Brinks Belmore | The Big Tour - Day 6 (Part 1)
And so after some time we are ‘back on course’ and the Captains Blog continues, now onto the sixth day. What you don’t see in the Blog is the fact I woke up at about 5:30am at a very odd angle, and knew exactly what the problem was as I lay in my berth looking up at the cabin roof – we are stuck on the bank as the tide fell beneath the boat’.
I dreaded this happening, in fact I even removed a fender from the boat, tied the end to the ring of a Rhonde Anchor and thus secured the fender between the quay heading and the boat to ensure the side of the boat would stay away from the heading as the tide dropped.
I got out of my berth, and the first thing was a trip to the loo – this is on the starboard side of the boat and here comes a bonus of being a ‘large lad’ for clearly the boat was only on the quay by a whisker resting on the lower rubbing strake – a light boat and a heavy Rascal meant it ‘gave way’ and slipped off – rather a spectacular thing to happen when you’re in the smallest room and there is a sudden enormous yaw movement, massive splash and boat rocks like you wouldn’t believe. Think of standing up in a toilet on a moving train, while at the same time being launched in a life boat – none the less I can say in the politest manner, the target was not missed so far as the stream was concerned so no clean up was needed.
Well once that was sorted I thought I would come out to the aft of the boat and notices to my surprise how much frost there was – a lovely slight mist and a very peaceful morning. I went back to bed.
Some hours later I emerged and got ready, but I seemed to be suffering from the well known issue of being on the Norfolk Broads that affects many – you seem to at some point loose the ‘get up and go’ and want to just be lazy and let time be forgotten without rush. I still have the option to return to the northern rivers, a late 16:00 low water at Yarmouth or I could stay south and stock up in Norwich with provisions – I decided to head into Norwich.
And that is where this, part 1 of 2 of the sixth day of the Captain’s Blog takes us, in part two we head to Loddon.
I dreaded this happening, in fact I even removed a fender from the boat, tied the end to the ring of a Rhonde Anchor and thus secured the fender between the quay heading and the boat to ensure the side of the boat would stay away from the heading as the tide dropped.
I got out of my berth, and the first thing was a trip to the loo – this is on the starboard side of the boat and here comes a bonus of being a ‘large lad’ for clearly the boat was only on the quay by a whisker resting on the lower rubbing strake – a light boat and a heavy Rascal meant it ‘gave way’ and slipped off – rather a spectacular thing to happen when you’re in the smallest room and there is a sudden enormous yaw movement, massive splash and boat rocks like you wouldn’t believe. Think of standing up in a toilet on a moving train, while at the same time being launched in a life boat – none the less I can say in the politest manner, the target was not missed so far as the stream was concerned so no clean up was needed.
Well once that was sorted I thought I would come out to the aft of the boat and notices to my surprise how much frost there was – a lovely slight mist and a very peaceful morning. I went back to bed.
Some hours later I emerged and got ready, but I seemed to be suffering from the well known issue of being on the Norfolk Broads that affects many – you seem to at some point loose the ‘get up and go’ and want to just be lazy and let time be forgotten without rush. I still have the option to return to the northern rivers, a late 16:00 low water at Yarmouth or I could stay south and stock up in Norwich with provisions – I decided to head into Norwich.
And that is where this, part 1 of 2 of the sixth day of the Captain’s Blog takes us, in part two we head to Loddon.
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