grounded

We had 3 weeks on the (North) Broads this Summer. I fished everyday from 4am until leaving our mooring, as frequently as I could during the day, and until it was too dark to see. I had a wonderful time. Caught fish at every venue, some glorious Roach and Rudd, decent skimmers and Bream, and the biggest Perch I have ever caught in 60 years. I even caught lots of Tommy Ruffe and Gudgeon, which I took to be testament to the quality of the water these days. I saw several people using keep nets (not in fishing matches) and I did remark to Lyn on my complete inability to see the point of their use. But also I did not seek to remonstrate with the individuals as the regulations do permit the use of knotless, soft weave, keepnets and until the Broads Authority or Environment Agency outlaw the use of keep nets except under match fishing conditions, Anglers are free to do so. We are making plans to return in 2021 (it will take us that long to save for the flights and the boat!) for another 3 weeks and I intend to fish every hour I can as there is no decent coarse fishing here in New Zealand. But I won't be using a keep net. Take care of the place for us until we get back. Cheers Chris

Sorry to be so late replying, I have only just seen this. I don't think it is coincidence as it happened to Lyn's toothbrush on Classic Gem in 2017 and this toothbrush was a replacement. It had slipped our minds until she plugged it in and nothing worked. Too late we remembered! Had to buy another when we got back to NZ. perhaps our stuff is wired differently? Cheers Chris

Our hire boat, SWan Rapture, has an inverter system. Lyn plugged in her electric toothbrush to charge it. Result? One U/S electric toothbrush. Must be something to do with the frequency or something that the rechargeable battery does not like. Lesson learned. New toothbrush bought. Cheers Chris

Hello again. Just to let you know the Kiwis have safely landed back home in NZ around 8am today. I know that seems a long time since leaving our boat on Friday, because it is, but our flight out of Manchester was not until Sunday lunch. We plan to be back, if not before, we will make it in 2022 for our golden anniversary. Anyway i am attaching a picture i took today of the view from the 14th tee of my local golf course in the depths of the New Zealand Winter. 21 degrees. Not Womack Water but not too shabby. Cheers Chris

Sorry we missed you John. Have a safe trip. We will kick our heels heŕe until check-in. Cheers Chris

A very nice thought John and thankyou. Our flight has been delayed by four hours too, so we will now be stuck at Norwich until 6pm. Oh, just for the record, no red light and only one precautionary pumpout in 3 weeks. Is it a record we ask?

Goodbye folks, it has been fun knowing you. I shall continue to follow your antics from "the other side". We are now experiencing the true beauty of hindsight. Swmbo was determined to travel light, bringing the minimum in the smallest possible case. It was great. At the start. Since then we have perused shops and sales, all the while me muttering " i dont have a clue where this is going". Now neither of us have an idea where this is going. Certainly not in that tiny purse she termed her "carry on". Carry On is right. The bottleneck is our internal flight from Norwich to Manchester (truly the cheapest and quickest way to make the trip) and we will now have to get Logan Air to look the other way whilst we sneak on with a cabin trunk hidden under my (my!!) Jumper. Have fun. Chris

Well here we are moored at Sutton Staithe for our last night in Norfolk. An incident ocurred here today which gave me pause for thought. A large cruiser pulled up about 10 metres in front of ours. One of those with a very high built up stern with external steps leading to the upper helm and a bottom step or narrow bathing platform about 30cm above the water. One of the group, a well built chap, had just fastened the stern rope and stepped back onto the boat. I was having one of my last dangles (channelling Brando perhaps) when in my peripheral vision i saw him go backwards into the Broad with the most enormous splash. I was momentarily stunned (and thinking there goes the fishing) when he popped back up spitting copious quantities of Ant. Fortunately the boat was fitted with tranverse fenders across the rear and he was able to grab those. Then his mates came and dragged him out. All he lost were his sunglasses and dignity. Now erindoors has been assiduous in her wearing of her lifejacket whilst mooring. As for myself? Not once. Barmpot is the term I think. We have been valeting the boat prior to taking her back ( cleaner than when we picked her up) and i am thinking i do not want to give her back. She is not perfect. I would like an anchor winch, rear vision cameras, and a couple of USB ports at the helm, but she is without question the best we have hired. There is no way i could check her in as excess baggage, even long-haul the allowance is not that great, but if someone in the forum could quietly suggest how I might get her to the Humber estuary and still get my flight to Hong Kong on Sunday morning, there would be a large drink in it. Nuff said. OK? Cheers Chris

Shhh. She doesn't read this. Yet.

I have not quite got the quoting posts right have I!

Very many thanks. I am sure we will. We have Hobbiton of course, sounds as it is spelled. All six toes and banjo music. Cheers Chris

Strangely enough i was a bit of a Pratchett fan back in the day, but in this context "clack fix" means that uniquely femail form of conversation where the words are endless, and oft repeated, but unintelligible to mortal males. Stuck on a boat for almost 3 weeks with only me to talk to, i think she was getting desperate. The wild look has gone from her eyes now. Cheers Chris

Good morning. I seem to have been too busy to add to our holiday tale for a day or too, but i have been putting in some serious rod hours. We met up with our Yorkshire chums in Coltishall . The are staying in accommodation in Haute Bois ( pronounced Hat Box i think) so whilst the distaff side went for a walk to check it out and have an intensive clack fix, Paul and i caught up over a box of maggots. No monster perch, sadly, but enough roach and perch to keep us busy despite the considerable amount of floating weed. Another excellent meal at the Rising Sun (braised brisket cottage pie. Yum). Tuesday started well with bream and rudd and a beautiful roach of around three-quarters of a pound. I have included a picture of dawn over the rivrr at Coltishall. After more clacking and dangling we said our goodbyes and we returned to the Viaduct moorings along one of the most beautiful stretches of river in the whole of the Broads. We saw Kingfishers, Coots, and another Marsh Harrier. Fishing at the Viaduct was a bit patchy, i think there were some Pike around. Some souvenier shopping for our two grandsons back home was followed by fish and chips at Ken's. This was after reading a recommendation on these boards, but i think we both agreed that Greys has the edge. We are now on our final lap back to Richardsons to hand back Slime, sorry Swan Rapture on Friday. We have just learned that our flight from Norwich to Manchester is not departing 4 hours later than expected, which is a bit of a bummer. Anyway after breakfast we shall head for Ludham Bridge. I hope the fishing is better there Cheers Chris

It has been a quiet day. I feel a sombre tone has settled on us as we approach our last few days. I had a bit of a lie in today, up at 5am. The bream in Thurne Dyke were very accommodating and i quite enjoyed myself, though they are very slimy. We left our mooring assisted by the wind blowing us away from the bank and pottered up to Potter for some wotter(sorry, could not resist it) where the same wind played havoc with my attempts to moor. Hoping no-one noticed my cack-handed attempts we headed for Fleet Dyke. We chanced upon an excellent mooring and this time we remembered to book a table at the Ship. My afternoon was spent catching bream after bream in a session such as i have not enjoyed in many a long year. But they are ruddy slimy. Lyn says i looked like an extra from "Men in Black" who had been slimed. My only concern now is getting my fishing clothes past the NZ Border Patrol because of all the organic matter adhering to them. We then (slime free) had our meal at the Ship at South Walsham. We have enjoyed some excellent meals on this holiday but the meal this evening topped the lot. It was really, really good. How erindoors managed a treacle tart on top of her roast pork dinner i will never know. Tomorrow we are off to Wroxham to meet up with some old friends from Yorkshire. He is an ex-police sergeant and a fellow Lion and he also enjoys his fishing. I hope to introduce him to the monster perch that lurk there. Cheers Chris

Hello. Indeed there are those that do hold that view but it is a beautiful country with a great climate ( i can play golf in shorts in winter) and some awe inspiring scenery, but nothing like the Norfolk Broads. We love living there and would never consider coming back to live, but we do have to have our Broads fix when we can. Great day fishing at Thurne Dyke and a good meal at the Lion. What a transformation has been wrought there! We remember it from 40 years ago and we did have some times. Anyroadup, time for quiddler and we will see where tomorrow takes us. Cheers Chris

Good evening. We had a conversation, which is why we are now at a mooring above Acle bridge. On the plus side i have just enjoyed the best steak and ale pie i have had since arriving in the UK, and that is saying something. On the minus side, the fishing is rubbish. On the bomb and my reactions are not what they were. Hard to believe but we have been on this boat for 2 weeks now and we are on countdown for the return to Aotearoa. Still, another week to enjoy our favorite places. May be Thurne Dyke tomorrow? Cheers Chris

Just a quickie. We are now moored at Upton Staithe. A very pretty looking place. Friendly too. A strange thing happened on the way here. We were the recipients of manically enthusiastic waves from a private boat. A forum member perhaps? I think the boat was Autumn Gold. Oh, and i saw a Marsh Harrier. Brill. Cheers Chris

Dawn over Ranworth. Ah, but (those paying attention may say), that should be dawn over Upton Dyke. True, but whilst cruising slowly down the Thurne, we had a conversation. We agreed we must have one last night at Ranworth as it is such a special place and the weekend will be manic and we have to meet friends at Coltishall early next week. So we turned right instead of left and on such decisions, the fate of nations can rest. Though not in this case, obviously. So i spent a happy afternoon fishing and watching reversing 101. Not as a critic, take away my bowthrusters and i can be as cack handed as the next Johnny, but interested. More interesting was watching the people watching the reversing. There were those who will offer words of advice "tell him to shove it hard over and boot it love", those who get involved and offer to take a rope, and those who, regardless of the drama unfolding next door to them, just stay on their duffs sipping Prosecco or something. Fortunately they are in the minority. Anyroad up it looks like the rain is easing so i am off to dangle a few more maggots before we head for Upton. Or we have another conversation. Cheers Chris

The only box that will get ticked is my skull!! Chris

C Closed. (I am not sure what just happened, fat fingers perhaps) . I am sure it had nothing to do with the variance in our flush rate. Hers being 3 or 4 times that of mine??? Chris

Hi Brian. I did like the flush counting idea, it appealed to the empiricist in me. However, when i suggested to swmbo we count our flushes, i got The Look. This brooks no arguement and the subject was

An update on THE NOISE as we have come to call it. Well, i say we but erindoors has a minor auditory deficiency, in that she is a tad mutton and can't hear it and wonders what the fuss is all about. Anyroadup, it started again around 5.20pm (about the time it started yesterday). We did a Boston Strangler act on every tap to no avail. So acting on the wise counsel of the august sages haunting these boards, i turned off the water pump. Silence (for me anyway, no difference for swmbo). After a little while i turned on the pump . It re-pressurised the system and not a peep since. Ah well, i have caught a very good roach, had a glass or two of a passable shiraz, and i am gazing on the peace of Womack. Not a bad world sometimes. Going to have another go at Upton Dyke tomorrow. Cheers Chris

I think the general concensus of water pump must be correct as there has been no repetition and we have not quite employed a torque wrench but we are now making certain all taps are turned off tight. We are on Womack Water, mainly because: 1. There is something in a shop here she simply must have and the shop keeps eccentric hours; 2. We both think the carvery in the Kings Arms is worth the trip; and 3. What's not to love about Womack? Don't let anyone convince you that fishing is relaxing. I have spent the past 3 hours trying to catch roach and bream on breadflake. I have a tension headache and every muscle hurts. I am prescribing a cold Hobgoblin. Cheers Chris

Thanks for the suggestions. It does seem to have a very different tone to the water pump, but i will ensure we have no drips. The blighter went all night but stopped about 6am. All is quiet now. I had still best call the yard. Cheers Chris

Hi, yes they replaced it with a new one which works. A very efficient team. Now we seem to have a problem with what sounds like a pump (bilge???) running for half a second every thirty seconds or so. I can't locate the source but it seems to come from amidships. I have only found one hatch i can open and it is not coming from under there. I will just have to ring them in the morning. We lost so much time earlier we decided to head for Gaye's staithe and a meal at the White Horse. Good choice. I am going to lift the engine hatch now, just in case. Cheers Chris