Jump to content

Breakdown Frustrations


Broads01

Recommended Posts

Today being Bank Holiday Monday 29th August reminds me of a day on the Broads which is memorable for the wrong reasons.

The date was 29th August 1983, also a Bank Holiday Monday. I was 12 years old at the time and with my sister and parents on our second ever Broads holiday. We were aboard Aston Goblin, hired from Aston Boats, Loddon since the previous Saturday. The boat hadn't been behaving well. On the Sunday morning I remember walking across fields with my mother to find the nearest phone box to call the boatyard (that was life then!) due to a misbehaving sliding roof. On the Sunday evening, we had no water, kindly fixed on the Monday morning by a Brooms engineer who fixed some errant pipework out of the goodness of his heart. No sooner had we left Brooms, my father picked up from the dash that the battery wasn't charging. We pulled in to Harvey Eastwood cruisers in Brundall and phoned Astons, by now frustrated and fed up. We were told the engineer on call had a few calls to do but we wouldn't have to wait too long. It was just after 10 in the morning. Alas we waited and we waited and we waited. To pass the time I walked up and down the road that in those days hosted many hire yards. Several times I passed names like Fencraft, Bees Boats, and Wing Line. We became more and more frustrated until eventually the overworked engineer arrived at 5pm. I can still feel the sense of relief now as we spotted him across the river at Coldham Hall, beckoning us across. He duely fixed the issue and we were finally on our way. We made it further downriver for the night and experienced no further issues that holiday which was otherwise a happy one. We made it to Beccles the following day and later our maiden voyage across Breydon and enjoyed some of the North Broads. At least that shows that even with a boat holiday day from hell, afterwards happiness can be found!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Sponsors

    Norfolk Broads Network is run by volunteers - You can help us run it by making a donation

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

For details of our Guidelines, please take a look at the Terms of Use here.