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If you fancy a walk The Ship is good. If you fancy a bit longer walk The Maltsters at Ranworth is not too far done it often from Fleet Dyke. There is also a Chinese but not too sure what they do now. Immigration took a interest in their business a while back.

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3 hours ago, ChrisB said:

If you fancy a walk The Ship is good. If you fancy a bit longer walk The Maltsters at Ranworth is not too far done it often from Fleet Dyke. There is also a Chinese but not too sure what they do now. Immigration took a interest in their business a while back.

Indeed we did walk to the Ship. However there was no room at the inn and we were obliged to walk back unfed. We had not booked. When earlier in the day i had suggested to my N&D that, being Saturday night we should ring and book, the response was "we will be fine". So making do on board. But it is a lovely evening now.

Cheers

Chris

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Early morning on Fleet Dyke is a rather more beautiful experience than the name would suggest, and the fishing was not bad too. Over breakfast we decided we should re-provision (one night of bread and jam is enough) and we upped anchor and headed for Potter. After an easy mooring (these bowthrusters are brilliant) we paid the pilot a visit. In response to my enquiry about getting through the bridge, and upon advising him of the name of our boat, we got another sharp intake of breath and a muttered "you have a big one there" (almost Carry On Cruising). Not for a few days was the decision. This put us in a bit of a quandary as we want to venture South but even more we want to visit Hickling. So we have decided to stay up here in the hope of getting through. Not exactly a disaster as it is so lovely up here.

A quick trip to Lathams and we staggered out with several bags of items we never even knew we needed. We slipped our mooring (getting nautical now) and whilst swmbo reorganised her cupboards i took us down to Thurne Dyke. Here we discovered a charge for overnight mooring applies on both banks.

An easy mooring, despite the increasing wind, a spot of fishing, a spot of lunch and a walk along the Weavers Way. This can be a very pleasant walk but after our first encounter with dog poop we spent the rest of our walk with eyes cast down, missing everything we had come to see.

I went back to my fishing, stopping on at least 3 occasions to assist boat crews struggling to moor with the wind blowing them off the bank. To digress briefly, i know there is an ongoing discussion about the tensions between anglers and boaties. As is so often the case, it is the few obnoxious individuals that create an impression of open warfare. When cruising i will try and slow down and give anglers a wide berth, but it is not always possible (on the Hauraki Gulf the missile of choice is not a handful of maggots but a 4oz lead ball sinker!).

After an excellent meal at The Lion, i having Lamb and Rosemary pie with thick cut chips and Lyn choosing the Halloumi bites (so many she took some back to the boat and i am thinking chub bait?). We then settled down to a pleasant evening of fishing, reading, and quiddler, when around 8.30pm two of Herbert Wood's bigger craft came tearing past the head of the dyke in close convoy. From the bow waves i would guess full throttle. I assume someone on the leading boat spotted a mooring and he must have gone into full reverse, catching the following boat by surprise as he appeared (my vision was a little obscured) to ram the leading boat with an almighty crack. After a bit of slow circling and muttering they carried on towards Potter at a much more sedate pace. I would not be surprised if some damage was not the result.

Anyroadup, swmbo is stirring so i had better make her tea.

Cheers

Chris.

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I'm enjoying your tale, Chris, you write very well. What you saw at Thurne defies belief, just the sheer stupidity and complete absence of common sense. 

On the subject of Potter Bridge and Hickling, I think it's more than likely you won't get through at all. I think Swan Rapture wiuld need something like 6 foot 9 or 6 foot 10 and you just don't get that sort of clearance at Potter very often. The run up to Hickling is indeed lovely and my advice would be to hire a day boat, either from Herbert Woods or Whispering Reeds at Hickling (who also have a comfy day cruiser which I enjoyed hiring). 

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7 hours ago, Broads01 said:

I'm enjoying your tale, Chris, you write very well. What you saw at Thurne defies belief, just the sheer stupidity and complete absence of common sense. 

On the subject of Potter Bridge and Hickling, I think it's more than likely you won't get through at all. I think Swan Rapture wiuld need something like 6 foot 9 or 6 foot 10 and you just don't get that sort of clearance at Potter very often. The run up to Hickling is indeed lovely and my advice would be to hire a day boat, either from Herbert Woods or Whispering Reeds at Hickling (who also have a comfy day cruiser which I enjoyed hiring). 

Hi there, i fear you may be correct and a dayboat may be the only way we could get up there. We have 11 days (only) left and erindoors is now drawing up a plan of places we "must" go to/ go back to before we hand back the boat. No doubt that will include the various shops in which she has spotted items we must take back for so-and-so, and the pubs with the best meals etc. The best fishing spots will only appear if i sneak them in whilst she is asleep.

Wherever we go we are going to love it and take back a lot of very happy memories. Glad you are enjoying the tale. I had read so many accounts on here whilst we were planning our trip it seemed churlish not to give something back.

Cheers

Chris

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Sounds as if you are having a lovely time. I’m thinking that day boats are indeed the way to see the less accessible extremities of the Broads. We’ve not even found favourable tide times for getting under Wroxham Bridge yet when we’ve been up there. Planning a day boat for August perhaps when we’re hoping to be up at our caravan for a few days. 

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Dawn over Thurne Dyke is something a bit special. To me it has always been the quintessential Broadland scene with the low farmland disappearing into the mist, the river glasslike and reflective as the wind has not yet begun to blow, and the windmill silhouetted against the early morning sky. And the sounds. The many songbirds coughing and throat clearing, the cattle calling to be milked, and the lone duck complaining loudly and incessantly about something. A bit like Victor Meldrew on speed. Oh, and the fishing was not too bad.

As some (or all ) of you will know, Swan Rapture comes equipped with electric flush toilets. A truly wonderful invention, but with one flaw. They come with a red light. At handover the chappie said that when the red light  comes on you need a pump out. Of course we failed to enquire the precise nature of the situation represented by the red light. Is it "your holding tank will self destruct if you flush once more" , or you have half a dozen flushes left?

We have now been on this boat for 10 days.  So the sole ( it seems) topic of conversation is the red light. Every visit to the loo is followed by:

Person 1 " did the red light come on?"

Person 2: "no"

Person 1 " you flushed"

Person 2 "yes"

Person 1 "was that really necessary"

Person 2 "well yes it was actually". And so on. The strain is starting to tell.

So we do not know if we have a loo about to burst asunder or a duff red light. Which is why we are not sat at mooring on Sutton Staithe planning to go to Richardsons in the morning to get the bulb checked ad the tank pumped.

On the plus side we have enjoyed an excellent repast at the Sutton Staithe Hotel. Sadly the fishing, for once, is naff.

Cheers

Chris

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41 minutes ago, grounded said:

At handover the chappie said that when the red light  comes on you need a pump out. Of course we failed to enquire the precise nature of the situation represented by the red light.

Chris when we hired Swan Reflection back in the days of Swancraft, they advised that when the red light comes on you have ten more flushes left.

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50 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Chris when we hired Swan Reflection back in the days of Swancraft, they advised that when the red light comes on you have ten more flushes left.

Having hired Swan Roamer with the same flush, 10 flushes is a bit optimistic. We hired for 4 nights, the red light came on about 4pm on the last day and I came to regret not heading for a pump out immediately. The toilet gave up the ghost during the night and wasn't the best experience. It was a fabulous boat and the toilet was brilliant - until the red light. 

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That's a shame Simon. Four nights isn't a lot, does make you wonder if it had been pumped out properly. We hired several different boats from Swancraft back in the day and always managed at least 7 days. In fact we often had a pre emptive pump out in winter just in case but never experienced the dreaded red light. When Swancraft had them they were fitted with an overflow so if the worst came to the worst the tank would overflow into the river. Without getting into too much detail I was assured that the top of the tank was pretty much water anyway. 

We never had an issue with them although a good plan is to use pound shop loo roll as the macerator arrangement can be clogged with very thick quilted type toilet paper. As with all boat toilets,  no wet wipes!!! 

Apologies to the OP for drifting off topic (again) :default_biggrin:

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We did employ pump-out delaying techniques, which were perhaps more effective than we expected. We have just been pumped out by Richardsons but no check of the red light, so i think we will continue in the same vein. Still sat waiting at Richardsons for attention to the microwave which has not worked since day one.

I also asked about the electrical hook up cable in the wardrobe. This was not mentioned at handover, but it seems we can use shore power. It would have been nice to know. Not that we would have needed it much with no microwave and not having turned the TV on yet! 

Cheers

Chris

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Not sure if the shore power is something Richardsons have added, we certainly never used it. Back in the day the Swancraft batteries and charging systems were so good that it was unnessaery anyway even in December! However it's always best to run the engine when using the microwave. 

Hope you get the microwave fixed!! 

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1 hour ago, grounded said:

We did employ pump-out delaying techniques

On Swan Roamer (identical to Rapture except the stern) we also employ 'pump-out delaying techniques' as per Griff's quote in the past.  When starting on a Saturday we have a pump out on Wednesday and if starting on Tuesday we make it Sunday.  These toilets do use a lot of water and it would be very useful to know how many flushes you have then you could count or if you knew the holding tank capacity you good make an estimate of the number.  On Roamer in addition to the big red lamp there is a much smaller light in the push button panel which we have never seen change from green, it may also be an indicator that might change to amber and then red, I don't know.

2 hours ago, grounded said:

I also asked about the electrical hook up cable in the wardrobe.

A Richardson's engineer did tell me that the electric hook-up just powers a battery charger but the cable is quite short so the stern needs to be very close to the electric post as I found out the other week  The only indication you will see in the boat that it is connected and charging is that the two voltmeters will show 14V instead of just over 12V.

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1 hour ago, BryanW said:

A Richardson's engineer did tell me that the electric hook-up just powers a battery charger

That sounds right, it's not strictly full shore power as such. As I mentioned earlier, Swancraft had excellent battery systems so never needed. We hired one of the Fair Regents a while back and that had exactly the same facility. 

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6 hours ago, BryanW said:

On Swan Roamer (identical to Rapture except the stern) we also employ 'pump-out delaying techniques' as per Griff's quote in the past.  When starting on a Saturday we have a pump out on Wednesday and if starting on Tuesday we make it Sunday.  These toilets do use a lot of water and it would be very useful to know how many flushes you have then you could count or if you knew the holding tank capacity you good make an estimate of the number.  On Roamer in addition to the big red lamp there is a much smaller light in the push button panel which we have never seen change from green, it may also be an indicator that might change to amber and then red, I don't know.

 

Green light in push button panel may just be indicating that there is power to it. Sort of Green to go light.

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9 hours ago, NorfolkNog said:

Not sure if the shore power is something Richardsons have added, we certainly never used it. Back in the day the Swancraft batteries and charging systems were so good that it was unnessaery anyway even in December! However it's always best to run the engine when using the microwave. 

Hope you get the microwave fixed!! 

Hi, yes they replaced it with a new one which works. A very efficient team. Now we seem to have a problem with what sounds like a pump (bilge???) running for half a second every thirty seconds or so. I can't locate the source but it seems to come from amidships. I have only found one hatch i can open and it is not coming from under there. I will just have to ring them in the morning.

We lost so much time earlier we decided to head for Gaye's staithe and a meal at the White Horse. Good choice.

I am going to lift the engine hatch now, just in case.

Cheers

Chris

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49 minutes ago, grounded said:

Hi, yes they replaced it with a new one which works. A very efficient team. Now we seem to have a problem with what sounds like a pump (bilge???) running for half a second every thirty seconds or so. I can't locate the source but it seems to come from amidships. I have only found one hatch i can open and it is not coming from under there. I will just have to ring them in the morning.

We lost so much time earlier we decided to head for Gaye's staithe and a meal at the White Horse. Good choice.

I am going to lift the engine hatch now, just in case.

Cheers

Chris

Check all your taps are turned off tightly , sounds like water pump

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I would agree, water pump more likely. You could check if it is the bilge pump as water will be ejected from the side of the boat. You could also switch the bilge pump off for a few minutes (be sure to turn it on again) to see if it stops. If its not that, the water pump sounds like the culprit. As mentioned make sure the taps are off and not dripping. The system is pressurised so if you lose pressure the pump will run. It is possible that there could be a leak on the domestic water system somewhere in which case you would need to call Richardsons out. Please let us know how you get on!

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9 hours ago, NorfolkNog said:

I would agree, water pump more likely. You could check if it is the bilge pump as water will be ejected from the side of the boat. You could also switch the bilge pump off for a few minutes (be sure to turn it on again) to see if it stops. If its not that, the water pump sounds like the culprit. As mentioned make sure the taps are off and not dripping. The system is pressurised so if you lose pressure the pump will run. It is possible that there could be a leak on the domestic water system somewhere in which case you would need to call Richardsons out. Please let us know how you get on!

Thanks for the suggestions. It does seem to have a very different tone to the water pump, but i will ensure we have no drips. The blighter went all night but stopped about 6am. All is quiet now. I had still best call the yard.

Cheers

Chris

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55 minutes ago, grounded said:

Thanks for the suggestions. It does seem to have a very different tone to the water pump, but i will ensure we have no drips. The blighter went all night but stopped about 6am. All is quiet now. I had still best call the yard.

Cheers

Chris

Did someone use a tap at that time and probably turned it off tightly, it doesn't have to drip just losing a bit of air will cause it to go as you explained

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14 hours ago, grounded said:

Hi, yes they replaced it with a new one which works. A very efficient team. Now we seem to have a problem with what sounds like a pump (bilge???) running for half a second every thirty seconds or so. I can't locate the source but it seems to come from amidships. I have only found one hatch i can open and it is not coming from under there. I will just have to ring them in the morning.

We lost so much time earlier we decided to head for Gaye's staithe and a meal at the White Horse. Good choice.

I am going to lift the engine hatch now, just in case.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris,

My guess is that it may be the fresh water pump that is loosing pressure and cutting in. You should be able to switch off the water pump from the control panel to check if it is indeed this.

Regards

Alan

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I think the general concensus of water pump must be correct as there has been no repetition and we have not quite employed a torque wrench but we are now making certain all taps are turned off tight.

We are on Womack Water, mainly because:

1. There is something in a shop here she simply must have and the shop keeps eccentric hours;

2. We both think the carvery in the Kings Arms is worth the trip; and

3. What's not to love about Womack?

Don't let anyone convince you that fishing is relaxing. I have spent the past 3 hours trying to catch roach and bream on breadflake. I have a tension headache and every  muscle hurts. I am prescribing a cold Hobgoblin.

Cheers

Chris

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