Water Rail Out And About.

[CeePee1952]

37 minutes ago, NotDeadYet said:

As we are due to be on board from next Friday, I hope the forecast will follpw the tradition of being wrong.

Ditto! We are due to be onboard Olympic Light for a week starting Saturday 1st June (which is also our wedding anniversary!). Let's hope Gods' rain tanks have emptied by then 

Chris

[kpnut]

6 hours ago, NorfolkNog said:

Apart from Sunday 19th (which was a lovely day) it's been pretty grim.

Friday just gone was beautiful too. 
 

A very changeable day today. Massive thunderstorm, then sun, now rain with blue sky on its way again. Typical April weather - oh, it’s May. 

[YnysMon]

On 26/05/2024 at 15:55, kpnut said:

Friday just gone was beautiful too. 
 

A very changeable day today. Massive thunderstorm, then sun, now rain with blue sky on its way again. Typical April weather - oh, it’s May. 

I hope the weather sorts itself out by next weekend! 

[Mouldy]

8 hours ago, YnysMon said:

I hope the weather sorts itself out by next weekend! 

You’ll be fine, Helen, at least for your first week!  Last year we went to Cornwall for a week and the weather there wasn’t great but it was beautiful at home.  We’re off to Scotland on Saturday for seven days . . . . . . . . . . 😉

[Hylander]

On 26/05/2024 at 10:40, CeePee1952 said:

Ditto! We are due to be onboard Olympic Light for a week starting Saturday 1st June (which is also our wedding anniversary!). Let's hope Gods' rain tanks have emptied by then 

Chris

We went for our 34th Wedding anniversary on the 7th May and that week was glorious, so let us all wish for your week to be even better.  Congratulations for 1st June.

[grendel]

I have made an upgrade to the cheap amazon strimmer, the two batteries that come with it (so called 24V- with no amp hour figure quoted,) are in fact just a 5 cell pack (so a maximum of 21V) so having found that a makita clone 6AH battery fits the strimmer, when Griff lent me one of his, I have now purchased 2 6AH 18V makita clone batteries and a charger (for about the same as the cost of the strimmer at todays prices) for mine,  this is a considerable upgrade on the batteries that it comes with- to start with the 18V battery pack has the same number of cells in series, and double the number of cells in the battery pack, moreover they are good quality 3000 mah cells as opposed to dubious quality 2000mah cells, with a proper battery protection circuit, this means each battery should last a lot longer than each of the original batteries, and give me longer bank clearing time before a recharge is needed. recharging can be done from my solar power bank, which itself recharged daily from the solar panels.

so look forward to some extra areas of bank being accessible on the southern waters.

I learned that councils have a new trick now- on top of no mow may, a facebook post announced that you could be fined for trimming your hedges between march and august (ie when they are growing fastest), so as not to disturb nesting birds, I am not even taking bets that  this excuse will be used to avoid trimming footpaths going forward.

[kpnut]

It’s always been good practice not to trim farm hedges during the nesting season. Although August is rather excessively late in my opinion. 

[BroadAmbition]

and give me longer bank clearing time before a recharge is needed. 

Nice one, lets have a bank clearance party

Griff

[grendel]

And, I am back, a 4 hour trip up from Kent, then into Lidl to get some supplies, then unload the car, and unpack into the fridge. Once all that was done it was time to join the quiz. For some reason my tablet refused to connect to the internet ( later turned out that I had run out of data on my O2 dongle) eventually joined on my phone, while the kettle boiled and my ready meal cottage pie cooked in the oven. Fortunately for me, Dave had visited Water Rail for a coffee only to find we were out of gas (I had thought it was a bit low, but never guessed my last breakfast had finished the bottle .)

Anyway there is a new bottle in place.

Dinner was done partway through the second half of the quiz, so that's my excuse for being too slow, and getting nil points.

After dinner investigation proved I had run out of data so a new O2 data pay as you go package was purchased, 60gb, over 366 days, for £60, so that's me sorted until next year.

Up early-ish this morning (5am) new coffee pot went on and brewed a coffee, while catching up on YouTube videos 

[grendel]

High tide here is about 9 am, so that seems a good time to leave, may get some sealing done prior to departure as it seems rain is due about midday.

[grendel]

Headed away from beccles northward bound.

[grendel]

Got through great Yarmouth and the rain started, the wind was blowing me off at scare gap, so  I carried on to stracy arms, where I moored up, just got the canopy up and it's tipping it down out there, thunder and lightning- the lot, so I have postponed  leaving, until the  weather  improves, kettle  on and lunch I think. 

[grendel]

Looking at the weather forecast  this is light rain and thunderstorms,  only supposed to last an hour.

[grendel]

I didn't even finish my coffee, it's now bright sunshine.

[Mouldy]

43 minutes ago, grendel said:

Looking at the weather forecast  this is light rain and thunderstorms,  only supposed to last an hour.

10 minutes ago, grendel said:

I didn't even finish my coffee, it's now bright sunshine.

Surely not?  A weather forecast that’s not accurate?  I don’t believe it! 

[marshman]

Sadly those councils do not understand the hedge cutting rules - in fact the rules around hedge cutting on domestic hedges are a bit of an urban myth! The rules apply to open countryside and do not apply to domestic hedging i.e. to hedges within the curtilage of a dwelling house or to a hedge marking the boundary of a dwelling house.

However in reality, it may be kinder to the birds to keep an eye open for nests and / or young fledglings if slashing away!!!

[grendel]

 I carried on from stracey arms, as it was bright sunshine I stowed the canopy, I was soon to regret that decision, in fact when I got to stokesby all I could see in front was a huge wall of cloud with obvious rain below., got the roof up, but it's difficult to get the canvas up while solo under way. That's when the hailstorm hit, hail, thunder and lightning, in seconds I was again soaked, the hail had got into the rear cabin. This continued all the way to acle bridge, withe popping my head up like a jack in the box to see ahead, after acle, the wind and sun quickly dried the boat, while I remained soggy at st benets I passed Springers retreat, nobody aboard so obviously out for a walk.

I continued on, up the ant mooring up at Griff's corner, next to rambling Rosie. Kettle went on as did tea, I only just didn't get the canopy up on time for the rain, soaking number 3

Lidls deluxe steak hash for tea.

[kpnut]

Sorry to have missed you going past Grendel. We were indeed out for a walk and only just made it back as yet another thunderstorm reached us. 

[grendel]

Today has been quite quiet and also quite busy. I took a chance on a break in the weather about 9.30 to leave and head for wroxham to do some shopping. I took the canopy sides down as I knew there would be room at ludham, but would need the roof down for wroxham, all went well until I got to the mouth of the ant, when it just dropped out of the sky. Soaked again (no4). Quickly got through that, and the weather brightened up, so at horning the roof came down, in the knowledge that once I got to Wroxham I would not be able to put it up as I needed to get under the bridge. Soon got through the sailies at horning, and was fine the rest of the way, that is until I got to the 4 mph boards for wroxham. When it naturally just tipped it down (soaked no5) I wouldn't have minded, but I had just dried out from the last shower .to add insult to injury, it stopped just as the bridge came into view.

Moored up, put the canopy back up, and headed to Roy's.

Shopping done I returned via the chippy, then spent a while doing some fettling on the boat.  And a lazy afternoon surrounded by fishermen, watching YouTube and napping.

 

[JanetAnne]

Bloody man's an aquaholic 

[CeePee1952]

I'm beginning to think that Grendel has developed an affinity for water!! If he can't get in it, he'll get under it 

Chris

[grendel]

Still don't know where I am headed today, but I had a relaxed Sunday  afternoon  here at Wroxham, I purchased a detail sander as it can be run from the portable solar generator ( the solar panel keeps it topped up near 100% even on wet days,) before I had left beccles I treated the holes in the rear starboard corner ( where the leak was) with a generous  coating of wet rot hardener from ronseal, inside and out. This seems to  have stopped or at least severely curtailed the leak ( after 3 days of solid thunderstorms,  lightning, thunder  and  hail, there was no evidence of drips) so yesterday I got some filler in the holes, then used the sander to flatten it off, and have now given it a couple of coats of gloss paint, it's looking a lot better.

[grendel]

Before 

[grendel]

It's only a temporary job, as we intend to replace at least some of the loosely termed wood in that area this winter, hopefully including the pulley blocks for the steering, as that is where we suspect the worst of the rot is sitting.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

It's only a temporary job, as we intend to replace at least some of the loosely termed wood in that area this winter, hopefully including the pulley blocks for the steering, as that is where we suspect the worst of the rot is sitting.

Glad to hear that. . . . 

I was just thinking that your photo is an example of how beauty is only skin deep!