floydraser

Spoilsport!

Sorry (not very) if this has been shown before by someone else but... I was having a tiny clearout today and came accross a box with some old family archive material inside. I found this lettercard which was sent by my uncle to my grandparents. He finishes with "P.S. Please keep the stamp." Well they did, and the card obviously. But in removing the stamp when he got home he also removed the frank with the date on. I thought you may enjoy. Would you believe it? I chopped that last pic off to rotate it upright, saved it as such but it won't display upright. Ah well, you'll just have to heave your screens sideways.

Whisper gently so as not to put a jinx on it but.... There seems to be a suggestion of a tiny bit of decent weather next week. It was Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then it changed to just Tuesday and Wednesday, now it's changed to just Thursday. I'm confident that by Sunday evening the forecast will be for storm and tempest Monday to Friday! However, I aim to pick the best day and go for it.

Nothing increases footfall more than free parking IMO. High street looks very narrow and I can't find a car park easily on Google. Tescos is free for 3 hours, that's enough isn't it? Complain about no investment then when they spend £150K on improving the pavement, they complain again. What's needed are charity shops, nail bars, coffee shops, fast food outlets and somewhere to get a tattoo. Typical English village in 2024.

Next door here. I have a similar set up and although mine did pong a bit when I had it, changing the pipes and adding this stuff seems to have worked: https://www.brianwards.co.uk/product/odourlos-holding-tank-treatment-1-litre/

This is clearly a fall out between two parties and of course the first to complain takes the higher ground. No surprise there then. So after the relationship deteriorated why didn't someone from the NBSA have the foresight to contact th BA BEFORE pressing start on the printing press? Because they thought couldn't lose. How can you criticise someone and expect a gentleman's agreement to stay intact? Pathetic.

It's on my list of must sees. I'll be there during the summer.

Correct, I apologise to Cambridge.

Thank you Cambridge. Just in time for Easter there's about two miles of 40mph restriction just before the A11 turn off on the bypass. Say's it's to do with barrier safety so could be done by easter I suppose. Fingers crossed.

It's a Sheerline with spiders.

Look, she's naked! I nipped over today to prepare for the move to Cove and it felt really weird leaving the boat with no cover. I wonder how long it's been since it was fully exposed to the elements? Some of the spiders living in the cover had grown quite large and I couldn't drown them, so I flicked them onto that little Shetland next door. Engine battery check, weed filter check, cooling water tap check. Engine start first time, nice tick over, bit of blue smoke for a start and nice to see a bit of water coming through too. So that bit's ready. I refitted some of the trims and the starboard cleat, which is now screwed to solid wood and not foam. Finally got to take down my structures for supporting the cover: a Black & Decker Workmate with upholstery to protect the cover, a step stool similarly upholstered, and a 3 wheeler walking aid! The latter being a left over from an auction lot of walking aids I got for my mother in law a few years ago. The community charity shop in Brundall were very pleased to receive it on my way round to the White Heron for lunch. I managed to get most of the rubbish into the Corsa so I just have the cover and that small wooden pallet you can see on the front deck to get rid of. Although I suppose I should keep the cover in case the next owner wants it as a pattern. It also means that when the time comes all I need to do is give the boat a good clean and tie the mudweight to a bit of rope; they say it's more effective that way... Oh, and I have to erect the six foot pointless mast too.

He's probably running for the hills now. COME BACK! SHE'S QUITE SAFE, SOMETIMES. HONEST!

Not if I time it right and you collect the gas bottle at the same time!

It's not just this forum, it's the boating community in general. I have now had offers of help from ex-neighbours at BGM so when it happens there could be quite a flottila moving around Brundall! Thanks again everybody. I was going to move it this week but it's not coming together, so I'm going to leave it for now. I still have a couple of little jobs to finish off anyway so I'll nip over and get it properly prepared to move so things should be easier when the move happens.

Wasn't this something to do with northern lights which put on a show that evening? We noticed the unusual lighting over here in the Midlands and then there was a feature on last night's news with more stunning photography.

I may have missed something and this is probably a question for BRAG but, JP had a letter signed by five MPs to which he said he would reply. Have I missed the reply?

For that to happen you would have to be "practically perfect in every way". Which I'm sure you are...

I think I would be rescued by the time I got to Cantley; that would be sweet. The filter has been changed and the engine hardly run since. I also have a spare filter on standby, along with the kit to change it!

Yep, mudweight will be on standby as well as the two hefty anchors that came with it in the forward locker. I don't think it will drift far!

Crikey, the offers are coming in quicker than I can reply on here! Thank you to all so far. I'll post on here the timing but at the moment the weather looks favourable towards the end of next week. I now have offers of a support boat and a taxi to collect the car so that'll be me sorted then if all goes well. This may seem a fuss to some, just moving a boat round the corner, but I have a minor doubt about the diesel filter as it has blocked before and the boat hasn't moved in 5 years (that long!??).

Well the time has come as they say, to move to pastures new and I have until the end of March to move the Owl round to Cove Marina, Brundall, from Brundall Gardens Marina. I'm planning to do it during a decent weather window of a couple of days so I can give it a good clean first. Not far but why mention it here? Because what crew I had will be in Florida! I will notify people when I do it but if anyone is around and fancies a ride or just keep an eye out for me I would be grateful.

You've let me down. I really thought someone was going to explain from an experienced point of view, what this is and why they were hated. I'll do my best: Dom's correct, it's a bubble sextant. This is a 1943 version and they were used mainly in bombers. They weren't allocated to any particular bomber so this one could have been on famous raids or none at all. For me it still represents the RAF in WW2. Referring to pictures 3 and 4 – there's an elongated oval hole in the front where the mirror is. There's a hole in the top with a sliding cover, and there's a lens on the rear. The lens you see is one of two on a bracket and the other one is in use as you see it; you swing the bracket to use the one seen here. The hole in the top allows light in to illuminate the bubble which you have to get within a circle to get it level. In the dark you slide the cover shut and a 4v lamp illuminates it, batteries in the handle. On the right hand side you see a **** for setting the degrees and a thumb wheel for the minutes, shown at the bottom. So you ask the pilot to maintain a steady altitude for the next few minutes, preferably a number to aid calculations? Then try and get a fix on your selected celestial body while keeping the bubble in the circle. Do it a few times to get an average then consult your reference books, taking into account the altitude. Then ask a policeman. Those who used them may say the latter would have been more accurate. This posh version from 1943 has a drum on the front containing a clockwork averaging mechanism. You pulled the trigger and it somehow took a reading every second or so and after minute gave you an average. Then you asked a policeman. Navigators hated them apparently. I get my kids to have a go and they first complain it's heavy. Then when they get the hang of it I shake them and make engine noises in their ear. *** Guess what you have to use to set the degrees?? I could edit it but I can't for laughing!

Bang on! Your great great great grandaughter says hello.

So does anyone fancy trying to use one of these? I didn't know such a thing existed until relatively recently so I'll assume someone here has more knowledge and experience than me, and can explain what it is?

Merlin engines occasionally come up for sale on Facebook Marketplace along with other interesting and divers stuff, but that's another thread. I haven't been to Duxford for donkey's years so there's somewhere else... Old Warden is another place. I took the kids there when they were young, to the final show of the season. I'll never forget seeing the guy flying a collection of sticks and bedsheets while sitting on a plank! We visited Hendon in 2015 the day after watching England get their a*ses kicked out of the World Cup at Twickenham. It was on the way home and I thought it was a chance to check it out as we were passing, sort of. I was enraged when the person behind the reception desk answered "How much is it to come in?" with "The guide book is £5 and the entry is just there". "So entry is free?" They repeated what they said before. "Tell you what, I'll have a look round and if it's any good I'll give you something on the way out". It was very good apart from the downright cheek of that person.