Tales From The South Side...... The Return

[deebee29]

On returning home from our week on Silver Elegance in April 2015 we immediately booked for the same week this year.

After much anticipation and excitement the day finally arrived, we'd had some really glorious weather right up to the day before our holiday, really warm t shirt weather, I'd spent some time in the garden tidying up and we were hoping it was going to last.

How wrong can you be.

We set off at around 7 on the Saturday morning and noticed a distinct drop in temperature. 

After a good, uneventful journey with no hold ups around Catterick we arrived in Brundall just on 12.

We weren't due at Silverline until 2 so I called into Brian Wards to collect the book I had ordered (A Broad Experience which I had ordered after seeing it mentioned on here and can thoroughly recommend.) then called into the Yare  to toast the start of our holiday before heading down to the yard.

 

On arrival we were greeted with a wonderful warm welcome from Colin who made us feel like old friends and told us we are all good to go and could load up and pop into the office when we were ready.

The boat looked just as we left it a year ago.

In the office we were again greeted by Colin & Lesley, a lovely couple and sorted out the paperwork, we didn't need lifejackets as we have our own, and didn't need a trial as we had the same boat last year so left the yard just after 2.

 

We never go far on our first night and had already decided on Rockland. 

The Staithe was empty when we arrived so we moored by the electric point as we had some cards leftover from last year, however the electric posts (not the cards) didn't seem to work (I mentioned it to the Ranger at Reedham the next day)

The day was cold, dull & very windy and the boat is 44' & quite high and our bow was being pushed round so we moved to the other silde of the slipway & moored side on on the end space.

A couple of other boats came in and moored, we sorted the boat and then a private boat and moored side on in front of the sign stating stern mooring only. I won't mention the boat name but it was crewed by 4 middle aged men who seemed to have been on the drink all day and were very loud who then proceeded to take out 2 large fuel cans and fill the boat......... With lit cigarettes in their mouths........ I know diesel is not flammable like petrol but this doesn't seem like good practice to me.

We had something to eat then my brother and me had a walk to the Beuchamp Arms which was an interesting experience ( they give you the beer free but ask you to give a donation.... Something to do with licensing problems) but the beer was good (Humpty Dumpty) we then walked back to the New Inn for one then it was time for an early night. It had been a long and tiring but enjoyable day.

At 3 am we were awoken by a right racket........ The private boaters had returned from wherever with raised voices and the language was foul,  not what my 85 year old mother should have to put up with  (and to think the grief stagg parties get ) we get off to sleep only to be woken again at 5.45 with the sound of someone being violently sick into the water.......from noise he was making he should have been in hospital ...... In all the years I've been coming to the broads this is the worst behaviour I've witnessed.

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello David,

Sorry to hear of experience at Rockland St Mary, I hope the offending crew did not follow you around the Broads.

Silverline  are a great yard, I have friends who have been year on year with them, you never hear of any negative reports about Silverline.

Regards

Alan 

[Oddfellow]

You get bad behaviour from people in every walk of life and to witness it only a couple of times in public like that is just good fortune. The roads are full of people like this, the rivers too. Parliament is especially infested with self-centred people (and somehow the populous votes for them). 

Sadly, you can't choose your neighbours easily, but at least on a boating holiday, you have the opportunity to move away from them..... 

[Gracie]

Hi Dave

Sorry to hear of your dreadful experience at Rockland, must have been disappointing on your first night, you would think older people should know better, not very nice for your mum to have to listen to either, it can only get better (I hope), so come on, day 2 please  Well, sorry, been waiting since Saturday lol

Grace

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trambo]

HI Dave, Saw you around a couple of times. Love Silverline, such nice people and so proud of their fleet.

Sorry about your experience at Rockland, always expect it to be one of the quieter moorings as I'm sure you did. Really do not understand the mentality of people when they act like this. Looks like they set out to get drunk and more than exceeded!

Fred

 

[NorfolkNog]

Very sorry to hear about this, Rockland is usually one of the more peaceful moorings which must make it doubly annoying. 

We went down there a couple of years ago and the Staithe was crammed with fishermen. We ended up mooring on the Short Dyke and walking round via the footpath. It's not far to walk although I'm not sure if you are supposed to moor there. 

[Liberty]

Hope you ran your engine nice and early for them!

[JawsOrca]

16 minutes ago, Liberty said:

Hope you ran your engine nice and early for them!

Twin 6cyc perkins.. no silencers.. reverberating off the walls.. That would assist them with the hangover!  lol  

[Liberty]

We could moor either side of them..!

[deebee29]

11 hours ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

Sadly, you can't choose your neighbours easily, but at least on a boating holiday, you have the opportunity to move away from them..... 

Not at 3 o clock in the morning you can't when on a hire boat.

[Gracie]

Why should anyone have to move off their chosen mooring because of disgusting behaviour by people who should most definitely have known better. It doesn't matter if they're hirers, owners, young or old, it's just not acceptable for a lady of 85 years old on the first night of her holiday to listen to such foul language and then have to listen to someone being sick over the side of their boat. I think Dave showed great restraint, I don't think my dad or husband would have been so forgiving.

Grace

[ExSurveyor]

Isn't it funny that we freely name and shame hire craft but not private craft 

If they are forum members they may want to say sorry 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Mark,

We as a forum try to not name and shame anyone.

Personally however in  David's place I would have had a word with the Broads Control, if this crew were in a state whilst travelling on the rivers before mooring up and more than likely the following day, should they be in control of a boat.

Regards

Alan 

[Broads01]

Oh dear, I'm sorry to read this. I've visited Rockland many times but never stopped the night there as for me the moorings have a claustrophobic feel about them. It's something to do with being stern on in a tight space and having the two staithes at right angles to each other. On one visit there we'd intended to stop the night but changed our minds because there was a group of drinkers who weren't the quietest. That night we ended up on the southernmost dyke that leads to Rockland (Fleet Dyke?) and it was a lovely spot from where you could walk to the village.

[ExSurveyor]

Hi Alan,  I quite agree with the restraint on naming and shaming , just seemed the op felt he couldn't as it was a private craft. 

By the way, It wasn't me being a pain at Rockland,  I'm not up until Friday and I can't stay awake until 3am anymore even without a drink 

[deebee29]

After breakfast (which was accompanied by more sounds of vomiting) we set off for Beccles, the morning is very dull and bitterly cold with a biting wind, I was determined to steer from the upper helm in all but the worst weather (which I did all week) I'd brought plenty of cold & wet weather gear.

As we leave our mooring its starts to snow & hail. I’ve always wondered what winter boating was like …..now I know.

It’s blustery and cold all the way,

The scenery is as stunning as ever with some heavy black cloud ahead of us which we knew we would have to go through. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, the Broads are always stunning.

I didn’t dare take the camera out in this weather as I wouldn’t be able to get it put away when the showers came. I had a GoPro running and will lift some stills from that.

We call in at Reedham where the Ranger comments on my smooth mooring and here we witness some more inconsiderate behaviour from a couple of private boaters.

We wanted some more electric cards so after a coffee we go to find the Ranger who was down the other end of the quay only to have to go up onto the road to get past a big Broom boat who was using the water hose to wash his boat and spraying all over the quay, soaking anyone who passed. When the Ranger saw him he said the hose isn’t there for that but he still continued.

we returned to our boat to see another private boat coming in to moor in front of us (there was plenty of room in front ) and he moored so close to us barely leaving 6 inches between us which was fine until we were preparing to leave the guy made some smart A***d comment about having to remove his ensign before “These Two” break it off well this was a red rag to a bull for my brother who reminded the guy that it was him that moored so close to us.

We untied and I put both thrusters on and glided gently away from the quay……. the guy’s face was a picture. Hirers 1 Private 0

Sorry if it appears that I'm having a go at private boaters... I'm not, its just what happened this time.

We've been coming to the Broads since the early 80's and met some really lovely people, hirers, private boaters and locals and we met more this time after these 3 incidents.

We leave Reedham and head down the New Cut, the wind is very strong and the showers keep coming.just after we pass the Environment Agency yard at the St Olaves end I see a large shape moving in the water, looking through my binoculars I see its a seal….. A first for me on the Broads.

we stop as Somerlayton to check if the electric posts are working (they are) and to check the clearance at the bridge. Theres not enough room so we have to get it to open…. another first for us.

It’s very windy all the way down to Beccles, we have a mooring booked and get tied up without any problems.The rivers seem very quiet, Silverline only have 2 boats out this week.

We are early enough to go up to Tesco for out supplies before they closed at 4 (being a Sunday)

There seems to have been some kind of get together at the yacht station for St Georges Day weekend with the stragglers staying till Monday….. the boats were all dressed with Union Jack bunting  and it looked like they'd had a great weekend.

A very friendly bunch…… we passed the time of day with a number of them.

we had our meal on board then headed up into Beccles for a couple of beers, we got back to the boat just before the heavens opened.

 

 

 

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

13 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

Oh dear, I'm sorry to read this. I've visited Rockland many times but never stopped the night there as for me the moorings have a claustrophobic feel about them. It's something to do with being stern on in a tight space and having the two staithes at right angles to each other. On one visit there we'd intended to stop the night but changed our minds because there was a group of drinkers who weren't the quietest. That night we ended up on the southernmost dyke that leads to Rockland (Fleet Dyke?) and it was a lovely spot from where you could walk to the village.

Hi Simon,

We have moored there overnight on a few occasions and have usually moored stern on by the electric posts, it is best not to moor right up to the slipway if the boat has a deep draft (mind you if the draft is so deep you would struggle up the dyke to get to the staithe which is quite narrow with private moored boats.

We have never had a problem moored anywhere really, maybe we have been just lucky.

Regards

Alan

[deebee29]

7 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Hi Alan,  I quite agree with the restraint on naming and shaming , just seemed the op felt he couldn't as it was a private craft. 

Hi Mark

I did note the name & numbers but don't feel it would do any good the post is really about our holiday tale and these incidents were part of that holiday

[JawsOrca]

Hi David,

Really sorry to read you had a few issues. I really hope things improved..

You know there are good and bad in every walk of life.. we've met some right jerks on boats (there's a saying "Boat people") but there are some brilliant people on boats and boating is a right leveller.  The majority of people on the broads are also ex-hirers, ourselves included so it's a bit silly for boat owners (I hate the private word) to look down on anyone.   You are better than them clearly and a hell of lot more intelligent as you are hiring and not wasting money on marina fees   

Hope you had a good time. Looking forward to other updates.

 

 

[deebee29]

Hi Alan

3 events in 30 whatever years isn't bad going really.

we are all river users at the end of the day

It didn't spoil our holiday and I thought about not mentioning it at all but it did happen so was part of the "holiday tale" so felt it had to go in....... There were no more incidents over the rest of the week

[deebee29]

We awake on monday to a bright sunny morning and the wind seems to have eased although it was still bitterly cold, things looked quite promising.

After having a word with the Harbour Master and some of the boaters from the St Georges Day meet (didn’t realise you could get so many people in that small office) we decide not to rush away. we were planning t head for Somerlayton for the night and low water was early evening. so we had a walk into Beccles and then to Morrisons.
we had lunch and just chilled for a while.

Right on cue as we were about to leave the sky darkened and the wind picked up again, we decided we would head for WRC instead of Somerlayton. 

There was only one other boat in WRC (on the non electric side) and 2 of the electric posts had money on them so we didn’t need our cards.

The wind got up really strong with driving sleet and was pushing our bow round, when the guy came for the mooring fee he told us to tie up to the floating pontoon next to the barge…. we were very grateful and had a calmer night. the heating is certainly getting some use.

don't expect much of a fuel refund this week

 

I don’t think we’ll be getting any of our deposit back this time.

The last time we stopped here was years ago when the old shop was there ……. we were really pleased with the showers.

[deebee29]

Sorry about the double entry about the fuel & heating, I copied & pasted the text and missed it.

by the time I realised I'd missed the editing window

[Hockham Admiral]

It's fascinating reading, David. We're looking forward to the rest of it!          

[deebee29]

We awake on Tuesday to more of the same weather, still windy and intermittent heavy showers.

Our plan today had been Loddon but decided, because of the wind decide to go to Bramerton Common instead.

It was blustery all the way but we did have the tide in our favour. The sleet in those showers can really sting your face.

I noticed on Sunday that we had a slight leak of hydraulic fluid on the upped wheel and had called Colin at the yard. He said that it shouldn't cause us any problems but if we were passing to call in so we did. On checking it over he said we'd be fine and they would take care of it when we returned as the boat wasn't out the following week.

We decided to get a pump out while we were here and had to wait  a while as the engineer was on his way back with a boat from Oulton Broad where the couple who were on it had sadly had some bad news and needed to go home, 

The day brightened while we were waiting but the showers kept coming and going

We got to Bramerton  mid afternoon and found 80p on the meter so no need for our cards again.

Once again not a great day for pictures

We  just chilled out with a bit of music and a book. (I was thoroughly enjoying 'A Broad Experience') before making a meal.

It was bitterly cold as we walked along to the pub later in the evening, just as we were about to leave, the heavens opened again so we were forced to stay for another until it passed.

[SwanR]

Enjoying reading your tale and seeing your photos.