grendel

lidls extra large eggs. todays trip was to be my last for a while, and to add insult to injury it was tipping it down, round to waveney river centre for a pump out, then back to the moorings, following the ranger most of the way from the WRC, the new moorings opposite the dutch tea gardens seem to be coming along well, then it was unload the boat to the car in torrential rain, at the last minute i remembered to shut off the fuel cock, and then head for home, another 3 1/2 hours driving. arrived home , the cats were happy to see me, the feeders had been working well, and my daughter and mother in law had visited to check on them too.

Auspicious start to the day, finishing up my eggs for breakfast, and not one, but two double yolkers.

Lulu, its really not so bad putting it down, just needs careful lowering, getting it back using the rope and pulley is easy, unfortunately when running solo, it does mean leaving the steering unattended, then its all down to whether Water Rail is behaving or not.

Canterbury too has its share of hire scooters, but you also see young kids riding them everywhere (the non hire ones that is). what I struggle to see is that if its legal to hire and use one, then how come its not legal to use one you own (providing all the other stipulations are adhered to,) actually the issue is that they are nort legal on the pavement, and they are not yet classed as legal on the road, and they are also not allowed to use cycle patrhs, so where are you supposed to use them? I looked into electric bikes, and a lot have quite a low maximum weight limit, I found just one that would accept my weight, and that was a trike. A friend got a bike about 6 months ago, and it has let him down more times than not, he is on his second set of brakes, and one of the pedals broke too. electric bikes are legal because they fall under the same laws as pushbikes, but the scooters fall in a loophole, if they had seats, they could be classed as disabled scooters, and would be covered. as they would with a third wheel. I think that maybe some people will fit a sidecar like the ones they bought out to make larger bikes legal about 20 years back, when they bought out the learner restriction to 125's

water rail in the rear berth, i can just touch the bottom end with my head about 18" from the head of the bed, standing up its a different matter, you learn to duck, I am 6'4". Jayne from Martham is similar, plenty of bed length, just remember to duck when standing..

well that was a long days sailing, 12.00 departure from Acle bridge free moorings, by the time I left I had used approximately 2 electric cards, for a full 24 hours of heating, so not too bad, as i left it was a beautiful day, shorts and tee shirt weather, and that lasted all the way down to great yarmouth, there was one threat of a shower when it started spitting, but i was soon out of that, I arrived at Breydon just at the suggested low tide time, and was still slightly punching the tide (or more likely just the rivers natural flow.) As I crossed Breydon I could see clouds and rain ahead, so prepared the canopy lifting pulley in advance, sure enough this was needed as i passed directly under one of the rain showers, Canopy was dropped again about 2 miles outside St Olaves, when the sun came shining through again. planned destination was somewhere with an electric point for a warm last night, I spotted a space at St Olaves, and did a perfect mooring, only to find the electric point only had 1 small outlet, and that in use, i considered heading on to Somerleyton, but suddenly realised Reedham was closer, so turned right and headed down the new cut to reedham, where I moored up on the Lord Nelson moorings and managed to snag the last small power socket available, i then decided not to cook and went to the Lord nelson where I managed to get a nice pork belly and rice salad dish, they even delivered it to the boat for me. an evening catching up with some of my youtube subscriptions beckoned, as I now knew I had enough data to manage this after my successful top up earlier in the day. so Youtube and packing are the plan for this evening, then final packing and cleaning in the morning before heading back to Water Rails home moorings at Oulton Broad, sometime tomorrow, then the 3 hour drive home, where I can download the cameras and post all the rest of my pictures.

OK Canopy down, I see Andy on Evening Shadow has his open too (as the boat that was in front of him has now moved.)

i must say it looks a glorious day out there, sun shining and not a cloud in sight, I have breakfasted, and caught up with the internet, (including topping up my data as I ran out earlier this morning) and am about to brave the outside and take the canopy sides down. I dont need an early start this morning, as the tides on Breydon are not until this afternoon, as i am headed south I will go for an earlier crossing, at low water rather than slack, as long as i dont end up trying to punch the tide across Breydon, low water is 14.15, or thereabouts, so I will aim for 14.30-14.45.

Early visitors today

firstly, must be wooden, secondly, go under all bridges including Potter Heigham, thats about it really for me

these 500W heaters are of course the interim measure, a lot of the work would have been done by now in the planned winter maintenance, but lockdown threw a spanner into the works there, as her scheduled shed time came and went, with several boats still due in before her. I have to say i was running one all last night and it maintained a comfortable 18 degrees all night, on a single card, I have added an extra card this morning as at 5am there was 4p left on the post, and I will be here a few hours yet waiting for the tides to cross over Breydon, so as Griff says, no point in not doing it in comfort.

no hot water either, so just charging the battery for the fridge.

i have to add the rain stopped when I moored up, just finished a sumptuous lunch (beans and sausages on toast with bacon and eggs,) now watching the comings and goings at bridgecraft, and its started raining again

they werent painted red and green

6 foot 5 at Wroxham today, through and back in Water Rail, no problem.

I just called in at southgates for a tank top up, as Water rail only has a little tank, £35 to fill from about 1/3 tank (as far as I could see from the dipstick), I didnt ask about cost per litre, they didnt ask about 60/40 split, which I shouldnt get as she doesnt have heating, so my assumption is they charged me for 100% propulsion (they do know the boat).to be honest, I think my volvo has a bigger tank than water Rail does.

This morning was an early start 8 am departure from ranworth, as I wanted to moor up at wroxham, that meant bridge clearance was needed, now I have been told she will go through at 5'9", buti went through at 6'5" and at the back corners of the roof had only about 5" clearance. Anyway, got through the bridge with no problems, and then as I moored up the rain started., Popped into Roy's to see what they had in the way of small heaters, found a plug in 500w heater for £12.99, reduced to £9.99, so I bought 2, one for each cabin, for use onshore power only as the inverter is 300w. Now it was time to get back through the bridge, this time it's raining, so with some forethought I hooked up the roof lifting mechanism then as soon as I was ready, dropped the canopy, cast off and headed through the bridge once again, this time in the rain. As soon as I was through, the canopy was being hauled up, it was up before I got to Barnes, next was the screen, it's almost as if it knew the watchers would be sheltering from the rain, because it behaved perfectly. Then it was time to head downriver, not many boats could have been using a speed app, because sticking to the limit I managed to get past about 6 boats heading to horning, topped up the diesel at horning for the trip back down south tomorrow, then it was downstream to find an electric post to try the heater, found one right on the cafe end at acle bridge, so swung around and moored up right next to it, still 47p on it too, I like that I can charge the post back up without leaving the boat too.

i actually measured the bridge last year, if the cills either side are visible, there is 8 foot clearance from those to the top, there is actually a 2" difference from the water to the top of the bridge from side to side.

well the good news is that i now know the leak from the water tank is 6" from the top, right in the middle at the back. its quite a dribble really, mind you I filled the tank especially for this test.

today was time for something different, i was informed of an informal meet up of several of the lads week lads at ranworth, so after heading into Potter heigham and executing a perfect mooring opposite Herbert Woods (who had half their fleet on the river front as the salt barriers were closed.) it was time for a bit of shopping. I would not be passing under Potter Heigham bridge today, at 5 foot 6 it was too low even for me. then it was time to leave Potter Heigham and head to Ranworth, when I arrived there were still plenty of spaces, so after having been caught by the wind several times, I decided to walk her in on the ropes, borrowing Moonrakers deck to achieve this, this meant i was soon moored up, and just in time as two boats behind was evening Shadow with Andy aboard (another lads week participant), London Rascal arrived shortly after by car and the reunion was adjourned to the maltsters over several pints, while there we were sat out of the wind and in glorious sunshine, making it a pleasant way to pass a few afternoon hours chatting and supping. I had connected up to electric so as not to worry over using the laptop all evening, maybe for a dvd too, and to ensure the batteries were fully charged. (i had earlier found something not in stock in Lathams - no small electric fires for cabin warming). Still since I had brought an inspection camera with me it was my chance to fill the water tank, and do a hunt for the leak that is somewhere out of sight at the back, so that is my next task.

Hard stops for water rails Morse control

generally 6mph across Breydon, yes i did do an engine test as I had been informed that with the morse control hard on the stops, she wasnt hitting max revs, but my test showed 2800 rpm and 7.5 mph

Spirit of Breydon was patrolling up and down, mind you, i was nearly 3/4 of the way across before i met them, and travelling with the wind and waves, by the time i went through about 10 minutes after slack ended, the bridge was at 8 foot, the boats i saw headed down as i went up the bure some would have struggled to get through after i came through, the wind was piling the water in Breydon up at the Great Yarmouth end. so at this point it would have been b etter to be stopping people coming in at the other end.

i hope yours is as tasty as mine was.

yup, half of a hot box in the oven to be heated for breakfast in the morning, it was lovely so I wont be wasting that half.