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Mouldy
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Posts posted by Mouldy
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53 minutes ago, SwanR said:
Wow! That confirms it. I’m never bothering with Breydon. Hire North or hire South and stay there. 🤭🤣
I’ve seen Barton Broad worse than that! I’ve attached a photo taken when we crossed Breydon on Moonlight Shadow in April 2019 (before we bought Norfolk Lady). Benign and beautiful.
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1 hour ago, Ray said:
From the Hello album - volume up and enjoy 😁
Maybe not my favourite Quo track, but it does bear the hallmarks! 😉
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38 minutes ago, Ray said:
I've supported St George for many years.... I married the Dragon!
Happy St Georges Day
Whoaaaaa! I take it your better half doesn’t read the Forum! 😉
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3 minutes ago, Ray said:
Softer Ride would work, then not work, then work... 😂 Love that track 👍
I must have been Living on an Island, as I haven’t heard that one! 😂
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Thank you for remembering, Mark. Happy St George’s Day to you too and to anyone else who is sufficiently patriotic to mark the day!
I never used to, but the more I’m told that either I can’t or I shouldn’t, because it isn’t inclusionary, the more I will! 😁
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4 hours ago, Ray said:
Cheers 🥃
I'm in the same boat, well not literally otherwise you'd have noticed. My trusted method which I'm about to employ is to find something like a "very interesting" podcast/radio program and follow it carefully. This method is so successful that over many years I have learnt absolutely nothing.
Goodnight 👍
Snooker. That’s one thing guaranteed to send me to sleep. Snooker. I recognise the skill of the players and their ability to plan several shots in advance by planning where the cue ball will come to rest after each shot, but it just sends me to sleep.
3 hours ago, grendel said:one trick I use is playing music very quietly in the background, then as i lay down i can barely hear it, so concentrate on trying to make out the words- leading me to drop straight off, my current background music is status quo.
Wouldn’t do it for me. Nothing like a bit of Quo’s inimitable twelve bar to get the foot tapping. Jean MichelJarre. Remember him? I bought the album Oxygene when it first came out and still haven’t heard it until the end. That also sends me to sleep, without fail.
There’s a couple of ideas for you MM, watch some snooker or listen to Oxygene (the album). 😉
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7 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
In terms of wokeness, I don’t want to get political, but I’m concerned that there is a trend to suppress certain historical artefacts and to rewrite history to fit with a certain agenda, which is not good.
And, the more the ‘wokerati’ tell us that we have to conform to their thinking, the more resentment will be generated amongst people who don’t need to be told how to think, because they are already able to distinguish between what’s right and wrong for themselves.
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24 minutes ago, kpnut said:
The high tide seems more benign this morning. Yesterday I was coming up between Aldeby and Beccles about an hour before high tide and all the fishing platforms were underwater. I’ve just been past again, about an hour before high tide again and they’re all easily visible.
Much less windy today than yesterday and from a different direction. Looking at the forecast, northeasterlies and northerlies prevail until midweek, them northwesterlies for Wednesday and Thursday, just in time for the next springs!
Complete change of direction from Friday, which may help river levels to drop a bit.
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5 minutes ago, grendel said:
the amount shown on the posts at Beccles is the actual units of electricity left, so you bought £3 and the post showed 7.5 units remaining.
The electric posts at The Ferry House at Surlingham do the same. If you need to top a post up, the cards are available from the pub. There is a standard £5 credit on the card and a £5 refundable deposit for the card itself.
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31 minutes ago, kpnut said:
. . . . . . . . Off to Beccles on a rising tide, so motoring along nicely this morning.
If the tides are that high, I’d suggest the pontoon moorings at Oulton Broad would be better. Beccles will probably overtop.
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47 minutes ago, kpnut said:
I think they’re BST as I was using it at the end of March when the clocks changed and I remember making a point of seeing whether they moved forward by an appropriate amount between the Saturday and the Sunday.
Unless I’m imagining it, they did.
Also, I’m hoping to go through Yarmouth today and low is about 14.15 according to aweigh, but 13.07 according to the tide table on the one from broads.org (?) that I’ve printed off - the one that used to use BST but has reverted to GMT all year.
The lads at GYYS have posted on Facebook, as they do through the season, that low at Yarmouth today is at 14:44.
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7 hours ago, Broads01 said:
. . . . . . . . Talking of high freeboards, for Belmore I think I'd better take a stepladder.
Access when stern on looks to be good, as the bathing platform is central, so the raised sides would be helpful at somewhere like Rockland where there tidal rise and fall make access for us a little awkward sometimes.
However, where we benefit from the bathing platform extending to both sides, is when moored side on. At most locations on the northern rivers as well as a few on the southern side, it’s easier to step on to it from the bank. As I said, swings and roundabouts - as with all boats, there’s always a compromise somewhere.
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Just now, MargeandParge said:
Hi Mouldy which do you think is the best boat to handle Moonlight Shadow or Norfolk Lady.
We struggled with the high free board when handling a Broom Sedan.
Kindest Regards Marge and Parge
Norfolk Lady does have a high freeboard, which can make access difficult when moored side on, although we can step onto the bathing platform at the stern from the bank. Mooring stern on, makes access easy on the northern rivers, but at low water on the southern rivers, it can be a challenge.
Moonlight has no bathing platform, so it can be a stretch if the river levels are high, but possibly easier if they’re low. Personally, I think it’s a case of swings and roundabouts for access.
As for handling of the boat itself, Moonlight has a bow thruster, but we have no girly buttons on NL, which can make her a bit of a handful in a stiff wind. On balance, MS is probably easier to handle overall.
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52 minutes ago, Broads01 said:
I'm hiring Belmore TC in September and intending to pass through Somerleyton. I've never had to request the bridge open before - is it worth us being there around low water like you did so we don't have to?
If you’re approaching Somerleyton from the New Cut, I’d aim to be around low water, especially if the river levels are high at the time. If, however, you head straight across Breydon and onto the Waveney, you’ll have to get to St Olaves Bridge at low anyway. I believe Belmore has a quoted airdraft of 8ft 10ins, so clearance will be even more restricted than ours.
I try to arrive at low, to save any delays waiting for Somerleyton to swing, but they are contactable by phone now, so it is easier than perhaps it used to be.
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16 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:
Hi Malcolm, did you use the chippy just past the Waveney and old Spar shop on the right hand side?
Can't remember the name of it, was it the Mermaid at one time?
Hi Howard, yes and it’s still called The Mermaid.
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Don’t the months fly by? I’d intended to update this thread a few weeks ago and forgot! We did spend most of Easter weekend aboard NL, and we were at Beccleson the Saturday night. The weather for Monday wasn’t looking great, so we headed back to the Ferry House at Surlingham to meet up with our son and his family, who were using our week on Moonlight Shadow! It seemed wrong for us to use it, as it fell within a school holiday, giving them an additional opportunity to use the boat
We enjoyed a meal there on Easter Sunday evening and also met Smoggy and Mrs Smoggy, who were also moored there.
It was our intention to go again the following week, however strong winds and generally fairly unpleasant weather put paid to that, however we did manage to go last weekend, travelling to Brundall on Friday afternoon.
With our bits and pieces safely on board, we headed out onto the river, proposed overnight destination Hardley Mill. Under broken cloud, with a few sunny spells, we made good progress, helped by the falling tide, arriving at the mill to find the moorings empty. Safely moored, Deb took Harley for a walk whilst I prepared dinner.
We watched TV for a while, thankfully Have I Got News for You providing a few laughs, before retiring.
Low at Somerleyton was due around 09:30. I’d figured that from Hardley it would take around an hour and a half to get there, so we woke and got ready, Deb took the dog for a stroll and had breakfast before casting off. Again, progress was good, travelling with the current and we were soon through Reedham and onto the New Cut. The weather was surprisingly good, sunny with a light breeze, but forecast to get stronger later in the day.
My timings were just about perfect, as joined the Waveney and arrived at Somerleyton fairly much on time. With our airdraft and recent issues with high river levels, I’d hoped that there'd be clearance at the bridge and there was. We continued on, reaching the pontoon moorings at Oulton Broad just after 11:00. I’d hope to moor stern on, on the outside of the pontoon facing the broad, but the space there was booked. There was plenty of room inside the basin (again on the pontoon), so we settled for a spot there instead.
We had a wander round the park and to the shops. We needed some rolls for lunch and returned to the boat to find a couple more boats had arrived. I’d intended to wash and reproof the canopy in the afternoon, but realised that I’d left my bottles of Renovo at home! What a plum? I went across to Jeckells, feeling certain that they’d have some, but only had the proofer in stock. What a shame? With that plan on hold, we spent a quiet afternoon reading, before walking over to the park again, where we sat in pleasant sunshine, enjoying a coffee in the cafe.
Any thoughts that we might get a late booking for dinner in the Copper Smokehouse were thwarted, so fish and chips it was, then. The sun was beginning to go down as I walked to the chippy, but as predicted, the wind had got up and it was blowing across the broad, from the entrance. I was grateful that the we couldn’t moor where we originally wanted - I don’t mind a little wave action against the bow, but aided by the wind, it would probably have been too much!
The fish and chips were good and compared to others, the price wasn’t too bad either. Again, we watched TV for a while, but by about 21:30, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. We had a hot drink and went to bed. There seemed to be a lot of noise, which seemed to emanate from the Wherry Hotel. Maybe they had a function going on, but I drifted off to sleep anyway.
We were both up early on Sunday again. Deb, as usual, walked the dog whilst I made the bed, vac’d the windows and got the kettle on. With the immersion on, we had breakfast, before Deb went to get showered, before casting off around 09:00. The plan was again to catch Somerleyton at low which was at 10:20.
As it happened, it did matter, as the bridge was open when we arrived, but there would have been plenty of clearance anyway, although less than the previous day. I guess the wind was playing a part in that.
Progress back to Brundall was good. I had a shower as we went up the New Cut, giving the dubious pleasure of helming through that exciting stretch of waterway to the wife! There were a few craft moored at Reedham, although still space for anyone wishing to moor. The rest of the cruise back to Brundall was uneventful, although the river levels looked high as we went past Cantley and we arrived at the yard shortly after 13:00.
Last winter and the associated rain had seemed never ending and despite the wind, it had been a really pleasant, relaxing weekend. We were both grateful to have been back out on the water again.
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9 hours ago, YnysMon said:
I must put in a word about the ‘New Name, Same Me’ lady. She started out videoing rather sensational videos at Ludham Bridge, which turned me off. However, I notice her more recent videos are a lot more varied, many exploring other areas of the Broads.
I have to disagree. One of her last offerings was captioned ‘ . . . . . drama as boat hits barge at Ludham Bridge.’ Clickbait title designed purely to increase views to satisfy some folk’s predilection with seeing others struggling or embarrassed.
9 hours ago, YnysMon said:. . . . . . . . I also liked that she said that nasty comments would be deleted.
We all know that Ludham Bridge on a busy weekend is going to be the scene of a few people struggling. Many will have just set out on their first Broads adventure from the largest yard on the network and find themselves inadvertently starring in someone’s YouTube video and the object of some unnecessary comments. Going back to the video mentioned earlier, someone posted ‘True idiots on that boat.’ A not very pleasant comment that hadn’t been deleted.
I doubt that a video showing families moored at Salhouse or Ranworth, enjoying time on The Broads would attract the number of ‘clicks,’ so gain less potential revenue. There is a reason that Ludham Bridge is the central focus for their attention and I think it does little to enhance the appeal of a boating holiday. I wonder how many folk who watch these videos from the comfort of their armchair, realise that although at times the rivers are busy, nowhere else on the network is the scene of this kind of ‘sport.’
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2 minutes ago, Meantime said:
I feel as the person who started this thread I must reply.
I posted the thread as a warning to anyone travelling up or down the Ant, hence the word warning as the first word in the title. I mentioned it was a Hunters boat and it was mid channel. It was a very blustery day and also raining at times.
Despite it being "questioned" whether the boat had capsized, it had. It was lying on its side on the bottom with the mast blocking one half of the river. Apart from saying it was a Hunters boat, I didn't name the boat, or post any pictures of the boat. Much more info has come since this thread was started, but my only aim was to warn anyone travelling up or down the Ant on the day, which is why I have restrained from the fascinating discussions that have followed. Despite passing the boat, I didn't even take any pictures. That was not the intention of my post.
The boat was about three quarters of a mile downstream from How Hill on a bend. The later pictures showed it at How Hill upright, but still underwater. I assume the staff from Hunters must have righted the boat and then dragged it along the bottom to How Hill for refloating with pumps at How Hill?
I wasn’t referring to the thread on here. Without going back through the thread, I don’t recall any mention of blame, however anyone who looks on Facebook will know the type of post I was thinking about. Some people seem to thrive on feasting upon the misfortune of others, offering nothing constructive, just commenting on the stupidity of the crew involved.
I didn’t see any mention of this particular occurrence on FB, although it was mentioned, so can’t comment on it, but there are plenty of posts following yet another boat wedged under Ludham Bridge last Friday, some of which were not particularly helpful.
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22 minutes ago, catcouk said:
.. . . . . We've all had bad days at the helm but I feel for this skipper as their bad day has become such public knowledge.
Ah, the joys of social media! There’s always someone to capture a boater in difficulty on film and post it on Facebook or YouTube, apportioning blame, without actually knowing what’s gone wrong.
Just wait until someone goes outside the markers crossing Breydon, running aground and witness the vultures name calling. Very occasionally, it may be justified, but if a crew has lost power, or suffered some other issue, they don’t deserve public vilification.
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21 hours ago, YnysMon said:
. . . . . . . . . . Hope the weather will be kind to us. I have a hankering to do the things that we can't do when the dogs are with us - like mud-weighting.
We did think about using MS over the weekend, returning home on Monday morning, but it seems an awful lot of grief for a couple of days, when all our stuff is on NL.
Looking at the weather forecast, I’d say the river levels aren’t going to drop anytime soon. Strong northwesterlies forecast for tomorrow and brisk winds from the same direction for the rest of the week aren’t good. The BBC forecast shows northwesterly winds to last until next Monday. Just hope the winds change direction before the next spring tides.
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11 minutes ago, Happy said:
We are hiring a boat in May from Stalham and Sutton was my choice to stay on the last night before returning the boat on Monday morning but I am now thinking of retuning to the boatyard on the last night and going to the Swan by car. A better move perhaps?
Ludham Bridge and a visit to The Dog or Neatishead (or Gayes Staithe) and The White Horse would be my choices. I used to hate the last night in the boatyard, when we were hiring.
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1 hour ago, ZimbiIV said:
If you get spam calls on a mobile, do what I do.
Save the number under the name of, do not answer.
Most mobiles will store many numbers.
paul
Just block them! Easy.
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11 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
I’ve been reflecting. (Probably a bad idea.) I was mulling over why there was relatively little homelessness in the 70s, even though as a country generally we were far less affluent. I have an idea that a lot more people who ‘couldn’t cope’, i.e. who had poor mental health, were institutionalised. Then in the 1980s there was a ‘care in the community’ initiative. (Was that under Maggie, or later?) Whilst it was in theory commendable (who wants to be institutionalised), in practice it turned out to be very little care or none.
If the mods think this is too political please delete. It isn’t intended to be, as I have no idea which government instigated the policy and no successive government has overturned it. Also, the policy was intended as a step forward.
In my opinion, the biggest issue was the cash accumulated by house sales through the ‘Right to Buy’ initiative was not reinvested in social housing. Sadly, private rental is expensive, far too expensive for many and housing associations are not charities.
There have been and will continue to be people who cannot afford to buy a property and with rents so high, they’ll never be able to save a deposit. Affordable housing is needed, as is social housing, but all developers seem to want to build are increasingly expensive ‘executive’ housing, far beyond the reach of many.
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23 minutes ago, catcouk said:
We treated ourselves to a lie in this morning and didn’t leave Beccles until a sedate 8am! Once again, we had the absolute treat of amazing sunshine glistening over the Waveney. I really love this river when the sun comes out. It was a special treat that we more or less had to ourselves. Between Beccles and St. Olaves, we only saw four other boats moving.
To continue our goal of cruising all the waterways, we naturally diverted down Oulton Dyke to Oulton Broad. I haven’t been here since I was a child and have no memories of it but was really surprised by how narrow it is. I know it is a popular powerboat racing spot and there must be some tight turns in places! Some very expensive and interesting waterfront properties here too – definitely a place to play ‘I wonder what job you have to do to earn that?’
It was here that my son was given the freedom to indulge himself on the helm (pretty much for the first time since we crossed Barton Broad on Saturday). Onlookers either thought we were mad or worked out that a child was in charge – we weaved and span all over the place. In fairness, I think this does more to give him a true feel for the helm than my instructions on the rivers – he has plenty of space to experiment and see what happens.
The sun continued to shine down as we continued back down the Waveney. I noticed chimneys in the distance just after we left Oulton Dyke but couldn’t work out what they were. Scanning the horizon with my binoculars, I realized they were part of the works at Cantley (later worked out to be 15km distant using my OS map). I know Norfolk is flat but that is still some distance to see over!
As we approached Somerleyton, my thoughts turned to the swing bridge: the tide was well on the way up by now so I wondered whether we would see the bridge open for us. As it turned out, about 7’10 showed on the board and I reckon that is pretty accurate. It felt like there was only inches to spare above us! It was at this point, I realised a grave error that I had made when replanning our route last week.
Originally, we planned to go to Beccles before Norwich but changed this so that we could meet up with family. I had checked the running times and it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. But, as I am less familiar with the South (especially the Waveney), I had neglected to check the tide state (and thus bridge height) for St. Olaves. As we passed Herringfleet, I did the maths and knew the inevitable conclusion. We approached St. Olaves (with high river levels and the tide still rising) to see only 7ft of clearance (we need 7’08). It would be four if not five hours before we could even attempt a passage and we wanted to play crazy golf on Yarmouth seafront. We turned around and made our way back along the Haddiscoe Cut (which was considerably easier than with yesterday’s crosswind).
‘So what?’ I hear you muse. It’s really only a 40 minute or so detour and would have the added advantage of giving more time after hide tide to get under Yarmouth Vauxhall bridge. Well, this miscalculation has ended my agenda of covering all of the Broads’ waterways below low bridges within the week. We have had to miss the lower Waveney past Burgh Castle. Darn. It’s not like there’s a medal or anything but I thought it would have been a cool thing to achieve (and one that I didn’t think was entirely possible).
We arrived at Berney Arms about 1pm with the intention of a stop for lunch whilst I called the Yarmouth Yacht Station for the bridge height. As it happened, Spirit of Breydon (the ranger launch) had just moored up and even tied up our mooring lines for us (lovely guys). They told me they patrol the entrance to Breydon whenever the clearance below Yarmouth Vauxhall drops below 7’02. We also had a chat about their patrol area (around the ‘island’ as he called it and up the lower Bure, home moorings at Burgh Castle if you are interested) and I was amused by the ranger’s disdain for Spirit of Breydon’s poor handling characteristics compared with the twin screw lifeboats he had helmed in the past (they also have an air draft of 9ft for anyone that’s interested too). This chat aside, they said they were going to mow the grass whilst they were here but would let us know when we had enough clearance which was lovely of them.
They have a direct link to a digital gauge at the bridge (which made me wonder why the public can’t access this information in the age of the Internet – maybe we can and I just don’t know) and said the levels had risen very quickly and expected them to fall just as soon. Sure enough, within about 40 minutes (a perfect lunch break), the ranger told me there was 7’10 clearance. I don’t know how often the gauge updates because it hadn’t long been 7’02 on their gauge? Another point of interest is the height gauge at Berney gave the clearance as just 7ft (10 inches less than the ranger’s digital gauge report) – I guess this makes sense if you were considering a crossing on a rising tide and the length of a crossing could well provide that difference if not more.
It was a much speedier crossing than the battle against the wind a few days ago. Instead of struggling to attain 3.5mph, we had both the wind and tide with us giving us almost 10mph at one point (GPS indicated speed over ground)! I’m not sure I’ve ever travelled so fast on a Broads cruiser! Needless to say, we were assisted to moor up at Yarmouth Yacht Station in the blink of an eye. It was an interesting turn up the Bure though with the speed of the water rushing through!
We were quick to secure the boat so we could get down the seafront. Typically, the lovely weather ran away and hid behind clouds so that we even had the odd spot of rain during our round of crazy golf. My wife loves piers and 2p machines but I was gutted for her not getting the glorious weather to match the pleasant seafront. Having said that, the walk to the seafront was quite an experience. I can’t believe there wasn’t a single chain store between the bus station and the front (something I think should be admired). Also, it was clear that the town had invested in regenerating the main high street and the promenade but appears to have neglected the bit in the middle.
We returned to the moorings with the traditional fish and chips for dinner (very good actually – we used the one nearest to the moorings just the other side of the underpass). My son was in for a shock – the boat had ‘sunk’. To be fair, I had forgotten just how drastic the tidal range here was. Arriving back at almost exactly low tide, the quayside was nearly above Melody’s canopy. As my mum said on WhatsApp – we needed a parachute to get back aboard! Certainly it was quite the trick getting my mobility scooter back on board.
Well, that’s another day done. Just a few bits of housekeeping to finish the post. I neglected to mention heron on my list of birds seen the other day (we saw a new bird of prey with really bright red leading edges on it’s wings today). Broads01 had commented on our cruising distance; as we left Beccles this morning, the GPS odometer went over 88 (I wondered if we were about to travel through time…) and I think we are now at 115. Still annoyed not to have ticked off the lower Waveney though…
Here is a link to the Project Troll website. According to their aspirations, they are installing electronic measuring at all Broadland bridges, but at the moment, only a few are covered, including the ones at Yarmouth.
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Rally To Increase Government Funding For The Broads
in Broads Chat
Posted
They used to run the Horizon Craft fleet from the basin in front of what was Pedro’s restaurant, including much of the moorings on that side of the river upstream of Bridgecraft. It was leased to The Broads Boating Company whilst they were in business, but has been largely unused since their demise.