marshman

I sadly do not really trust my marina to keep their eye on my boat, as I would wish, to protect my investment - despite reassuring words offered by some here. I know for a fact most marinas never check the boats and I would prefer not to rely on my insurance policy!!! Insurance companies always find wriggle room as I have learnt to my cost only recently for an electrical fire and with that in mind, I will always keep an eye on mine! This winter I know that no one checked mooring lines to allow for very high levels and I also know they never check inside, even a cursory glance! With most Broads boats draining from the aft well into the bilge , it is essential periodically or don't auto bilge pumps ever fail? It is also not unknown for skin fittings to fail - but to be fair no cursory inspection is going to sort that one! I try to take care of my boat and to suggest I should rely totally on someone else is not acceptable to me i am afraid, unless a yard owner is prepared to indemnify me in the case of an insurance company operating within its wriggle boundaries, finds another excuse!

Sadly I don't think the BA will not do anything or at least until the NP's take a lead and they, I suspect, will cling on to the"essential travel" peg as long as they can - but what about those who live within them? I suspect they haven't "closed" the footpaths either but are just "discouraging" people from using them!!

If you have anything Wherry related at all, the Wherry Trust have a very active archive side which is free to access - if you have photos etc they would be pleased I suspect, to add them to the site. If you have a collection please get in touch with them. What concerns me more is the large quantity of pictures and slides around never digitalised ( PW - have you done yours yet? ) and these will be lost, as people get to a stage in life when this sort of thing is left to chance - they just hope they will be found a good home! And they do - the bin!!!!!! At the Trust they know of collections, but without help, these will probably just be lost forever - sadly!

I am with Chris B on this one!! Doubt too many old Norfolk boys would have heard of medieval shields but they would have known about the old womans iron - or heater!! Actually in the US it could also used to define the shape of a building - https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/flatiron-building and was used to define smoothing irons well before Victorian times - they could also called sad irons for some reason apparently! Useless info for a wet morning!!!!!!

Sadly I think we are all taking life too seriously! I doubt behaviour and values will change significantly, and indeed should they? Civilisations and individuals have always had their faults and plus points, but will continue to change as times move on - whether it is for good or bad is often merely a matter of opinion coloured by our own perceptions which can be often be influenced by other external factors. Only history however can tell us whether they were good or bad - or so I think! Remember we are incredibly adaptable - you have only to look at the younger generation to see perhaps a differing and a generally more positive view. Perhaps we are just too old to see any positives!!!

I think they have 6 speeds and the range is just about right - however I would not use mine for sanding unless you are expecting robust results! It is a fairly hefty beast and your arms are likely to drop off - they are good at cleaning the hull with something like Farcla G3 and do use plenty of water out of a small spray bottle and a lower speed to stop it spraying over you and everywhere else. One word of warning - be exceptionally careful to keep the rotating cleaner head away from your antifouling as it will grind it in to your white hull in a flash of an eye!!!!!!!!! And it is defo more work than just having a walk and is certainly more exercise than I can cope with after a couple of hours!!!! But the hull does come up lovely and, last tip, use the best quality polish you can afford - then top it off with 2 coats of Auto Glym extra polish protection. just the job but knackering!!!!

Poppy - I was delighted to hear the other night from a local consultant talking on Look East I think, that they are already beginning to talk about restarting more operations and procedures. Talking to a nurse of mine (well not of mine so to speak) on the general side, she was saying how relatively quiet they are and how even the Covid side was a tad quieter too. However I suspect they don't want to switch too much back to "normal" at the moment in case numbers pop back up again and they have to set up the Covid side to cater for higher numbers again, just yet! Meanwhile I long to get back to my only hobby, if only to clean it! The trouble is that whilst the roads are so busy I might be in an accident even if I drive 5 miles and whilst I am in splendid isolation at home, and would be on the boat, I do understand the logic - not!!!! ( And please do not shout at me in CAPITAL letters in response to my comments - I am not deaf and can read small print as long as I have my specs on!! )

Don't boats have ordinary cookers anymore? Well I suspect all electric ones don't, but why not have a good old fashioned ordinary gas cooker onboard - and I don't mean one of these silly tinplate "marine" cookers costing an arm and a leg!!!! We have long established you can just go ahead and buy a standard cooker which lots of people have a home and stick it on a boat and enjoy the comforts of home!!

So I wonder why, as a Which member, I didn't get it?????

Old age creeping up on you Griff? Just tell the crew to do it - whats it with authority they seem to shy away from??

Oh yes I would!!!!!

I agree - but when you are younger you just heave on it - so to speak! We installed an old sheet winch - 2 speed! - on the foredeck bought at a boat jumble for £25 to sort the problem. It has a standard winch handle operating horizontally and works a treat. Sorted!!! But on your arrangement it all collects mud just lovely! No need on mine - just bung the end with a loop through it through the mudweight and stick the free end through - simples. When you lift it, just let it dangle for a minute or so and clean as a whistle.

It was a long long time ago that I went over it - but it was in the fog! Or rather the valley had fog in it so all you could see was just the top of the trees - nor anyone coming the other way! Bizarre feeling but hardly one you could just nip down in the cabin to grab a camera for! ( BMP ) ( Before mobile phones)

I wonder if anyone knows how many of those big trip boats were around in their heyday???

Cleaning windows? oh yes thats quite a bit further down my to do list, in fact near the bottom - not sure I will ever get to it....!!

Probably not - wrong side of the river but again I don't know. Surlingham Marsh is a bit further down adjacent the Wheatfen Reserve of which the Ted Ellis Reserve own some i suspect. Upstream the RSPB lease (?) a small patch just on the Postwick bends - but you would have to dig a bit to find the owner I suspect.

Indeed - they use to race them in autocross at Lydden Hill many many years ago. If you have really good memories these were often broadcast Sat afternoon in Grandstand!! Still find CVT's in Honda s!!!

Glad to be proved wrong but still I doubt the lease affects the pontoon issue , other than in those circumstances, you can see why the BA don't want to get involved as well! Well for those who want to know this probably contains a clue!!!! Quite an interesting article - well worth a read even if you do not like the RSPB http://www.wisearchive.co.uk/story/the-making-of-strumpshaw-fen-1960s-to-2000s/

According to my info the Reserve was purchased back in 1974 - but I am happy to be proved wrong!! These strong easterlies are not helping the migrants from the south but that may improve later this week and help them on their way! Keep them lugholes open!!!

I got told off for going to the pharmacy - not that I am in the at risk group fortunately! Just because I am over 70 so I should have sent my carer! Whats one of those???

Pete - lugholes cleared ready for the cuckoo?? Let us know when (if) you hear one!!!

Not quite true - the BA are, I suspect, only putting in the pontoon at Oulton and paying for it, because of the trade off!! That said, the RSPB are great reserves and make for great days out at a reasonable cost - as do the NWT reserves too. Cracking places to see birds!!!

This has been in discussion for as long as I can remember but from my conversations with the RSPB many years ago it revolved, primarily ,around two issues. They did not feel that the staff on the Reserve should have to "police" it as that job would have to be done by volunteers and also as it was a long long way from the river to the Centre and they realised many would not pay, they did not want non members mooring up for free and effectively blocking up the mooring for the members. I think both are fair points. Quite what Suffolk WT will do about similar issues i am not sure but that one will be a BA mooring I guess. I don't think at the time, the BA wanted to fund the Strumpshaw one at the time - to be fair given what the Oulton one is costing, it is hardly a cost effective investment. For either! The same issues I think apply to Fairhaven on S Walsham Inner Broad - you would have to have any mooring virtually permanently staffed (probably for only 1 boat) to stop people getting in free, and although that one very nearly got off the ground, I do not think it ever did for that reason. So its not only the RSPB who don't want people taking advantage of what would be a great idea!!

Those comments from the BA about Broadland wildlife are just rubbish IMHO!! I don't think that its any different to what it usually is - what has happened is it it is very much quieter so we are noticing these birds and animals more! They are always there but normally they just get lost in the general hubbub! ( and by the way, Pete, the cuckoos still left, should be anytime now!!!) My garden birds, for example, are doing the exact opposite now , and disappearing! Why? Because they are busy nesting and until the eggs are hatched, they will be keeping a low profile - but they do this every year not because things have changed! So what are they going to do when they reopen rivers? Don't worry they will still be there but alluding to that remark, perhaps now the BA have now made a decision as to when, and under what circumstances, they will "open" the tidal waters that they shut? Ooops sorry, as I believe Tom said, they didn't actually "shut" them they have just discouraged people from visiting them!! (Actually I cannot now find that post of his, but I am sure I recall it! ) The whole world's Press is talking about options to reopen and there is a lot around about this "traffic light" system which seems to be the topic generally under discussion However is it unreasonable to discuss where, under that sort of system, the BA could consider they fall? Or are they just going to drop the " Broads" bit and leave it as The Authority" ? Don't think either that its just here who are struggling with this context - the National Parks group as a whole are facing just this sort of growing criticism in their individual areas as well! Signs all over the place are saying they are closed - but like some around here, this doesn't seem to be in their remit to do that! i suspect the BA will slavishly follow the path of the others in the NP family but why cannot they make their own policy? After all I am not the only one to call this area "unique" so why not set out their own projections and guidelines for their "unique" area???

You may begin to look for excuses if it goes on, for those over 70, for another 12 mths or more!