A Week On Whisper Emblem

[Moosey]

Day 1 Saturday 30th September 2017.

We eventually got on the road at 7am half an hour later than planned mainly due to me being sluggish and then having to stop for petrol and put air in the tyres as the car was quite heavily loaded.  We had a fabulous journey down, which is not something I think I have ever said before when travelling to Norfolk from Manchester.  We stopped off at a Little Chef for breakfast and if I hadn't of needed to eat we would have walked out.  I have honestly never seen a Little Chef in such a bad state of repair.  The ceiling in the restaurant had a pretty bad leak that had clearly been there for sometime and there were buckets all over the restaurant catching the water.  The gents were also out of order due to a leak.  It was literally falling apart and was just horrible.  Our iphone sat nav took us the weirdest way and routed us down little country lanes and through villages, it was a beautiful route, we avoided the city altogether and pulled into Ferry Marina at 12.30pm.

 

Whisper wasn't ready yet so we went to the Ferry Pub for some lunch, with a promise that they would call us when she was ready.  Gav had a monster hotdog and chips and quite enjoyed it.  I had a hot pork and applesauce sandwich and it was tough as old boots, we are seriously not having much luck on the food front today!  Lunch done with an we are just setting off for a walk at 1.30pm when we get a call to say she is ready.  We throw everything on board to be unpacked later and then after a very thorough introduction we are finally underway.

 

We headed for South Walsam Broad in a little convoy of boats, feeling absolutely sure that there will be no moorings to be had when we get there.  We turn the corner and there is loads of space and we pull up right at the end next to the reeds.  Time to unpack and then have a well earned Cider sat up top in what is left of the sun, whilst we watch the world going by.

 

One of the Faircraft boats comes in to moor next to us at such an acute angle we almost hold our breath.  There is a man stood on the front with the ropes, then suddenly thud, he's hit the ground.  I look round and he is on the ground on his back, ouch this doesn't look good.  2 couples from 2 private boats rush to help.  One of the guys try to offer advice to the boat trying to moor, but that was instantly dismissed!  Crack he's hit the ladders then crack he's hit them again.  Eventually they moor assisted by the lovely private people.

 

We take a walk and end up at the bottom of the moorings to get a menu for the Chinese.  Hmmmm there are none there.  There is a sign with a phone number though.  We decide roughly what we are going to have and give them a call, beep, beep, beep, the phone won’t connect!  We check it out on facebook and it appears that the Chinese has closed, that was our main reason for mooring there.  Nothing else for it, Gav cooks his famous pasta bake instead, it's delicious served with garlic bread and prosecco.

 

TV doesn't work and there is no DVD as advertised so we sit chit chatting rubbish.  8.30pm  a pleasure cruiser comes past with music blaring out, there is lots of laughter and shouting, we rush up top to see what is going on.  What a beautiful boat that is, looks like a good night out!

 

Its been a glorious day weather wise, we didn't expect it to be as warm as this,  Whisper is warm too, no need for heating tonight.

 

[SwanR]

I am enjoying reading everyone's holiday tales ... and realising how many other forumites were around last week. Did you set off on Saturday 14th by any chance? We left Ferry Marina that afternoon as well. We moored up at St Benet's and saw the Southern Comfort go up and down Fleet Dyke with some nice jazzy music playing.

If it was last week then I am fairly sure that we passed you several times and called across to you at How Hill and spent the same last night in the yard. If not ... then it was someone else. :)

[Moosey]

How remiss of me not to put the date, not sure how to edit to add but I am a bit late writing this up, it was Saturday 30th September.  I do happen to know that the couple you were waving to are also on the forum though!

[MrBlueSky]

That was us you to waved to  Jean,we had the boat for 11 nights after Moosey.

Edited October 23, 2017 by MrBlueSky
bad grammer

[deebee29]

I’ve added the date for you Moosey.

looking forward to the rest of your tales 

[YnysMon]

Looking forward to hearing more of your adventures. Having had our first motor cruise on a Ferry Marina boat we're always especially curious to hear other people's experiences.  We think their boats are really good!

[JamesLV]

I believe we saw you out and about a few times, we may have even moored fairly close by you at Ranworth or Womack? We were on Brinks Omega with the black patterdale terrier, keep the story coming (which reminds me, I need to update mine from being notes)

[vanessan]

A short while ago, we were moored down Fleet Dyke when we heard a rather noisy boat approaching. When I looked at the name of it as it passed, it turned out to be Whisper Emblem. Very odd I thought until I realised that the guy helming was using the bow thruster to steer! (I’m sure it wouldn’t have been any of the posters here as it was a little while ago.) It’s not the first time we have heard a bow thruster being used for steering but it does make me think that the hire companies must be forever having to replace them. This time it did make the name of the boat a tad wrong!!

[Moosey]

12 hours ago, deebee29 said:

I’ve added the date for you Moosey.

looking forward to the rest of your tales 

Thank you  

Just now, vanessan said:

A short while ago, we were moored down Fleet Dyke when we heard a rather noisy boat approaching. When I looked at the name of it as it passed, it turned out to be Whisper Emblem. Very odd I thought until I realised that the guy helming was using the bow thruster to steer! (I’m sure it wouldn’t have been any of the posters here as it was a little while ago.) It’s not the first time we have heard a bow thruster being used for steering but it does make me think that the hire companies must be forever having to replace them. This time it did make the name of the boat a tad wrong!!

Lol, we did take to calling her Shouty Emblem as she seemed to run on generator more than electric but I think that was just the weather we were dealing with that week!

[marshman]

In fact Whisper does not have a traditional bowthruster in the bows but achieves its assistance through the 4 nozzles under water powered by water jets.  Must have been the generator!

Noticeable that Ferry have not ( yet! ) built another "electric" boat!

[Moosey]

2 minutes ago, marshman said:

In fact Whisper does not have a traditional bowthruster in the bows but achieves its assistance through the 4 nozzles under water powered by water jets.  Must have been the generator!

Noticeable that Ferry have not ( yet! ) built another "electric" boat!

They have Silent Emblem as well.  We passed in the South when both under electric power, was quite cool!

[vanessan]

12 minutes ago, marshman said:

In fact Whisper does not have a traditional bowthruster in the bows but achieves its assistance through the 4 nozzles under water powered by water jets.  Must have been the generator!

Noticeable that Ferry have not ( yet! ) built another "electric" boat!

Now I didn’t know that, thank you for the clarification. How do these jets work? The noise  (which was intermittent like you hear a bow thruster make) didn’t sound like a generator. I can’t keep up with all these new fangled toys, seems every year someone has come up with something new! Mind you, if that ‘electric’ boat was anything to go by, I guess maybe they have gone back to the drawing board in that particular instance. 

[Moosey]

16 minutes ago, vanessan said:

Now I didn’t know that, thank you for the clarification. How do these jets work? The noise  (which was intermittent like you hear a bow thruster make) didn’t sound like a generator. I can’t keep up with all these new fangled toys, seems every year someone has come up with something new! Mind you, if that ‘electric’ boat was anything to go by, I guess maybe they have gone back to the drawing board in that particular instance. 

They do sound and work like traditional bow thrusters pretty much, the generator I don't think is as loud as a traditional engine.  

[LondonRascal]

The problem, so far as I can see with these Hybrid boats is in order to make them work more efficiently you would need to spend many many thousands more in their build, that you'd never make back in their hire.

For example, the 'generator' is just a 50HP engine, connected to what effectively is a large electrical generator. When the batteries fall beneath a certain point the generator is called to run - and so it does, but at a very high RPM and then you get the noise but here is the thing the boat in front doing 4MPH under old fashion engine power may only be doing 1,200RPM but new fangled Hybrid boat behind has her engine running at over 2,000RPM to generate not only the power to drive the electric motor but also any left over amperage be used to help re-charge the batteries.

What would be better is a large lower reving generator so it did not sound as loud and could produce more kilowatts to charge the batteries and if the batteries were Lithium too, they would be able to quickly gobble up those amps into their cells. But large high output generators and Lithium batteries are not cost effective in such an application, so what you end up with is a good idea falling very much short of the 'green' mark. Of course it does get a lot more efficient if most of the cruising is short trips, slow speeds and between charging posts with minimal generator run time.

As to the thrustser using with water jets, I've seen various versions of these over time but they seem to lack that initial torque and thrust, with the power building up as the jet of water pressure builds. What has been more of a revelation especially to noise are Rim Drive thrusters where the motor is brushless and contained in the rim of the thrsuter itself. Alas, very expensive kit but very clever:

 

[MrBlueSky]

I,ve been on a number of boats with thrusters,mostly Herbert Woods boats and i have to say i found the thrusters on Whisper Emblem to be far better.They made reversing into Sutton Staithe pumpout station very easy.As for the generator,we found it far quieter than running a diesel engine.In 11 nights we visited most places,both North and South and we were running on silent over 50% of the time.

The one unexpected drawback with this boat,at least to me,was the number of times a pumpout was required.I could see this being an even bigger drawback in the summer months when i like to shower every day.

 

[Matt]

I,ve been on a number of boats with thrusters,mostly Herbert Woods boats and i have to say i found the thrusters on Whisper Emblem to be far better.They made reversing into Sutton Staithe pumpout station very easy.As for the generator,we found it far quieter than running a diesel engine.In 11 nights we visited most places,both North and South and we were running on silent over 50% of the time.
The one unexpected drawback with this boat,at least to me,was the number of times a pumpout was required.I could see this being an even bigger drawback in the summer months when i like to shower every day.
 

I would have thought the shower pumped out direct into the river........unless you like to shower whilst on the toilet :-)


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[Jocave]

12 minutes ago, MrBlueSky said:

I,ve been on a number of boats with thrusters,mostly Herbert Woods boats and i have to say i found the thrusters on Whisper Emblem to be far better.They made reversing into Sutton Staithe pumpout station very easy.As for the generator,we found it far quieter than running a diesel engine.In 11 nights we visited most places,both North and South and we were running on silent over 50% of the time.

The one unexpected drawback with this boat,at least to me,was the number of times a pumpout was required.I could see this being an even bigger drawback in the summer months when i like to shower every day.

 

How many pump outs did you need in eleven nights?? One other thing don't most people shower daily whatever time of year, must have a very small tank fitted ..

[MrBlueSky]

The shower do,s not pump out into the river,nothing go,s into the river.Its all kept onboard to be pumpedout,hence the need for regular pumpouts.We had 4 in 11 nights.

[Jocave]

The shower on Golden Emblem went straight outside, the shower pump on my Viking pumps outside too, maybe its an eco thing on the newer boats

[Jocave]

Just now, MrBlueSky said:

The shower do,s not pump out into the river,nothing go,s into the river.Its all kept onboard to be pumpedout,hence the need for regular pumpouts.We had 4 in 11 nights.

Ah that explains it then ,good for the rivers I suppose ,not so good for the pocket

[MrBlueSky]

Makes you think twice about showering every day :)

[Moosey]

13 minutes ago, MrBlueSky said:

The shower do,s not pump out into the river,nothing go,s into the river.Its all kept onboard to be pumpedout,hence the need for regular pumpouts.We had 4 in 11 nights.

We had shore showers wherever we could, had very short daily showers when we had to onboard and managed without a pump out the whole week.  We were getting a bit nervy the last day though! 

[Jocave]

1 hour ago, MrBlueSky said:

Makes you think twice about showering every day :)

No it doesn't, rather shower twice a day and pay for pump outs, being on a boating holiday doesn't mean you have to slum it, ok you might have to be carefull with water consumption but personal hygiene doesn't need to take a dive...

[Broads01]

I can understand the environmental benefits of a shower not tipping out in to the river. Was it the same for the sinks? Unfortunately I don't think it's a practical option however unless pump out facilities increase. Boatyards don't tend to offer the service on turnaround days.

Just a personal preference, but I've never been one to use public shower blocks. Give me a cramped little shower on a boat any day. 

[Moosey]

3 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

I can understand the environmental benefits of a shower not tipping out in to the river. Was it the same for the sinks? Unfortunately I don't think it's a practical option however unless pump out facilities increase. Boatyards don't tend to offer the service on turnaround days.

Just a personal preference, but I've never been one to use public shower blocks. Give me a cramped little shower on a boat any day. 

Yes the sinks went into the holding tank too.  We ate out a lot to be fair.  The shower on whisper is lovely and not at all cramped but still no match for the showers at Waveney, my favourites.