A Boat Owner’s Blog

As you get older in life you learn how completely and without warning life can change.  Every once in a while, life reminds you of this.  My accident on the ski slopes in Austria last year was one such reminder but, for whatever reason, fate decided that 2010 needed to provide another reminder.

As a result, life has again changed beyond all recognition and without a moment’s notice.  My main way of dealing with the pain has been to keep myself busy and to that end I spent a bit of time back in Kent where we used to live in the company of friends and family.  I also managed to spend time in Buckinghamshire, London and Dorset in the weeks that followed.  Since then I’ve been kept busy with a steady stream of visitors coming to the house and lots of evenings out doing various things, including lots of boating. Lots of boating.

The most notable bit of boating was last weekend when myself and my friend Rick attempted to take Bandicoot to sea.  With my expected friends unable to make it for the airshow Bandicoot remained on her moorings but a last minute call from Rick, who had had to cancel plans to go to the Edinburgh Festival, some hasty arrangements were made which saw Bandicoot slip her moorings and head down to Oulton Broad, locking through Mutford in the late afternoon and taking up a position rafted to the visitor’s pontoon at the RNSYC in Lowestoft while he crew proceeded to get extremely merry with Steve and Barbara (and many others) aboard Sensation.

Sadly Mother Nature had no plans to allow us to proceed to sea and after a bumpy night and with no prospect of change any time soon we locked back through to the Broads on the Sunday and headed back down the Waveney before putting in at Herringfleet Marsh overnight - for one of the most utterly horrible nights I’ve ever had a on boat.  The storm was hell battered the moorings, the considerable chop on the river looking more like the sea and throwing Bandicoot around all over the place.  The constant slapping of the chop on the hull hit with such force it sounded like repeated sledgehammer blows pounding away and echoed throughout the hull.  The force of the wind roared through the vents with such ferocity that it would not have been possible to hold a normal conversation for anyone sitting near one.

Aside from that, regular trips from Brundall to Brammerton have kept her busy and thankfully there has been time to finish off some of the mechanical work as well.  I have also had the opportnity to spend on time on other boat’s as well, including a nice trip out which allowed me to take this picture of a sunset over Barton Broad - just on my humble point and shoot as well!

Now with my operation just over a week away, there is just time to tie up some loose ends and see as many friends as possible before several months of being largely stuck at home.  I can’t wait!

Pics from my time in Kent, Bucks, London and Dorset are here.
Pics from my evening cruise down the River Ant are here.
Pics from our trip to the RNSYC are here.

The weekend following our Whitsun Week aboard Bandicoot my parents came to stay.  The plan had been for us to go to them but in the end it was not practical to do it that way.  On the Saturday we went out to the coast for a drive and, although I had left my “proper” camera at home I was quite happy shooting with the P&S.  We ended up going to places like Caister and eventually Happisburgh where we spent a lot of time looking around the church.

On the Sunday it was off to Banham Zoo, our first trip this year and only second trip ever.  Last year the weather had not been kind and it was brilliant this year either, but it was better (relatively speaking).  That was the opportunity to dig out the proper camera and see what poses I could grab from some of the animals.

A week later our guests were friends (and former neighbours) Nathan & Jo from before we moved to Norfolk.  We followed the usual formula whenever they visit of Mini Golf at Wroxham Barns and day boating from Wroxham.

On this occasion we decided to do the boating on Sunday and when we did we also headed in a different direction too - not down to Salhouse Broad this time but the other direction, under Wroxham Bridge and up to Coltishall.  Again the weather was very overcast and dull, raining at times, but it was a good trip on the boat and Nathan & Jo’s three young children certainly seemed to enjoy it.  The rest of the time we spent just chatting in the house.

The following week finally saw the carpeting on Bandicoot finished off but still work remains on the headlinings and on the mechanical issues.  With it looking unlikely that we would be able to get this work done in time for the holidays we planned to cut our week out down to just the initial weekend to attend another forum meet, this time at the Waveney River Centre, and then head off for a few days in The Peak District.  However a few days before the holiday a sudden and dramatic change in personal circumstances forced a complete change of plan.

Pictures from the week I had instead will be posted once I get a working computer on which to process them!

Pictures from the coastal walk to Caister and Happisburg are here.
Pictures from Banham Zoo are here.
Pictures from day boating to Coltishall are here.

Well the last little while has certainly proved to be extremely eventful, hence the lack of updates.  I will therefore be brief on each count and may even split over two posts updates.

Two weeks after the Dragon Boat racing at Oulton Broad it was the NBN summer BBQ at Salhouse Broad and a great evening was had by all with the usual high standard of BBQ food and good beer.  The following day, fortunately not hung over, I joined up with friends John & Lucy for a wander around the Strumpshaw RSPB Reserve in some gloriously hot weather.  I did not even know this place existed so it was something quite different for me and provided some opportunities to use the camera.

A week later and it was our summer holiday out aboard Bandicoot.  However, chaos rained in the build up to the holiday.  Bandicoot was still waiting for new headlinings and new carpeting.  It quickly became apparent the new carpeting was not going to happen so we resigned ourselves to bare floors.  But the headlinings were more of a problem - without them she is pretty much uninhabitable.  Fortunately our supplier managed to deliver them a few days before departure but when we started the process of fitting them on the Friday night it quickly became apparent this would not be a 5 min job.  Eventually, after several hours and too little light left to work in we gave up having put one of about 16 linings back in position.  It wasn’t looking good.

Saturday we took the morning off but came back in the afternoon and got cracking with much greater success.  By 1900hrs we had all of the main roof linings in place which meant the wires were gone and the lighting re-instated, plus we had space to move around the saloon.  As a bit of a spur-of-the-moment decision we started her up and headed down to Cantley to join up with Mark & Sharon on Serenity, Phil & Carron on Binky and Gav & Ann on Namaste.  We were on a standing invite to join them at The Reedcutter for some live music provided by local man Tosh.

The night was excellent from start to finish, the company great, the beer good and the entertainment and music from Tosh top stuff.  After that finished we retired aboard Binky and continued to keep the neighbours awake until  0330hrs!

The arrival of Sunday brought with it the realisation that in our haste to leave the marina at 1930hrs the night before Bandicoot was in no state to take on a week of travelling.  We returned to Brundall to stock up properly, fill with diesel and be pumped out.  Unfortunately the weather was so bad (very high winds) we were unable to put into our usual mooring for much of the day.

We headed out again on the Monday and took her up to Breydon to open up.  However things did not go so well - the engine ran okay but one of the pipes on the raw water system spring a leak again and the trim tab system failed with one tab fully down and the other nearly fully down.  The result was the boat could not be allowed to attain her proper cruising attitude which made cruising extremely uncomfortable (significant starboard list) and uneconomical (two huge trim tabs dug in the water slowing us down).  Combined with that the leaking hose meant the engine could not be run at high revs.  After a disappointing trial we headed down to Somerleyton with the intention of waiting overnight to clear the failed swing bridge on the morning tide.

As it turned out we already had clearance when we arrived so, after a brief stop for dinner, we headed on down to the Waveney River Centre and again met up with Mark & Sharon from Serenity, Gav & Ann from Namaste as well as Wayne & Tracey from Sea Gem and another good evening was had.

The following morning Serenity, Namaste and Sea Gem headed to Oulton Broad to lock through and out into the salt.  There they would rendezvous with other boats two large to get under the stuck Somerleyton Bridge who were instead putting to sea through Yarmouth Harbour.  The fleet would then head down the coast to Southwold.  Unfortunately Bandicoot was in no condition to undertake such a journey so we put into Oulton Broad Yacht Station for a few hours and then headed down to Beccles, stopping a few times on the way.

After a night in Beccles we headed back to Oulton Broad YS and took up a position on the outer floating pontoon. An excellent evening was had when friends Claire & Mark joined us for an Indian and then drinks aboard Bandicoot - Susan honing her G&T swilling skills very nicely.  The next day we spent cleaning and continuing to put Bandicoot back together before friends John & Lucy joined us in the evening.

On the Friday late afternoon we pushed off from Oulton Broad YS and headed back to the WRC again where, after an unpleasant incident with a less than helpful neighbour, we again met up with the Southwold fleet - all but one of the fleet boats being there this time.

Come Saturday and it was time to return to the marina and we headed back all the way to Brundall, getting there early evening, bring the holiday to a close.

Pictures from the NBN BBQ at Salhouse Broad can be found here.
Pictures from Strumpshaw RSPB Reserve can be found here.
Pictures from the Whitsun Week out boating can be found here.

In 2007 we attended the Dragon Boat Racing day at Oulton Broad.  The intention was to make this an annual thing but in 2008 were in Malaysia at the time the event took place.  In 2009 I was not long out of hospital after in extremely serious (life threatening) accident and in any case we had no boat of our own.  But in 2010 we were fit, here and in possession of a boat.  The dragons beckoned.

Of course, she’s been in pieces for a long time and it quickly became clear there was little chance that she would be finished in time.  So instead, rather than miss yet more of the season, we chose to halt work and stick her back together in something of a rush.  And so it was that last Sunday we set off along the River Yare in convoy with friends Mark & Sharon on their boat Serenity.  Timing had to be precise because Somerleyton Bridge had failed, problems with the main bearing apparently.  So swinging was not possible.  Fortunately Bandicoot and Serenity are just short enough to get under the bridge on a good low tide, hence the need to precise timing.

Somerleyton Bridge was a bit of breath holding moment for us, the rivets passing over our radar array by less than 5cm.  Even so, we made it and continued on to Oulton Broad where we took up an excellent position at the yacht station, directly beside the start line for the Dragon Boats.  All was not well with the hastily re-assembled Bandicoot though.  Our new canopy top leaks along the stitches, there are a couple of very minor but annoying and as yet untraced leaks in the forward cabin and, for good measure, the rev counter packed up.  The weather was suitably atrocious as well - somehow our very presence on the river causes the heavens to open.

A nice evening was had in Oulton Broad at the Balti Raj, followed by some time in the Lady Of The Lake where there was a live band.

The next day more boats from the NBN appeared to watch the Dragon Boats and we all retreated to the Lady Of The Lake for lunch, though Susan and I could not stay for long as we had to set off at 1400hrs in order to be sure of getting back under Somerleyton Bridge.  The weather on the run back was rather better and on board Bandicoot things were functioning more happily too (including the rev counter).

So a good weekend (at times) but now another long layout as we have no other scheduled outing until early July.  That should give me some time to get some more work done!

On Bank Holiday Monday I managed to get out with my camera (finally) and do a bit of photography.  The light wasn’t always at its best but overall I was pleased with the results of the day.  I’ve also posted a few shots online from a couple of weeks before when I was down in Bristol on business.  I didn’t get much chance to go out and I only had my (very cheap) pocket P&S with me, but I was impressed by Bristol.

Pictures from the Dragon Boat racing are here.
Pictures from Bank Holiday Monday are here.
Pictures from Bristol are here.

Work continues in fits and starts on Bandicoot.  Last weekend, with the help of my friend Mark, we gave the engine a full service so that’s all ready for the season - and we’re starting to build up a collection of the kind of spares you should always carry if planning to go to sea.

Heavy rain confirmed that the new roof vents are watertight but unfortunately the window over my berth still is not.  Further investigation required there.  The boat is to be re-carpeted and all the roof and wall linings re-covered in a new high quality white vinyl.  Unfortunately the coverings are still weeks away and with the Dragon Boat racing coming up in Oulton Broad we took the decision we would have to draw a line under what we were doing otherwise we would be missing large amounts of the season.

The lack of carpet we could cope with, but no roof and wall linings or soft furnishings and with wires hanging out all over the place she wasn’t really in a usable condition so we have cleaned up the existing linings and put them back, for now at least.  I’ve also wired in new main lights so we’ve had a complete change of all light fittings in the interior now and she is looking much more up to date - a situation which will be improved still further when the new linings are done in a few weeks.

This week will see the soft furnishings and curtains returned and next weekend, finger’s crossed, we’ll be out on the river again!