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Cruising The Norfolk Broads On Moon Enterprise: 12th - 19th September 2020


BryanW

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A bit different this year having had our April and June holidays on Swan Roamer cancelled due to Covid-19.  Once it was obvious that June was going to be cancelled we looked to September, the only two boats available that we fancied were Swan Ranger and Moon Enterprise and Moon Enterprise won being a week earlier, had what I regarded as a better layout and a Mud Weight winch.

 

This will be a fairly short writeup with a link at the end to the video which is also a bit different with more photos of us, also, apologies for the wind noise and a few clips where the focus is not perfect I’m afraid, not sure why.

 

A few points about the boat:  Good layout for us but beds a bit small (hence we slept in different cabins), although the table should have been removable it was jammed solid on its pillars meaning the saloon seating was rather cramped, I don’t think I would have wanted 4/5 onboard.  However, a really nice boat in good weather with all mod cons; rear view camera, three sets of batteries, full instrumentation and easy change from upper to lower helms (note:  the upper helm throttle is covered with the starboard side screen down, good safety point after Ian’s recent experience).  There is a short section in the video of the boat internals.  Mooring from the upper helm was an absolute doddle especially with bow and stern thrusters even though they didn’t seem to be that powerful, the lower helm was only used through Ludham Bridge.

No pump outs required this time since we had two toilets although only one holding tank (with a gauge which didn’t move all week) but guess it must be quite large since the boat is a 4/5 berth, the same applies to the water tank, that would have lasted us at least 3/4 days judging by the gauge.

Would we hire it again?  Possibly if we could pretty much guarantee no rain and/or the table could be removed and stowed.

 

A few faults:  tried to use shore power for battery charging (a bit concerned about the fridge battery one day) but I didn’t think it was working since the battery gauges showed no increase in voltage and the light in the switch didn’t illuminate, the immersion heater switch light did illuminate and I had switched to shore power, both these switches are at the bottom of the after bed with the shore power (and inverter) switches in a cupboard.  As far as the heater controls (two heaters) are concerned; the thermostat knob on the Saloon one was stuck solid at maximum and the the knob fell off after cabin one, fortunately the heaters were not required.  The GPS went on the blink one day but then returned to normal.  All faults were reported to Richardson’s when we returned.

 

Weather wise:  it was brilliant, on Wednesday there were a few spots of rain early and then a bit overcast, otherwise wall to wall sunshine, the wind did start to increase somewhat from Thursday though.  Our cancellations were a bit of a blessing really since both our original April and June weeks were the worst weeks weather wise in those periods.

 

Saturday 12th September

Arrived at Richardson’s about 12:40 having been given a 13:00 time slot and we were 5th or 6th in the queue, once checked in we drove round to the boat on Swan Quay and had to wait about 45 minutes for the cleaners to finish and then wait again for the engineer, finally got away at about 15:00 since I didn’t need a trial run but just needed showing the boat systems since we hadn’t had this one before.

Once on the river it became very apparent how busy it was (and going to be) but we got the last mooring available on Paddy’s Lane.

 

Sunday 13th September

Having left Paddy’s Lane we decide that Womack would be our destination so we stopped at How Hill to drop the screens and proceeded through the bridge using the lower helm (the bridge was reading 8’ 3” and we needed 7’ 11” according to the boat plaque (the boat manual said 7’ 9” so a little bit confusing)) with plenty of room.  Stopped at St Benet’s to put the screens back up.

Got to Womack at about 11:30 as planned but not a single space on the staithe, hung around a bit then thought we would try for Womack Dyke, again no space.

Ok, let’s try Potter Heigham, again no spaces on the formal moorings near the Pilots Office although the was plenty of space on the quiet mooring but I didn’t fancy Rhond Anchors the way the wind was blowing oft the bank so it was back to Womack for another look.  Fortunately we found space on Womack Dyke this time which was a blessing in disguise the following morning.

During the afternoon there was a continuous procession of boats up and down the dyke.

A note to myself; do not try for Womack on a Sunday when the weather is good and the rivers busy.

 

Monday 14th September

Woke to see mist rising over the fields and a lovely sunrise.

Went up to the staithe to find plenty of spaces, moored up and filled the water tank.

Ranworth was our destination today (ever hopeful), got there about 10:30 and found spaces, moored on the main section facing the broad.  Lots of coming and a few goings with many boats moored out.  Lovely afternoon just boat watching with all spaces full by 17:00 and everybody settled for the night.

 

Tuesday 15th September

Quite foggy this morning but burnt off very quickly, dropped the screens (except the starboard side) ready for Ludham Bridge since our destination was Neatishead.

Dropped the remaining screen and transferred to the lower helm on the move just before the Ant then stopped at Horning Marshes after the bridge to put the scenes up again and transfer to the upper helm.

Neatishead about 10:30 reversing into the staithe.  Connected to shore power because I was a bit concerned about the fridge battery (due to fairly short cruising times over the last couple of days), this was when I decided that the on-board battery charger probably wasn’t working.  As it turned out the fridge battery was ok.

Lots of activity with boats arriving and leaving with some being pulled through on the ropes.

At least three posts were missing, don’t know how people do it especially here when ‘gently does it’ is the way to go.

Surprisingly there were only five boats left overnight.

 

Wednesday 16th September

A few drops of rain this morning, that soon cleared but remained a bit overcast for the rest of the day.

Went up to Wayford Bridge and moored up for a coffee then proceeded to How Hill where we went up to the Secret Gardens but, unfortunately, not much flowering or to photograph.

It was now getting a bit windy which continued for the rest of the week.

 

Thursday 17th September

After the usual with the screen through Ludham Bridge, cruised down Fleet Dyke, into and round South Walsham outer and inner broads, quite a few boats mud weighting on the outer board.

A bit unsure about where to go but finally decided to give Womack another try, this time there were plenty of spaces.

Went up to the new bakery and bought some Cinnamon Buns and Viennese Whirls, the buns were absolutely delicious with the whirls nothing to really write home about but went back later for some Portuguese Tarts (had to wait for them to be cooked) which were delicious.

Later in the afternoon a guy at the other end of the staithe caught a nice pike, I think his wife failed to get a photograph or video but if they read this and contact me I am happy to send them the video clip my wife took or I will extract a still frame from it and send it on.

Weather lovely but the wind was starting to get chilly.

 

Friday 18th September

Cruised down to Fleet Dyke to stop for coffee and deal with the screens, had a bit of difficulty mooring on the corner moorings due to the wind blowing off the bank and the only space being on the curved section.

Proceeded to Irstead and got a mooring on the parish section, had a bit of a walk to take some photographs and spent the afternoon boat watching.

Returned to Stalham and got there about 16:00, had to have two goes at mooring after a gust of wind caught us the first time.

 

Saturday 19th September

Boat return handover was pretty much as normal but was surprised that Richardson’s are still giving the fuel refund in cash and not putting it back on a card.

Fuel used was nearly £80 worth, rather more than our usual on Swan Roamer, could be due to hydraulic drive rather than shaft or we may have got the tides different.

 

This is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFpT3GeBjM

 

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Enjoyed your write up and video Bryan. We had Moon Beam a few years back in September which is very much like Moon Enterprise. Our experience was quite similar in yours as we had good weather. Moorings got very full late morning so finding a spot in the popular places for lunchtime wasn’t easy if you left it too late. 

We also had a problem with shore power hookup on a different boat last March. Inverter worked fine except for when we were on shore power. The engineers eventually concluded that the wrong cable was on the boat!

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12 hours ago, SwanR said:

We also had a problem with shore power hookup on a different boat last March. Inverter worked fine except for when we were on shore power. The engineers eventually concluded that the wrong cable was on the boat!

Hi Jean

Although Moon Beam and Enterprise are both similar according to Craig's database Beam is an ex-Swancraft boat while Enterprise was fitted out by Moonfleet.

Strange that the engineer said that you had the wrong cable (assume shore cable) since they all appear to be the standard industrial blue plug/socket type 16 or 32 Amp.

Moon Enterprise had a 3 way rotary switch Shore Power / Off / Inverter. when we on Shore Power the 240V sockets were live with the separate Inverter switch set to OFF, so I'm fairly convinced that the battery charger switch or fuse (should have checked the fuse) were faulty.

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25 minutes ago, BryanW said:

3 way rotary switch Shore Power / Off / Inverter. when we on Shore Power the 240V sockets were live with the separate Inverter switch set to OFF,

That’s the setup on our boat, don’t you use either inverter or shore power?

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Thanks Claire and Bryan, I very much enjoyed both your write up and the video.  Your dates coincided with ours (also rearranged from earlier in the year) but I think our paths only crossed at Ranworth on the Monday/Tuesday, where we overnighted on the mud anchor.  You caught us in the background of a couple of shots, most obviously in the one with the canoe in the foreground. I might post a few notes of our trip in a while, but my photos are not half as good as yours.  Thanks again!

Mike

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