The Summer Bling Holiday with Blingette and Mercs 2010

[Jupes]

A little reminder to watch your depth's in the Backwaters, Jupes.

Mid-afternoon tides means very early morning / late afternoon in two days time...

The bit turning up the creek past the shingle island (Stone Point I think it is called) towards Walton and the marina can get very shallow.

But then I've only ever been in there with a rag and stick so it shouldn't be not be as restrictive for your bling machine..

Swimming in the Backwaters, remember not to touch the bottom, it won't take your weight!

Mud, Mud, glorious mud!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday

Martin

Thanks for the advice Martin. We are planning to head out around midday tomorrow, so should be enough water hopefully

[Jupes]

When are all you guys off on your London trip?

I've tried to find the original thread but had no luck

Hi Jim

Unfortuntely, we couldn't make London due the wedding bookings. I believe they are heading down either today or tomorrow.

[Jupes]

Friday and Saturday 30th and 31st July

Having decided on a lay-in, we slept in until 9am and then pottered around. It seems very friendly here with everyone saying hello. I cooked a full English for everyone and then around lunchtime, we requested clearance to exit the marina.

The conditions were not great wind over tide down the Orwell. Not too bad, just windy and bumpy. We saw a cruise ship at dock in Harwich, no idea which though and some of the container ships fully loaded, the size is awesome. We saw a power boat doing its trial run for the weekend Power Boat Festival. The conditions were slightly worse around Harwich with a beam sea which we needed to cross to get to the backwaters.

This was when tempers got the better of us, and the conversation went something along the lines of …. (me) why are you going that way when we need to go this way? (him) for f**k sake, it’s a beam sea, stop nagivating will you. Anyway, I eventually nagivated hard enough to get us back on course and as we came closer to the entrance, it calmed somewhat. As we approached the boats on anchor in the channel, some prat from behind decided to plane his way through . A guy on one of the said boats, came out rather quickly to tell him to slow down and the prat ignored him totally, so rude . We arrived at Titchmarsh alive and moored successfully on our allocated mooring. We like it here . On the boat, it does feel a little goldfish bowly as you cannot see over the grass banks at all, however, the facilities are good and the views from the bar/restaurant lovely, we saw the cruise ship from earlier exiting Felixstowe whilst enjoyed a little tipple in the sunshine. And, they sell ice!!!!

We cobbed this evening, some marinaded Ribeye Steaks, Greek Salad, Pitta breads and humous with baked brandied bananas for pudding yummy!!! LB and Blingette then felt they needed to make sure the rib still worked and disappeared off to the pub for some ‘them-time’ for a couple of hours, which means I get me-time !!! They then drove it back in the dark.

I woke about 8am and heard the rain on the roof, so turned over and thought this is definitely lie-in day !! The original plan had been to go to Hamford Water to see the seals this morning as high tide was around 3pm, so there would be a chance to see them basking on the mud. It rained until after 2pm when it looked like there was a window before the next dark clouds hit, so off we went. High water, choppy and windy, damp and one seal later (very nice seal though) and we are back . Early dinner in the restaurant, we all had the carvery which at £4.95 with a choice of 3 meats is very good value and wasn’t bad either. We saw the Wessex rescue helicopter fly in to the Orwell whilst sat on the verandah. The diesel is significantly cheaper here than anywhere else we have stayed, so we will be topping up the tanks tomorrow.

Few jobs around the boat, why are the jobs never done ?? Navigation plan organised for tomorrow. The clouds finally disappeared around 7.30pm and slack water, so time for Mercs 2nd swim. He definitely doesn’t like swimming, I thought all dogs liked to swim? As soon as he got in, he wanted to come out. Showered off on the transom and towelled dry, he is snoring away next to me making my left side very damp. Mercs greatest hates appear to be 1) planing 2) swimming 3) the dinghy . LB and Blingette have disappeared for more ‘them-time’, although they had to come back when they first went having forgotten to take any money for the pub!! Blingette has now read 3 books in 6 days and is half-way through the next. It reminds me of Goodchilds, sitting here as it get darks listening to the oystercatchers and others.

[Jupes]

Two reports together, as the connection kept failing on me yesterday evening.

Sunday 1st August

Awake early ie 8am stupid o’clock on holiday, as the plan is to go back through Lowestoft today and spend the latter part of our holiday in places where Lydia has more to do ie, WRC = swimming pool, Beccles = swimming pool and OB = park and school friends. We had hoped to do the Deben on the way back, however, the conditions are starting to look rather variable and some serious chill time in an environment we all know will be good for the soul!! We have had a lovely time exploring, however, with a dog on board, you are really restricted to marinas which takes away from the loveliness of sitting and doing nothing on the river, which the Broads spoils us with. So, as the tides are at difficult times for northbound passages we decided to go for arriving at Lowestoft at slack water as the bit around there always seems to be the worst point and leaving mid-wayish between LW and HW will get us out of Titchmarsh relatively safely. First job for me was to ensure the poo-tube (Mercs) was empty, then stow everything away safely, whilst LB checked engines and other really important stuff !!

Our first disagreement of the day, revolved around waiting over 30 minutes to get onto the fuel dock as me being ‘oh wisest one’ , said….. lesson learnt….. should have done it before rather than on leaving when we need to be on our way and not hanging around while all the Sunday drivers take their time filling up!!! I think you can imagine what I got in return . Next stresspoint was exiting the final buoys through the Backwaters, bearing in mind, there was only around 6’ under the keel, some prat decides to plane past us… . This did not put LB in best humour : . We followed the course we should, crossing the shipping lane and all fine until we got just North of the Deben and then it got very bumpy and lumpy and there was no wind to speak of, thank god . We tried adjusting our speed several times to try and run with it better and then found that we were at full throttle but the speed was dropping so much, we were struggling to stay on the plane. At this point, we could not work out what was going on and the rain started, so we slowed down and switched to helm downstairs. Still not enough engine power to get on the plane and the electrics on the starboard side went down. We thought the starboard side engine was showing too hot on trying to plane and had no way of knowing what was happening port side due to the electric failure, so decided our best course of action was to slow right down to 8/9 knots and keep below the intercoolers kicking in, as much as we could, and bob our way up the coast…. Which we did for miles and miles….. bobbing about on the waves, and it was rather pleasant although seeing Southwold in the distance, it took an age to finally reach it!

During all this, Blingette slept and Mercs looked at me beseechingly as if to say, I don’t like this, make it stop please and he never slept a wink, on constant alert . I had lost my cool, decorum and ability to be nice by this point and as LB later pointed out I sat-nagged between every buoy…… in between saying never again, had enough, don’t like this, want to buy HJII, etc, etc.. !!

Above Southwold, the water started to slacken out, so we tried to reach planing speed again and, hey presto, no problem?? Into Lowestoft and I poured my first drink of the day , although we hadn’t eaten a thing, having put a family pack of quavers on the flybridge, to find Blingette had ate the lot . A drink was definitely needed irrespective. Lowestoft has never looked so lovely . Mutford Lock looked even lovelier and the scenery around Oulton Broad just beautiful . As soon as we came into the harbour at Lowestoft and the revs slowed Mercs was happy and wagged his way hanging over the side all the way to WRC .

As we approached WRC, Job Done came onto the radio to welcome us in and it was lovely to see Luke, Claire, James, Robert, Rebecca and Mason waiting to take our ropes. Mercs was in his element and couldn’t wait to get off to say hello and sniff around somewhere he likes.

The problem had now escalated into that we could not turn the engines off and with Luke and Robert’s help the fuel supply was cut to the engines and we believe it is the relay or the reset switch. Anything more technical, ask LB, not my bag, sorry!!

We were starving, so a quick peek around Job Done and green around the gills we went to eat at the Waveney Inn. Seriously, a beautiful ship, Luke and Claire.

Lydia went along to join the crews of R&R and Job Done at the pub for quiz night, while we got tidied up on board from the sea trip. LB has just gone across to join them all in the pub whilst Mercs and I are pooped out and he is snoring very happily.

[Jupes]

I did not want to include this in the main report, however, we were told this morning, that the reason the Wessex Helicopter went into the Orwell, was because one of the power boaters died yesterday. The racing for the weekend was stopped as a result.

I have no more details than this. Our heartfelt condolescences to the family.

[goodall_m1]

Next stresspoint was exiting the final buoys through the Backwaters, bearing in mind, there was only around 6’ under the keel, some prat decides to plane past us… . This did not put LB in best humour : .

Jupes:

Was it 6' (6ft) or 6" (6 inches)

I suspect the later, if you were leaving Titchmarsh later than planned and on a falling tide.

Wake from a passing planing (nice to know they go after their brethren as well as hire boats and ) ,

or just the swell coming in can throw the best calculations of water depth out

(along with many other factors).

The important thing is to calculate so as to leave enough of a safety margin under the bottom.

You made it through, though.

Martin

p.s. Did you meet the London mob heading the other way?

[Jupes]

Hi all,

Suzanne will no doubt post a daily update for todays activities, but I would just like to say a massive thankyou to Robert and Luke for sorting out the problem that we had with the engine retarding at sea yesterday.

As per previous thread, we lost all electrics and guages on one engine, which in turn meant that intercooler and turbo would not function on one engine and consequentially we "limped" back from titchmarsh at a lowly 10 knts.

Robert eventually isolated the problem down to an alternator fault that triggered a reset fuse which would not reset.

Now all seems fine and we are ready to continue our journey!

But also Robert fixed two other issues that we encountered from the same voyage...immersion heater failed and the water pump wasnt priming.

Hats off to you robert for fixing all these bits!!! And to luke for providing adequate entertainment whilst robert worked his stuff....yo work it baby!!!

Special Bling BBQ to be arranged by us for you for all your help...and luke...just love that S38!

L Bling

[pks1702]

Well done on your solo trip and also a refreshingly frank log of updates.

Sorry we missed you but hope you had a good time overall.

[R&R]

Hi Adam, Suzanne and Lydia

Hope the rest of your holiday is going well. All I can say is 'Glad to be of assistance.' We made the bridge yesterday - only just!!

Robert

[MY littleboat]

"Jupes"

Our original and ideal plan for today, had been to take up a buoy at Pin Mill and eat at the Butt and Oyster on the quay in the evening, however, high tide was mid afternoon and we didn’t fancy low tide and muddy shoes (not sure if this is correct, please advise David or Perry).

Just a quick note of reference, there is a fairly long concrete causeway that runs out from the quay, best to arrive on a rising tide and carry the dinghy up the causeway and tie it on to the railings at the top.. otherwise you may be swimming out to it!!!!!!!

[Jupes]

Thank you Martin, Perry, Robert and Gavin

To answer ...!!

Martin - it was definitely more than 6 inches although depth sounders are not overly predictable in low water conditions, however, we did follow two yachties out so about 6 foot would appear right. Should, I have seen the bottom, you would all know about it!! So, the fast plonker was just a fast plonker

Perry - thank you. Tell it like it is being from Lancashire!!

Robert - what can I say, without you and your Lucky sidekick, we would probably have had to curtail our holiday . Thanks guys, very appreciated.

Gavin - thanks for that information re Pin Mill. If I can't convince LB to buy HJII, we may need that info

[goodall_m1]

Martin - it was definitely more than 6 inches although depth sounders are not overly predictable in low water conditions, however, we did follow two yachties out so about 6 foot would appear right. Should, I have seen the bottom, you would all know about it!! So, the fast plonker was just a fast plonker

On my last exit from Titchmarsh it was a case of about 6 inches under the keel, but then I was on a flappy thing with a big keel on the bottom....

(and I was exiting on a rising tide).....

[senator]

We had a minimum of 2.2m under us on our exit at LWN and we draw 1m