grendel

well a nice little cruise to Surlingham Broad, managed to get the prop weeded up once, but have found a nice spot to mudweight 4 boats already here, already up to 9 since i arrived, and here i was thinking it would be a quiet spot. kettles on and its hot, cruised today with the screen down but the canopy up as a sunshade.

ooh not found the one in the front yet- off hunting.

I didn't know that! actually I have since foind it turns the inverter on and off, my bad hearing i guess.

high vis vests would be a good start, and knowlegde of which side to flock to when a boat arrives, not just half to one side of the river and half to the other, that does make it tricky. while we are at it, canoists that sit at the entrance blocking a bridge while tapping away on their mobile phones, i had that one yesterday going up to new mills in norwich, the bridge at the end of the yacht station, where it says no hire boats beyond this point I was stuck behind this canoist sitting across the bridge obstructing the navigation, a blart of the horn didnt even make him look up, and it was only when he spotted me drifting up behind him that he bothered to get out of the way, I guess he thought no hire boats = no boats.

i think it comes down to the words of a song

or most of the other areas of the broads, to be fair I have seen them on every section of every river.

Monas Queen was moored up when I passed her, and BA and Nipper were moored up at the YS just as i got back from new Mills.

I can testify that the showers are working fine though.

well three of us are moored here tonight, Water Rail, Broad Ambition and Nipper, saturday nights might be a bit tricky when all the youngsters are out on the town, but other than that its fine, the ropes through rings and back aboard is a security thing as you are more likely to feel the boat rock when they get aboard to get to the ropes., it does happen, maybe once or twice a year, but not often.

he has been a busy boy, and is currently out and about with Broad Ambition.

I did yave a run in with a saily type at Beachamps Arms, who told me I should have passed behind him, well I was I started to pass behind when he was on starboard tack, i knew it would be tight as I was punching the tide, but what I wasnt expecting was for him to turn short at the end of his starboard tack and bear straight down on me, I had worked out that if he turned where he had on other tacks he would just have cleared, but no he turned short, for me to have turned to pass behind him now would have put me on a reciprocal course heading bow to bow, he crossed the river so quick and was obviously intent on proving his point, so i was stuck now in his way with no other way to go than straight forward, i was trying to pass astern, but he was too quick with his short tack to allow that. another case of sailies trying to prove a point i think, I dont think ther was anywhere on the river I could hasve been and not been in his way had he so desired. Other than that, and all the canoists and paddle boarders. it was a nice trip, punching the tide most of the way, but managing at least 4.5mph. I also en route detoured through thorpe, briefly tying up for a comfort break and check cameras, and to put my tablet out of the sun as it had shut down due to getting too hot.

yes I made it to new mills, chickened out and turned in the entrance to the mill pond, however when I moored up the ranger at the yacht station did say, there is a gravel bank in the middle, stick to the left and turn by the mill races, then come back the way you went in.

fill the water tanks the day before, and remember the yard advertised air draft may be a few inches generous

just green and slightly camouflage balled

Late night and morning on the wild mooring on the Chet, a good night's sleep, early this morning I reset my ropes so that I can slip them from the boat, as I am using a 2x4 I found on the bank as a gang plank, I wouldn't want to be using that once I had untied. So ropes round tree and back to the boat, front and rear, though I did need to lengthen the front rope to manage this. Breakfast shortly, followed by a trip up the yare to Norwich, new mills? Maybe, we will give it a try bridge clearances and depth allowing, I did some feeling around with my feet and reckon that as long as we have about 18" we should be fine, but we will take it slow, just in case.

oil trap for outlet, or water chamber for exhaust to muffle it more

that free 24 hour mooring sign at dilham would also have had the wording that fishermen must make way for boats wishing to moor.

it was 9 foot 9" on a rising tide when I went through today.

I have been prodding and probing the deeper recesses of Water Rail, I think I have now found all the fuses, one lot in the heads behind a panel, these seem to be the nav lights horn, searchlight etc, another bunch at a junction box just above the battery bank, and a bunch of household rewireable fuses behind all the mains equipment, quite out of reach to replace fuses. the aft light only comes on if the cockpit bulkhead light is switched on, and thats just a few of my discoveries, a spare mudweight and rope in the bilges. there is a switch that turns off the low voltage alarm on the fridge, thats by the cooker, the fridge switch is at the helm, in the rear cabin there are two huge storage spaces, running under the decks, and behind the sink one side and the cooker and fridge the other, great for storing things like camera bags and similar out of the way. the rear cabin berth is luxurious, spanning the entire 8 foot width of the boat at that point and 6 foot in the other dimension, one could say an ample double. steering is via an external wire run and pulleys from the wheel, along the port deck and into the steering area, a 4" deep hatch on the rear deck, I have found if you need to lock the steering in position while moving, standing on the cables achieves this remarkably well.

After All a boarding plank was standard on a 1930's cruiser.

taking my example from the kids upstream, I decided to have a swim, now being about as agile as a baby elephant I took certain precautions, not only did I carefully probe the water depth (quite deep close in to the bank, soft mud bottom, but I grabbed a spare mooring line and tied it to the tree, taking the other end with me into the water, this meant that after a few minutes swim, I could literally haul myself up onto the bank using the rope as a safety line, this arrangement worked perfectly as it both limited the distance away from the boat, but it allowed me to haul myself onto the soft bank when I had finished. The water was delightfully warm, and very refreshing, so much so I have left the rope tied at the moment for another go later. the other problem, the long step up to the boat was solved by a piece of 4" x 2" timber, someone had left on the bank, this was the perfect length to bridge between bank and boat, and allow easy ramp access, so much so i might make a proper boarding plank to go as part of Water Rails kit.

i first have to work out where to stop, but i should video that section for those that are not allowed to take hire boats that far up.

might just give that a try. for now its a case of watching boats head down to lodden then come back a while later.

well, after cruising for quite a while at a sedate 4=-4.5mph (2000 rpm and under, even against the tides, I got onto the yare, suddenly even tickover was too much, as i went through reedham at 5.9mph, up past the ferry and a left turn down the chet, en route i was watching out for wild moorings, there seems to be a permanent boat on one, got to pyes mill , two possible spaces, but both would have entailed people moving their boats, and still only been big enough for water rail, loddon basin same story, one boat straddling 2 spaces, not wanting the hassle, i spun around and returned to my wild mooring, a couple of boats heading the other way asked about spaces, I replied only if you can get someone to move slightly, half an hour later they reappeared back from lodden, there would have been a space at the next moorings upstream, once again there were 2 boats already moored, and a water rail sized space, but it was full of youngsters jumping into the water, and not wanting to chance squashing one I carried on past leaving them to it. anyway, wild moored to a couple of trees, and canopy up for some shade from the sun (sides off for the minute), and just enjoying a mug of coffee.

as i have been sitting for a few days I think I need a reasonably long run today, i wanted to get up to the locks, but thats not so far at all, and I want a longer run, so I will leave that for later in the week, today I think I will head round to the yare and see where I get to.