Silent Emblem

[snunn]

Londonguy

i would say not 

it’s a fantastic boat but even Mick a very experienced skipper with this boat as we had same boat last year made some errors it  is difficult when there is no engine noise she is electric so runs silently to tell you when you use too much throttle and of course an unreliable bow thruster doesn’t help the yard should really fix that.

[snunn]

Tues 29th.

Woke again to rain is it ever going to stop according to the forecast likely at midday to clear a bit so we decide to stay out until later in the hope it does , destination unknown but we will head toward Norwich maybe turn back who knows .

After breakfast we just enjoy watching comings and goings several fishermen have turned up the barge crew finally arrive they take ages sorting it out before heading out ,the other 2 boats depart and as it’s almost stopped raining we decide to do the same ,slowly out of the dyke across the broad sitting on top helm again it’s drizzle but not too bad ,pass Moonlight Shadow and give a wave it’s started to pour down now and we try to stick it out but even well dressed for it we are getting soaked, have to go in passed Brundall it eases again so we go back out of course the seats are all wet now too!

Carry on under postwick but it’s getting heavier and heavier so we give in and turn around come into moor at Bramerton been cruising about 2.5 hours not what we wanted but as we sit here we remember we have a meal book at Surlingham ferry inn but decide we will cancel and stay put here now we are on the power and cosy, emergency rations come into play and another film from the laptop , we left the lead in from yesterday.

We are hopeful tomorrow will be a better day thinking of a longer cruise but you never know what we will do or where we will go.

Just thought I made Mick laugh last night as I prepared the (dinner) I asked him for a screwdriver to open the hotdog can !

[YnysMon]

Hopefully Lightening has a more efficient tin opener than the one that Robin had! LOL.

[LondonGuy]

Does this boat support normal 240v electrical appliances?

[SwanR]

Always good to direct those kinds of questions to the boatyard to be sure.

[snunn]

Weds 30th.

Finally we wake up to a clear day although again rain is forecast for later, we have breakfast and get ready we head back up toward Norwich as yesterday we missed most of it ,as far as trowels bridge then turn around and cruise back the way we came , I’m at the helm and not as comfortable as I was previously it appears Mick has change the chair setting now my feet are dangling unless I just lean on the edge!

We continue downstream in lovely sunshine really enjoying the way the boat handles and watching the scenes as we slowly pass by, not much river traffic about a few but not many,saw a few kingfishers ,a couple of marsh harriers and quite a large bird of prey at the mouth of fleet dyke but I couldn’t identify it?

Cloud start to build up so as we have passed Cantley we turn back towards Brundall ,we have made the decision to leave the boat early , we promised Mick niece we would visit her when we were up here and have been here over a month now so although enjoying getting to know lightning we are both really ready to go home and must fit in a visit to Thetford,therefore we head back to the boatyard and moor up, we will pack up tomorrow and leave the boat late afternoon head off to a hotel meet Monique and then leave early Friday morning for Cornwall, weather turning windy and wet again in the next couple of days.

 

[snunn]

Thurs 1st.

A late start this morning didn’t sleep well feel tired now so after several cups of tea we start packing get the car almost loaded ,then start the cleaning process I hope I left it ok I think I did but you never know other people’s expectations,when I was happy I had done all I could we moved over to the fuel kiosk, had her topped up and pumped out ,back on mooring final bits in car ,rubbish disposed of and a final hoover through and we were done, Mick emailed the next people on board to say we are leaving early just in case they can come up sooner and we head off to the hotel ,by now it’s pouring down,and we get a text to say Micks niece can’t make it.

Dinner done without visitors we watch another film from laptop having remembered our lead from the back of Lightning’s tv, lights out early as we want to be on the road about 7:30 to 8 o’clock tomorrow it took us 6:30 hours on way up .

 

[snunn]

Fri 2nd.

Left hotel at 8am weather fine until we got to about Thetford when it started raining heavily rained almost the whole way home ,traffic heavy in places and we arrived about 3:30 so a seven and a half hour journey,both tired but luckily I have a homemade curry in the freezer so only needs a defrost and heat up.

 

The Month Away

 

We enjoyed the overall time away , we wished our lighting time was earlier in the month ,the 2 weeks on silent were lovely aided by great weather and thoroughly enjoyed,the cottage week seemed to be a bit of a stop gap between boats and not really very good ,by the time we got to Lightning we were both a bit travel weary and added that the weather took a nasty turn it took the shine of off what should have been an exciting time, we still enjoyed it , but are really now looking forward to next March when we are on here again,we could come up for Christmas as we have December 19th. allocated but won’t do that, I’m too much of a traditionalist not to want the full turkey experience.

We have the AGM in a couple of weeks time so that will be good to meet the other owners and hopefully pick up some useful tips.

Thanks for reading I will upload some photos shortly , I know Mick has a few really great sunrise shots,it’s good to be home ,even though it’s still RAINING!

 

Susan

 

[SwanR]

Ah it is indeed a grey chilly day here in Norfolk. I'm sure you must be glad to be home. I can imagine that lovely as it is to be away, you were ready to get back to Cornwall.

Thanks for sharing your travels with us. Look forward to the next time. :)

[LondonGuy]

A great read Susan! 

Does this boat support normal 240v electrical appliances?

Also...did the boat need filing with water daily?  How many times did you need to pump out?

Di you need shore power or did generator keep batteries charged? (Depending how much cruising you did, I guess?)

Thanks

[oldgregg]

2 hours ago, LondonGuy said:

Does this boat support normal 240v electrical appliances?

Many higher end boats do, but don't go bringing fan heaters etc... It's for charging laptops, cameras etc (although most of those now charge over USB, so will be fine on a cigarette lighter adapter) and perhaps a few minutes with a lower-powered hairdryer.

Shore power of course gives you 3KW max, inverters usually around half that (and they will flatten the batteries in a couple of hours at max load).

A generator will of course give you continuous power, but then you shouldn't run an engine between 8pm and 8am unless you want to annoy your neighbours.

[snunn]

Thanks Jean , yes we were both ready to come home ,but happy to know we will be back next year March ,May ,July and October  virus permitting.

 

LondonGuy

normal appliances ? It has a small hairdryer onboard ,a microwave electric kettle and an electric steamer,

we are very economical with water shower very quickly use very little we filled water maybe 3 times in the 2 weeks as for pump out we only had 1 during the time ,we had same boat last year for a week filled water once didn’t have Pump out.
 

we used shore power as often as we could  so batteries up to 100%

we cruised purely on electric sometimes when batteries would then drain down so would use 10 mins of generator to top up .

[YnysMon]

Thanks for the tale Susan. Hope you have better weather and a full week in March.

In response to London Guy's query about pump-outs, we went the whole of the past fortnight on our syndicate boat Moonlight Shadow without a pump-out, though once my son joined us and was using the rear cabin en-suite we used that loo during the day, to try to ensure that the foward heads didn't get used too much. It helps that Moonlight Shadow does have a warning indicator to show when you need a pump-out. 

[snunn]

Thanks Helen sad not to get to say hello in person but as you say weather was against it ,better luck next time.

 

I’m sure we could have done that too on Silent although  Mick was adamant we didn’t need one I probably panicked him into it.