The Start Of Our Week On Ranworth Breeze

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 1.

No more sleeps, the day as arrived, up early and forum checked out, no locked users or new members to validate. Its is time to close down the computer and put it into its case and start to pack the sardine (oops car). 

With luck we will be in Brundall by lunchtime, maybe get to see one of my fellow owners if they have not already left the boat. 

More later when settled.

Regards

Alan

 

[SwanR]

Have a safe journey, look forward to hearing how your week goes.

[Hockham Admiral]

It's a beautiful morning here at the Ferry House, Alan and the week's weather is looking good.... a shame we have to go home!

Have a great week onboard.   

[BroadScot]

1 hour ago, Hockham Admiral said:

It's a beautiful morning here at the Ferry House, Alan and the week's weather is looking good.... a shame we have to go home!

Have a great week onboard.   

Seconded !

Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 1continued

 

We left home at 7.40am but had to call in for fuel, arrived in Brundall at 11.15 and straight into the facilities after groaning when getting out of the car.

 

We called down at the boat Carol & Jeff were still cleaning the inside of the boat, we had a word regarding any issues etc. The potential new owner had arrived early and was looking at the boat, I suggested that we went for some lunch and talked about the boat. Carol & Jeff had finished off their cleaning and joined us at the Bistro in the Marina.

 

Down at the boat we showed Bob around the boat explaining where everything was and what it did and how we stowed it away, including the emergency tiller. This has never had to be used thankfully. To use this you have to remove the aft berth mattress and then a hatch to get to the rudder control linkage. I always think of the old film “The Cruel Sea” where they had a chain of command from the engine room to the bridge.

 

It seemed correct that we take Bob onto the river so he could experience the helm on Ranworth Breeze, canopy down we departed the marina and headed towards Norwich. I handed the helm over to Bob and once through Brundall into the 6 mph section I had Bob do an emergency stop to show the boats handling of course the boat stopped within its own length.

 

We headed towards Brammerton and decided to moor outside the Waters Edge, so just to show willing we decided to purchase a pint, thank you Bob. The afternoon was looming and we were running ahead of a very large black cloud, so back to the marina. Bob had moored at the pub very well and I allowed him to have a go back at our berth, he didn’t do to bad, it catches most people out because of the wind we experience in the marina (no comments please, I know what you lot are like!).

 

Moored up and canopy put back up, Bob signed his contracts that he brought with him. We said our good byes and took some of the bags out of the car boot and just put them aboard so we could nip over to Beccles to get provisions. I missed the junction off of the bypass and came off the next junction, halfway around Norfolk with the prospect of being in a farmer’s field at any moment we arrived at Beccles from the other end of the town and I wanted to find Morrisons.

 

Shopping done with extras not on the list, we set off back to Brundall, on arrival we called into the Yare for a meal which did not disappoint, it was very busy. Fuelled up we headed back to the boat to unpack and stow everything away. Coffee and a couple of crosswords (not arguments) later we headed to bed at 11.00pm very tired.   

 Regards

Alan & Tan

[BroadScot]

38 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

It catches most people out because of the wind we experience in the marina (no comments please, I know what you lot are like!).

"BEAN" there done that one Alan!  You really shouldn't have curries on board RB

Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 2 Tuesday.

 

Awoke at 5.00am a dull day it had been raining overnight.

 

Checked on computer what had been happening with regards to emails and looked in on the forum to see what mischief Grace and the other little mice’s  had been up too.

 

Tan awoke and we went for a shower, being has the other wet room was engaged Tan suggested we share; sadly all we got was wet! We left the showers and called round the corner to Brian Ward’s (they open at 8.00am) needless to say we had to wait for the railway crossing.

Tanya was on the counter, she let me take back to the boat two sizes of round fender socks, so I could replace the two socks on the forward fenders (I know we have debated the pros and cons many times on the forum, all I can say they work for us with no effects to our gelcoat).

Back at the boat for breakfast and a couple of crosswords.

Breakfast done with Tan washed up whilst I contemplated what jobs I would tackle first.

We were having trouble with our starboard boarding ladder, so I removed it and could see that the mounting flanges were slightly bent, these straightened I refitted the ladder, it needed some silicon grease collected later).

 

Next job was to inspect the 10 long fenders on the sides of the boat and the two small round fenders on the rear (protecting the bathing platform) several of the fender socks needed replacing, I did about seven of the long ones and one of the aft round ones. We use the fender stockinet to cover these, it is more cost effective than buying ready made socks and using the stockinet they tend to fit better.

Now I looked at the two round fenders on the bow (funny none were blue other than the coloured socks), I removed one of the fenders and carefully removed the sock, sadly it turned both sizes of the socks from Brian Ward’s were unsuitable (returned on another visit).

 

Next job was the fit a aft navigation light we had purchased a short while ago, the idea was just to replace the cover being has it was the lens that was cracked, the angle of the lens was wrong or so I thought, so back to Brian Ward’s with the fender socks not used and the light we had previously purchased. Nick on the counter confirmed that the light was for the aft position on the boat (I had already noted that the forward light had a different lens), with this in mind I asked Nick if they could swap the aft for a forward lamp which he kindly did for us, so forward light cover put onto aft light and fitted the new cover on the forward light, he took back the socks and supplied me with the needed silicon grease, because I took the large round fender with me he said he could order two socks and have them available by the end of the week.

 

Back at the boat we had lunch and the weather was beginning to clear up a little we decided to venture out of the marina, I asked Tan which she preferred Rockland St Mary or Bramerton, she said Bramerton so “right hand down it a bit” was suitably executed.

The new moorings at the Ferry House at Surlingham looked very good; we shall have to call in this week. Arrived at Bramerton and moored up. I did a couple of small canopy fixings repairs and then Tan and I had a couple of games of Rummikub which Tan won.

A boat moved so we moved the boat nearer to one of the electric posts, after some jiggling the card we had power.

 

We walked up to the Waters Edge and had a very good meal, never had a bad meal here since the pub changed hands about four years ago, as the Wood End it was always hit and miss, that was if it open of course.

Back at the boat we played another couple of games of Rummikub, Tan won her third game of the day while I won one! No justice!

Coffee, a crossword and in bed by 11.00pm.

Regards

Alan

 

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 3 Wednesday

 

Awoke at 5.00am but managed to stay in bed until 7.00am, to a very bright morning.

We had breakfast and decided to head for Beccles, I phoned the Yacht Station and reserved a mooring. At the Sugar Factory we saw Broads Beat with three officers at the slipway with their boat just being removed from the river or due to be launched.

 

On the way while Tan was at the helm until we arrived at Reedham, I did some repairs to sections of the canopy by doing some stitching.

I took the helm through Reedham, we had already taken the masthead down and were prepared to go under the bridge with about four inches to spare, but the bridge operator opened the bridge before we got to it. Tan took over the helm again whilst I carried on with my jobs.

 

We arrived at Somerleyton bridge to find it was still open after a number of boats had passed through towards us, we saw lots of boats during our journey, the most I have seen for while, I hate to think what it was like on the Northern Rivers.

We passed the Waveney River Centre, which looked very busy. I put a few sausages and some potatoes cut into scallops in the oven so they would be ready as a very late lunch when we got into Beccles, we noted a lot of new piling work and banking being done on the outskirts of Beccles.

We arrived into the Yacht Station on our mooring a little after 2.00pm, paid the fees and had lunch, I have always loved the smell coming from the oven whist travelling, it always takes me back to our early Narrow Boating days.

 

After lunch I started cleaning sections of the canopy, I will tackle the top section when we are back at our marina later in the week.

Taking in the sun a drink or two I managed to win 3 games of Runnikub in a row, today the games would be mine.

We put up the canopy but left the doorways rolled up because it was still quite hot. We settled down and watched a DVD (the force was with us) while having crackers and cheese and finished  with coffee and a couple of crosswords. Canopy locked down for the night at 11.00pm we went to bed.

Regards

Alan

[SwanR]

Sounds as if you are keeping yourself very busy Alan. Hope you're finding some time to just relax.

[BroadScot]

48 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Sounds as if you are keeping yourself very busy Alan. Hope you're finding some time to just relax.

Agreed, Jean. Chill out Alan, or it aint a holiday !

Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi all I am chilled out, but still need to do a bit while Tan is at the helm.

More tomorrow.

It has taken me a couple of hours to read all of the posts I have missed over the last couple of days.

Regards

Alan

[SwanR]

10 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi all I am chilled out, but still need to do a bit while Tan is at the helm.

Yes you do ... a bit of photography, a bit of bird watching, a bit of boat spotting ... no idea how you will cope with being so busy ... 

[quo vadis]

1 hour ago, SwanR said:

Yes you do ... a bit of photography, a bit of bird watching, a bit of boat spotting ... no idea how you will cope with being so busy ... 

I enjoy the bird watching too

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 4 Thursday

 

I awoke around 7.00am to a relatively bright day. Tan awoke just before 8.00am so we headed with our bags off to the shower block (they usually are open for 8.00am) the chap was a few minutes late which seemed ages to Tan who just had a coat over her nightdress.

I asked if there was any progress towards the new toilet/shower block that was talked about a couple of years ago (this was going to be a code entry facility just for boat crews) the response was sadly the company were spending money on other enterprises.

 

Showers, done back at the boat for breakfast and the old crosswords. Tan had weighed her porridge into small bags with added spices (cinnamon or nutmeg), all we needed to do was add stem ginger and a cup full of skinny milk, cereal for me with added fruit, raspberries and strawberries.

 

Breakfast over, we walked into Beccles for some provisions and the odd bit of tat. We noted the sale at Beals, so had a look round, I wanted to look at mattress toppers, they had some in the sale King Sized but we wanted double, but the price of the king sized was good at £70. More fruit purchased, Tan’s Peoples Friend (she says she likes the stories, I think she is looking for haggis traps and the odd stair lift).

The walk to and from the Yacht Station is interesting, the age of the buildings and their Dutch influence with the interesting gable ends and the building ties that go through several of the buildings is to be admired.

 

On returning to the boat I started removing the canopy sides whilst Tan did the tidying up with Tan’s help we lowered the canopy top, with the mud weight lifted we set off back to Brundall at 11.00am.

A fairly good trip we like the river leaving Beccles everything nice and green, I see that an additional building is being built in the grounds of that pretty house on the port side. The journey to get to the Waveney Centre seems to take ages but we are not too much in a rush. We had to wait a while with two other boats for the Somerleyton Bridge to open, one chap tried contacting them on channel 12 as posted on the sign but got someone else so it was down to the three long blasts of the horn and wait.

 

We managed to go under the ReedhamBridge but guess the height board is slightly out because it registered just over 10 foot and we had less than 4 inches  under the bridge (it was nearer 2 inches) our airdraft is 9 foot 8 inches with everything down.

 

We plodded on keeping to the speed limits and trying to remain in the centre of the river so as not to affect the fishermen, all was good until we encountered one fishermen within a group after the Beauchamp Arms after the speed limit goes to 6 mph who was pointing down and saying keep your speed down, I said I was doing less than 6 mph, the next fisherman waved and I asked how the fishing was going, his reply was good.

 

We arrived back at Brundall at 4.00pm. I wanted to take a section of the upper helm seating into Jeckells, so we set off for Wroxham. The sign on Jeckells door said closed but we arrived well before closing time and the door was open. I rang the bell and asked one of the guys if he would look at the seating for me which he did, they could remove sections to make it good but because the boat is used throughout the season we can not do this, so I asked if he could take a template and contact me next week with a estimate for a new section of seating. This long section was starting to delaminate at one corner and we have a few pink marks on the leather cloth because of mildew.

 

A trip into Roy’s was required so we called in and had a look around, I managed to get a pair of Wranglers in my size that were reduced down to £24.99.

Back to Brundall, Brian Ward’s were still open (8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday)  so it seemed an idea to have a word with Nick re the fender sock order, sadly their supplier could not supply for our type of fender in the make designed for them, Nick said he would do me a deal on a couple of new fenders, in the end I have orders some slightly larger fender socks after looking through their booklets. I bought a couple of new lifejacket activation kits and placed two more on order.

 

Back to the boat in order to put the canopy back up before a meal in the Yare, Pizza and a side portion of chips for me and steak pie for Tan.

 

Back on the boat Tan had her revenge playing Rummikub winning 3 games to 1, I guess I am loosing on the weekly tot up.

Coffee and a couple of crosswords and bed at 11.00pm

 

Regards

Alan & Tan

   

[JawsOrca]

HI Alan,

You are clearly demonstrating here how much work goes into keeping a boat maintained, but you need some down time... lets see at least one day of no work.. or else  

Have a lovely trip fingers crossed the weather stays nice for you both. 

 

 

[BroadScot]

59 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

asked if there was any progress towards the new toilet/shower block that was talked about a couple of years ago (this was going to be a code entry facility just for boat crews) the response was sadly the company were spending money on other enterprises.

The showers at Beccles & Oulton Broad should be in a Museum. I know things move slowly in East Anglia, but hello its 2016 !

Iain

[Hockham Admiral]

Oh, Oracle, when did you last go to OBYS?     

[MauriceMynah]

2 hours ago, BroadScot said:

I know things move slowly in East Anglia, but hello its 2016 !

Not in East Anglia it aint!

[SwanR]

10 hours ago, ranworthbreeze said:

We arrived back at Brundall at 4.00pm. I wanted to take a section of the upper helm seating into Jeckells, so we set off for Wroxham. 

I thought you meant you were going to go by boat and cruise from Brundall to Wroxham. Odd, I thought, having just come all the way up from Beccles! Then I realised you must be taking the car given that you arrived before they closed.

I couldn't bear to get off the boat and back into the car part way through the week. 

[ranworthbreeze]

17 hours ago, BroadScot said:

The showers at Beccles & Oulton Broad should be in a Museum. I know things move slowly in East Anglia, but hello its 2016 !

Iain

Hi Iain

The facilities at the Oulton Broad Yacht Station were refurbished a couple of years ago.

Regards

Alan

[Hockham Admiral]

18 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Iain

The facilities at the Oulton Broad Yacht Station were refurbished a couple of years ago.

Regards

Alan

Thanks, Alan... I guess my "Oh, Oracle, when did you last go to OBYS?" fell on stoney ears!    

[BroadScot]

5 hours ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Iain

The facilities at the Oulton Broad Yacht Station were refurbished a couple of years ago.

Regards

Alan

Thanks Alan,

We didn't go to OB last year. So its just the Beccles ones that are still in the Victorian age !

Iain

[ranworthbreeze]

Day 5 Friday

 

A dull start to the day so let Tan sleep in, no rush to today.

Breakfast and off to the showers.

 

Today after the engine checks I ventured into the engine bay and slightly tighten the stern gland to stop the excessive dripping, job done and off the list.

Tan was cleaning and tidying up the boat ready for our visitors tomorrow, I took off the full canopy to clean the top of the canopy, sadly because of the weather we could not tackle this at the season start and plans by other syndicate owners were thwarted by bad weather.

All of the sections removed and scrubbed separately and put over the rails to dry off in the mid afternoon sunshine, time now to scrub the top and left to dry before proofing, I had called at Ward’s earlier for some more Fabsil.

 

We refitted the canopy top onto the rails one rail at a time so we could reach to proof it, fully onto the framework, all the sides in we decided that fish & chips were the order of the day.

We decided that we would go to the chippy at Blofield rather than Brundall and I was going to order two portions of chips until I saw the portions, one portion was plenty for the two of us, the haddock was hanging over the plates. We needed to call in at Budgen’s on the way back for a few provisions and ended up waiting in a queue of about 12 to 15 people, luckily the chips were well wrapped and the railway level crossing was open (usually it is 50/50 odds on it being closed).

 

Back aboard for our meal which was very good and worth the travelling to Blofield, we settled down to watch a DVD. Coffee and bed a little after 11.20 pm.

 

Day 6 Saturday

 

Training day 1.

 

Up and off to the showers by 7.00am and back for breakfast and a quick crossword.

I had two remove my tool case and my boat kit items out of the way into the car.

 

I spoke with Paul off of Southern Crusader after helping them into their mooring by taking one of their ropes, he was expressing his thanks for their syndicates decision you fit a canopy earlier at the start of the season. By all accounts it had bucketed it down the previous Saturday. It was good to meet him, we had sent PM’s on the forum but had not met until now.

Paul in his hast to get on put £10 of credit onto our electric meter, so I said I would get a £10 card and put it onto their meter when I went up to reception.

 

Shortly before 10.00am I went up to reception and bought the card for Southern Crusader and a few cards to go into our log for further use. In the reception I met Mark & Rely who had been upstairs for a coffee. I suggested they follow me through the barrier and onto the parking area by the boat.

 

Tan greeted our fellow owners who looked around the boat at our season start weekend in February and subsequently bought into the syndicate in March.

Re-introductions made we went through the what everything does, where is it stored and how it works from stem to stern both inside and outside of the boat.

This completed it was time to go on the river, sadly it had started raining so we just unzipped the screen section out of the canopy, wet gear on we left the moorings and the marina.

 

We headed towards Norwich and showed where Broom’s filling station was on the river, we conducted some emergency stops in the 6 mph section of river to show Mark & Rely the distance it takes to stop Ranworth Breeze, and it is usually within the boats length, we then did a few maneuvering exercises before moving on to do mooring practice (our training back in 2001 consisted of doing figure of eights on Hoverton Little Broad) Mark had no issues, it was getting wetter so we moored at the Waters Edge for lunch.

A nice lunch and conversation by the time it finished the rain had stopped and the sun was out, we showed Mark & Rely how to take down the canopy and roll up the taken out sections.

 

We proceeded towards Norwich chatting away at the do’s and don’ts (watch out for those legless donkeys) it was my intention to do some more mooring practice at Commissioners Cut (we often moor here and walk up the lane and catch the bus into Norwich) it was not to be two boats were in the cut and were on the bank side having a picnic, one of the boats was an interesting old broads cruiser.

 

Onwards and upwards we did some more mooring practice on the pontoon extension at WhitlinghamCountyPark, portside and starboard side on. Mark has been coming to the Broads on & off since he was a boy so only needed to get used to the boat.

We proceed back towards Brundall and practiced mooring at several places on the way back and finally Mark brought us into the moorings of Broom’s fuel station, we moor port side on here because both toilet outlets are on to port side, this makes it easier for the Broom’s staff to do our pump outs (needless to say we were not using their facilities today this was just a practice run.

Mark brought into our mooring at the marina by reversing us into our slot next to Southern Crusader.

 

Tied up we went through the logs of what to check on the daily logs (we had already been through this before we left the marina, by checking the oil, water reservoir and raw water filer) what to fill in on the weekly sheet etc. Questions and answers done Mark & Rely are looking forward to their first allocation in two weeks time.

 

Tan was welcoming our other guests that had just arrived to have a look around the boat whilst I was saying goodbye to Mark & Rely.

I made my introductions to Sean, Helen their young son Evan and their bump.

I had spoken to Sean at length a couple of weeks earlier about the unadvertised share that had recently become available so we had made this appointment to view the boat.

We showed Sean & Helen around Ranworth Breeze, it was good to see Evan wearing his lifejacket, only 4 years old but already on the right track.

 

It seemed only right that we took the boat back onto the river, out of the marina we handed the helm over to Sean. Because Evan was on board I fitted the two dodgers we had made for when children are aboard, these are fitted by clips and bungee fittings into the space when canvas doors are rolled up on the canopy or when the canopy is fully down to prevent small children getting to the side rails.

 

We headed towards Reedham passing the Beauchamp Arms before turning round to head back to the marina, I let Sean see how maneuverable the boat is, we chatted away (more sad legless donkeys) and arrived back arrived back at a very blustery marina, I showed Sean how not to do it but eventually got into our berth after a lot of to-ing & fro-ing. Moored up more chatting I asked Sean & Helen what they thought and I suggested that they should look around the other syndicate boats on the Broads before making their minds up.

 

I was somewhat shocked but delighted when Sean said they would purchase the share assuming we would welcome them to the syndicate.

Contracts need to drawn up when I have all their details and countersigned by the current owner. They will be an added benefit to the syndicate now they are part of the Ranworth Breeze family.

 

Two shares finalized in a week and at the moment none for sale.

We said our goodbyes a little after 8.00pm and we had a bite to eat and Tan trounced me again at Rummikub, coffee and bed a little after 11.00pm (note to self this time is becoming an habit).

 

Regards

Alan & Tan

Edited to add a picture

 

[ExSurveyor]

Hi Alan,  saw you pass us on our mooring on the way up to and back from Norwich,  I did wave but you were busy training. .

I have spent the last couple of days working on the Broom Scorpio,  replacing the windscreen. 

All done now and the roof adjusted to stop the rain  hopefully ..  

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Mark,

I am sorry if I did not wave, I guess it could have been Saturday or Sunday, we were training both days.

Where are your moorings? PM if you prefer. 

Regards

Alan