New Cut – A Broadsman

Day 3 started with rain. Lots of it. It drummed on the awning and slowly but persistently it revealed all of the deak-leaks. Annoyingly most are above our bunks!

It’s pointless staying in a damp bunk – so over breakfast various damp people from the fleet discussed our destination. No longer was it Geldeston, we’d motor down the Waveney and head for Cantley.

All of this was discussed over a nutritious meal of bacon rolls, and ‘hair of the dog’ Strongbow… design specifications had been exceeded last night. (!)

Following this decision, there was a flurry of activity as tents were folded, masts lowered and every inch of space used to stow gear. ‘Corsair’s’ forepeak was crammed, to the point we’d not get the mast back up ever again…

The outboard decided to break its fuel system at this point – thanks to Chief Engineer Jalil for sorting this (note promotion from Petty Officer!). As we left, we were definitely at the back of the fleet, and all of us soaked.

As ‘Corsair’ towed ‘Nulsec’ downriver a lucrative card-school was hosted in the cabin, the stakes were 2p a bet. All was well until some fool (James) lost his winnings.

Periodically these gambling, drinking swines would come to inquire as to the skippers well-being…

(It took years to find all the 2p coins in the bilges!!!)

As we motored downriver – those swines drank ALL the booze!

In the New Cut – bizarrely we realised that on our tail was ‘Herbie’ we weren’t last! Simon & Sarah were hustling along. Herbie was a 12ft Fibrocell dinghy, but was sporting an Evinrude 20hp on the back! There was nothing but a flurry of spray, a bow-wave and two soggy looking people!!

‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’ moored at Reedham Street (to replenish the booze!), and we kept an eye to see if ‘Nulsec’ would sink again. She didn’t, and we managed to get all the sails up, to head upriver for Cantley.

Even the repaired rudder behaved itself!! Both craft enjoyed some champagne sailing up the Yare, to the extent that ‘Corsair’ carried on up with the last of the flood to the Beauchamp Arms…

We moored to a fishing platform – tiptoed ashore as the water swelled the banks and had a well-earnt pint.

Returning to Cantley kept us on our toes, but we’d drifted off (literally). Flush with success we poured ourselves some room temperature Gins and drifted back in the early evening sun.

The weather hadn’t finished with us, a ‘roger’ belted into us just upstream of Langley – shitshitshitSHIT, helm down, let go sheets, no good the booms in, HOLD ON!

Somehow – Robert in his role as official reporter coolly held his nerve (and his drink) and photographed how far we were over;

Suitably chastened – with split Gins and frayed nerved we returne to Cantley

Quick phone call sorted extra beds. So 4 lucky souls will sleep aboard on ‘The Only Girl’ (S/N137) for the night.

In the meantime though, the morning’s hangovers we discarded, who cares! the pub, the pub!!

Goodnight.

Phew. Writing this now having had a forced absence from;

A.) writing and
B.) sailing.

Weather in Norfolk hasn’t been the kindest. Last Saturday instead of rowing across to ‘Corsair’, I was forced to walk a mile down the flood-bank on the opposite side of the river, and then wade through the rhond to get to her.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. You walk south from Cold Harbour and the view west is fantastic. The vista includes St. Helen’s church, whose tower juts above the tree line at Ranworth, meanwhile to the right, the remains of St. Benets squat on the marsh, with Horning Hall obscured behind.

The f7 SW had laid the reeds flat, and as we walked, we watched a determined yacht tacking up the Bure. Three reefs and a storm jib – good effort. Even from couple of miles away, you could tell she was striding along. Exhilarating conditions (for the right boat!)

All of this played out under a magnificent, leaden sky-scape. 8/8^th’s cloud cover, and all scuddying along ahead of this incessant near-gale. I tried to absorb it all, that sense of place in me taking over. I’m very lucky to live in this part of the world, my advice is to make sure you see Norfolk in different weathers and in different seasons.

It’s hard to describe, but you’ll capture the different ‘moods’ of the days and seasons if you do. You’ll see what’s a weather bank in a Northerly, or a westerly, where the trees will shelter you, how the wind bends along the reaches – all useful for when you’re sailing and need to find a decent mooring or take in a reef. I don’t pretend

Edward Seago managed to capture the atmosphere of St. Benets under a storm better than me;

Anyway. ‘Corsair’ was O.K. bilges were dry, covers still on. Duty done, we trudged back to the car. Odd isn’t it, boats are such a release in so many ways psychologically, and a constant responsibility physically. I dread to think how many miles I’ve driven to check on her in similar situations.

Back to 2009.

2009 Cruise – Day 2

Cold. Cramped. And hungover once again. Not an unusual set of circumstances for the cruise…. Bleary eyed – I staggered through the cockpit and opened the awning.

Bollocks.

Opening the awning had focused my attention somewhat. What a bloody nuisance! James’ boat – ‘Nulsec’ had capsize itself in the night, quite unnoticed. After confirming with someone less hungover than me that in fact yes, the boat had sunk itself – we set about righting her. After I’d had a good think about what to do…

What a hassle that was!! For a 17ft boat, there was a lot of water to be removed. Sterling bailing efforts by Rob, James & Chris removed most of the water, leaving ‘Nulsec’ mostly afloat.

However, a brief phone call to Julia – the wonderful Hon. Secretary of the Yare Sailing Club produced a large, petrol powers salvage pump, which quickly drained the boat, leaving us with our fleet mostly intact.

Having lost time, we then set about motoring down the New Cut. For those of you not familiar, the New Cut is the result of some fairly aggressive Victorian power-playing. Yarmouth was a successful port – Norwich was not. No matter – Samuel Morton Peto dug a cut – linking Oulton Broad with Norwich, so you wouldn’t have to go through Yarmouth…

Yes. Not quite successful, it does however provide a useful function connecting the Yare with the Waveney – where we were heading. Whilst we motored, a fry up was produced, with the skipper resorting to hair of the dog!!

More amusement was to come though, how do you lower the mast on a 17ft racing dinghy?? With a lot of ‘faff’, bad language and brute force! I was still hungover, and unable to assist.

During this, ‘Dragonfly’ (S/N 6) came swishing past heading for Somerleyton. No doubt amused by the antics – they sensible opted to finding decent moorings.

Moored against a convenient crane barge at Haddiscoe – we set about raising the big white crinkly bits (sails!!)

In the short interval that followed, James attacked a moored pontoon, ran into the reeds on a lee-shore, lured a hire craft into towing him illegally, and generally produced much material (very kindly) for me to record.

The fleet – now mostly assembled at Somerleyton consisted of ‘Seabird’, ‘Dragonfly’, ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’… Just HB & Herbie the wonder-dinghy and we’d be complete.

To pass the time, we inexplicably found ourselves in the pub – avoiding the rain, playing cards with a pint. Compared to yesterday’s excitement – this is more like it!!

Goodnight.

Tag: New Cut

Cruise 2009 – Day 3

Summer storms & submarines