Viking23

A well planned journey, making consideration for the tides, and taking advantage of them. Unfortunately there are still people that just go out on a particular journey on the Southern Broads without checking the weather or tidal flows, fine if you have plenty of horsepower and unlimited fuel and somewhere to keep warm, but in an open boat with a small engine, with a tow as well does require planning. I know I would be one who would have liked to accompany you on that journey. No matter what stresses life throws at you, a few hours on the boat, cruising on the quiet rivers of any river is the best tonic a person can have. Now we are on the Thames in Oxford, I get my weekly fix, just being on the boat at this time of year, you don't need to go out, short days, low sun, but keeping warm is the secret, has wonderful therapeutic properties. Better medicine than some of the concoctions that some of us are taking lol. I look forward to the Spring, but why wait, enjoy what you have NOW ! A well written event, I could just imagine I was there. Richard

It is early days for us on the Thames, but having been here for a month, having been on the Broads, I have noticed that the ownership costs are more expensive, toll much more, as they have 45 locks to maintain and provide lock keepers for each one. Marina fees are nearly double what the Broads are. There are mooring fees in many places but Henley, Windsor expect to pay more. There are also many free moorings, some you have to log in your arrival time, either via the lock keeper or on line, to ensure you don't overstay your 24.0 hours. Then it's £5 for the next 24 hours for up to 2 days then a mortgage for each day after. They certainly know how to deal with "continuous cruisers". We moved for practical reasons, non use of the boat and medical reasons, but now we are near our daughter's in Oxford, I have visited the boat every week since we have been here on the Thames. I have a Robin to blame for a gadget I recently bought off a well known auction site, ( brand new unused, but at less than 1/3 new price, it's a sms controlled switch, so as we are now on shore power, it informs us of power loss, low temperatures, via sms texts and can be programmed via my mobile phone using sms texts, as a timer, and / or a thermostat. My intention is to fit a compressor type dehumidifier, that only comes on say during the day, but only if the temperature is above err say 3 degrees" I digress, there are far more riverside pubs and restaurants on the Thames, and several to choose from too at most popular places. There are more towns to visit with more things to do close to the river. You will find a lock approx every hour when out cruising, can be a pain, or a point of interest, but as all are manned, you don't even get off the boat. It is a different waterway to the Broads, but the hire craft tend to stay south of us, so we can cruise the upper quiet reaches above Oxford. Overall the Broads have less expenses, than the canals, or the Thames, large cruising distances on the Southern Broads, no guarantee of finding a mooring where and when you want. Few places for teenagers to hang out. I guess the Thames is more accessible from all points of the compass, unlike the Broads. The Thames hire bases, what few there are, can charge more, supply and demand etc. The main problem for hire companies on any waterway, is that many of their potential and previous customers now own their own boats, but it would be in the interests of the hire companies to find a way of squeezing out the private craft allowing these previous owners to become hirers again. Hmmm sounds familiar just look at toll fees lol. This may come as a surprise to all of us boaty types, but... to say this may be a breach of the sites terms and conditions... "Not everybody is interested in boats or cruising holidays" Aghhh !!! I know it's hard to believe, but for many of us driving/travelling 3 hours or more to a beautiful waterway, there are still people who live in Norfolk or Suffolk some only 15 minutes from the Broads, that have never been on a boat in their life, and have no intention to either. We will of course return to the Broads as a hirer, maybe early next year, we hope to take our family too. No doubt Grandad's treat lol. If things were different, we would have chosen to stay on the Broads, maybe a bigger boat, we considered moving there too. But life changes... Our Boat at Oxford suits our current lifestyle, it is a just a different waterway, but we get to keep our same boat. There is still some fine winter cruising to be enjoyed, wrap up, hot toddy, and enjoy the quiet waterways, and who knows, you might just find a mooring at Ranworth Staithe lol. Happy cruising, wherever you are, Richard

No matter how careful you are, a rope can go in the water, and you reverse slowly over it. For us it happened on the Broads at low speed as we were approaching our mooring, the other time, we were on the canal, just came out of a lock and the wind got up, the mooring line that were on the side deck was now in the water, and bingo... A prop foul. We have an outboard, but when it fouled it took the rope under the boat, so it was impossible to tilt the engine, but some carefull unraveling we managed to release the rope without damage, it was touch and go as to cut the rope or not. So two fouls in nearly 30 years isn't that bad, but it still can happen. For ease of mooring we have one long rope on each side of the boat, cleated at both ends, it means when you step off at the stern, you have full control of the boat. I use the same rope as a springer too, from bow cleat to post, from post to rear cleat ( have to take other end of rope off stern cleat first) then tie off the rope to a post behind the boat. I then have a shorter rope that I take from the opposite stern cleat to the post behind the boat, the boat isn't going anywhere. However, these much longer ropes may have contributed to the prop foul.

You could do the song "You got me" Problem is, those printing the advertising would probably shorten the band name and write... "You got me by The Fuzz" lol No wonder your songs bring tears to your eyes lol.

How can you leave something, that was never there lol?

In order to reduce costs the Broads Authority are removing the Reedham Ferry, so they are now erecting new signs on each side of the river.

You also have the superstructure too, you can't have centre cockpits that are small medium and large lol. I guess things were easier when built in wood. With steel narrow boats, between the front and stern the section is of the same profile, in fact companies offer extensions, where they cut a boat in half and weld in a section, like a stretched limousine.

Hi Trev, yes that was the initial idea, it's the first time we have electric hook up, I just like toys lol, I have installed Internet controlled units on our home central heating, so if in bed, I can put heating or hot water on and off, and if away, we can put the heating on when we are a couple of hours from home. If we get a cold snap whilst away, we can put the heating on for an hour or so. Did this for around £50 plus a couple of relays etc. We had considered a "Hive" system, but read that they can go into confusion, and set the house temperature to 30+ C for weeks on end if you are away, not saving much gas there are they? Hive, when they replied to my email, assured me that was now sorted. However, with Internet switching, even say with hive, if the server fails, there is no guarantee that the heating is either on or off as requested. So we had a spare dvr channel on our security cameras, so one is aimed at my controller, and with some frustrating interfacing, I managed to link the system via Ethernet to the Internet, so we can see what our heating is actually doing. I will try the GSM controlled unit on the boat, monitor temperature, power loss etc, switch on a heater, either by it's own timer, or thermostat, or remote control, but if the heating control at home goes pear shaped, then this controller comes home with us lol, as it sends an sms text once a request has been accepted. Now in the 25 years we have had our boat, we have never had shore power, but we have had 3 freeze ups of the Paloma Water heater, just one thimble full of water in the wrong place, causes extensive damage. We also had a diaphragm pump crack open due to an egg cup full of water, the pump comes home with us for winter now. We have always used water absorption crystals, but now we have considered an electric dehumidifier but there are advantages and disadvantages to each technology. Compressor type, don't like very cold temperatures, have been known to overheat. The desiccant type, don't like loss of power during the auto drying cycle, so no use for remote control, or for use on a time switch. They do warm the air, as such can be quite expensive to run. I am sure I could design a circuit so the power was only shut off during the resting cycle. The electronic type, have been known to be the cause of several fires. So overall the jury is out on this, but if we do fit a dehumidifier, it must be auto start in the event of power loss, and the GSM controller can send a text if the shore power is lost. Not sure if I will get annoyed when every time we go for a cruise I get a text of power loss, then another when we hook up again to say power restored, I just hope I can disable this when on the boat. At 5p an sms text, no big deal, but ... So, is the fitting of this kit in our boat, essential, desired, non essential or mainly another toy to play with? Time will tell lol. Best regards, Richard, Now on the Thames at Oxford.

Thanks Leo, just went onto the Giff Gaff website, ordered a free SIM card, at least that will get me going, unless I find a cheaper one. Also being O2, we get good reception at our mooring on the Thames with our Tesco mobile, also O2 Many thanks. Richard. PS Still open to suggestions for cheaper options lol...

I bought a similar one off eBay, to the one Robin suggested. Another toy to play with lol.... Now I need a cheap SIM card. Must be 2g, must have cheap texts, 5p or less, non contract, and an unlimited time to use the credit. A PAYG sim, standard size. I don't want to pay £10 a month to get "free texts" lol. I found one with unlimited time, cheap texts, but 4g only. There must be a 2g option. Can anyone recommend one? Best regards, Richard

When I used to do the total house cleaning, I used to put stripes on the lounge carpet, up one way, down the other, better than that, I used to open the doors to the dining room and the stripes went straight all the way through. This wound the wife up, she then told everyone at her work, but that back fired as they were all on my side. Better to have stripes and a clean house than no cleaning at all lol... Our vacuum cleaner isn't made by Hoover... It's made by Qualcast lol... Richard

Our scales are quite old, they use knife edges on the corner and a variable plate capacitor as the sensor, the heavier the weight, the closer the plates get together, thus, increasing their electronic capacity. This is used in an oscillating circuit, where the frequency is proportional to weight. Easy to adjust, one small potentiometer, I took ours into the hospital, and compared it to the electronic scales in hospital, so I adjusted them to suit. They were "weigh" out, our scales showed we were around 10lb lighter than the hospital ones. My wife still claims they were more accurate, and wants them putting back as they were lol... I recon if I left them as they were, I could have sold them on eBay lol... Most modern scales use strain gauge technology that's why some can be made from glass, the problem with these is they are not good with high levels of humidity and fluctuating temperatures. When I was in the weighing industry, we had a saying, no matter how accurate the scales, you can only weigh a dog to the nearest flea. We actually had scales that could do that. Also as a marketing gimmick, mostly at exhibitions, we weighed a clients business card, asked him to sign it... Weighed it again, you could measure the weight of the ink. What the customer then hopefully says... Look the weight is dropping.. not impressed.. That's the ink drying Sir... Now he is very impressed, where do I sign ? Also a clever way of getting contact details lol.... Scales can be accurate, it's just sometimes, we don't want them to be lol. Richard

I don't think you have posted in the wrong section, more a case in the wrong forum. Try posting in a forum that doesn't have a Gracie. Lol You have left us men open to posts about things that only men understand. Good luck lol

The thought of leaving your boat on a mooring for months on end, especially in the winter, is quite worrying. We were close to 4 hours away from the boat, and a quick return trip in a day is well beyond us now. A friend of ours regularly kept us updated on our boat, we were moored at Broadsedge in the new section, and he walked over from the other side just to check our boat, now you can't get better than that. It was a visual inspection, no steamed up windows, no canopy leaks etc and the antifoul foul still be seen lol. He even took a brush get the snow off the canopy. We will always be grateful to him. Our heart was always in our mouth when we put in a two monthly visit, had the Windows leaked, are the cushions dry, did the dehumidifier crystals hold up? Last winter, due to illness was a very difficult time, the boat had to go 3 months at one point, we planned to go, but hospital appointments for treatment, put paid to that. So this is one of the reasons we moved the boat to Oxford near our daughter. We have been there three weeks, and we visit the boat every week now, mostly to do those jobs you could never get around to. We have shore power, and I have fitted a galvanic isolator and on first measurement, there was 150 mV dc difference across the galvanic isolator earths, without the galvanic isolator, my anode on my outboard would soon be gone. I also checked for earth leakage both ac and dc when the fridge was connected, and when the battery chargers were connected, all seem fine. So for those on permanent shore power, do you have a galvanic isolator? If not, your anodes could be protecting all the boats in the area that share your common earth. If there was a caretaker type person, local to the marina, then they could have a set of keys, have a checklist, to check shore power, wet cushions, bilge water, battery status, etc. You could have a weekly or fort nightly check, now what would that be worth? You would need permission from the marina, but is this a task that they could offer, what happens if something was missed, and damage was sustained, who is liable? Mind you, in one marina we were in, the marina operator did very little, some boats had ripped canopies and water was getting in, they may have informed the owner, and maybe the owner ignored the warning... But my guess was they didn't care. Boats were so badly moored that some were scraping their gel coat against the jetty, no attempt to adjust the mooring lines of inform the owner. The marina had to move our boat once, and when we got there the outboard was bashing the jetty, no attempt to refit our springer. So you would have to trust someone to do this for you, if it was the marina, then it could be any member of staff, better for a private boat owner that regularly visits his own boat, and has the same values as you. Richard

You can get paracetamol from most places these days. Give Tan a pack of paracetamol, when she says she hasn't got a headache, you say r I g h t . . . Lol

When complete, and not on the water, where will the model be kept? I guess many followers would like to see the finished model. I certainly would. I wouldn't like to put a value of the finished model, hand built to a high specification, great detail etc my first guess well over a grand I would say. Richard

I have checked progress occasionally and I am really impressed. I may have missed the answer to this question, but will this be a dry model, or will it ever be on the water, maybe with radio control, to allow it to go under Potter Heigham bridge lol, in reverse .... But not through the main arch, but through both side arches lol... With an on board video camera of course. Will it have models of Griff, Robin and the crew? Richard

If you get tired when standing playing your double bass, then why not sit down lol. If your arms aren't long enough to reach the strings, don't "fret" over it lol.

I hope you take it with you when you go out onto the Broads, it could "Double" up as a life raft. Lol. Good luck with your new hobby. Grace... Behave yourself lol Edited to add a picture lol...

Not sure if it has been covered before , but I found this EDP report that makes interesting reading. http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/emerging_masterplan_for_the_broads_will_focus_on_protecting_the_waterways_special_qualities_after_brexit_1_4767504

This is a great possibility, can you remove the battery pack and connect the supply, I would think the laptop was designed to cope with that...

On smal boats, the wine glass being top heavy tends to spill wine, if by chance you need to put the wine glass down, then consider one of these attachments.

If you ever find yourself on a sinking ship, they say women and children first, but what about the wine? You can always get one of these...

I just wonder if the refurbishment is a pre requirement before handing the lot back to the original owner. If that is the case, then the moorings will be lost for all visiting craft. Richard

We were one of the first hirers to have a TV on a boat lol...who remembers the little red metal cased Russian Rigonda 5" black and white tv's, back in the early 70's we took ours with us with a 12' lead, with a fuse of course lol, In the 70's, TV's on hire craft were an optional extra.