grendel

thats similar to my new proverb, never walk behind griff when he's bailing a dinghy, yep, got a face full.

what can I say to excuse myself, a day missed, well it started with doing a little job for a friend, this took longer than expected due to having to learn a new CAD system to do the job, plus only really having time sundays, so sunday the drawing work was completed, then all day yesterday while working running the 3d prints, normally I would have delivered them next sunday, but as I will be aboard on the water, I decided to pop them round personally after work yesterday, well a quick drop off turned into a socially dstanced chat in his garden over coffee (i was their first visitor in 14 months) well we were catching up with the gossip, until suddenly we realised that time had passed and it was gone 6pm, so by the time i had departed and got home it was 7pm and past time to cook tea, so walk missed in favour of some good company which was a pleasure to all of us. I will just have to take the longer route today.

as a generally solo boater i always run both bow and stern lines to the location where i will be stepping off, generally I will have laid the lines out as I unmoor from the previous location, so that I can step off with both lines in hand and then decide which end needs tying off first, often I will do a temporary tie up with one of the ropes first, then go around adjusting my lines until the boat is floating about 12" off the quay heading when pushed gently from the bank, once the boat is secure I shut off the engine and then check to see if i will need spring line etc etc, on lads week when we have a full crew aboard, I stand where i am told and tie up when I am told (as every good crew man should) then coil down the remaining rope neatly.

that and there are a lot of other people new to the broads experience out on the water too, who may not know to step in and offer help, or may not feel qualified to offer assistance. I too always try to help others when mooring, so much so that one year at ranworth I was asked if that was my job assisting mooring.

this one is being particularly careful to do a perfect job because my sisters neighbour had a botch job done and does nothing but complain about it while he is working, so he is doing a perfect job just so she has to look at it and compare it to her poor job.

my sister is very lucky, her builder doing her extension is not only a perfectionist, but also lives in the house opposite ( and has even been known to stand looking at his house while having a coffee and a biscuit, bemoaning the traffic for his journey home

well at least for the first bank holiday in May we are still under stage 2 of the lockdown (self contained holidays with a group from one household), the earliest this can change to stage 3 with further relaxations is the 17th of May, this i believe will allow 2 households to mingle indoors (on a boat for example)with stage 4 not before the 21 june, which will be when the legal restrictions on social contact will be lifted

whilst on my daily constitutional the other week I heard the familiar hornet buzz of a drone, drowning out the pleasant sound of the bumble bees going about their duties, sure enough several minutes later I came across the operator, flying the thing, not a problem for me, but had i been a young courting couple it may well have been a different matter, there is a lot of responsibility that goes with owning and operating a drone, what one person may not consider intrusive, could well be seen as being a peeping tom by someone going about their own private affairs. This brings a whole raft of issues with it when the videos are posted online, should someone portrayed in the video take offence, then the website that it is being displayed on becomes responsible for their content and can be liable for prosecution if they do not remove the offending footage, the same goes for any drone footage shot illegaly, while the operator is liable, so is any website that displays the material. As we have seen these things are being tightened up in law and regulation, eg now requiring licences and certificates to operate, etc

I seem to remember seeing an interview with the broads pastor who was talking about an average 5 deaths a year being a good safety record, back in the day, so yes, such news is invariably picked up on social media, making the occasional accident sound worse than it should, and maybe discouraging some visitors.

2 days with time off for good behaviour, yesterday I walked around the shops, then it was a rush over to take Dad to drop off some bits to Mum, so after spending a few hours discussing stair lifts / internal / external lifts and an extension with a bedroom and bathroom with him and at least getting him thinking about options (apparently the issue with the stair lift is that their stairs are too narrow to accommodate a stairlift, and would necessitate a wall being knocked out and new stairs built, so we discussed other options. and today I had to walk down to the sorting office and pick up a parcel delivered yesterday, neither trips out as far as I would normally walk, but equally I can say I have done some exercise, and I am busy with other tasks today too

we were talking fearsome beasts , not dinosaurs....

or a spear

yes, here begins the extrapolation of what happened by the forum, based on no facts whatsoever, other than those printed by the EDP, which as we know can vary in accuracy depending upon how they wish to interpret for the best news value. sad to hear someone has had an accident on the broads at any time, even sadder if they have been injured.

more likely start as a large inboard and end as a large overboard

now you have a pair of bars on trevor, mines a pint of cider.

I think adblue is all manufacturer hype- they are literally extracting the adblue. (can you tell my old volvo doesnt have this, or emission control, and still passes the MOT with flying colours (due no doubt to the high mileages I generally do))

doesnt quite have the same ring - come-a, come-a,come-a, come-a, come-a, lexusman

they would have an idea probably the afternoon before, but at 8 foot 6 I would think you would be fine at slack water..

the easy answer is phone the yacht station at GY , tell them your height and they will let you know when to arrive.

spend today working on the tender.

out for the whole week then?

some people will start mooring up as soon as others start leaving, ie from about 10am, some pubs will let you book a mooring, some moorings are popular, so get busy - I am thinking Ranworth here, where there is the maltsters pub. if you can get in thurne dyke would make a good last night mooring, with a good pub, and not too far for the morning trip, another popular spot, do you have a dinghy, if you do, you can mudweight in a broad and row to shore for the pub. basically all the popular pub moorings may be full by mid afternoon, so you may need to get lucky, salhouse is usually a good bet, not a free mooring, and a good mile to the pub, but not too bad all the same. if the boats will go under wroxham bridge (you will probably need to use the pilot) you will find plenty of moorings on the viaduct moorings, some places allow mooring 2 abreast, so sometimes you may only need to find one space. we usually take 4 boats out in october, and usually all get moored up eventually, quite often 2+2, its always worth having a plan b in case you cant get moored where you want.

and when moored up at the yard please not 3 foot away from the fuel pump nozzles. Salhouse has concrete slabs for BBq's just back from the moorings

the rivers down south are for the most part wider too, and that 38 foot mast will get above the trees to catch the wind (some of the bigger broads racing yachts are even taller.)

usually, by the time you would have moored up it would be time to head off again anyway, if you time it right you dont need to moor up, if you dont you can either moor up to wait the tide at great yarmouth, or berney arms/ polkys mill.