Goosander? No - Gooseandhim!

[SwanR]

Enjoying your aerial photos. Shows a different perspective. We haven’t been down the stretch past St Olave’s so I’m interested to see it on other people’s photos and videos. 

[grendel]

It was great to meet you David.

[Michelle]

Great write up on your holiday David and I am so pleased you are enjoying Goosander. It was great to meet you at the AGM. It's always a worry as a fellow syndicate member how a new owner will enjoy Goosander, she is a lovely boat and Paul and I have had amazing holidays on board and still get excited about the next one as soon as we set off for home after the current one.

Your photos are fabulous, I have often wondered why people have bothered with them but having seen these photos I now know why.

Keep the holiday tales coming it's great to hear about other peoples times on the water and also enables you to pick up some good tips.

I had to laugh when you talked about the cupboards and finding everything you need - have you found the spare glasses and toll box yet LOL :)

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello Michelle,

Welcome to the forum, I see you are another syndicate boat owner.

Regards

Alan

[DAVIDH]

Thanks for the encouragement Michelle and nice to see you on here. Have not found the spare glasses yet but there is so much on Goosander which you come across as you go along that when you need it, you forget where it lived. 

I'll post the next installment a little later this evening as I have just got home from work. 

[SwanR]

Welcome to the forum Michelle. Must be interesting as another member of the syndicate to read David's tale. 

[Broads01]

20 hours ago, VetChugger said:

Amazing how nature has reclaimed the old Alpacraft yard. I hired a couple of times from that base and there was a fair size basin.

I must admit until you said that I hadn't associated those particular photos with the former Alphacraft basin. I remember it well indeed I think Alpha were there until about the mid 2000s. Thanks for pointing that out. 

[DAVIDH]

Wednesday 8^th October.

The sun was shining as I awoke and temperatures were actually on the up for the rest of the week so I had been lucky with the weather. By the end of the week, it actually passed 21c, though the breeze did get up as well but as it was a southerly, it did not detract from the temperatures. I needed some milk and wanted a newspaper and had heard that the Co-op supermarket was due to close. The Yacht Station chaps told me it was it’s last day today so I walked up to it and was pleased to be able to buy a paper and some milk. Shame it won’t be there next time. There Is a small provisions shop in the opposite direction half way between the Wherry Inn and the level crossing which sells milk etc, but alas not papers. Back onboard I set off for Reedham. I had intended to stop off at Somerleyton to break the journey but having moored there on the way down to meet the “Lads” I decided to go directly to Reedham, which is another favourite mooring spot. I passed under Reedham Swing Bridge around 2pm and wondered if I would find a mooring space. I noticed that the far end, towards Sandersons was free and as I could see an electric post I could use, I headed on down to the far end. Approaching I could see why it was free. The river had overtopped the moorings and was lapping a few inches below the base of the electric post. Now I am no electrician but even I could reason that I would get more than my monies worth if I tried to plug in to that supply. Fortunately there were another couple of suitable spots where I would not get my feet wet so I chose one and came alongside.

It was a warm sunny afternoon so I opened one half of the canopy allowing the other half to act as a wind break and just sat and watched the comings and goings for a while. Tomorrow, I would be heading for Yarmouth again and  it struck me that I may have trouble with high water time again, which was moving towards the middle of the day by now so I called the Yacht Station asking for advice on the latest time I could leave Reedham in the morning  and still get under the bridges. The advice was to leave no later than 7.30am or I would end up not getting under the bridges until late afternoon.  That was going to mean an early start! Later I fancied a walk so I walked up the middle hill and called at the shop for a newspaper and a Magnum. Wow! Lesson learned. The Magnum was £2. I can get 4 of them for that price in ASDA or Morrisons at home. With my ice-cream lolly in my hand, I decided to walk up to the Ferry Inn, partly to see whether the riverside path had been re-opened (it has not). Then it was back to the boat for a rest before an evening meal at the Ship Inn. We always liked the food at the Ship Inn under the last managers, especially the Steak Pie so on entering I looked down the menu for it. It was not there but the specials board did promise a Steak and Ale Pie so I went for that. It was not the same but was still to be commended. After a read of my paper over a pint, I retired back to Goosander for the night. I set the alarm for 6.45am and retired.

Oulton Broad drone images

Reedham

Just liked this - on the way to the Ferry inn

 

[DAVIDH]

Thursday 9^th October

It was just breaking light as I arose and knowing that I only had 45 minutes before I needed to be on my way, I opted for a toasted currant teacake for breakfast. Of course, because I was in a hurry, I could not get the grill to stay alight. In the end I resorted to holding each half of the teacake in tongs over one of the gas burners. Not ideal but it worked. So just time for a cup of tea and then I was off. Goosander was facing the wrong way but into the ebbing tide so a quick burst on the bow thrusters easily got me out into the stream so I could turn around. Optimum arrival time at Yarmouth was around 9 to 10am so I tried to pace the speed accordingly, thinking as I had done on the last holiday that if I arrive too soon the rangers at the Yacht Station may charge me twice – once to 10am and then for the following 24 hours. But then again, if I arrived too late to traverse the bridges, I would kick myself for having to turn around and go back all the way to Berney Arms.  So I decided to slow my approach as the tide was adding speed to the trip. However, by the time I got to the start of Breydon, the tide was flowing in again wish it would make it’s mind up) and the height gauge was showing just 8 feet of headroom. So I decided now to put my foot down to get to the bridges before “access was denied”.

Just before passing under Breydon Bridge, I called the Yacht Station and asked what the headroom was. The chap told me it was 7.1 feet – that’s how he put it but I guessed he meant 7 foot 3 inches. He told me not to dawdle and assured me I would get through OK. Within 5 minutes, I had hit the incoming flow of the Bure and doing my best to approach the bridges as slow as I could – just in case. One of the YS rangers came to meet me on his bike, checking the headroom and assuring me it was OK. So I passed under the first bridge noting around 3 inches clearance, then the next and with a huuuggge sigh of relief turned the boat around to moor into the stream, right alongside the electricity post, where the ranger was waiting for me. I had arrived smack on 9.30am and was NOT charged for two stay periods. The ranger told me when I called he could see there was a little over 7 feet clearance and as he knows the required headroom for this type of boat, and as he considered the bridge gauges to be a few inches out, our safe passage through was assured. They know their stuff and out of all the places you need to pay a mooring fee, this is the one I consider to be value for money! They tied my ropes for the night and over a settling cup of tea, I wondered what I would do with the day, being tied up so early in Yarmouth.

I decided to have a walk along part of the perimeter of Breydon so I made my way past the train station, past the ASDA car park and stopped on a convenient bench to observe an egret in the shallows of the water. Everytime I got a little closer, it flew a few feet away but eventually plodded its way back to it’s “fishing pond”. I watched it for about 20 minutes, creeping further around the pathway to get closer but had to give that up when a group of people talking loudly rounded the corner before proceeding into ASDA. The egret also gave up and flew off. I have some nice images of it nevertheless. I needed a few items from ASDA too so on my way back I called in and arrived back at the boat around 2pm. It was a lovely day so I thought I would just stay on the boat watching the world go by. The next boat to Goosander, sharing the electric post, was a Commander from Richardsons. They are lovely boats and I told the skipper as much as I went by. We got talking and he showed me onboard. His crew consisted of his wife and himself and I asked how he coped mooring such a large boat. With the bow and stern thrusters, he could easily manage it. He had hired it a couple of occasions before and was a regular Richardsons customer. He always chooses one of the elite (or whatever Richardsons call them) cruisers paying anything up to £4,000 for two weeks in late June, together with a week in spring and a week in autumn. He is a regular at the YS and calls the rangers in advance, who then save the electricity post mooring for him, which he occupies for up to a week because he likes it there. It does no harm that his wife prepares bacon sandwiches each morning for the rangers. I told him it would be cheaper to stay in the Premier Inn across the river but he laughed that off. The YS was where he wanted to be.

Come 7pm, I was on my way to the Kings Arms once more for my evening meal. It was very quiet in there. I ordered a lamb steak, which was a special for the night. Again, the food was really good. After that I returned to the boat to watch the final download of Killing Eve on my laptop. The weather forecast for the next day was a little concerning because the warm weather system we were experiencing was due to break down with strong winds and rain. Gusts of up to 45 mph were forecast from 11am. My plan for Friday originally was to stop of at Potter Heigham for lunch before returning Goosander to her home mooring in Horning for the evening. But the thought of trying to moor single handed in the cross winds of Potter did not appeal to me so I made my mind up to travel up to Horning in one trip come the morning.

Sorry - no more drone shots now!

Looking towards the Yacht Station from the road bridge at Yarmouth

The Yacht Station (not a yacht in sight!)

The Egret

I asked him to stand up for this one

Looking over Breydon bridge from the pathway alongside Breydon

[YnysMon]

What a lovely post David. Love the detail and the exceptional photos (that egret did look like it was posing for you...I guess that’s just down to your patience). I’ve learnt so much from reading other peoples accounts of the passage through Yarmouth and it’s also helpful to have mentions of good pubs.

Thanks!

Helen

[Broads01]

Of all the places you could stay for a week why anyone would choose GY is unfathomable to me, especially on a top class hire boat. People are bizarre. 

[NorfolkNog]

Each to their own of course but it does make you wonder! Must have deep pockets too!!!

[DAVIDH]

21 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

Of all the places you could stay for a week why anyone would choose GY is unfathomable to me, especially on a top class hire boat. People are bizarre. 

You can see them posing, sorry sat on top of their cruiser in image No2. Actually, they were very nice people just enjoying the sundeck that they have paid considerably for. I could not work it out either. If you love GY so much why not just book a hotel near the sea. My estimation was that they like the "pseudo sea life" watching the comings  and goings, the strong tidal flows etc at the Yacht Station.

[MauriceMynah]

I often feel that people are odd the way they behave but each to their own. Do you know, there are some people who think I'm odd too!

[SwanR]

Enjoyed seeing your photos and reading your tale again. 

Personally there are other places that I can think of to moor if I didn’t want to cruise but to stay moored up even with the 24 hour restrictions on the BA moorings. Not sure that GY would be on my list but then to be fair I haven’t been that far down the Bure. 

[grendel]

10 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I often feel that people are odd the way they behave but each to their own. Do you know, there are some people who think I'm odd too!

No, MM you are not odd, you have one of everything you are supposed to have one of and two of everything you are supposed to have two of....... now strange...... that's a different matter. 

[unclemike]

11 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I often feel that people are odd the way they behave but each to their own. Do you know, there are some people who think I'm odd too!

not you john surely not

 

[MauriceMynah]

Unbelieveable but true !

[CambridgeCabby]

What strikes me about image no.2 is that it appears that the rangers have moored the boat restricting use of the safety ladder , if that is the case then I would certainly have voiced my concerns to the rangers .

And MM you’re not odd, it’s all those other bu***rs 

[DAVIDH]

5 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:

What strikes me about image no.2 is that it appears that the rangers have moored the boat restricting use of the safety ladder , if that is the case then I would certainly have voiced my concerns to the rangers .

The ladders are not just for use as safety ladders there. The rise and fall up to 6ft at the Yacht Station and there are times it would be impossible, or dangerous to get on or off without the ladders. I have specifically asked to be near one in the past as Doreen was only 5ft and any shore leave would have been precluded had the ladder not been available. Having said that, the ladders are spread right across the moorings.

[DAVIDH]

Friday 10^th October

Blue skies welcomed me as I tweaked the bedroom curtain open. There was no wind and you would think the warnings were misplaced. I turned on the radio and the forecast was still the same. So I made a breakfast sandwich using up some of the remaining bacon and generally readied the boat for departure. I wished the couple in the next boat a pleasant holiday and arranged for one of the rangers to assist me by holding onto the bow rope to allow the tide to turn Goosander to face away from the bridges, before reversing out into the stream and on my way up river. I was on my way by 10am and thought as long as I keep mid-stream, any gusts of wind are not going to do me any harm. It’s a long old slog all the way to Horning in one go and there were hardly any boats on the river, probably heeding the weather alert. By now, the gusts of wind were punching the boat which made me think I was not going to enjoy coming into the mooring at Horning.

By 2pm, I was turning into the dyke where Goosander lives taking a very slow cruise down knowing I would need to swing her around to get her into the mooring. Often, there is someone living on the boat behind Goosander’s mooring and I was pleased that on this occasion, they were not in residence. Anyway, I managed to come alongside without mishap and scrambled ashore as quickly as possible, grabbing the ropes to stop the wind from carrying the boat across the dyke. I made the ropes secure and noticed the amount of goose excrement on the walkway. Clearly, in Goosanders absence, every goose in Horning had decided to stake a claim. Two of the blighters we sitting comfortably watching me struggle.  If it stayed there I would be walking it in the boat and it was slippy under foot so I used the nearby hose to wash the surface clean. Well most of it just splashed onto Goosander’s hull at first so then I had to wash the hull and the decks so by the time I had finished, I was soaking wet. Well, if I was wet, there was no way the geese were getting away with it so I chased them off the staging with my trusty colt 45 hose pipe. There were around 10 of them all squawking at me from the dyke and it took quite a few sprays before they decided this was a battle they were not going to win, and headed down the dyke to the open river making more noise than Status Quo at full pelt in a telephone box. After completing the task it was still only around 3pm so I decided to drive to Potter Heigham as I could not reach it by boat. I thought Lathams might have some of those PVC bench covers I saw earlier in the season which would be ideal to protect some garden furniture I have at home over the winter. Well, Lathams have most things but alas no bench covers. I wandered into Bridgestones and had a decedant peice of cake and a latte to make up for the wasted journey.

By nightfall, the wind was shaking the leaves from the trees, though it has to be said, it was a warm wind. I decided to eat at the Ferry Inn this evening as it was much closer than the New Inn and I did not feel like a long walk in a battering wind. Upon entering, I could see there were no free tables, mostly because the room to the left of the carvery section had been dressed for someone’s wedding forcing everybody else into the remaining space. So I turned around and went back to the boat to make myself a meal from what I had left onboard. If I could remember what that was I would tell you but I am writing this some two weeks later and it’s gone right out of my mind. I had already started packing away certain items “ not wanted on voyage” and resigned to leave the rest until the morning. I had to be off Goosander by 11am.

 

On your marks, get set.....

Saw this at Ludham Bridge on the way to PH

Lots of these about all week

A couple of Goosander internal images

[ranworthbreeze]

Thank you David for your informative blog of your allocation on Goosander and the pictures of your adventures aboard.

Regards

Alan

 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

What a great write up, and with some stunning pictures. Well done David, and many thanks for posting such an enjoyable read.

[DAVIDH]

Not quite finished yet. There were a few trials on the day of leaving

[DAVIDH]

Saturday 11^th October

Well, after another cereal breakfast I started the preparation for my disembarkation. I figured it would be best to wash the outside last so I set about cleaning everything  inside  from the front to the back. We need to have the toilet pumped out, fuel replaced and water tanks filled before leaving and seeing that Boulters (where we are moored) open at 8.30am, I was ready to get to the pump out station before any other interlopers tried it. This involved reversing into a fairly tight spot, which I managed at a speed so slow, to describe it as snails-pace would have been a misrepresentation and a slur on your average snail. I was taking no chances. Whilst the “services” were being seen to, I recalled that Boulters now occupies what years ago was King Line’s boatyard. In 1974 (I think) we hired a Calypso King for the week from them – they were brand new then – and on the last full day, we returned to the yard ready to hand back the next day. The Calypso’s were moored in a sort of tight bay and the only space available was at the far end, making it impossible to approach bow first as I would not be able to stern moor. The fuel station mooring was available as you enter the bay but it was strictly no mooring there. Hope you are all following this. So you needed to approach stern first, but there was no room to swing the boat around to stern first once inside the bay. The only way to do it was to go in bow first, tie  the boat at the bow then let the engine swing the stern around. From there, the gap was just wide enough to reverse down the line of Calypsos. Once we were adjacent to the gap, I stepped off and  pulled the boat into it’s vacant slot. I remember thinking at the time, well if my present job goes out the window, I have an alternative career to call on – sardine packer. 

So back to the present. The toilet was emptied and the boat refuelled so I slowly cruised back out onto the dyke and snuggled up to the moorings again. It’s funny how you think you have lots of time but that time starts going by and you start getting into a panic, which in turn induces electrical equipment to refuse to co-operate. Goosander has a vacuum cleaner onboard and it made light work of the carpets etc. It also has an attachment for upholstery but try as I did, I could not get it to  fit. So having vacuumed the carpet, my only redress was to sweep the upholstery “bits” onto the carpet, so that I could then……vacuum the carpet again. I finished the inside and set straight to work on the outside. Just my luck, Goosander is moored near to a tree – this is autumn – it was covered in small, tiny leaves. So I thought here my colt 45 hose will be my best friend, which it was but it was still windy and the more you hosed off, the more was blown on again. Anyway, I hosed everything down topside, including the windows and was back inside with around an hour to spare. This is easy I thought, but then looking sat the windows, I could see they had dried all smeary both inside and out. Earlier in the week I had seen a bottle of Vanish glass cleaner but where was it? I looked high and low for it and it was only after I had found an alternative that I came across it, I think in the bedroom wardrobe (I think!).

Eventually the cleaning was finished with about 5 mins to spare. The final job is to clean the bilge pump filter. Never done this before in my life so I asked for assistance from the Boulters chap who serviced the boat earlier. He showed me how to take it off, wash it and left me to reseat it. That done I took the last of my belongings to the car and went back to lock up the boat. However, I noticed that the bilge pump was running but with no water coming out. This is not right! The Boulters chap came to investigate it for me and it appeared that a new sealer was required. He said to leave it with him and I eventually trundled out of the yard at 11.20am. Thankfully, the new crew had not arrived by that time. What a palaver. I had been at it 3 hours and will definitely have to think of ways to streamline the task. I now have new admiration for how boatyards turn their craft around in such a short time.

So as it was close to lunch time I decided to go to the Yare in Brundall before setting off for Leeds. Always my favourite place on the Broads and very underrated I think. The 8oz burger with chips was delivered and suitably calmed, I set off back home.

Observations:

It’s many years since I holidayed in October and the wide availability of moorings was a plus. I never had to worry about arriving somewhere early to get a space. There were a good few boats out however and it was noticeable how many were the luxury type. I was very lucky with the weather and that always makes a big difference. I worked in travel for 38 years and it was well known that this was the case. The questionnaires they sometimes give out on your return flight ask for your opinions but also ask what the weather was like to weight your answers. Goosander was great and it’s easy to see I have made a good investment. Once the share cost is paid (currently £5,000), then I pay just £880 per year for maintenance, or £220 per season if you like. My one week aboard Silver Symphony last June cost more than a thousand pounds so its easy to see it represents value for money.

Well all finished now. Thank you for reading my tale, the encouragement and the comments. It makes it worthwhile writing.  I am back aboard Goosander in December and I am sure that will be a very different experience. I am looking forward to it with excitement and trepidation at the same time.

No images from the last day so here are a few which did not make the "A" list
Photogenic!

Mooring at St Olaves

Outside the Fishermans Inn at Burgh Castle

Another aerial of Horning

Aerial of Acle looking away from the bridge

Finally, which train station is this?