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Heroes to Neros

Guest mariotech

By Guest mariotech
in Holiday Tales & Blogs

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I have had just had a day in bed with man Flu. See I still can't think straight. I had all day to read the holiday tales here on the site and will now try and add my own. I have looked through all our photo's and will tell the story of our 5 year of boating so far with pictures added as we go. We will break it down into each year and Tammy will no doubt help with the writing as we go. So here goes with the first instalment.

HEROES TO NEROS

Summer 2003

We are now looking for a boat and have travelled to marinas and boat yards near and far looking and seeking advice as we go. I am normally very impatient but intend to do this right and I do this time. We settle on a 30ft fore and aft cabin, centre cockpit petrol cruiser at Huntingdon think viking but with 10ft beam and inboard engine. We ring the local RYA instrutor to talk about training as he was also the river policeman he urges us to buy a diesel boat for safety. So after a re-think we head off to Sharpness to look at the same boat in diesel from a private seller. As we arrive at the marine the wind is blowing hard accross the estuary but he insisted on taking us out. He leaves the mooring foward and is blown straight on to pillings infront and then hard on to a nieghbours boat. We head out into the estuary and I take the helm. On returning to the mooring we inspect the damage to the gel coat and the neighbours boat which they say was crushed. We leave with deposit still in pocket and a little shaken. We decide to book a hire boat on the broads in September to see if this boating is really for us, but in the mean time Tammy spots a diesel sports cruiser at the local marina and we go take a look. It's love at first site and the deal is done on Heroes a 23ft Falcon with single new tamd 22 engine and leg. It only manages 7kts at trial but I am told it will go better with less people on board. LESSON 1 never use the surveyor your broker recommends.

sept2003.JPG[/attachment]' alt='attachment]'>

We decide to move Heroes down the river to Fardon with it's 300 berth floating pontoons. We could now moor stern to which was much better with a 4 year old daughter. This is where we first met Roy who had just bought a Sealine 255 and moored opposite us. This is where we also first met Mr Magoo( name changed to spare his blushes) who had a Searay 40ft twin petrol v8 Trillion horse power sports Cruiser and probably less useful experience than us which he freely admitted.

:dance

[attachment=0]may2004.JPG[/attachment]

After 2 months of the summer spent on the hard whilst we replaced all four props, re antifouled and drained and removed the holding tank(not needed on the Trent and fouled engine access) We drained into a dustbin and carried to the chemical toilet disposal point under the cover of darkness ( we really were taking the p--s out of our new boat) With the rest of the jobs done we were now back in the water having missed most of the summer So after a few river trials it was off up the tidal Trent and with the radar arch now hinged we cold go under the glory hole at Lincoln and accross to Boston where we spoke to the lock keeper about going out to sea. He put us in touch with Colin an ex RNLI cox who lives on the River. We past through the 2 hour before hw lock the next day and down the Haven and out into the wash in a n/e 4/5 this proved no problem with wind and tide together on the nose and we raced up the deeps for 20 mins at 25kts but as we turned so did the tide and we were slowed to 8 kts to avoid getting air borne off every wave. After an hour coming back we went up the Welland for a play and Recorded 35kts. We were back up the Haven and at the lock for the 2 hour after hw lock.

Wow what a day we were hooked but glad we had Colin on board to guide us and his partner who closed the windows. LESSON 5 close all windows and stow safely all breakables - it really does get bumpy at sea

See youtube vid at

After a safe trip back through the glory hole and back down the tidal Trent to Fardon about 75 miles this brought to an end our first year of boating quite a year but anyone who knows me will know I don't do things by halves . If you would like to read about our second year which saw us brave the Humber at Easter for the boat club trip to Hull and a criuse down the east cost to Lowestoft where only 13 of the 17 boats arrived let me know.

cheers Jonathan :wave:Stinky

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If you would like to read about our second year which saw us brave the Humber at Easter for the boat club trip to Hull and a cruise down the east cost to Lowestoft where only 13 of the 17 boats arrived let me know.

Hi Jonathan

loved reading your boating tale very good read please do more :-D :-D :-D

very nice looking sealine still love the TS37 tho :-D :naughty: :-D :naughty:

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hi johnathan

bought back memories of the 1st boat i lived on in the 80s.

a thames tug which was moored at farndon harbour

jill

Hi Jill I bet it's changed a lot since then. It's all floating pontons now with no bankside mooring although there are still some of the big live aboard barges in there. We were over a couple of weeks ago for the rally ,very sad as Mark Ainsworth the owner had just past away. Paul his son has been running things for years but Mark still drove the lorry he was a really nice old guy. I will see if we have any photo's of the marina we should have an aerial stot some where which Paul had done.

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Hi Jonathan,

Hope the man Flu is improving,

Great to see so much effort put into a post, I for one cant wait for the next chapter.

May be worth pointing out that the section of river you were planing the Falcon up was unrestricted, before someone gets the idea that you were doing it on the broads.

Ian

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Hi Ian yes it was on the tidal Trent long before we came to the Broads.

Man flu all gone now :) but Tammy has the half strenth Lady flu :(

You have to try the quiz on Sunday Nights Cracking :clap

cheers Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

Hope the man Flu is improving,

Great to see so much effort put into a post, I for one cant wait for the next chapter.

May be worth pointing out that the section of river you were planing the Falcon up was unrestricted, before someone gets the idea that you were doing it on the broads.

Ian

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Hi Jill never tried Keedby though I here you have to aim for high water but tricky all the same. I hear west Stockwith is very pretty.

Jonathan

hi johnathan

i wonder down that way now and then and have a peek at the changes

this was our tug, on a trip to sheffield basin to tow a humber keel out.

going into keedby lock from the trent was scary

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