mbird

Wasn't sure if you really wanted a toilet Avatar or not Jon . Let me know if you have a piccie you'd rather use

Had my first boat out of the water using that method. Very hard work indeed!

Here's the link

Hi Linny We have a Status 330 Omni directional aerial on our boat on the Southern rivers. We have it mounted on our radar arch, but it has a standard threaded fitting so should be adaptable to fit on to an extension pole. We bought ours from Brian Wards which was far cheaper than the local camping shop! The aerial comes complete with a booster with adjustable gain, and we have always been able to get a decent digital signal since the switchover. Just one thing to be aware of, the Status 330 is available with either 5m or 10m cable attached. We had BW order us the 10m specially as they only had the 5m one in stock at the time. The cable is hard wired into the aerial so the only way to extend it is to use a joiner which would be detrimental to the signal. As the 10m version was only £5 more than the 5m version, it was daft not to go for the 10m in our view.

A few months ago we were lucky enough to spend a weekend on the Northern rivers aboard Broad Ambition, with some fellow forumites also along with us as guests aboard The Corsican. We went up to the end of navigation, and I remarked on passing The Rising Sun that the sign saying no hire boats beyond that point seemed to have disappeared, so I am not sure if it is still the case. Here's a picture of Simon (Mirage on here) expertly turning The Corsican near the lock

We use Aquatabs all the time, putting in two at every fill (we have a 100 gallon tank) and purchase them from Brian Wards. There is a slight chlorine taste, but no stronger than some tap water I have tasted. We happily drink the water straight from the taps and have not have a problem. I will add though, that at the end of every season and the beginning of the next we clean the tank using Puraclean from a camping shop. We add it to the tank and then completely fill the tank, leave it for 24 hours, then drain it, refill it, and drain it again to flush it all out.

And as I have mentioned before elsewhere, they will often price match if you can find an item cheaper (even online). Always worth asking.

Loving this!

Last year we had a lot of technical problems with the boat, including blowing an engine on the way back from the Thames. We thought the problems were over until trying to come back into Reedham Marina. Anyone that knows Reedham will understand that the tide runs very quickly across the entrance to the marina. My solution to this is get lined up a little way up or down stream depending on tide direction, and when close to the entrance, give it a bit of throttle until through and into calm water and then into reverse to stop. On this occasion our electronic throttle system decided to malfunction after I had "given it a bit of throttle" and was in danger of hurtling into the quay heading at the end of the marina, or worse, other peoples boats! I quickly went into reverse and went flying back out of the marina entrance at almost full throttle, only to find that when selecting neutral, the engines stayed in reverse! Rather than career into the reeds on the opposite bank stern first, I cut both engines. This had the effect of killing the boat stone dead and not even the anchor could be lowered. Luckily the tide was on the way out, so we ended up drifting down the river (rather that than towards the bridge!) bouncing sedately off the reeds trying to figure out what the hell to do. Rescue was on the way in the form of another couple of our fellow moorers in one of the smallest boats in the marina. After a bit of rope chucking they eventually managed to pull us out of the reeds and back up to the marina against the current at about 1mph. Looking back it must have seemed quite amusing to see us being towed back (a bit like David pulling along Goliath by his nostrils I suspect), but with a lot of helping hands we were finally in our berth. The problem was actually a bad earth on the boat that had caused the throttle controls to fry themselves, but it was pretty embarrassing nonetheless!

Personally I have had pretty good service from Norfolk Marine over the years, as long as you turn a blind eye to the grumpy attitude of one or two members of staff, and even they can be approachable on occasion. In this instance I would write a letter to the owner explaining the situation and see if that can go someway to a reconciliation?

Topic merged as requested by Boaters

According to a post on the ECB forum, it hit a container ship at 20kts!

Oops, I just double checked and we're actually 12'2", not 12'6". Phew!

That's the Chet out for us until spring then by the looks of it. We are 12'6" beam so it would be an even tighter squeeze than normal!

Another thing to consider is that actually, our tolls are quite low in comparison to other waterways. For example, our boat costs around £450 for a Broads toll. If we were based on the Thames, this would be nearly £800 (eg £17.42 per sq.m. compared to roughly £10 on the Broads)

That looks like some exciting sailing Clive!

Whatever they do, one thing for certain is it won't get any cheaper!

Sounds like you are having a good time Robin, despite the weather! One tip for washing rhond anchors, leave them tied to the mooring line and then you can swing them in the water without fear of losing them! You were very lucky to retrieve that one with the boat hook!

I've not heard of any plans for pontoons, but it wouldn't be a bad thing. Are you maybe thinking of the new floating pontoons that have been installed below Breydon bridge? These are to give people somewhere to tie up whilst awaiting the tide to get under the Yarmouth bridges on the Bure and have only been there a couple of months.

You can't beat the Troll Cart for value, and there's now a new Weatherspoons in Lowestoft too!

Hi Bobby You can moor on the town hall quay, just below Haven Bridge for free, though it isn't for the faint hearted! The quay wall is concrete topped piling, and mooring entails grabbing the hangman's-nooses that dangle from the top of the wall whilst trying to hold the bolt steady against a strong current. add to that the fact that the tide rises and falls a couple of metres or so and you can see it's not an ideal mooring spot. I have moored there a couple of times when I have been too early for a pre-booked bridge lift, but never for more than a couple of hours. I'm not sure how powerful an engine you have, but the current through Yarmouth runs at about 3 kts, which accelerated to around 6-7 kts through Haven bridge on a full spring ebb, so you would need to pick your tide states for your passage. I certainly wouldn't recommend venturing down there in a vessel that was intended only for river use at anything other than flat calm slack water, and even then beware of strong currents. Here's a google map showing the location:

Quite agree Matt. A floating pontoon with ramp access would make such a difference!

Personally I don't hate Gt Yarmouth. True, a good proportion of it leaves a lot to be desired and is very run-down, but the same is true of many British seaside towns like Blackpool etc. Even Cromer has less-than-attractive areas, it's just a lot smaller! The development of Yarmouth since the hey-days has been very poorly managed from an architectural point of view, leaving the town scarred by hideous concrete carbuncles (to use HRH's phrase), but there are still some gems to be found if you know where to look. A trip to the Time and Tide museum a few year ago made me look at Yarmouth in a different light when it was a thriving port and some of the history is still to be found there today. Yarmouth was a working port and industrial town long before it became a holiday destination, so it's no wonder it ain't that pretty. Agreed, the trip through Yarmouth by river is not exactly picturesque, as it travels through the derelict/industrial back-end of the town, and the yacht station is not somewhere I would wish to spend the night. The last time I did was about 5 years ago, and the sound of yoofs walking up and down the quay in the early hours of the morning meant I spent quite a while on sentry duty incase we were untied. We've also had stones and batteries thrown at us in the past when cruising through, which is why I always had a camera with a long zoom lens to hand. That certainly deters the vandals! Viewing it from a different perspective though, it does have a superb beach, a good fun-fair, a good swimming pool and also some good places to eat. To a large number of holiday-makers that come from inner cities each year, a lot of whom have probably never seen the sea before, the place must be paradise! The fireworks evenings that are put on during the summer holidays each week are really quite good, and the last one we went to in August was packed with people enjoying themselves and had a really good feel to it. I do wish though, that the council would clamp down on some of the trading that goes on along Regent Road. Do we really need to be selling vicious hunting knives or novelty rock in the shape of genitalia (some of which is so detailed it could be used to teach trainee gynaecologists) at children's eye level? Yes, it's tacky (as are most seaside resorts), yes it's extremely run-down in places, but it is still a popular destination. It needs huge investment to sort it out, which simply isn't going to happen any time soon, but, if you view it through the eyes of someone who lives in a tower block in an inner city, is it really that bad?

To raise a little bit of cash for the RNLI, you can recycle your old printer cartridges, mobile phones etc by sending them to The Recycling Factory. They will send you envelopes to post the items free. Follow this link for more info! http://www.therecyclingfactory.com/rnli