grendel

if you are in the area keep an eye out for him in his wooden dayboat little daisy

you might talk with Dave ( @JanetAnne ) on here who is currently working on his houseboat on Oulton Broad, I am sure he will know someone who can help (or be able to do it himself) though he is a busy man.

They will even supply a generous doggy meal in a dog bowl

The meal out at the Kings head was good, they even do doggy meals so Purdey had roast beef and veg (£3 for a dog meal served in a bowl with a side serving of gravy). Early start for the ba crew, 6 am departure for Sutton and a pump out (they didn't open until after 9, so we finished up the bacon and eggs in bacon and egg butties). Then round to the wet shed, pack up and head home.

Well today's the last full day, I woke with a developing bruise and a stiff leg. We sailed from the new Inn, and down to Ranworth, where there was plenty of space, moored up and fishing was the order of the day. I chatted to some people, and we all had a relaxing few hours. 2pm, and we set off again for womak, and the Kings head later for our end of week meal. Yet another day when nothing broke aboard the hire boats, we have had more days without breakdowns and issues than not, remember when a boat is out week after week, its down to the hirer reporting issues to get them fixed, and the service we have had has been excellent. Things break down, and they are old boats, and have already had a hard season. None of the breakdowns has been a major issue, none have been predictable, or something that would have been picked up on turnaround unless the hirers reported an issue. Talking to other hirers they too have experienced issues, one needed a gearbox oil top up ( can't see how that would have been picked up at changeover, and a private boater next door to them said he hadn't changed his gearbox oil more than a few times in 15 years), they were happy with the yards response too. So let's steer away from all this the yard is rubbish thinking, preventative maintenance can really only be done over winter, and the reactive maintenance is top notch, especially this far into a busy season The point to take away is that if the issues are not reported to the yard, they can't fix them.

That was one of our members that uses a walking stick, he tried to use the metal hoop on the emergency ladder as a support while disembarking, and it shifted as he put his weight on it, causing him to lose his balance, all is well now and he has recovered. My slip was because I stood on the toe rail and my foot slipped, and just emphasises the phrase one hand for yourself, and one for the ship.

No, two whole days

Thursday, front gayes Staithes, we departed, and made our way to Wroxham, while mooring here I missed my footing fending off and came close to a man overboard situation, fortunately I had one hand for myself and managed to just drop to one knee, with one leg scraping down the outside of the boat. here we did some shopping, and then headed back downriver to the new Inn. This evening we took part in their quiz, with one team winning and two coming third. No issues with any boat today.

It turned out to be the split charger at fault, not the alternator in the end.

We popped through the bridge to show the new lads, then came back and moored at Barnes.

He was on his way to the bar, not returning

Wednesday, today we departed great Yarmouth with the tide behind us, destination Acle bridge, arrived and had a drink or two, one of the lads fell while disembarking, and the team went into action, accompanied by a nurse who happened to be on a vessel just mooring. He was quickly patched up . After lunch it was time to head up the ant, destination was supposed to be Neatishead, but there was only room for 1 boat, so Griff reversed back to guys Staithes, where we not only squeezed in our 3 boats, but managed to make room for another boat too. White horse for tea today

I am happy to report that preventative maintenance had been done, we had to wait while one boat was given an oil change before we took it over, so at least some is done

We will be having a morning with no issues to report, a lot of these issues are minor faults that some hirers would not bother reporting, or notice, however we like to make sure the boats are in tip top condition when we take them back. Ready for the next hirer to have a stress free week. And the boats are old and tired by this end of the year. We have nothing but praise for the engineers, did you know they have a 7 day stint, of being on call 24 hours a day.

Has anyone ever heard me say how much I hate autocorrect? Tuesday, with only an alternator issue not charging domestics, we departed from Beccles, destination the fisherman's Inn at burgh castle, we had a problem with headroom at St olaves, and the jewels couldn't get through, so we diverted via the new cut, arrived at the pub only a few minutes later than planned. Had some drinks and food, a wander up to the castle, then it was time to head back across breydon and Moor up at great yarmouth. The alternator issue had been repaired, so we have all the boats fully functional.

The first to arrive got there on an incoming tide, the second and third with the tide almost slack coming in, and the 4th had a pump out and came in with the ebbing tide, so all are turned to how the tide was running when they arrived

The engi ever has just left, having fixed glistening alternator yesterday, we found it wasn't charging the domestics, we are all at the fisherman's for a lunch stop error, having had to divert around the new cut because there was only 6 ft 8 in at St olaves.

We have threatened to put up an engineer in a spare cabin, and tow a dinghy of spares

I corrected that to pcb 3 times too

Monday, and we headed for Oulton Broad, jewel 3 reported an unexpected engine shutdown as we approached Somerleyton bridge, it restarted ok, and was only an issue at neutral. We arrived at Oulton Broad, and the Herbert Woods engineer and the autoterm engineer were both there ready, to fix the boats. For the Herbert Woods engineer, this meant stripping down the dashboard of one boat as the alternator had also failed, and aboard BA the seats were removed and decks lifted to reveal the heater. The heating issue turned out to be a loose sensor connector on the pub, the engineer was unable to determine if it was the fan or the pcb and unable to guarantee it wouldn't happen again the engineer fitted a new unit under warranty. He then thoroughly tested the new unit until he was happy it was performing properly. Eventually all the other boats were also fixed, and shortly after it was time to leave for Beccles. This trip was uneventful, and we were soon moored up. Tea was a pub dinner at the bear and bells, I can thoroughly recommend the pork belly.

Sunday, today was a full English breakfast, then set off for Stokesby. We hadn't even got to Acle bridge when jewel 3 came on the radio, engine getting hot, little water exiting the exhaust, and oil pressure maxed out. Hw engineer called out, the other jewel had a similar issue with oil pressure, but engine temp was fine, and one boat wanted a bigger telly than the tiny thing aboard. Also one boat with battery issues. We arrived at stokesby ferry Inn 5 minutes later than planned, and the engineer was parked up waiting. We then adjourned to the pub, whilst the engineer did his thing. The impellor that came off of jewel 3 had 3/4of 1 fin out of 12 left. All other issues fixed. 2pm, it was time to head south, and across Breedon, destination St olaves, it was going to be tight arriving before sunset. We just had clearance getting under the bridges, then it was a slog against the ebb across breydon. And then upriver to St olaves. We arrived 5 minutes before sunset, and squeezed the 4 boats into 2 spaces, the tide was still ebbing strongly, faster than normal. This was when boat issue no 2 reared its head, 2 of the boats engines would not shut down, they had to manually actuate the shutoff solenoid in the engine bay. Plus one boat had managed to break their TV. Tea was full Sunday roast, followed by apple crumble and custard, cooked by myself.

Saturday morning we had a slow start, a leisurely cheese and bacon wrap breakfast, and headed for Herbert Woods, where we moored up near the other 3 craft. Eventually, after handover, and waited for the fishermen to return from their shopping trip(they had been fishing almost until the boats were ready, then shot off to do the shopping) so it was nearly 4pm, and a good hour later than we could have left before we headed off. Destination thurne dyke. Rabbit casserole for tea, and very nice it was. This was when we found the heating aboard BA wasn't working.

Well the printable events anyway. I arrived at Stalham about 1 hour before the others, so as victualler for Broad Ambition, I went to testosterone to stock up on breakfast stuff for the week. Duly stocked and with all the cold stuff in a cool bag I returned to the wet shed to await the rest of the lads. About 7pm we were all aboard and ready to sail, so it was off for a night navigation down the ant to griefs corner. The river was easily discernable from the banks, so we progressed down river, across Barton Broad, and headed back towards instead, with the river mouth clearly marked by a wild moored boat right at the mouth. Down we went, past how hill, with most of the moored boats popping up to see who was moving in the dark, or worse shining a torch at us, ruining our night vision. We arrived at griefs corner to find 3 boats already moored, one at each end and one smack in the middle leaving 2 30 foot gaps, we did call over and ask if he wouldn't mind shuffling up a bit to make space, but apparently he did mind and said there were plenty of moorings further down. So we proceeded down river, Ludham Bridge was rammed, so we dropped mast and went on through, eventually spying a BA sized gap at St Bennets.

Breakfast this morning was cheese and bacon wraps

Wish I could have been there, but we were night navving tha ant, in the end the planned wild mooring was occupied, and though there was room, it was evenly spaced either side of one of the moored boats, who when asked decided they didn't want to move up a bit so we ended up at St Bennets.