grendel

coming across them on the river chet wasnt fun, and there were a fair few boats headed up and down there that day, fortunately a boat coming the other way warned us they were just round the next bend.

Lodden and Rockland are both bad, especially at low tide, I use a wifi hotspot that has antenna, and if i can get them high enough I can get a signal at both.

when complete it should do the engine noise and some other sound effects, we have yet to record some additional effects (like capturing one of Griffs timeless jokes)

and thus we come back to wiring, this means everything unplugged, stick the circuit board in place, and reconnect, this time routing the wiring neatly, then fixing the wiring down with cable ties. access is tight so often i find myself working at fingertips, or using long reach pliers or clamps to hold and manipulate wires and cable ties, hopefully it wont take as long as it did to wire the lights in the first place. i still need to come up with a selector switch to switch the battery from providing power to being charged from the solar panel

well the electric posts are designated charging posts, so in theory there should be a ruling whereby an electric boat requiring charging can commandeer a post for that purpose, over someone just using it to plug into shore power. unfortunately the broads authority dont seem to have put this ruling into effect, which can leave the electric boat stranded and unable to charge until a post becomes available, at risk therefore of overstaying the 24 hours at a mooring due to being unable to proceed., this also makes the whole process of planning a route reliant on availability of charge points.

Dawn Star has made the trip from Stalham to Beccles in the past for the Wooden boat show, however I believe the trips were meticulously planned and took several days to accomplish, to allow time for charging en route.

wish her a speedy recovery from us please

at 30 feet you will have problems, unless you have a tabernacle and can lower the mast, the bridge on the new cut is about 26 foot, and that will restrict where you could go on the southern rivers, you might get up to Norwich, at least as far as the postwick viaduct, but after that you will need to be able to lower your mast, as for the Northern waters, you will need to get under about 10 foot to access them at all, then there are numerous bridges.

even restricted in engine size the dayboat will always create more wash, its down to displacement speed, and boat length. being shorter the displacement speed is lower, so they are trying to climb the bow wave, which is what causes wash, that and hull shape.

As Griff keeps reminding me, there are 2 sections of deck that aren't painted, there were 2 solutions, first to sand off all the paint, stain to an appropriate colour and varnish, but I chose the second option, I dug through my stocks of marquetry veneer ( purchased very cheap at boot fairs) selected an appropriate grain and colour, then just superglued it over the existing white roof, so far it's only had a couple of coats of thinned varnish, but it will be receiving more in due course, at least that's another task completed.

at coltishall it seems the done thing for local teens to swim, canoe and paddle board to the pub, i came down last month and was faced with about 30 river users, at sight of me they all headed in different directions, there were 2 swimmers amongst them, only 1 had a float behind. at the time i only had partial throttle control, as i had something wrapped around the prop, which made navigating past then fun (at the time I just thought the engine was playing silly B's it was only later I found the strap wrapped around the prop.) geldeston is also a favorite swimming place, with the inlet at the end of the campsite opposite the village staithe quite popular, you get some askance glances from the swimmers when heading to the staithe.

ideal for storing hoarded toilet rolls, handy to the place of use.

civil twilight is when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizen, nautical twilight is from 6 degrees to 12 degrees, and astronomical twilight is between 12 degrees and 18 degrees

on the subject of twilight, by this term are we discussing civil twilight, nautical twilight or astronomical twilight (which at this time of year lasts all night)

raspberry beret?

done properly it can all be done in one frying pan, fried bread first, followed by eggs, eggs onto the fried bread and in the oven to keep warm, then sausages and bacon fried, the bits stuck to the pan can either be removed by finishing the cooking with baked beans, or an alternative is fried tinned tomatoes, either will clean the pan ready for a quick dip in the washing up, one plate, one fork, and a frying pan, you can of course forgo the plate and eat straight from the pan if you feel lazy

thats one for the throne room, one for the shower and one on each cabin door, just for testing purposes - really

I did not say I was quoting any specific incident, the comment was a generalisation.

which was what I was hinting about in an earlier post, when i said that without the necessary maintenance the person running aground had a valid explanation for their mistake.

which is also quite likely the very reason this is being done again this time.

unfortunately its not as simple as the v shape, it comes down to the whole hull shape, and theres no denying that the old wooden boats still produce less wash as a rule than modern fibreglass boats. i believe a lot of it is the shallow draught near the stern on wooden boats that reduces the wash

I suppose the crux of the matter is that all the while the posts are missing and the signs are not easily visible, anyone who does go aground will have a good excuse why it wasnt their error, and the Broads Authority could be seen to be liable. as they are supposed to maintain the navigation and signage. if the signage and instructions are not clear, then that is a maintenance issue.

cheese and bacon wraps on board, followed by a visit to the shoreside cafe for a full english (following the well known hobbit practice of second breakfast)

there was about 2 foot when I last went down (in Marthams Janet) and I believe its been dredged since then, so if you get up there its well worth a try, Water rail has quite a shallow draught at least comparable to the Martham boats, the depth gauge is about half way along the dyke on the left as you go in.

the problem is that good conditions to get under Potter heigham bridge are bad conditions to get down Catfield Dyke, give it a try next time, though, at 35 foot turning will be tight at the end, but its a lovely spot