sanderson boats with turtle back fore decks when they were slippery with rain! How boat design has moved on!

I dread to think what the Broads would be without hirers. Riverside pubs would not be able to survive on weekend trade only so no pubs. The same could be said of the few remaining riverside shops. On the other hand I doubt that many of the yards could survive without private owners. That said, my father used to have a restaurant overlooking Oulton Broad and looking out of his office window he would watch the coming and goings of the Yacht Station over the road. He was quite adamant that the growing private fleet would eventually kill off the hire trade. As far as Oulton Broad is concerned he was quite right, there now being no hire yards there and now only a few left on the Southern Broads. The view from my father's office:

I can't be bothered to even try and substantiate my thoughts on this one but I thought that this was done and dusted some months ago and that Marsh's understanding is perfectly correct. Should this not be the case then I wish Mr Harris well in his endeavors.

Others might say that the downhill option kicked in after Professor Aitken Clark, the Authority's first Chief Executive Officer, retired. Good bloke, for a foreigner, he was the one that was behind the Barton Broad renovation. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7590840/Professor-Aitken-Clark.html

The above really says it all. We all knows to our cost that the committee endorses and approves his reports seemingly without question, that probably being one of the biggest gripes that us rhond dwellers have about the system.

Keith, re those costs, they are apportioned as is seen fit. A lot can hide behind apportionment.

Actually I'm not adverse to mobile phones & the like, I carry one myself although normally in the 'off' mode but it's there if I need it, being geriatric and decrepit. What I do question though is the general need for high technology on a boat. Amazingly sailing boats seem pretty much able to cope without the latest boy's toy, dongle, must-have-thingummyjig or electro-super-wotsit. I kid you not when I tell you that I recently went aboard a gin-palace that had a trouser-press in the guest cabin, I ask you!

http://www.broadsnationalpike.com/2016/11/vacancy-for-sub-mariner.html

Things are getting better, not so many lifebelts floating against the reed beds or on the tide line on Breydon as there used to be. The knuckle draggers must be getting the message, at last!

Several years long too.

Marsh, next time you take Albion through Mutford Lock and across Oulton Broad hang against the North Shore & count how many houses have boats moored alongside. Most don't, their boats are elsewhere, such as the RNSYC marina. As you cross the Broad count the mooring buoys and count just how many have boats moored to them, the majority are vacant. When the locals desert the Broads then the BA should be asking questions.