An Early Encore

[Broads01]

Early in the morning I'm setting off for my first ever March hire. My first trip is actually only a week earlier than last year but I've never hired in March before. The weather forecast looks pretty reasonable though and not especially cold and tonight I'm as excited as ever. I'll be aboard Brinks Encore Plus 6, solo human with my faithful boating companion, Suzie, our Shih Tzu. This afternoon I had the pleasant surprise of a phone call from Barnes to say the boat would be ready by 12 (presumably because it's not been on hire this week). Even with an early alarm call tomorrow I may not make it from South Wales by then but we'll see. Give us a wave if you see us in the week ahead. Helen, I'm sure our paths will cross somewhere.

[SwanR]

Sounds wonderful. I love March for being afloat as you probably know although we’ve not hired for a while. Safe travels and have a great time. 

[YnysMon]

How lovely! March is a brilliant time to be on the waters. This week was very quiet, but I expect things will liven up a bit next week.

Do keep an eye out for us on Moonlight Shadow from Monday onwards.

[Wussername]

March and April are very special, important months for the Broads. The transition of winter to spring. The morning chorus, birds defining thier territories, nesting, predators waiting thier chance. Weather in some instances making an influence, a devastating contribution to wild life has been known.

Cold wet weather. Young chick's find it difficult. Population of many species find it difficult to survive a harsh spring.

Let us hope and wish for mild introduction to a well earned summer.

[bucket]

Great choice of boat! Looks perfect for single handing and has everything you could need for a fabulous week afloat. Have a brilliant time!

[Gracie]

She's a lovely boat Simon, you and Suzie should be well snug aboard her

Have a great time 

Grace x

[DAVIDH]

Hi Simon, what's the difference between Brinks Encore and Brinks Encore Plus? I notice both are marketed separately. Excellent style of boat for lone sailor operation by the way.

[gancanny]

https://www.barnesbrinkcraft.co.uk/introducing-brinks-encore-plus-new-for-2020/

 

     reading this it it just an updated version of the encore

[Broads01]

It's been a long day but a very successful one. My alarm went off at 0500, we set off at 0630 and arrived in Roy's car park just before 1100. Leg stretch and food shopping done we arrived at Barnes at 1200 and the boat was ready as promised. We were off downriver before 1300 and pulled in at Wroxham Island. A combination of forgetting how the thruster switched on, strongish wind and accidentally leaving the boat in gear when I left the helm contributed to a complete balls up of the mooring. No harm done, I was able to have some food and finish unpacking before setting off again - destination Ranworth. It was a chilly but sunny afternoon and the Bure was even quieter than I expected. As I passed Salhouse, I could only see 3 boats moored (one of which was B.A.) and New Inn , Ferry Inn and Cockshoot were all empty save for the odd dayboat. We arrived at Ranworth around 1600 with about 7 boats here. I called Barnes because one of the locking bolts for the sliding rooves was broken and I couldn't therefore secure the boat. The engineer arrived promptly and fitted a new bolt without fuss. Dinner tonight was in the Granary for the first time and I enjoyed it. I chose the sea bass which was superb.

[Broads01]

Coincidentally, my boat was moored next to Belmore TC which I'm hiring with my elder daughter in September. You may notice that one of the boats has a very slightly taller air draft than the other 😊.

[Broads01]

[DAVIDH]

9 hours ago, gancanny said:

reading this it it just an updated version of the encore

Thanks for this

[NeilB]

Interesting to see they are using Yanmar engines, not the cheapest and bucking the Nanni trend.

[YnysMon]

I’ve been wondering if next week will suddenly become busy.

I suppose I can’t judge what it was like on the northern broads last week, as we spent almost all last week down south, but even on the journey there and back, observing the very small number of boats moored up on the Bure (Cockshoot, St Benets, Boundary Farm, Acle, Stokesby), it appeared that it was very quiet. 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

I’ve been wondering if next week will suddenly become busy.

I spoke to George at HPC a few days ago about turnaround servicing for Moonlight Shadow this coming Friday, as it’s a Bank Holiday and they have nine hire boats starting on Friday afternoon.

If that is typical of the hire yards generally, Easter weekend looks as if it will be busy at least.

[Broads01]

8 hours ago, Mouldy said:

I spoke to George at HPC a few days ago about turnaround servicing for Moonlight Shadow this coming Friday, as it’s a Bank Holiday and they have nine hire boats starting on Friday afternoon.

If that is typical of the hire yards generally, Easter weekend looks as if it will be busy at least.

I was also out a year ago the week leading up to Easter. That week was also quiet (although not as quiet as this week has been so far) until Good Friday when things suddenly picked up. 

[Broads01]

Another sunny day with a cold wind today. I've had the roof shut most of the time to keep the wind out bit the occasional slide back of the helm side has been lovely. Ranworth remained quiet overnight and we set off soon after 9. Leading up to this trip and right until this morning I hadn't been able to.make up my mind whether or not to go south. As I set off I still didn't know and it was no use asking Suzie. If I was to head for Great Yarmouth, today was the day because low water was just before 4 and timings worked OK for 2 or 3 days. I decided to head down to Stokesby whilst I made my mind up, remembering the gluten-free cake selection in the village shop. Mermaid was moored at Acle Bridge and I shared a wave with Sam as I passed. Stokesby was as quiet as I expected and the shop didn't disappoint. It was somewhat windy and uninviting there and with the wind set to continue for the rest of the day I finally made up my mind - stay north. After some lunch aboard I returned upstream, passing Mermaid once again and decided to head for Womack. My memory was playing tricks with me as it turned out because I thought Womack Staithe had electric but as I saw when I arrived it doesn't, so I headed for Potter instead. We're one of only 3 boats on the BA moorings this evening. Suzie enjoyed a run off the lead upstream of the bridge (5ft 6 showing). I'm currently at the Falgate which is warm and welcoming.

[Broads01]

I spotted a couple of closures today which I don't know whether or not have been mentioned already. Firstly at Ranworth, the boardwalk is closed "until further notice". Secondly, below Acle Bridge, the former pay moorings near Acle Dyke are now closed. This used to be a nice spot and a handy overflow for when the moorings nearer the bridge were full. We last moored there 3 years ago for those reasons so it's disappointing. 

[kpnut]

10 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

Secondly, below Acle Bridge, the former pay moorings near Acle Dyke are now closed

They were closed in January, I presumed a victim of the high water levels. I would think the quay heading there is really poor condition now after being submerged for weeks. It wasn’t in the best condition anyway. 

[Bluebell]

A great choice of boat for solo helming. Enjoy the rest of your holiday…😎

 

This is Chiltern Lady at Ranworth in January 2022

[Lulu]

We did wonder if you were going south but obviously not when you came back again! We were tempted with Stokesby also (for cake) but resisted.  

[Broads01]

1 hour ago, Lulu said:

We did wonder if you were going south but obviously not when you came back again! We were tempted with Stokesby also (for cake) but resisted.  

I still wondered that myself when I passed you. 

[Broads01]

I enjoyed myself at the Falgate although I think the food could have been better if I'm honest.

It was a cold night and I was thankful for my sleeping bag because the shore power wasn't working for reasons I didn't know. A call to the boatyard sorted it very quickly - the guy arrived in about 20 minutes and immediately sussed the problem. I knew the electrics had tripped out yesterday and I'd reset it but I hadn't realised there was an additional trip in the stern wardrobe (well why have one trip switch when you can have two?).

We were soon on our way, initial destination South Walsham. We crossed paths with Mermaid once again on our way down the Thurne, along with maybe two other boats. On the Bure we saw nobody at all before St Benets. We mudweighted for a while on an empty South Walsham Broad then after an Inner Broad detour headed for the curved mooring at Fleet Dyke. There I got in to a pickle again due to the wind which was determined to blow us off the bank more than once. Once I'd managed to step off with both ropes the boat was very quickly most of the ropes' length away from the bank. Good old Broads conditions can still challenge.

This afternoon's cruise was destination Neatishead. Not only did I want electric after last night's cold experience but I wanted to stop overnight there having somehow not done so for 21 years. There always seems to be something stopping me moor there, mostly the spaces filling up early in the season but recently there's been the temporary closure and then last October there was a police incident there when I'd have otherwise moored. On the way Ludham Bridge was showing 7 foot 8 which I guess isn't too bad, especially as in reality there was much more. I spotted video blogger Daniel (One Dan and his Boat) walking near the bridge but by the time I realised I'd passed. Of course there were only 3 boats already at Neatishead, one of which was Moonlight Shadow. I said hello to Helen and Graham which was a bit of a challenge given Suzie was doing her grumpy small dog routine to counteract an exuberant Pozzick. Helen and I managed to have another conversation later thankfully whilst Suzie and I were on our way to the (very dog friendly) White Horse. It's also warm and welcoming.

[Broads01]

[Lulu]

Nice to see you again en route to Potter.  It certainly was very cold last night. The very gusty wind has caught out a few people here today. Thankfully it’s died down now.