Broad Ambition - Underway on the H2O

[JanetAnne]

8 hours ago, quo vadis said:

Maybe you’ve gone deaf Griff others go blind 

He said Anchor!

[OldBerkshireBoy]

16 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

Hmm,  I'm getting picture but no sound.  Anyone got an idea as to why?

Griff

Speaker(s) on mute?

Opps, see I`m late with that idea.

Anchors for sale on Gumtree & £5 each, around 8 left this morning.

[Wyndham]

18 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

Hmm,  I'm getting picture but no sound.  Anyone got an idea as to why?

Griff

You are female 

[Wyndham]

1 hour ago, Pumpmedic said:

 

Anchors for sale on Gumtree & £5 each, around 8 left this morning.

Where? 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

13 minutes ago, Wyndham said:

Where? 

I met him at Wayford Bridge marina working on his boat, they are secondhand by the way not new.

[quo vadis]

I know who that is 

[Wyndham]

55 minutes ago, Pumpmedic said:

I met him at Wayford Bridge marina working on his boat, they are secondhand by the way not new.

Ah, OK. Thanks. 

I know who you mean. 

[BroadAmbition]

I was last out cruising the rivers enjoying them and ''B.A' on 13th OCTOBER 2018, the last day of the lads week.  It is now 20th May 2019.  By my reckoning that is now over 6 months.  SIX months!  Now when one owns a boat (Well - Part thereof to be precise)  and has the use of her 24 x 7 x 365,    six months is plain and simple W A A A A A A Y   too long.

Yes of course I have been onboard since October but those visits have been upgrade / maintenance weekends.  Then there was a ten day visit to Sutton staithe for her bi-annual AMP, spent all of 40 mins transiting her there and back to the wetshed on that one.

However June 7th - that'll change. Four days afloat with MrsG, Son, his new partner  (Just wait till you see her lads, proper stunner and top class deck totty)  and hopefully at least one grandson, plus one if not two dogs.  I intend to get 'B.A' out of the wetshed that fast after boarding we will probably still be plugged into shore power, wonder if I can get 10mph whilst still in the wetshed?

No idea where we will be visiting / staying overnight, nor do I care.  Counting down the days then once again

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

‘Out of the wetshed that fast’

Really?

onboard at 0330, photo taken 5 mins ago

Griff

 

[grendel]

ooherr, whats the problem

[BrundallNavy]

Water tank or heater is my guess 😀

[KatieR]

Eeek- that is not looking like the pic of a gentle cruise down the Ant 

I hope whatever it is, you get sorted soon and can get on your way.

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Hope it is not the water tank (again).

[BroadAmbition]

Morning,

this weekend was supposed to be a family weekend cruise.

The best made plans and all that resulted in me arriving onboard Friday morning at 0330 with only Macie dog. 

So, I was up and about somehow at 0730, thought I’d do a few jobs, shouldn’t take me long - Ha !

These items were not a ‘must do’ now but would have to be done at some time 

First two large scratches on the  Stbd side, sand back , than undercoat

Drawer runners in the double cabin four of them, three of which  had become loose. Sorted them, then got carried away with a deep clean down to the hog bilge line, three hours that took

Now it was decision time  did I go to Tesco’s and sail or tackle the two heating duct connectors? It was due to start raining soon. Decision made - heating it was.  Four hours later an a foot long scraped shin.   When we installed the replacement Planar system it became apparent it could ideally do with a 90 deg elbow and a straight connector which we didn’t have. Well I did now. 

By then it was 2000, I could yet sail. Tesco run, tidy up, stow victuals 2100, make dinner, feed Macie and walk her now past 2200 and I’m now operating on memory power having had only three hours sleep since Thursday morning. 

We stayed in t wetshed 

This morning, a final clean through, fill water tanks etc. I have already applied third coat of undercoat to those scratches, I’ll take the gloss with me for sometime later today when we are finally OUT of this shed

Still got to make up small coax for tv, improve fastening for internal coax socket on helm, extend flag lanyards for new mast and fit - they can be done later today

Who would be a boat owner?

My shin urts

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Sailed at 1215. Heading for Thurne Dyke. The rascal is onboard. Dinner tonight will be at the lion on me of course for his birthday treat. 

Its cool, raining and windy and do I give a toss?

Griff

[FairTmiddlin]

2 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

 Its cool, raining and windy and do I give a toss?

I can almost feel the warmth of that beaming smile from here.

[KatieR]

Well that sounded like an amazing plan- good boat, good pals and good pub with good beer and food- what's not to like 

[BroadAmbition]

Dinner in t Lion was fine 

sailed At 0900 for Ranworth Staithe, there for a DTS in Maltsters In glorious sunshine. Sailed for Acle Bridge Inn. 

Had a cracking Dinner with Simon n Sonia. 

Early night after walking Macie dog

belter of a day on t rivers

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Sailed from Acle stopped at Ludham Bridge, met up with Gary, Vicky and Russ. Then onto Sutton Yard for pump out n diesel . Then the rain arrived. 

Now in t wetshed - had to dry and wipe down exterior. Clean through before departing for home 

Griff

[LondonRascal]

Last weekend Broad Ambition got her first real outing since a bunch of work had been done during her bi-annual out of water works.

Friday 21st June:

Shiela and I would crew up on Friday, cruise to Wroxham in the evening and the following afternoon I was expecting 4 guests to arrive who would be staying onboard until Sunday afternoon, plus possibly 1 or 2 others who were coming for the day. Just as well Broad Ambition is 40ft long, because what actually turned out was including Shiela and I, we had 12 people onboard - 4 of whom were children.

Firstly we left Stalham and I helmed, while Shiela did a through clean through - this meant every glass and mug got a wash, all surfaces wipe down, all berths and seating vacuumed - once se gets stuck in if you stand still long enough you will be dusted! Then she mad the beds, then she cleaned all the exterior windows and then she finally got around to sitting down - were passing Salhouse by then!

The funny thing is I have not been on the rivers for a good while either, so being on Broad Ambition and not just out for a bit testing a new aerial, or making checks on things was nice. However there was that little issue that I had to get her under Wroxham Bridge and I have not done that for - hmm perhaps 8 or more months and as fate would have it we would be arriving at almost the top of the tide. As we were passing Barnes Brinkcraft I got the binoculars out and spied the height gauge - just on 6' 6" - this was going to be a tad tight. In fact I (and someone else I've since spoken to) now feel the height gauge at Wroxham is very much 'spot on' where for years before it was on the conservative side - a bit like Ludham Bridge's height gauge. Well we went under fine but I'd not want to be going under at what out safe minimum air draft is (6' 4") because I am pretty sure our mast would get crazed. We have a new one, and the 'tear drop' at the top is slightly longer, this causes it to lay slightly higher - just a tad - but let's just say be nice to keep it looking new for as long as possible.

Once through the bridge (and hitting my head on one of the chains) it was fenders down and my Bowlady was off doing her things, straight into a very public stern mooring while people sat on their boats sipping wine and beers. Those on Gold Gem must have rolled their eyes when at gone 8:00pm we turn up.  Still, we moored up flawlessly, shut down and having put the wheelhouse canopy up was straight off to the Kings Head for food. Now, I am not here to 'bash anywhere' but to have run out of clean wine glasses, and to have produce the food they did was very poor. The veg was the left overs from the carvery - minus being heated up. Long story short we ate half of the food, drunk our drinks and literally headed over to McDonalds.

Back onboard we opened up the locker - Shiela's new love I introduced her to is Malibu and Coke, the issue is 'coconut flavored coke' can go down a little too easily lol. We had an early start the following day so it was off to bed pretyt early all things considered.

Saturday 22nd June:

We had guests coming from London who had never been further than away from the capital than Hatfield so getting them to change trains and get to a little station called Hoveton & Wroxham was not going to be a smooth process, especially when their connecting train broke down and they were sent onward from Norwich in a Taxi. We moved the boat back under Wroxham Bridge to the Hotel, this was a mistake on my part. I did it because I was anxious to be the 'correct side' of the bridge for our little tour we had planned and thought we could all meet in the Hotel, have a drink and introduce everyone and then move to the Boat. However by mid day, it was clear this was peak bridge shooting time and the Pilot had his work cut out. It also meant that everyone who were wanting to go under the bridge would arrive, find the Pilot collection mooring full and then expect their boat to stop and sit like they had stopped a car. The breeze gentle brought them alongside Broad Ambition - a few wise words from me got them on their way without incident, until a 42ft forward steer arrived. It had 5 or 6 chaps onboard, but they were all inside the boat and as they went to move forward it was a case of full throttle, left hand down a bit. The stern and the galvanized steel rubbing strake came right for our stern quarter, doing what you are not meant to, I fended off best I could with my right foot and though they squeezed our fender flat, thankfully the hard edge of the metal avoided our delicate wooden hull.

Phew, I thought, where is everyone? Shiela arrives telling me there was a change of plan, we had 4 kids coming, and a couple who had only been together a short time and would be their first outing together with all their kids - oh and nobody had ever been on the Broads before.. Slowly they came, picnic items, booze, bluetooth speakers, cameras you name it - what a scene this was causing outside the Hotel.

All aboard I calmed everyone down and spoke about safety and what to and not to do and let Shiela cast off and deal with the ropes and fenders while I spun Broad Ambition around and headed off to Salhouse. We past the big trips boats, numerous day boats who were all behaving themselves, even if they drove as if in a car on the left for a while until they figured why is everyone on the right hand side of the river..The suneshine was glorious, but we had a nice breeze so it was not too hot. We arrived at Salhouse, public stern mooring number 2 complete the kids went exploring in the 'forest', the girls sat on the grass and gossiped and drunk some Pimms and the men talked boats as I showed them the restoration book, and talked through all the upgrades and changes since that had been produced. It was a lovely time to be on the water.

A couple of hours later we were back underway to Wroxham to drop our day trippers off - outside the Cafe were several hire boats stern moored, we were almost stern to when we were told we could not moor. Baffled I asked why - dropping off point is down there' came the reply, I said that was the Pilot's moorings, and the reply of "yes" came back. I asked again why we could not moor here - "Dropping off point is down there". Well we could have played this game all day, so I proffered money - ah now we might be able to moor. Simon, a chap I had only met hours before told the chap in no uncertain terms we were not going to negotiate to drop off 4 kids and two adults and we'd head down to the 'dropping off point' for free. So I did.

Having dropped off the day trippers it was now 6 onboard and all adults - but not a bit quit - it was party time, though I was 'on duty' so declined in the dancing and drinking too much. Now where were we going to go now? Thurne, Acle? Acle there was bound to be a mooring somewhere - we headed off around 3:45pm from Wroxham.

Arriving at Acle I was shocked to find everything taken - the moorings which have been improved along ther grass bank on the Pedro's side, the moorings on the opposite side and of course outside the Bridge Inn. We carried on for Stokesby. Upon arrival, it too was all full. Not good. We spun around and then I hear "Robin..Robin" and a couple on their Alpha 35 were asking if we wished to come alongside them? Oh what a generous offer. I came in against what was now a very fast running current and we tied up. I had never met them, but they had followed me on You Tube for years, and it was a chance to get to talk to me and Shiela. In more recent times I have had some rather unkind comments made among comments on You Tube and Facebook Groups. The amount of people I met and chatted to - and this couple and their kindness made me see what a small minority negative comments and people are, and what the Broads is really about is an open mind, being kind and helpful.

The food at the Ferry Inn was not only good value, but first class. Even if there was some oddities like get your own cutlery and sauces, but the staff were great and we all had a lovely evening.  We got back to Broad Ambition and the rest of the party went onboard to watch a DVD while I was collared again and spent ages chatting to Mal, a former National Express coach driver and his wife about everything boat..and life..Proper good folks they are.

I was pooched and hit my sack, we had to be up and away before 6:30am the following morning as our neighbors were off over Breydon Water with three other boats to catch the early tide - if we were not gone we would be off to Yarmouth too lol.

Sunday 23rd June:

Another cracking morning, warm and sunny - we were up and underway before 7:00am and made for St. Bennets. When we arrived we got breakfast on the go, very posh it was too - smoked Salmon, toast, scrambled egg, fresh fruits and juices and I had to do nothing but enjoy. After we ate, it was off for a tour of the ruin's and we walked to the Cross. I never knew, or had seen before, the amount of coins  - many clearly hammered into the cracks in the wood of the Cross. It was beautiful, and as ever so quiet here.

Back onboard we took a slow cruise with everyone having their times on the helm - Mohamed who works for BA driving a tug - moving planes - was able to pick up the delicate art of boat steering as if he had done it all his life, his wife on the other hand had no idea what hand, eye and boat was doing so try as we might it was always a zig zag - the other ladies were as bad, but since Shiela is good and as I now say 'qualified helmsmadam' I cannot be sexist and say women cannot drive boats lol.

We arrived at Wroxham in very jovial moods, and once again under the bridge. Dropping off our guests for them to explore Wroxham in their own time before they train, Shiela and I took Broad Ambition back under the bridge and headed for Stalham. It was strangely quiet onboard - but nice to be just us on the rivers and taking out turns at the helm. Back to the Wet Shed, clean through and off for home it all seemed to have gone so quickly.

 

 

[KaptinKev]

On ‎27‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 01:11, LondonRascal said:

Last weekend Broad Ambition got her first real outing since a bunch of work had been done during her bi-annual out of water works.

Friday 21st June:

Shiela and I would crew up on Friday, cruise to Wroxham in the evening and the following afternoon I was expecting 4 guests to arrive who would be staying onboard until Sunday afternoon, plus possibly 1 or 2 others who were coming for the day. Just as well Broad Ambition is 40ft long, because what actually turned out was including Shiela and I, we had 12 people onboard - 4 of whom were children.

Firstly we left Stalham and I helmed, while Shiela did a through clean through - this meant every glass and mug got a wash, all surfaces wipe down, all berths and seating vacuumed - once se gets stuck in if you stand still long enough you will be dusted! Then she mad the beds, then she cleaned all the exterior windows and then she finally got around to sitting down - were passing Salhouse by then!

The funny thing is I have not been on the rivers for a good while either, so being on Broad Ambition and not just out for a bit testing a new aerial, or making checks on things was nice. However there was that little issue that I had to get her under Wroxham Bridge and I have not done that for - hmm perhaps 8 or more months and as fate would have it we would be arriving at almost the top of the tide. As we were passing Barnes Brinkcraft I got the binoculars out and spied the height gauge - just on 6' 6" - this was going to be a tad tight. In fact I (and someone else I've since spoken to) now feel the height gauge at Wroxham is very much 'spot on' where for years before it was on the conservative side - a bit like Ludham Bridge's height gauge. Well we went under fine but I'd not want to be going under at what out safe minimum air draft is (6' 4") because I am pretty sure our mast would get crazed. We have a new one, and the 'tear drop' at the top is slightly longer, this causes it to lay slightly higher - just a tad - but let's just say be nice to keep it looking new for as long as possible.

Once through the bridge (and hitting my head on one of the chains) it was fenders down and my Bowlady was off doing her things, straight into a very public stern mooring while people sat on their boats sipping wine and beers. Those on Gold Gem must have rolled their eyes when at gone 8:00pm we turn up.  Still, we moored up flawlessly!

 

 

You do realise that there is a rumour going around that this same bridge was done by the same boat backwards!

You need to up your game Robin, but perhaps with less women and children.  

[Broads01]

Thanks for sharing, Robin and I enjoyed the bridge video. I ate at the Kings Head in May and I was almost as disappointed as you. At Acle, I think you can still moor with rhond anchors upstream of the Pedro's moorings? 

[BroadAmbition]

Broad Ambition Crewed up and underway as of 2030,  Bro' Howard and crew onboard till Sunday pm

Griff

[BroadAmbition]

Onboard earlier this evening. Crewed up with six D88 former HMS Glasgow communicators, this is a yearly event and the only one I’ve not cancelled this year  

Now at Sutton Staithe 

Had yet another nasty discovery in the wetshed.  I have five rods made up ready to go, three cheapo’s and two expensive rods  along with reels. Yes, my ledger and float rods stolen. £400 gone. The cheapo’s still there of course. 

Yet another theft from the wetshed. Losing count now. 

That’s me finished with fishing until next year at the earliest. What with everything else that is going on this year, not a prayer of replacing them

Not happy 

Griff

[KatieR]

Really lovely to hear you're on board- it's clearly been a tad less often of late so I know you must be pleased to get back to the lovely BA.

Horrible news about the theft, just awful.

Now, do I hold my breath for the reports of the swift and effective action from the local constabulary, or would I be ill advised to do so I wonder... 

wishing you a lovely time whatever, hope the start of the trip doesn't dictate the rest!