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What part of cruising after dark do some people not understand. :default_sad:

10pm and a hireboat comes past with someone shining a phone light from the front and tries to moor on the private No mooring area,  I directed them to the empty church fen mooring 5 minutes away.  They said they had run  out of daylight, amazing really its not like it gets dark at about the same time every night.

11pm another one comes past without even a phone light and gets directed to the same mooring.

Give it another hour and Church fen will be full. :default_pirate:

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14 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

What part of cruising after dark do some people not understand. :default_sad:

10pm and a hireboat comes past with someone shining a phone light from the front and tries to moor on the private No mooring area,  I directed them to the empty church fen mooring 5 minutes away.  They said they had run  out of daylight, amazing really its not like it gets dark at about the same time every night.

11pm another one comes past without even a phone light and gets directed to the same mooring.

Give it another hour and Church fen will be full. :default_pirate:

In the interests of safety I would "probably" have let them moor, with some advice to get up and leave really early tomorrow morning before anyone notices they are there.

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Just now, Philosophical said:

In the interests of safety I would "probably" have let them moor, with some advice to get up really early tomorrow before anyone notices they are there.

Sadly the new tenants have a habit of being less than friendly with people mooring,  I thought it better to suggest moving 5 minutes down river than have a load of grief when it was completely dark.

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9 minutes ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Sadly the new tenants have a habit of being less than friendly with people mooring,  I thought it better to suggest moving 5 minutes down river than have a load of grief when it was completely dark.

my comment was made without assessment of the boat crew's or the local tenant's attitude, hence my comment to get out before anyone noticed they were there. 

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2 minutes ago, Philosophical said:

my comment was made without assessment of the boat crews, assuming them to be normal people.  

The first lot were normal,  they had just run out of daylight,  the tenants of the property they thought they might use are not happy or reasonable,  they have a tendency to shout loudly at people who look like they might moor up. :default_biggrin:

They tried to untie a boat late one evening. The boat had permission from the landlord,  that shut them up.

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1 minute ago, psychicsurveyor said:

The first lot were normal,  they had just run out of daylight,  the tenants of the property they thought they might use are not happy or reasonable,  they have a tendency to shout loudly at people who look like they might moor up. :default_biggrin:

They tried to untie a boat late one evening. The boat had permission from the landlord,  that shut them up.

You know all the circumstances, given the details on the original post my inclination would have been to let them stay and "escape at first light" before anyone noticed.

Sorry but it would read that the unreasonable people are not on the boat. 

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:default_biggrin::default_biggrin: The reasonable and very nice people were on the first boat.

The mean people live in the property that has the private moorings outside,  they spend a lot of time looking out the huge  windows waiting to pounce.

I don't know what the people on the second boat were like but they did wave and shout thank you when I called out,  there are moorings available 5 minutes further on the left.

All clear as mud now. :default_biggrin:

 

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I caught Ellie the other night telling a motorist not to park outside my flat as the bloke who lived there was 'old, bad-tempered and grumpy'. It took me about five minutes to cotton on! You aren't the tenant are you Mark? :default_norty:

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How stupid are these people??.. Navigating by a mobile phone torch light, them things don't even light up 30 cm's away... At least have one person on the left side with a red light and someone on the right side with a green light... (hint)

Nice to hear about hireboats on the southern rivers though... there is some hope left!

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How stupid?... Not stupid, just a little inexperienced maybe.

The Norfolk Broads is often the choice for 'first time boaters' we all know that. Many of us will have been first time boaters on the broads and made our mistakes, as we learned the ropes...

We arrive on our first boating holiday, thinking we're going to tie up at an idyllic spot and wander along the bank to a lovely old pub, everything's going to be wonderful. Then reality kicks in, you find out that you can't moor just anywhere, as the sun begins to set, panic sets in. "Where can we moor?"... 'Private no mooring' signs abound, the B.A. moorings have all been taken, the pub moorings are packed solid, the one time boatyards are now private marinas... It's little wonder that new hire boaters get caught out. Perhaps, we should remember back to when we were inexperienced boaters ourselves and have a little more understanding...

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I remember out first time on the Broads back in 1973 aboard Sanderling from Sandersons in Reedham. It was early March so it did get dark early and we also ran out of daylight. We were heading down the Bure making for Acle. I mistook the Thurne for the continuation of the Bure and went that way. By the time I realised I had it wrong it was already dark enough for those moored to have their lights on and it seemed everyone looked out to see this mad fool still looking for a mooring. Not knowing anything about the Thurne, whether there were indeed any public moorings, I turned around realising my mistake and continued on down the Bure thinking I might just make it before it became too dark. By the time I had reached Upton Dyke, it was almost black so I decided to go into the dyke and moor there for the night.  It was a stormy night and I remember jumping ashore and finding no mooring posts. Scrambled back on the boat to get the rhond anchors out and did my best in the driving rain to secure the boat. It felt like we had moored in the middle of nowhere. We stayed on the boat as I did not realise that civiisation (in the form of a pub) was actually just a few hundred yards away, and distinctly remember the clink of the lines on the moored yacht metal masts keeping me awake for most of the night. Lesson learned.

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I remember we got caught out many years back when hiring. We had come across Breydon heading north and wanted to moor at Stokesby and have tea in the pub. It was virtually dusk when we got there and, as per usual, there was some very inconsiderate mooring with gaps left between boats but nothing big enough for us in our 32 footer. We ended up moored at the end of Acle dyke which in those days was Eastick’s. We thought we probably shouldn’t be there so we got up and left early, as it was a hire boat yard it wouldn’t have mattered but we weren’t aware of that then. 

The hire boats mentioned in the OP were very late in mooring up, I’m not sure there is any excuse for still being on the go at 11pm. It must have been almost dark when they left wherever they left from!

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2 hours ago, psychicsurveyor said:

Yes, heading down river past the Ferry  House  and the 24 hour moorings opposite. I don't know how full they were but Coldham Hall and Church  Fen were all but empty.

Strange times to be on the move then!

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Just now, JennyMorgan said:

People hope to reach a formal mooring by sunset, but what happens if they don't? Do they just stop where they are or do they carry on? 

Depends on how many formal moorings you want to go past,

Waterside,  Bramerton,  the Ferry house,  the one opposite,  I am sure they weren't all full. When it is 11pm and pitch black I  guess most people would have found a space.  I suspect it was sheer bloody mindedness and a complete disregard of peoples safety.

The BA issued a ticket and the yard owner had a load of grief when the boat was returned.

The Yare was quiet all day due to the football so I don't see lack of mooring being the reason.

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