grendel

Beautiful sunset

Must admit I was slightly worried when a cruiser moored up ahead of me, less than 3 foot from my bow, as I was on springs and the rear are currently slack, but it was ok, they pulled her up a bollard further after they had moored.

I gave them a quick warning toot as I passed under the bridge to appraise them of my presence on the way down today

Anyway an uneventful trip down the waveney, 8'4" at somerleyton bridge meant I went through with the roof up, much to the dismay of all the gin palaces waiting for it to cool down and open. Arrived at burgh castle and grabbed a mooring, setting out the 14m ropes as springs with plenty of slack to allow for the tide.

Up early this morning and a shower then it was a lazy day I did pop into lidls for some bread, saw a 2 litre plant spray bottle, and got it thinking I was a plant that needed to stop withering, it was excellent for cooling me down. Tabitha Rose went for a little pootle up to geldeston, and back, but when it came time to reverse into her home mooring, suddenly didn't want to and refused to engage reverse, I think she secretly was hoping to stay out a few more days. As I have a purchase I made that inconveniently decided to come into stock last Tuesday, but fortunately the shop is in great Yarmouth, I was hoping to pop into GY tomorrow, so at 1.30pm, I headed off down river, at 5.30 pm I was passing burgh castle, and decided to call it a night there, the crossing time was 7.48 pm, which I thought uncomfortably close to sunset, so I will head over at my leisure tomorrow. I have been hearing water levels at potter higham are relatively low, so it would be good to give it a try.

Show day, up early, showered and back to the boat by 5 am, then it was time to do some cooking, breakfast cheese and bacon turnovers, I added a couple of just cheese and tomato, so that Graham could have a taster as well as Helen, then it was refining the flagstaff, ( I had forgotten to untie the bunting before putting up the roof the night before, that fixed it was time to get the model out, this year we decided to display it behind broad ambition Finally all preparations done, it was time to find some shade, and settle in for a day of chatting and socialising. After a lot of chatting a d socialising, it was suddenly getting dark. Where had the time gone? And so to bed, exhausted, but happy having had a relaxing fun day.

Just to add, it's now 7.20 and I just stood the panels up to angle into the sun, I am getting 40w more coming in than is being used, so that's a win, it will only improve as the sun gets higher.

My apologies I got in conversation here at the wooden boat show, and my how time flies, all to soon it was dark and I had missed the quiz.

As a slightly different take on this, I have a 650w portable solar generator, this is a box, with a batter, with the solar charge controller and inverter built in, with this I have a 100w fold out solar panel, and this unit covers most of my electrical needs, for running a laptop, charging tablets phones cameras etc. Mine has been charging stuff and powering the WiFi unit all night and is only down to 91%, The sun isn't really up yet, and I am consuming 12w, as soon as the sun rises though that battery will start charging and it will soon be back up to 100%.

So this evening it's the wine and cheese, sending someone to get some bread was mentioned, so I volunteered to provide some wholemeal bread. Last weekend I visited a steam rally, and one exhibit was a second world war flour grinder, being run by a small steam engine, on a whim I bought a bag of wholemeal flour for £1, on another whim I brought bread making ingredients with me, so I have baked some bread for the wine and cheese event. I now need to clean the galley and do some washing up, but the loaves are being cooked and looking good( for being cooked in a boat oven.

Well once again Purdy was the star of beccles, this time she leapt from the rear deck of broad ambition in her haste to be first ashore, sploosh yep, missed.

After a lazy morning where putting up the bunting all round seemed the order of the day, at 11am we departed oulton broad, a slow pootle down oulton dyke, and if anyone knows water rail, between 1200 rpm, and 1600 rpm the whole boat shakes in sympathy with the engine, so after a few hundred yards of this, crash, that was the sugar jar, a few minutes later and crash, that was the (full) kettle. Later crash, that was the coffee jar, all vibrated across the work surfaces, at. Some point during mooring manoeuvres some more shaking must have occurred and the bottle of rum had joined the party on the floor. Luckily the only casualty was the kettle, with maybe some emergency handle repairs later. En route we went through a swarm of flying bitey things, so all of a sudden I was trying to get the ones biting off me, and at the same time applying bite cream to the bites, yuk. We arrived at beccles to be greeted by kids throwing themselves off the road bridge into the river, a quick blast on the horn appraised them of my presence. And they were reported to beccles yacht club staff on arrival. When I arrived, water rail chose her spot, the wind caught her and rounded her up, so as I was now perfectly positioned for the stern mooring, I gave a quick burst of reverse, stepped ashore and tied up,then went back aboard and took a spring line from a centre cleat, to aid straightening back up. Currently moored up in the shade,

Well the day at oulton broad has been one of doing something, then resting in the shade, then doing something, etc, interspersed with cold drinks and ice creams, then it was tea and cakes at Shaun's, I like Griff was good and only had one cake. Moorings have been paid, shopping done, I managed to pick up a decent fisherman's chair for sitting around chatting, A trip along the road for my tea, there was a queue at the chip shops I went to magic wok instead, wow they really worked some magic as I walked out with my order not 3 minutes after walking in ( ok sweet and sour chicken balls and egg fried rice must be pretty standard,but that was super quick service. When I got back to the boat it was all still piping hot, and tasted good, so thumbs up for good service.

It was fantastic,cups of tea and cream cakes, two areas of shade with people moving from one to the other as one patch of shade shrunk and the other grew. Conversations and getting to know new folk.

8 am departure from beccles, be slow cruise down to oulton, time for some shade

Well it's that time again, wooden boat show week, (it seems to start earlier each year,) I loaded the car, set off from home at 7 am, and had a reasonably clear run up, fortunately I had chatted to Dave the night before and had been informed my destination was oulton broad yacht station, not beccles. I arrived at about 10.15, where Dave was just preparing to bring water rail over, and after loading the boat, it was soon time to depart. As I had said I would accompany Helen down from beccles while they familiarised themselves with Tabitha Rose, I chugged out to the waveney, recieving my firs insect bite on oulton dyke on the way. A brief heave to at the junction saw me diving into the cabin for the bite cream, then I was on my way, I kept WR at a steady 2000 rpm (5mph) and proceeded to go against the tide up to beccles, on arrival I moored up next to Tabitha Rose, and then proceeded to unpack everything. Shortly after Helen and Graham arrived and we spent a pleasant afternoon unpacking and sitting in the shade chatting. A fairly early night for me after that long day, and a good night's sleep. Woke early just after 5 to hear they the rest of the fleet were departing from Stracey in fog, latest report was 50 foot visibility at the southern end of Breydon, and the fleet mooring up at Burgh castle to await it's clearing.

its being run by the staff at the Stracey Arms, so properly done, last tear it was very well organised, with the majority of the cooking being done in their kitchens, then just finished off at the moorings

I may have a few short bits to spare you can use

Kate the boats are leaving Oulton around 11 am Friday, so arriving at Beccles just around lunch time, they should all be dressed in bunting, so friday afternoon is also a good time to come and meet the crews and see the boats, saturday is show day, where we have open boats to the public, and all that sort of thing, but I am sure if you ask nicely most people will be happy to show you around.

you will soon have a fleet sailing from Beccles as well as the one from the North.

I believe a 5am departure from Stracey is on the cards thursday morning (the BBQ is there wednesday evening), I too am arriving tomorrow about lunch time (11-12 am) and had planned to head off and see if I could get to stracey, but I was considering staying south overnight (maybe burgh castle) and greeting the fleet in the morning, dont worry too much if there are people already there, just get somewhat alongside and they will grab the ropes and direct you into a spot (or if you arrive earlier than them, you can give them a hand, last year I reversed water rail straight in and onto the pontoon (inside) and where i landed was where i had been aiming (truth be told i had got her turning slowly in reverse and just held it on until i got to the pontoon).

fixed

I recently moored up next to a boat, and the couple aboard had their 91 year old mother in tow, ok she was a bit tottery, but she managed admirably (and set off at a pace towards Lathams that the couple had difficulty catching up. my suggestion would be take a set of caravan steps, and avoid locations with large tidal variation (for example Great Yarmouth and Reedham) other than that the caravan steps and some willing assistance should see you through most places.

yes, that can be an issue, generally though if the ropes all come to the helm and where you will step out onto the deck, you can grab at least one rope to take to the stern. as for Rhond anchors, i go ashore with 2 ropes i hand and 2 rhod anchors, i very roughly set the first anchor and tie off to it, now while thi may not be the most secure mooring, t will give me time to go and set the other rhond anchor, once both are in the ground and sort of holding, I can now set about making sure they are firmly in the ground. setting off is the reverse, untie one rope, hold it, and pull up the anchor, then go to the other rope and untie, then pull up that anchor, yo now have the boat under control with 2 lines, and can dump the rhond anchors on deck and step aboard, the only time this may be tricky is with a strong offshore breeze. to this end, my mooring lines have plenty of length, and as long as i can get part of the boat close enough to me to step aboard, I am happy.

also when cruising solo, I find it important to lay your mooring lines out ready for mooring when you are untying them and departing from the previous mooring, its either that or stopping somewhere half way to get the m prepared for the next mooring (fine up north where you can just heave to on a broad, but not so much fun on the rivers down south. I always bring my mooring lines front and back to the helm position, and loop the front around the centre cleat, that way I can step off and get that line tied, once the boat is tied, I can then go round and tie any other lines and adjust the front line back onto the bow.