Norfolk Broads - LIVE!

Having spent the night at Pacific Cruisers boatyard (free for hire boats £5.00 for private craft) it was a very different day to that of yesterday, sunny, warm and a real feeling of summer.  It was lovely.  I had neglected to consult my tide tables the previous night and wished now I had since my destination for today would be Norwich and it did not take Einstein to figure out half way there the tide would begin to ebb and I’d be going against it – had I left earlier I would have arrived at slack water and left with the ebbing current.  Hindsight eh? The Chet was beautiful – most of the boats at the Staithe had already left which meant by the time I was heading down river I had it to myself.  While some charm has been lost with the recent bank works I welcome the wider more open feel to the river so you feel more confident should you meet a boat coming the other way.  It is only a short river and before too long the mouth was approaching the...

This day may as well be known as 'the rainy one' for it began rather warmly and humid, but there was little in the way of sunshine.  The rain had come and gone, but it was never very heavy when it fell, the odd spot here and there. I had not woken as early as I might usually because the previous evening my sleep had been disturbed by this constant beeping noise.  Anything that beeps on a boat is not a good sign but initially I could not discover where it was coming from - you see it would only last about a minute and then go silent for about 10 minutes before it would come back.  The reason I could not tell initially its source was perhaps because it was so close to where the bed was - the LCD Battery Monitors were on the bulkhead to the left of the berth, and sure enough the 24v bank was showing just over 21v - every time the fridge's compressor tried to start so the voltage would sink, the inverter cut out and the low battery warning beeping begin....

I had thought about heading to the Southern Broads since I was up for a week before I had taken the boat over, but the previous evening I had made firm plans checking the tide times for Yarmouth and had decided a good place to go would be Beccles. As those regular boaters will know Womack To Beccles is not a short cruise by any means, and it would mean an early start - and so it was that today began at 5:45am.  It had rained a lot through the night and the usually quiet dyke leading to Womack Water  had been stirred up a bit by the wind meaning the planning hull of Royale caught the small wavelets and meant a noisy night of 'bow slap' come morning I was not as well rested as I would have liked and the dull cooler conditions were so completely different to that of when I picked the boat up the previous day. Perhaps it was this sudden change in weather from blazing sunshine and hot to cool and wet, or perhaps just a reaction with some kind of plant or No...

Having got a slightly later train than usual, I arrived in Wroxham on what had been the hottest day of the year so far.  There was not a cloud in the sky and I walked from the station to the Broads Information Centre and got myself the official time table that the Broads Authority produce for £1.00 - it comes in a rather garish neon orange this year. Then off to Barnes Brinkcraft where I suspected because almost all their fleet would be being prepared for going out today and tomorrow my boat would not yet be ready, and so it was the case.  I left my luggage in reception and went off to Roy's DIY centre to pick up some micro fibre cloths and the usual £1.99 windscreen wiper (which came in very handy as is often the case with hire boats).  Then up to Norfolk Marine to look at everything from fridge's, toilets and helm seats mentally making notes and seeing how things looked in reality compared to images one sees online and yet remaining puzzled at the c...

Song of Freedom proved to be a very nice, cosy and warm boat.  Although it was not that cold you could certainly tell that the heating would keep things toasty and I liked the way the boat was in four compartments, from forward cabin to saloon, to cockpit to aft cabin - all with their own doors. It is funny how it seems everything these days needs to be bigger, fatter, longer, wider from cars to pushchairs not to mention boats - but it goes to show how a good design and use of space can make 30 feet feel far larger and have plenty of space and drawers to stow your things. Good to handle, and considering the hours we did many against tides I thought frugal on fuel too.  Would be a really nice small family boat and while not the most modern has some nice touches - such as a refitted galley and salon space to make evenings spent on board pleasant, rounded off with a fair price you really can't go wrong. So now you can watch the walkthrough and see ...

We had spent the past days cruising for many hours and often getting up early - today therefore was going to be slightly less hectic so it was a later start and not before 9:30am that we departed Loddon Staithe.   It was low water and I was anxious as it did feel like we were cruising in a paddling pool leaving the Staithe and me worrying how much water was under us - our all but one of our neighbours having departed earlier when perhaps there was more water to be had.  However my worries became true when having passed the last set of moorings (just before the Staithe on the left hand side as you approach Loddon) there was a large floating mound of Reeds.  I moved to the centre of the river to avoid them and just as we came past what now appears to be a type of basin (the bank works scooping out a very large area oblong in shape) I felt the boat touch bottom and slow momentarily as if just struggling to keep going through the water and t...

An early start today - I was up around 6:15am doing the usual engine checks, making sure there was water in the header tank and how was the oil doing etc - these being all the more important on these old BMC's who always like to drink a little water and burn a little oil. By about 6:50am I was casting off from the quay and heading off over a still Oulton Broad who was just beginning to wake up - and finally, there was calmness and no wind so with canopy lowered it was destination Beccles. I should note that last night at Oulton Broad we had a very peculiar fault - start the engine, turn on heater - heater starts turn off engine once was running and within 5 minutes the heater would be off and the LED blinking.  Try as we might the heater would simply not stay on longer than a few minutes - yet we had ample power.  Another job for Andy, so I called him later an arranged to meet later that evening at our final destination - Loddon.  I am...

I had planned to leave Rockland Staithe early before the tide turned, this would mean we would be heading down the Yare at slack water and by the time we reached the Reedham the tide would be coming in - but we would not have much time going against it as we would be taking the Haddiscoe New Cut and upon reaching the end turning right and going with the incoming tide.  Well, that was the plan anyway... However we had found it most strange that despite spending much of the evening in the New Inn upon return to the boat the lights seemed dim, and the heating would literally only kick in for a few moments before switching off.  Something was not happy electrically somewhere, only there was a rather odd anomaly going on that the 240v side of things was working just fine so we had television and I could use my laptop but the 12v side was decidedly flat. This morning a call was made to Freedom and Andy was as puzzled as I (batteries had been checked p...

And so it was that on a very mild, bright and sunny Monday morning I left the morning rush hour behind and boarded a very calm, and pretty empty train bound for Norwich.  The Rascal was returning to the Broads. I was already excited as the first adventure of 2014 was beginning and before long I would be once again cruising the waters of the Norfolk Broads. I was heading for Barnes Brinkcraft , who I had turned to for something a with a bit of luxury inside and bit of 'bling' as far as style went on t e outside, Brinks Omega would be by home for the next week and upon arriving at the boatyard noticed her moored waiting for me to get onboard.  Alas, she was still being prepared so it was off to Ken's Fish & Chips for - fish and chips, it would appear being a young man in the eat in part of this Wroxham institution on a Monday afternoon was a rare sight - for my fellow diners were, let us say taking full advantage of the OAP special. Filled up...