grounded

Well it appears i was unnecessarily concerned. Our holiday is over and we now have the hassle of travelling back home. We have negotiated trains, tubes, and taxis and are now sat knackered in a rather gloomy hotel room a short ride from Heathrow terminal 2. Our boat handover went very smoothly. We used in total 67.4 litres of diesel and was refunded just over £35. Our pootling approach seemed to serve us well. The lady at the next desk along had used £220 worth, so not a lot of pootling there, i am thinking. It was a mission and a half to get here, but i have to say it was worth it. We do have a boat booked for next year, so if i can make the numbers work, and flight costs do not keep increasing, we may be back. Cheers Chris

I have had a couple of days fishing at Coltishall common durning our Broads trip, which finishes tomorrow. The only problems i had to contend with were floating cut weed and bottom growing uncut weed. The roach i caught were stunning in their beauty and condition, with a couple being over 500gms. No complaints from me. And, in my humble opinion, the best pub food on the Northern Broads bei g served at the Rising Sun, what is not to love about the river at Coltishall? Chris

Today we moored at Cockshoot Dyke with the intention of lunching at the Fur and Feathers at Woodbastwick, a pub we have never visited. The first part of the walk is along the boardwalk parallel with the river up towards Horning. The initial stretch is very overgrown with lots of nettles and rotten boards. But persevere! The stretch managed by the angling club is much clearer but you do have to negotiate serried ranks of rods and poles. Most anglers are fine, some more tetchy and who try to tell you the path is private, which it is not, only the fishing is private. You emerge at a car park almost across from the Ferry Inn. Turn left and it is all made road from there. 45 minutes later you arrive at the pub. It was very busy, but the service was first rate, the beer excellent (I can recommend the Nelson and the Nog) and ee both enjoyed the steak and ale pie. An overall positive experience and, if you have never done it, well worth the walk. Chris

We passed this morning. The light was on and the boat is up for sale. Chris

This has generated a lot of interesting discussion. For the record i did not at any time i was being short-changed. Mine was a genuine request for help from the boatyard. I naively expected they would have comprehensive knowledge of each of their boats specifications. I remain surprised. My follow up question regarding engine servicing was again based upon an (uninformed) assumption that if the engine servicing was based on running hours, there would be an hour counter in the engine housing. At the end of each hire the fuel used is measured, the hours run are checked, result a simple sum. Ah well, i am recording hours run each day and i will be surprised if we reach 50, so on the information above we should be ok. And yes we could afford a 3 week hire, on the back of 3 years saving, and with flights going up $6000+ and having to shell out several £00 to replace 8 weeks worth of clothing and possessions, we are having to make decisions re budgets. Cheers, Chris

Many thanks for all of your responses folks. I did email the yard and was told the response was from an engineer. We do "pootle" in that we have our favourite places around the Northern Broads and we will visit each perhaps 2 or 3 times. We rarely travel at the speed limit, we are on holiday and see no need to rush anywhere, and i doubt we have done over 1400rpm for more than a minute or two. I will give thought to our options! Incidentally, are hire boat engines serviced at intervals of so many hours running, or so many months of use? Thanks again. Chris

My wife Lyn and i have finally made it to our favourite place to celebrate our 50 years together. This has been no easy journey (not our marriage, ouch, sorry dear) but the trip with multiple cancelled flights, huge price hikes, and my luggage still circulating in that great carousel in the sky (since 21st May!). Anyroadup, i digress. We are now about half way through our 3 weeks on the boat and having no way of measuring fuel consumption or level i wanted to try and work out if i would need to shell out for liquid gold before our trip is up. So i emailed our boatyard (no names) and asked for the fuel capacity of our boat and the average fuel consumption in lph. I know there are many variables but yards must have a way of estimating fuel use as they measure litres lost at the end of every trip. I was surprised to be told that they did not know the fuel capacity of our boat ( despite it being in their fleet for many years), but estimated it to be around 150litres. They were not able to give any kind of estimate of fuel use be that lph or litres per week. I was advised to pay to fill the tank as i would get it back at the end. I guess i may have to do so, but was i expecting too much of the yard to know the fuel capacity of boats they hire? And to have some back of a fag packet estimate of fuel use? I am not wanting to knock the yard, they have been helpful in a number of ways, but is this not just basic business information? Chris

Thanks Jeff, but I could not forget that! We arrive on 24th June after a couple of weeks with family in Yorkshire. I will either buy my license on line from here or from a post office there. Dangling a maggot or a piece of breadflake is what I most look forward to (well almost anyway). When we are not cruising, walking, eating, or sleeping, I am fishing. Chris

Thanks for the replies, folks. We do love the staithe moorings, don't mind the charge or the packed in feeling, and I do like the view across to the island when I start fishing about 4am. I do think we will try those side on moorings, if only to have a chance to walk off the wonderful food served at the pub! Chris

My wife Lyn and I hope to be returning to the Broads in a few weeks time for our 50th wedding anniversary. We honeymooned on the Broads so it is a bit special for us. We are just hoping our flights from NZ are not cancelled again. They have been cancelled 3 times already and, strangely enough, the prices have leapt by at least 25% with each re-booking. Odd that. Anyway, I digress. We have many favourite places on the Broads, Womack being one of them, and we usually moor (stern on after much oversteering and over cursing) at the staithe. I have been reading on a Broads Facebook page of side-on moorings on the right on the way down to the staithe. The only BA moorings I can find listed are 3 on Womack island. Do any on here know of free moorings on the right? Apparently there is a good footpath down to the village (and the pub) and we do love a good walk. Any information gratefully received. Chris

I do like the wire wheels, I always wanted a set for my own car. Here is a picture of my pride and joy (as was). I bought it for 250 quid around 1980 and rebuilt it ground up twice in my years of ownership. I still miss it now. Chris

Hi Chris, I must confess I do much prefer the rounder, softer, shapes of the earlier Spitfires and that 1300 engine was a little belter! I bought the "donor" car for my wife's for 50quid, and I only bought it because it had a hardtop in good condition (or so I thought). The body and chassis were virtually scrap. It took me about 15 months working in my single attached garage to do a full restoration. Here is a picture of the finished product, which we happily took to many a Triumph Sports Six Club event around Yorkshire in the day. Chris (also 1952!)

What model would that be? Many moons ago I built my wife Lyn a Mk3 from a complete write off. She loved that car (mine was a Vitesse Mk2 convertible). I retired a few years ago after 47 years in health services in 2 hemispheres and am now enjoying the 3 gs - grandkids, golf and gardening. In fact I am off to play a few holes on a very warm and sunny New Zealand morning. Looking forward to our 50th wedding anniversary on Swan Rapture - Covid and crazy governments permitting. Have a happy one folks. Chris

Fishing! if only I could. There is some of the best sea fishing in the world here in New Zealand, but I long for the chance to dangle a maggot on the Broads. 2022 Covid and Saint Comrade Jacinda permitting. A few good stick floats for trotting, a decent quiver tip rod for when not trotting, nail clippers for trimming line, a headtorch for low light, decent disgorgers, forceps, and a good landing net. Forget the keepnet, only needed for match fishing, oh, and a couple of rodrests for when not trotting from the bank. You lucky man! Chris

Please don't toss it! I have a pair of Mitchell Match reels which I have owned for many years now and they are my pride and joy. When my wife and I were trial packing in 2017 for our first return trip to the Norfolk Broads, the bail mechanism for one of my reels was damaged. Now I am naming no names you understand, but a certain Memsahib was involved. Anyway I located this great reel repairer who specialises in Mitchell reels. He can be found at jimsreelshop.co.uk (07523142760). His service was first rate and not too expensive (though in truth I think I would have been prepared to pay more just to get it fixed) and I had a great time using them on the Broads again. Good luck. Chris

Hi Bryan, very many thanks for your video which I thoroughly enjoyed. Especially so since we should have been on the the Broads now, but for the difficulties of returning to Fortress Aotearoa, and so must get our "fix" vicariously. Perhaps we may bump into each other (not literally) when we return for 3 weeks in 2022. Chris

This may be a naive question, but is this kind of intelligence not available to boat hire companies? Should those fitting/maintaining inverters not be aware of the ideosyncracies of the technology and include simple guidance in boat manuals that would assist in avoiding expensive damage to customers bits of kit? Chris

Hi Bryan, very many thanks for the reply and for the information. We are due back on Swan Rapture about this time next year for our 50th wedding anniversary. We have always loved the Broads and it is one of the places we miss most since emigrating, so when we can/do get back to the UK for a visit with family we try to make the most of a trip on the Broads. From memory, I think it was my wife's electric toothbrush which blew. We will certainly take more care next time! Thanks again. Chris

Hello Bryan and thank you for your very descriptive writeup. You visited many of our favourite places, which is especially poignant as we should have been taking over Swan Rapture on Monday 28th June for 3 weeks. Sadly we had to cancel due to difficulty of access to quarantine places here in NZ. But I do have to ask a question. You mention hooking up to shore power at Neatishead. When we had Swan Rapture in 2019, no mention was made by the boatyard of the shore power facility, indeed though we found a cable in a wardrobe we were unable to figure out where it plugged in. We had believed Swan Rapture and Swan Roamer to be all but identical so is this a new facility, or did we completely miss it, or is it unique to Swan Roamer? I can't wait to view your video. Chris

There are some very respectable perch, up to 2 or 3lbs, to be caught above Wroxham bridge along the Viaduct moorings. I had one take a small roach I was bringing in a couple of years ago, what a scrap! I do love those big striped humpty-backs! Chris

Just a question, if I may. Were I on a hire boat and heading to cross Breydon Water, to return my boat to the yard for example, how would I find out about the closure? At what point in the journey North would I see a sign to this effect? What would be the consequences if I was unable to return my boat as a result? Not that I am going to be in such a situation for at least another year! Chris

I stand completely in awe of the meticulous detail and finish of this restoration. I have undertaken a couple of ground up, nut and bolt, total restorations of cars (Triumph Vitesse Mk2 and Triumph Spitfire Mk3) but this is a labour of love which leaves me just shaking my head. "Respect" as the younger generation say. Chris

On Ranworth Broad

Hmm, can anyone join in? Dawn, by David Dane

My wife and I have booked for 3 weeks from 28th June. Unfortunately the prospects of our making it seem to be receding rather than improving. The confused (is it just me?) situation in the UK is only compounded by us here in New Zealand being at the back end of a very long queue for the vaccine and it is seemingly unlikely we will be able to get the vaccine prior to boarding long-haul flights to Europe at the end of May. In anticipation of such difficulties we did contact Richardson's in mid-July of 2020 in an effort to book a boat for June 2022 to spend our 50th wedding anniversary on the Broads. Our first choice of boat for 2022 was already booked (or reserved) so folk are indeed booking a loooong way ahead! Our fingers are still very much crossed for this year. Chris