mbird

Hi Pat Glad to hear you should soon be back boating! I used to moor north with Tranquil Breeze and spent a season at Broadsedge. Very nice location indeed, but the trip up and down the Ant every time we wanted to go out lost it's appeal after a while for me. There are also marinas at South Walsham Broad, and new ones at Acle owned by the same people. When we got a sea-going boat, we moved down south. Having spent years loving the north and hating the south (reeds, reeds, reeds) I suddenly found myself falling in love with the area. Very peaceful, not so many hire craft, not so many yachts, and more room for everyone it seems. Distances between villages etc are greater so there tends to be longer cruises between destinations. Now having a flybridge it's even better as the views are stunning once you can see over the reeds. Some find the south boring, but I prefer the ambiance. If you were tempted south. there are a lot of marinas in Brundall (apart from the obvious Tingdene Brundall Bay) which may be worth you having a drive around. Also as mentioned Brundall Gardens, though I know that used to have a depth problem at spring lows leaving some vessels grounded. It may have been dredged by now though, so don't take that as gospel. We are based at Reedham Marina, which I like immensely. The main reason for us being there is that it's a lot closer to the sea exits than Brundall. I does have a scarily fast tide running across a narrow entrance and almost always a cross-wind, which makes getting in and out interesting at the best of times!

The Bank holiday weekend saw 28 boats converge on St Kats in London. The trip was organised by the Sealine owners club, but there were a few interlopers in non-Sealines, and several NBN forumites were present. We headed out from Lowestoft to Haven Marina in Ipswich on Wednesday evening, with a following sea & tide which made for a comnfortable ride despite the 1m swell, arriving at about 8:30pm. The following afternoon, Sue and I headed down to Shotley, leaving Happy Jax 3 and Job Done in Ipswich with other contingents of the fleet. We had decided to start from Shotley simply because we were the slowest boat so needed a head start. After a nice meal and a pint with Gav and Annie in the Shipwreck on Thursday evening, we headed to bed for the early start on Friday. 4:30am seems far to early to start the day, but even so we were about 30 minutes late leaving Shotley lock at 6:00am for the cruise to London. We ran on our own for the majority of the journey, finally catching up with some of the fleet from Chatham around Gravesend. Unfortunately, our arrival was just behind HMS Ocean, with attendant tugs, and London VTS instructed us all we were to stay behind her all the way up the Thames. This meant our journey was a bit longer than anticipated as we had to cruise the 30 miles of the Thames at 8kts. We still arrived at St Kats in plenty of time to lock in, and were caught up by the rest of the fleet en route. Arriving at St Kats was a mixture of trepidation and elation. Having heard a few horror stories of the locking in at the marina, we were pleasantly surprised by how efficient and organised it all seemed. Luckily, the organisers of the trip had liased well with St Kats, so we were the only ones locking through, and they accomodated all the boats in the central basin. A great weekend followed, only marred by the weather, and the fact we lost an engine on entering Yarmouth yesterday afternoon on the return passage (head gasket suspected). Here's a few pics of the trip

We'll be in St Kats. Not quite the same vibe (or weather!). Have a good time.

Interesting video, thanks for posting Perry. We wanted to visit the Deben during our summer hols last year but conditions and tides conspired against us on that one. Hopefully we'll make it this year instead!

“The police have some suspects and if they are caught we will be doing some educational work with them. We will explain the dangers and implications of their actions, not just to the culprits but to their circle of friends and in the area where they live.†You cannot educate the criminaly stupid. Just throw them in the river and let nature do the rest. I've had stones and batteries thrown at me before when travelling on the river through Yarmouth, so not being able to get under the bridges anymore is no great loss to me!

That's interesting Basil, I didn't spot that on the way past. Let's hope someone can breath some life back into the place then!

Yes please John Secret Lady, Side on preferred, leccy, Fri & Sat

Well, I think things may have changed. I drove past there last week, and all the For Sale signs had gone, and there was an "open" sign on the door. There was no sign of life though, so quite what is ocurring I have no idea.

Super meet, and thanks to John for organising it! It was great to meet crew Jasperoo, and catch up with fellow boaters and forumites as always. Unfortunately we did have a bit of an adventure getting there, having decided to go the salty way from Yarmouth to Lowestoft. I mean, what are the chances of Breydon, Haven and Bascule bridges ALL having problems lifting! Still, we managed to get there in the end, in the pouring rain (why does it always rain when locking through Mutford?) and dried off eventually.

So who ordered the weather for this weekend then???

The pads that glue to the dinghy are quite thick items, and obviously d ohelp reinforce the dinghy tube. The metal bar that fits into the pads is solid, and when the dinghy is lifted up, it's the metal bars that are held by the hook, so the hook itself doesn't really come into contact with the dinghy at all. As long as you keep the dinghy inflated properly so it doesn't sag, there should be no problem Jim.

Sorry to hear that James. I still have your folders to return to you!

According to the tech info for my D4 Ebersplutter, power consumption is 40w at full power, reducing to only 7w at low power. Assuming you would only need it on low power overnight to keep the chill off, then thats only a current draw of less than 0.6A. You would have thought a couple of 110Ah batteries would be able to keep up with that no problem! However, the low voltage cut-out on my unit is 10.5V. You said in your other thread you were only seeing 10-11V on the voltmeter with the engine running, so low voltage was probably the issue. I have 3x110Ah batteries for the domestice, but I suspected them to be a bit iffy. When I had them tested, the worst one only had a capacity of 48Ah, so was completely crackered. Needless to say, we replaced all three!

Thanks Guys. The main aim of the weekend was to get out and give her a try at sea before our planned trip to London in May. It was good to see how she handled in less than ideal conditions, and to put the new nav equipment through it's paces. I am certainly now going to check ALL the wiring to the Microcommander throttle controllers!

Doesn't sound right to me Martin. I suspect a knackered alternator or regulator. Sounds to me like the voltage you were seeing on the gauge was actually the charge in the batteries, not what they should have been getting from the alternator. You should certainly have seen 13-14V with the engine running.

Our first proper weekend away on the boat was a bit of a shake-down, and also taster for my Mum and Dad who are accompanying us on the London trip. As we haven't all shared living space on Secret Lady before, and neither Mum or Dad have been out to sea for a long time, it seemd the ideal opportunity to give it a go! Pity the weather wasn't kinder, but we learned a lot! Thursday evening we got to the boat about 8:30 and unloaded the clothes and food from the car. The pub beckoned for a pint or two, where we had an enjoyable couple of hours with Gav and Annie (MY Pastie). It was a very cold frosty night, so we were glad we'd left the heating and leccy blanket on! Good Friday The majority of the day was spent with maintencance chores. The most importand was to carry out oil and filter changes on the gearboxes. I had been concerned the previous week to find no oil on the dipstick of the port gearbox, and decided to do a complete oil change rather than just top it up. In the end there was about 2.5L in there (should have been about 4) so not a complete disaster, but worrying all the same. We then replaced a coolant pipe that had a leak and did a few other jobs. Heading down to Oulton Broad, we managed to moor quite well (almost looked like we knew what we were doing!) had a spot of dinner and then met up with Col and Lou (HJ3). A most enjoyable evening at the Flying Dutchman was had, rocking out to "Walkway", a very talented young rock band. The walk/stagger back to the boat took in a detour to the kebab shop and so to bed! Saturday Sue felt a little groggy, having got outside a bottle of wine the previous evening, but was soon sorted by a mug of tea and a bacon sarnie. We tidied the boat and then met the aforementioned parents from the train station and got them settled on board. Mum is hampered in her movement quite badly by arthritis in her knees, so would not be much help as deck, crew (but great at making tea!), but Dad's help was invaluable as we left the mooring to enter Mutford Lock for the first time in Secret Lady. A quick wave to HJ3 and Job Done who were circling like vultures for out mooring spot, and it was all concentration getting into the lock with a bit of a cross-breeze. We managed to lock through with no problems, and so down to Haven Marine to fill up with Diesel. The drizzle that had been falling finally stopped and a bit of sun popped through the cloud. 360 litres later, and lunch done, we headed down to wait for the 2:30 bridge lift before popping around into Hamilton Dock. A quick trip into town to pick up a couple of leccy blankets for the parents from Argos, and a nosey at the visitors pontoon at RNSYC (which was empty apart from a lone Sealine "Escape") prompted us to change plans of spending a night at Hamilton in favour of the nicer surroundings of RNSYC after all. Back at the boat, we wanted to head out for a quick play at sea to see how Secret Lady handled. A bit of a chop on top of a small swell gave us our first taster of how she handled, and also our first time on a flybridge at sea. She seemed to have remarkably good manners, and so after a 6 mile circular trip, we headed back in. When we got to RNSYC, the previously empty visitors pontoon was now full of Dutch yachts! The only place to moor was to raft alongside David (Alfresco) on Escape, but this meant my poor mum was boat-bound as there was no way she could clamber between boats. After a bit of discussion, we asked at the club and were told we could moor on the fuel pontoon, so we accomplished this with no drama, and spent a pleasant evening in the bar. The food was very good and the beer a reasonable price! Sunday The wind had picked up as promised, and after some deliberation and a look a the sea-state, we decided we would make an attempt at Southwold. It was a bit of a 50/50 decision, but we thought we would probably have a window to get back on the monday with a following sea, so we headed out of the yacht club. The sea that greated us at the harbour entrance didn't look too bad, and we managed to get on the plane, but did take a couple of face-fulls of salt-water from the sea that was on our starboard beam. My Mum was not too impressed by that! As we reached out first waypoint and turned more southerly, we had the swell and chop on our bow, which wasn't too bad, but gradually deteriorated. The further we went, the worse the sea got, and at a point just south of East Barnard, we started taking green water over the bow, which then rolled nicely up the boat and soaked us on the flybridge. At this point, we were down to less than 8 knots, and the thought of spending the next hour in those conditions didn't appeal. We were faced with the biggest sea I have been out in, with holes opening up 2-3 metres deep and feeling like we were in a washing machine. I picked my moment, and turned around, and headed back. Miraculously, with the sea following us, we were back up on the plane and the return trip became really quite enjoyable! We even had time to test out the auto-pilot, which worked billiantly! We were pleased that we had been out in some pretty poor conditions, but much more pleased to be back in calm waters once we entered the harbour! Although the predicted swell was only 1m from the south, we had gone out at the peak of the flood tide, with wind against, and the result was a very confused sea indeed. At least we had a bit of experience now of how we and the boat coped! The rest of the day was spent locking back to the broads and heading up to Beccles for the evening. Upon arrival, Sue set about washing the salt off everything! We have also discovered that the forward hatch seal needs replacing, due to a slightly soggy and salty bed! Monday After I had cooked us all a full-english, a wander into Beccles and a coffee followed a departure in the drizzle. We had to lower the radar to get under the road bridge, but had plenty of clearance, so we know that is not a problem even though Secret Lady is considerably taller than Serenity. Whilst underway, I wanted to have a look at the prop shaft seals to see how much water they were letting in. After out trips at sea, we had a couple of pints of oily-water in the previously dry bilges. A quick inspection showed them dripping about a drop every 30 seconds at river speed, which is fine by me. I think this accounts for the water in the bilge and I believe the oil is just from the crank case breathers. A check on fluid levels the previous evening hadn't shown any of them to be low. We also seem to have a slight issue with the electronic throttle controls on the starboard engine, where at river speeds, the engine revs hunt up and down by about 100 revs. I took the cover off the control unit, and sure enough, the servo is pulling the throttle cable in and out, so we now know that it where the issue lies. Unfortunately, when putting the cover back on, all of a sudden an alarm sounded and we had no starboard engine! A quick survey of situation showed the starboard engine in neutral with no throttle control at all. Whilst Sue continued helming on one engine, I went back to the control box and quickly found a broken wire into one of the connector blocks. Once repaired, full control was established, but still hasn't sorted the hunting issue. Thank heaven the wire didn't break the previous day at sea! All in all an enjoyable and fruitful weekend. We gained quite a lot of experience in just a couple of days, and a bit more confidence in the boat and ourselves. Some sounshine and calm seas would have been nice though! Sorry for the lack of photos, but we were too busy!!

Well done Rich! We'll be sure to pop up and say hello at some point in the near future

Wow! Stunning as always Dave.

Sounds excellent!!

How much??????!!!!!

Well done Frank! I'm a great believer in gut instinct and "fate", so it sounds like that is definately the boat you were meant to have. As for Mrs Mowjo making the decision for you, that's even better! Being an Ex-summercraft you just know it has been well looked after. Congratulations on getting back on the water

Ah, but he wouldn't send me anything until I'd transferred £900 to him via Western Union....