mbird

We used to pass the common and carry on up to the lock, as it is a beautiful stretch of river, with a few moorings. In our Alpha 32, we never encountered any problems with depth, though it is a bit weedy, that didn't cause a problem. From there the Recruiting Sargent is only 5 mins walk. The river opens out a bit at the lock and so there is plenty of room to turn. The last time we got up there we were guest aboard Broad Ambition, which is longer than our old Alpha, and even so, Griff had no problem turning round.

Quite bizarrely, John, she briefly came into WRC on Saturday! You must have been having your siesta! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

We use a desiccant type dehumidifier all year round to keep the boat dry and fresh. If the one you have has a humidistat setting, don't have it set to dry the boat out too much as you can start to get problems with woodwork. Another tip to help cut down on the leccy use is to use a timer plug. We have ours set to run for about 6 hours a day which obviously helps on the running cost. You do need to make sure that the dehumidifier you have auto restarts after a power cut in order to use a timer though! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Not us I'm afraid Neil, as we'll be rocking it out at Vauxhall Holiday Park in GY at A Legends of Rock festival!

And if motoring with sails up, they yacht should of course be displaying the inverted cone day shape on the forestay

I'd pass stbd to stbd to give the maximum clearance to the yacht, since sudden wind shifts can quickly have the sail gybing or cause it to alter course with little warning. I guess I have a slight advantage having sailed quite a lot a few years back, and so I try to anticipate where the yacht is likely to be when I get to it, and pass astern of it. There very few times that you can't assess this reasonably well just by watching the motion of the yacht as you approach. When tacking, a yacht will very often be much quicker across the river in one direction than the other, and so wait until he is on the longer tack to give yourself as much time as possible to get past without having to floor it and kick up a huge wash for the yacht to then have to deal with. What I do get a little frustrated about is yachts which are under power, yet still seem to be all over the river. When using an engine a yacht is a stinkie, not a sailie and therefore should stick to the correct side of the river. I had an occassion a couple of months ago when I rounded a bend to be met by three yachts, all under power, line abreast the river and so had to thread between them. Luckily I'd seen their masts over the reeds and so knew they were approaching, but I think seeing me come round the bend was a bit of a surprise for them as they had no forewarning I was there.

We have the honeycomb type layer underneath our mattress. We bought it as the same time as the new mattress to help protect it, but I am a bit dubious as to its effectiveness, since the weight of the mattress itself seems to crush the honeycomb layer, so I'm not sure how much airflow there is. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

No problems at all Dave. My favourite is a whole pork shoulder hot smoked for 16 hours (with smoke on for the first 4 hours) to make superb pulled pork.

Frank, you are using bread flour aren't you? Normal plain flour doesn't have enough gluten in it. I used to use my bread machine a lot, but found that due to the shape of the loaf , and the fact the middle slices had a hole in where the mixing paddle is, it was a bit of a pain. I much prefer to make bread the hands-on way now. I simply tip 500g of bread flour in the worktop and make a large well in the middle. I add 1.5 tsp of instant yeast (I prefer Allisons), 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, and 200ml water. Then I use a fork to start combining the flour from around the edge into the liquid until it resembles porridge, and then add another 100ml water, gradually mixing the flour from the outside. Once it's stiff enough I go in with the hands to bring the rest of the flour together and then continue for a 5 minute knead. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling film and place in a warm cupboard for 45-60 mins. Once this time is up it will have doubled in size. Tip it onto a floured worktop, and knead again for 30 seconds or so. Then form in to a loaf shap, or put in a loaf tin, or make into rolls or basically make what ever shape you like and place on a flour baking tray. Cover again with oiled cling film and place back in the warm place for 30-45 mins. Heat the oven to about 180C and then back the bread for 25 mins. This is a very basic white bread recipe, but you can easily add other ingredients. I often steep cumin seeds in boiling water, and then once the water is room temperature use that to make the dough. Then at the second knead stage I add diced boiled potatoe for a nice spicy potatoe bread. The fun is in the experimenting with adding different things!

It certainly was as we were in the two-boat scenario and getting a bit worried as mooring fees were getting close. It was March/April iirc.....

Exactly what I have Dave. I've had it about 6-7 years now and converted it to be able to do cold smoking for salmon by modifying a large plastic container for the smoke generator and piping the smoke to the cabinet with some aluminium flexible ducting. Works really well! I could only by the bisquettes online until recently when the local camping shop in Blofield started stocking them again this year. Cold smoked hard boiled eggs are also delicious; they taste like eggs and bacon but without the bacon! Sorry Iain!

Even more like minds then Dave! I used to make my own bacon, ham and sausages. Buying a half a pig from the butcher in Ludham and butchering it, ending up with lots of lovely grub was very satisfying, but I just don't have the time these days now I'm self-employed. I've still got my smoker in the shed though that gets used, but not as often as I'd like.

A man after my own heart Dave. Infact I've just retrieved some sun-dried tomatoe and parmesan rolls from the oven! Here's a couple I made earlier!

Surveys have their place I think, but are by no means a gospel about the condition of the boat. For someone new to boating I would say they offer some peace of mind about the boat's value, but all come with a disclaimer at the bottom that basically says the survey is the surveyors opinion and he's not responsible for anything. When we bought our first boat, I did have a survey done. It was quite detailed, but didn't note the rot in the floor panels in the aft cabin. However, she was a good boat and after some refurbishment did us proud. I have since changed boat twice, and feel I know have enough experience to check things that would likely be picked up on a survey. Our current boat was bought without having a survey done, though I did have sight of a 3 year old one that was done for the present owner, and carried out my own inspection. Unfortunatley for us, engine problems and an electrical issue meant a hefty repair bill in the first year on top of the things we knew needed doing. The point for me though, is that even an in depth engine survey could not have spotted the problems we had, and so the money I would have spent on a survey went towards the repairs.

NYA will generally consider taking boats in part exchange, so that's worth thinking about if they have anything you are interested in. I can only speak from personal experience, but when we sold our previous boats we'd had it with an internet broker for a few months. We'd had a few viewings but no offeres. We decided to put it with NYA in Brundall so took it up there on a saturday, told them how much we wanted to walk away with, and it sold for the right price the very next day!

Good luck with the sale Simon!

True, John, but available everywhere on their website

This may be worth a watch if anyone is interested in Norfolk produce. It's presented by Richard Hughes, the Chef/Proprietor of The Lavender House in Brundall on Mustard TV. http://www.mustardtv.co.uk/episode/a-taste-of-norfolk/ Mustard TV (local TV station for Norfolk) is available on Freeview Channel 8 though you might need a retune to find it!

That's certainly true for 4 cylinder engines, but is that still true if the engines are 6 cylinder, with the crank aranged at 120 degree intervals rather than 180 degree in the case of 4 cylinder lumps, so there would be 3 power strokes per rev rather than 2? No, forget that, since even if arranged in that configuration, there would still be half the pistons on an intake stroke per rev I guess!

Ignoring gearboxes, props, drive types etc and just thinking in very basic terms about the actual engine, in one minute, the volume of air displaced would be; 2500 x 4.085L = 10,212.5 litres 3500 x 3.168L = 11,088 litres This isn't actually a measure of the fuel used, as it depends on how the pistons are arranged on the crank (i.e. how many pistons are sucking in fuel per rev as some will be on the exhaust stroke) and how many cylinders there are. Also, it obviously makes no allowance for fueling (common rail or old fashioned injection pump) and aspriation (super charger, turbo, normally aspirated), but does illustrate that the larger engine is shifting less gas. Or at least, I think it does!

Just make sure you book Iain, as it is very popular!

Personally I think the best Indian on the Broads has to be Labone in Oulton Broad. I'm not a great fan of the Balti Raj that looks over the broad as I find it bland, so usually opt to walk up to Labone, which is located in the old station building at Oulton Broad North station.

There is no boom on a Wherry, John. I assume it's the sail cloth rolled up you can see as it looks like it has a reef in. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

How about a windpump AND a swan Or a dyke AND a swan? No swans or mills in this one Or even a misty sunrise I'll get me coat.....!

As if by magic, Tanya has just emailed me to say that NBN members ordering online can use the discount code NBN at the checkout page to automatically apply the 10% discount. How's that for service! I've added this information to the first post so no one misses it