Swanning Around

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

On 02/10/2019 at 14:19, marshman said:

Be careful on relying on what I say, as I know nothing, but there are a number of factors which will probably work in your favour!

The Barton one is probably fairly irrelevant as what needs to happen is that the water in the system needs to escape - so watch the Acle one instead or even the Three Mile house one on that website. Once the tidal heights start to drop thats a good sign!

However that is unlikely to happen today if this NW wind keeps up but this will switch tomorrow to S or SW and this really will bring a change. At the moment the N Sea is being blown into the "funnel" at the bottom and this, combining with the spring tides around now just exasperates this. I was going to say watch the tidal predictions at Yarmouth too but Peel Ports seem to have lost the page - try Lowestoft as this will give an indication as it changes - neap tides are also due around the middle of next week.

https://www.ntslf.org/data/realtime?port=Lowestoft

'ol Lorenzo looks as though it is going to sweep up the West Coast and strangely that too could help - I believe, and others can contradict as I am only guessing, a good old low to the north of Scotland tends to have the effect of "sucking" water out of the N Sea or so I believe, but rather unconvincingly!! Pressure levels too down here look set to remain fairly stable so that may stop things getting worse as well

From tomorrow I think we could see a changing picture and water levels begin to drop away - well I think they will but as you know my views are regarded as "different" ! Once it makes its mind up to go, levels can change quite quickly!!

By the weekend and certainly by Sun /Mon I think things will have improved - a quick call to LBBS late Sat may just help too as they should be able to tell you what is going on with actual levels, although that may be a bit early for significant change - or so I guess!!

Surely if you know nothing, and you obviously realise it by telling people, it would be dangerously irresponsible to offer advice?. 

Just saying 

[Cal]

21 minutes ago, NorfolkNog said:

Thanks for the update - really glad you got through. 

Glad you enjoyed the Ferry too - good pub 

Yes. Excellent pub. We are going back in shortly for breakfast. 

Slight change of plan for today. Really don't fancy crossing Breydon in this weather today so we are going to head back upstream a little and head for Potter Heigham and Womack today.

Will head South tomorrow instead.

[vanessan]

29 minutes ago, Cal said:

Slight change of plan for today. Really don't fancy crossing Breydon in this weather today so we are going to head back upstream a little and head for Potter Heigham and Womack today.

Sounds a good plan. What with heavy rain and fairly strong winds forecast it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable crossing. Tomorrow looks a great deal better. Hope you have a good day today and find some of those things in Latham’s you never knew you wanted. I think many of us do!

[Cal]

It being a bit choppy wouldn't really bother us. We are used to that on the coast. But we dont really see the point in trudging all the way up to Beccles in the pouring rain to sit on the boat at the other end because it's raining.

Will be a much better run tomorrow.

[vanessan]

52 minutes ago, Cal said:

It being a bit choppy wouldn't really bother us. We are used to that on the coast. But we dont really see the point in trudging all the way up to Beccles in the pouring rain to sit on the boat at the other end because it's raining.

Will be a much better run tomorrow.

Not so much the ‘choppiness’, more the fact that the rain would obscure your view if helming from inside or be quite unpleasant if up top.
Looking at the HW webcam, there are quite a few spaces at Potter at the moment. 

[stumpy]

Does the Ferry still sell the handmade chocolates? They're to die for!

[marshman]

Not offering advice at all - merely an opinion and it is up to others whether they take any notice. Its merely my take on a number of differing factors.

In fact given the slating that my opinion often gets from some quarters, most people will realise that what I say is totally unreliable and not to be believed, unlike others, so I guess they will not take the slightest bit of notice in any case!

But like it or not, I shall still contribute and add my threepenuth!!

 

[MauriceMynah]

17 minutes ago, marshman said:

But like it or not, I shall still contribute and add my threepenuth!!

Well I for one do not necessarily agree with some of the things that you say, but the forum would be very much the poorer if you were to stop saying them. Whether that is opinion or fact … well you decide! :-)

[Cal]

What a thoroughly miserable day. After a very leisurely breakfast at Stokesby we have had a very steady run back upstream to Potter Heigham and it has not stopped raining all the way. 

We have grabbed a mooring by the bridge. Probably the last one a biggish boat will slot into with how the moored boats are spread out!

picture uploader

The plan had been to head down to Womack later but given the very limited visibility from the inside helm on this boat we will give it a miss today unless by some miracle it stops raining later. That seems doubtful though!

On the plus side Swan Ranger is a very warm and dry boat. Perfect for days like today.

We will have to do what we hate doing later and run the engine for a bit while moored up as we really have not gone far today and the batteries were none so clever this morning when we got up.

 

[Cal]

Sydney has bedded down on a miserable Sunday.

[vanessan]

He does look glum!

[Cal]

Suits the mood of the day!

 

[Cal]

It has been a considerably better day today weather wise. A bit grey perhaps but much drier.

We have had a steady run from Potter Heigham to Wroxham to do a spot of shopping and have then plodded back to Salhouse Broad for the evening. 

We are both surprised how quiet the Broads seem this week so far. Loads of moorings everywhere. Even Horning staithe had a couple of spaces at dinnertime!

[YnysMon]

Love the photos, especially the ones of Sydney.

[Cal]

Looks like we are having a second visit from the engineers tonight. The batteries on this boat are shot. We did a few hours cruising today and have just had the engine running for a few hours while moored up, which we hate doing, and still they are only showing 12v when the engine is turned off. 

Credit where it is due the engineers are on the ball and talked us through a few things it could be. None of which it is but they are now on their way to us despite our less than ideal location for them to get too us.

Should be a quick fix all being well.

[Mouldy]

In eight years hiring from Summercraft, we didn’t ever need to call the yard to resolve any issues.  Perhaps that is the benefit of hiring from a small yard, where there is time to be proactive with regard to maintenance on changeover days. 

Regardless of the speed with which the engineers respond, given the cost of hiring a boat, there can be no excuses for multiple call outs during ones holiday (imho obviously), especially to fix issues like leaking stern glands which surely should be checked weekly.

[Cal]

I agree there is no excuse for the stern gland leak.

The heater not working we are pretty sure the previous hirers had encountered this as the thermostat was turned right up to 32 degrees probably in an attempt to get it working. They can't have mentioned it to the engineers. 

We have never hired a boat that has had good batteries at the start of the holiday but they do usually improve after a few long days cruising. These have gotten worse. Again the previous hirers must have noticed this. The engineers in the yard probably should have as well.

[SwanR]

When we hired from Richardson's earlier this year the young lad was excellent at our handover and asked if we had any issues which he noted down. But if hirers don't speak up then the yard doesn't know about the problems.

As for the batteries, whenever we pick a boat up from Ferry Marina the boat is plugged in on charge. 

[NorfolkNog]

53 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Perhaps that is the benefit of hiring from a small yard, where there is time to be proactive with regard to maintenance on changeover days

Summed it up perfectly. The big boys tend to apply reactive maintenance whereas the smaller yards (mostly) do proactive maintenance. This is where Swancraft excelled. They would replace things before they failed and their battery systems were second to none. Genuine breakdowns were as rare as hens teeth. Touch wood (fingers crossed) never had a flat battery.

But as Jean says, the yards do need hirers to tell them if there is an issue but I agree, I think the yard should have picked up the battery problem.

[Cal]

Quick update. Battery bank 1 is shot. Luckily this boat has 2 domestic banks we are now switched to bank 2 which isn't in the best condition either but better than bank 1. We are getting two new banks of batteries tomorrow when we are in a more accessible location. 

The engineer is a lovely chap and was very apologetic. Not his fault of course.

[Cal]

46 minutes ago, SwanR said:

When we hired from Richardson's earlier this year the young lad was excellent at our handover and asked if we had any issues which he noted down. But if hirers don't speak up then the yard doesn't know about the problems.

As for the batteries, whenever we pick a boat up from Ferry Marina the boat is plugged in on charge. 

I dont think putting these batteries on charge would do anything. They are that shot they cant hold any charge. As soon as you were moored up somewhere away from shore power they would fail.

If anything the shore power would mask the problem further.

[NorfolkNog]

Hope you get sorted. The 2 battery banks was a Swancraft innovation and a good idea. More expensive of course but helps to reduce call outs. It may be that Richardson's use cheaper batteries but I've no evidence to support that. I am surprised in some ways that they retained the Swancraft dual system. We were out every December with Swancraft - limited cruising time and no shore power, never had a problem.

Please keep us posted!!!

[Cal]

The engineer who came out did say that these Swancraft boats did have huge batteries but they have been swapped out for more typical batteries as they could not be replaced by one person.

[Mouldy]

6 hours ago, Cal said:

The engineer who came out did say that these Swancraft boats did have huge batteries but they have been swapped out for more typical batteries as they could not be replaced by one person.

I wonder if they meant that the cost of like for like batteries would be the issue?  I get that dragging batteries to Salhouse Broad from the car park would be difficult, but yet another engineers visit during a one week hire is too much.  

I trust that an offer of some financial compensation will be made and not in the form of a voucher to be used against the future hire of another boat.

[grendel]

I will say again that the most important link in the maintenance chain is the previous customer reporting any issues, when i was the first hirer on Jayne 2 from marthams i left a snagging list as i handed back the paperwork at reception, they were all small things, the weed filter had stuck in place, and there was a fuel injector that always looked wet, plus the alternator bolt had dropped its nut into the engine oil tray (temporarily fixed by putting a cable tie on the thread to stop the bolt dropping out), bu the time i had walked from the office back to the boat to give it one last look they already had a team of people on board fixing the problems.

if every hirer reported all the little niggles like this when they got back, the yards would know what to check / fix, changeover time is  quite rushed for most yards so spotting a problem that hasnt been reported must be tricky.