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Grendels Week Aboard Water Rail Featuring The Wooden Boat Show


grendel

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Well Thursday is here at last, my 3 days work between holidays is over, and after a 3 1/2 hour drive I arrived, 11.30 on the dot.

car unpacked aboard water rail and moved to its parking spot for the week, it was time to set off, after familiarising myself with the controls, I started up and headed off from my starting point in Oulton Broad, once around the broad and then to a mooring at the oulton broad yacht station, boy has it been warm.

anyway, bags unpacked into cupboards and ice cream consumed, the model of Broad Ambition proudly displayed on the steering hatch at the rear, and now sat catching up on the forum.

Only one little incident so far, and that was when everyone came aboard down the port side to assist another boat mooring and managed to tip the just boiled kettle off the cooker, not an issue, the water headed away between the floor boards and into the bilges.

next to get some food cooked and have some tea now its cooled down enough to think of cooking.

pictures when I have taken some, probably tomorrow.

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well once i looked i opened some windows for ventilation, one window in the front cabin on the port side would not slide, but a liberal application of washing up liquid did the trick, so there is full cross ventilation in the fore cabin now (it may just have been the heat caused it to swell slightly.)

next job is tea

 

 

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woke late (6am) to a wonderful day, looked out to see a gnome fishing off the bow of his boat.

Canopy down, coffee made (with rum naturally) and model back out on the steering hatch cover on display. not a cloud in sight.

time for breakfast.

IMG_0957.JPG

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after a busy day socialising, i suppose i should write up yesterdays events. we were at oulton broad for the morning getting bunting on boats, preparing for the event. generally wandering round and having socially distanced chats amongst ourselves, now the only observation there is that socially distanced group chats where there is limited shade tend to hog that shade and create huge areas blocking the quayside, not as bad an issue at beccles as there is more grassy areas behind the boats, but i am getting ahead of myself here.

12.00 with military precision (ish) boats start firing up engines and departing, they then start circling in front of OBYS and the wherry, as more boats come out and join the wagon train, then suddenly someone makes a break for freedom and we are off, a double line of boats heading across Oulton Broad. as we reach the entrance we narrow down to single file and the cruise is under way, along Oulton dyke then a left turn onto the Waveney, past the Waveney River centre, crews of passing boats enquiring what was afoot. thus strung out we headed upstream to Beccles where military precision took over and boats were moored at the centre of the moorings and sent to alternate ends as they arrived to stern moor, giving each boat time to get moored up before the space next to them was required.

All those manoeuvres completed it was time to get down to the serious business of relaxing, shopping trips organised (the new Lidls is now the closest grocery shop, but somehow when I went to get milk and bacon, I also managed to come back with welding wire.

All this time it was hot, very hot, people were congregated in the shade under the trees, cooking tea was postponed as long as possible until it had started cooling down.

eventually it got dark, a few clouds had appeared, and eventually I went to bed, lulled to sleep by the gentle hum of conversation, someone was playing some sort of musical instrument, and despite it still being warm, I dropped off into the land of dreams.

just a point of note, when I went shopping I had to purchase more bottled water, as i had get through nearly 4 litres in 24 hours just keeping hydrated in the heat.

Water Rail is a really sweet little boat, the bunks are plenty long enough and she handles like a dream, the only incident of note on the way to beccles was that after crossing through the wake of a boat headed the other way I did hear a crash from the rear cabin, looking back I spotted the coffee jar on the floor, then a double take and it was check steering, and a dive into the back cabin to rescue the bottle of rum that was near the edge of the work surface, well we couldnt have that tipping off could we.

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well its been a busy day yesaterday, plenty of people wandering past, interested in the boats and model.

Thte model was put on the water a couple of times yesterday, once for Charlies approval, and again when some children wheedled until I put her on the water and put her through her paces.

other than that I didnt manage to take any pictures, or get a lot done, the heat was exhausting, and I got through another 3 litres of water.

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as i have been sitting for a few days I think I need a reasonably long run today, i wanted to get up to the locks, but thats not so far at all, and I want a longer run, so I will leave that for later in the week, today I think I will head round to the yare and see where I get to.

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2 hours ago, CambridgeCabby said:

And maybe we can get an update as to the status of The New Inn 

Our son, daughter-in-law and their family had lunch there on Friday, so it hasn’t closed down yet.  Not sure about the future of for pub, though.

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1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

Where’s New Mills? Is that beyond Bishop Bridge?

Yes it is the Wensum head of navigation for private boats - it is one of the most delightful & fascinating journeys that can be made IMHO.  Just have to avoid low water but sufficiently low to get under Bishop's Bridge (and avoid shopping trolleys)

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well, after cruising for quite a while at a sedate 4=-4.5mph (2000 rpm and under, even against the tides, I got onto the yare, suddenly even tickover was too much, as i went through reedham at 5.9mph, up past the ferry and a left turn down the chet, en route i was watching out for wild moorings, there seems to be a permanent boat on one, got to pyes mill , two possible spaces, but both would have entailed people moving their boats, and still only been big enough for water rail, loddon basin same story, one boat straddling 2 spaces, not wanting the hassle, i spun around and returned to my wild mooring, a couple of boats heading the other way asked about spaces, I replied only if you can get someone to move slightly, half an hour later they reappeared back from lodden, there would have been a space at the next moorings upstream, once again there were 2 boats already moored, and a water rail sized space, but it was full of youngsters jumping into the water, and not wanting to chance squashing one I carried on past leaving them to it.

anyway, wild moored to a couple of trees, and canopy up for some shade from the sun (sides off for the minute), and just enjoying a mug of coffee.

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2 hours ago, w-album said:

She loves going up through the City toNew Mills as well!

Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app
 

might just give that a try.

for now its a case of watching boats head down to lodden then come back a while later.

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taking my example from the kids upstream, I decided to have a swim, now being about as agile as a baby elephant I took certain precautions, not  only did I carefully probe the water depth (quite deep close in to the bank, soft mud bottom, but I grabbed a spare mooring line and tied it to the tree, taking the other end with me into the water, this meant that after a few minutes swim, I could literally haul myself up onto the bank using the rope as a safety line, this arrangement worked perfectly as it both limited the distance away from the boat, but it allowed me to haul myself onto the soft bank when I had finished.

The water was delightfully warm, and very refreshing, so much so I have left the rope tied at the moment for another go later. the other problem, the long step up to the boat was solved by a piece of 4" x 2" timber, someone had left on the bank,  this was the perfect length to bridge between bank and boat, and allow easy ramp access, so much so i might make a proper boarding plank to go as part of Water Rails kit.

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I have been prodding and probing the deeper recesses of Water Rail, I think I have now found all the fuses, one lot in the heads behind a panel, these seem to be the nav lights horn, searchlight etc, another bunch at a junction box just above the battery bank, and a bunch of household rewireable fuses behind all the mains equipment, quite out of reach to replace fuses. the aft light only comes on if the cockpit bulkhead light is switched on, and thats just a few of my discoveries, a spare mudweight and rope in the bilges. there is a switch that turns off the low voltage alarm on the fridge, thats by the cooker, the fridge switch is at the helm,

in the rear cabin there are two huge storage spaces, running under the decks, and behind the sink one side and the cooker and fridge the other, great for storing things like camera bags and similar out of the way. the rear cabin berth is luxurious, spanning the entire 8 foot width of the boat at that point and 6 foot in the other dimension, one could say an ample double.

steering is via an external wire run and pulleys from the wheel, along the port deck and into the steering area, a 4" deep hatch on the rear deck, I have found if you need to lock the steering in position while moving, standing on the cables achieves this remarkably well.

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