Norfolk – A Broadsman

2011 Cruise – Day 4

With sun pouring in through the cabin windows (expertly cleaned by Nina & Billy) at 4:30am, E & myself made a resolve to prepare some curtains before tomorrow…

Another stunning morning! Brilliant sunshine & a fair, but light breeze we slipped down the Broad, with ‘Corsair’ chuckling to herself as Nina helmed.

Several photographs later, we exited the Broad & headed up the upper Thurne toward Somerton to inspect Martham ferry, whilst ‘F’ caught us up.

Shortly after passing ‘Clipper 1’, we moored both craft upstream of the bridges before motoring through. Our entertainment for this bridge-transit was hearing the strident advice ‘C’ gave some tourists regarding their mooring technique…

Such amusements aside, once again we slipped off on a broad reach with Bill helming, whilst I busily prepared lunch (beef/mustard sandwiches).

At the confluence of the Bure & Thurne – ‘Corsair’ spent a minute or two before ‘F’ joined us. There followed an idyllic sail up river to Horning, following wind, sunshine, bliss!

Nina & Billy were both v.impressed with St Benet’s abbey, we delighted in all the ghost stories (some just for their benefit) as we passed.

Until Horning, things were peaceful, then the usual melee of day boats, tour boats, hire boats, swans, fisherman & miscellaneous craft provided a hair-raising sail for both boats!

(Scenes of ‘The art of coarse sailing’ – aiming for a point 4ft ahead of the stem of a tour boat raises the pulse!!!)

Once moored outside HSC – we returned to the mainland for a restorative ice-cream. Honestly, we looked like a bloody postcard scene! After some more posing, it was a short, if challenging sail downwind to Salhouse Broad. This section is pretty, but very tricky to sail with such heavily wooded banks.

Exhausted by our impressive mileage today, not one of us ventured upto the ‘Fur & Feathers’ in the evening (we’re all ‘kin knackered) Instead, the playground, woods & 3-hour walk to the toilets occupied us until our respective sleeping pits were found.

Night!

2011 Cruise – Day 3

We woke slowly (for some reason), with mist lazily rising from the water. I set to the duties of tea-making for the crew. Some of them were more ‘perky’ than others the Skipper notes… (!)

A brief quant later, both vessels were moving quite nicely onto the Thurne, with ‘F’ sporting her new, oversize Cornish ensign. Several infuriating windshifts later, we had tacked our way into Potter, and temporarily moored alongside a Richardson’s bathtub.

This gave us a brief refuge to catch our breath, before we all piled into ‘F’ through the bridges, Haiwaii 5-0 style!

Unfortunately, during this manuevre ‘Corsair’ was struck (hard) by an incredibly unpleasant, brain-dead knuckle dragging dickhead who piloted a hire cruiser with about as much aplomb as a wrecking ball. Fruitless discussion with them left negoiations in the hands of the hire yard & myself. Even now, as I write this I remember what a complete & utter person of questionable parentage he was…

However, ice creams, quiche & a quick cuppa soon removed such issues from our minds, and we set off on our voyage to Hickling. Unusually, with no sea breeze, light airs continued, allowing Nina to helm, with Mr B & Billy crewing.

Why let a glorious day with friends get in the way of a petty tacking duel though?! Once on Heigham Sounds we set about with a sweet-looking ‘F’, swapping tacks & exchanging insults as we progressed up past Deep-go-Dyke.

Once on the broad itself, the sea breeze did appear (finally!) & allowed us some decent long tacks with Mr B helping the jib over. Keeping pace with ‘Corsair’ though was a very sprightly dinghy – known as a bugle – it looked nippy!

We moored on the staithe (expertly helmed by Billy) – and all set about cleaning/smartening ‘Corsair’ in advance of ‘E’ arriving.

So, finishing early – I can only note that I am sat in the blazing sunshine, listening again to a live-band, feeling totally content.

Night.

2011 Cruise – Day 2

Urgh. It’s 06:30, a prompted by a lack of sleep I’ve left my bunk to immediately begin the urgent task of making coffee, much to the chagrin of Mr B – who was engaged in the vain pursuit of more sleep…

1st mystery of the day – did we imagine that bloody cat or was it real? Also – why do we have a giant plastic chess piece (A queen) in the cockpit? More to the point, what do we bloody do with it?!? After a brief, hungover spat, we agreed a lack of evidence is often the best defence. (It came with).

With a clear sky, & blazing sun we motored downriver whilst in an attempt at reconcilliation with a clearly tired Mr B, I made Bacon Rolls. We passed ‘Pandora III’ at Berney Arms & briefly conversed with them as to their week’s cruising .

Once through Yarmouth (tide nearly right – we had to push abit) I busied myself in cleaning the cabin. My ‘potion’ was to first scrub the cabin floor with meths/bleach (!) then to add a mix of meths/linseed oil to feed the lino. During this hive of activity – Mr B & the chess piece watched solemly.

Cleaning inside a Broads yacht is always an odd activity – there’s never enough room & I felt like I’d done 10 rounds wrestling! Thankfully we’d reached Acle Bridge – and could take some welcome respite.

We gathered our crew (Nina & Billy), then waited… and waited. One of our group was tacking downriver to meet us, although with the flood now well underway, it was slow-going. Eventually C arrived & after quick introductions we agreed our objective for the night should be ‘Womack Island’.

The light SW provided an easy reach up the Bure, past Oby Mill, with ‘Corsair’ occasionally sweeping round to stay in conversation-distance.

Late afternoon, we ghosted into Womack water, dropping our sails in the shadow of the tress, before briefly quanting onto a deserted island staithe. Idyllic bliss!

Idyllic bliss yes, but after sausage & mash (gravy made with no flour – grump!) en-masse, we approached some unsuspected tourists to rob them of their dinghy. Swiftly installed in said dinghy, we rowed round to the staithe & the King’s Arms…. (just for one!)

n.b; Alas it would appear that the K/A has surrendered itself to a clientele with very different manners / tastes to us, so after 2 (we needed to check the 1st one) – we departed back to ‘Corsair’ for a night-cap. For reference, we had a 12ft dinghy – into which we managed to fit 5 adults!

Having managed to quietly get back with the dinghy & thank the still, frankly bewildered tourists, we had a quick night-cap, considered the day a success & retired.

Night.

2011 Cruise – Day 1

Throughout 2011, I perfected the art of leaving ‘Corsair’ on a convenient mooring between sailing, rather than necessarily slogging back to Brundall each weekend.

Mostly – this worked well, I did occasionally take a ‘flexible’ view of the Broads Authority 24 hour moorings to facilitate this, but at this point of course I’m duty-bound to point out all fictitious references to that sort of thing should be treated as baseless rumour…

Anyway – the cruise for 2011 was to be a Northern rivers affair, especially as we’d covered a significant portion of the southern rivers in our ‘normal’ sailing having moved to Brundall.

Day 1

With news of the Reedham riverside beer festival ringing in my ears – ‘Corsair’ motored downstream in cool, calm conditions. Typically – we’d be gathering crew / boats today & tomorrow.

Meeting RCC S/N219 ‘Farthing’ moored up en-route – exchanging muted greetings across the river & above the engine noise (!). Maybe they were shouting? Who knows… Anyway. We moored just upstream of the BA hut on Reedham quay, to await the arrival of Binky on the 20:00 train.

Duly aboard – we agreed a quick dinner was the best approach, lets get at the beer!

There was however much consternation from Mr B – he’d not yet had the ‘pleasure’ of being upclose & personal with a primus stove… and I was still learning!

To be fair, the flames did die down… but he’s still twitchy from our last fire onboard. (another story!)

Before we could get ashore however, with shades of Michael Green… we’d found ourselves in possesion of a cat! Quite how the bloody thing got aboard is one mystery we’ll never resolve. The ‘shadow puppet’ theatre for the quay-side as the awning buckled/bulged/swayed to the tune of “bugger off! Come here, whose fucking cat is this anyway!?” Must have been popular.

Order restored, we swiftly walked to the Lord Nelson to calm our nerves…

The music festival – pre the Kazoo solo.

Much later, nerves calmed, we were ‘treated’ to some solo kazoo playing, from ‘The Harvs’ band. Wishing them great fortunes, we retired to the boat.

Early tide tomorrow.

Night.

Cruise 2010 – Day 8; racing… !

Falling gently asleep to multiple sirens from the emergency services was abit bizarre – seems a motorcyclist decided to leave the Stalham bypass at over 100mph last night…

Truth was, we soon found ourselves in a frenzy of activity ‘HB’ was being returned to her owners – both Jalil & Jacob were returning (reluctantly) to ‘Corsair’ & we needed more provisions…

So a high-speed motor to Stalham saw us victualled at Tesco, before we motored straight back to the Punt Club on Barton Broad, to sign in for 2 races.

That done, there was a little matter of a reunion to attend to, & I honestly can’t say absolutely the last time that 3 Chumley & Hawke clippers were rafted up – but it wasn’t an opportunity to be missed! Chronologically, we managed to get Clipper’s 4, 5 & 6 posed – sadly though no time for a photo!

We flurried back to Barton Turf, picked up Clover (another Jalil) – deposited Jacob & headed for the start line…

It’s clear we’re not going to trouble the ‘big boys’ anytime soon! Highlights included not loosing the rig (topping lift on a Nav post) & cutting inside a competitor at the buoy. We came a definitive last, but we also had fun – I mean you can’t get too competitive can you?

Post – race – we deposited crew at Barton Turf (again) – and headed to Gay’s staithe for some lunch. We carried 1st reef & out big jib – so enjoyed another cracking sail across the Broad. We even managed some screams from the feminine contingent (both Jalils).

On-route, we managed to bowl a fresh onion to ‘HB’ to save their dinner plans (this is no mean feat at 6 knots & a good angle of heel!) Also – pictured above are some typical scenes from Barton regatta – it forms a water-borne city for the weekend, through which we threaded (at speed) searching for a motor boat to deliver an onion. Madness.

I’m proud (pissed?) to say that in time-honoured fashion, we then found ourselves in a pub, and is often the way with Broads sailing we subsequently missed out start at 4pm & ended up staggering back to the boat quite ‘merry’…

After a whistlestop lesson in how to operate the Tilley lamp, I left to maintain a dinner engagement leaving them all ‘to it’. Christ knows what I’ll come back to…

Night.

Cruise 2010 – Day 6

We survived. A bland & mediocre offering but nonetheless sufficient.
Much like rationing.

It is strange to start a day’s log talking about events that happened yesterday however some things are worthy of note… as ‘Vintage Broadsman’ appeared on Salhouse Broad last night, blasting out a cheesy disco soundtrack, it was promptly drowned out by the Mozart from HB’s sound-system. How proper.

We can also report that the ‘Fur & Feathers’ is still a fine establishment serving much tasty ale… In fact the only fly in the ointment is that there was a troupe of Morris dancers outside who asked for requests; apparently ‘piss off’ wasn’t the correct answer. So we left swiftly after clearing that misunderstanding up!

Besides ensuring that we stayed until we had used all of our £6 mooring fee, there was little available to keep us at Salhouse so we headed for Wroxham amid more rain (lovely!) – in fact it was so unpleasant that we lowered the mast & motored the whole way as quickly as possible.

Wroxham itself had a variety of temptation to offer us, mostly fish & chips, some overly large waterproof trousers and an exceedingly flamboyant umbrella for the skipper. Also, there was a whistle-stop tour of Roy’s food department.

And, for no reason at all, its worth nothing that when you throw the mudweight overboard, ALWAYS check if it is on a short line, and whether or not it’s only on a small cleat with short screws… I mention this for no reason.

Post fish & chips, we departed the moorings & motored under Hoveton viaduct toward Belaugh. Despite HB taking a shortcut through bridge broad – ‘Corsair’ maintained the lead.

It was the 1st time ‘Corsair’ had been to Coltishall in my ownership & despite the weather (torrential rain) the navigation was very pretty. I saw a Kingfisher & several shoals of fish in the very clear water.

I might add, those weren’t the only highlights of the trip. ‘HB’ had the sliding roof open going through Wroxham bridge, soaking the Judas aboard… Sadly it was nothing to the sogginess of ‘Corsair’ – the awning was laid over the cabin, the umbrella was up… not a jot of bloody difference it made!

We spotted the ‘Death & Glory’ and ‘Troutbridge’ moored at Belaugh. No loveable Lesley however.

Much later, we found ourselves at Coltishall with the Tilley lamp valiantly drying out the contents of our cabin, with our new crew member languishing aboard ‘HB’ in the saloon. Weakness of character if you ask me!

Night

Cruise 2010 – Day 5

Today we started lazily if I’m honest, the Skipper began with attempting to steal a TE20 tractor from the boatyard & in a fit of benevolance we offered the crew of a ‘Leander’ to moor alongside us so they could access the freshwater hose.

It was quite strange really to compare the 2, considering that ‘Corsair’ came from the same yard – they really are completely different!

(This was years before I understood the role A.L. Braithwaite had with the clippers – versus the reality of Alfred Yaxley from Belaugh, the postwar foreman of Chumley&Hawke who did however build ‘Corsair’ with Tim Whelpton, albeit with an extra plank)

Anyway, in a strange reversal of our now familiar daily routine, we took all reefs out – bunged the big jib on (!) & set full rig after 4 days!! We soon departed & headed for a wild-mooring opposite St. Benet’s abbey to perform housework. (Binky cleaned the cabin windows)

Enjoying full-rig, we set off again & navigated onto South Walsham Broad where we sailed well into the inner broad, circumnavigated the island & spotted RCC S/N70 ‘Don’ at mudweight. Coming out of Fleet Dyke, we engaged in some informal racing with a Devon yawl, with Mr Jalil proving himself quite competitive (surprising)

HB was spotted on the St Benet’s moorings, where Theo promptly (and quite literally) jumped ship. The prospect of a warm & dry berth proving too tempting for his weak-willed traitorous ways!

Despite this treachery Binky & I enjoyed the gentle tack upto Ranworth, where to be fair ‘HB’ did tow us onto Malthouse broad, where we mudweighted close to the wherry ‘Albion’ where we then all unwisely leapt into a tiny dinghy for the passage to the Maltsers P.H.

(At this point, a certain Judas displayed all the grace of a baby rhino on acid to get in/out of the said dinghy, nearly tipping us all in!)

After a reasonably boozy lunch, we motored upriver to the surprisingly expensive Salhouse Broad for the night. D is cooking, only tomorrow will tell if we survive…

Night.

Cruise 2010 – Day 4

Dear readers… this morning we managed to wake slowly, with no hysterics from Jalil… our temporary waterproofing HAS WORKED!

Despite the sheltered nature of the staithe – it was apparent that it was bloomin’ windy, something we discovered when we ventured onto Barton Broad. We set the ever familiar 2 reefs & middle jib, before storming across the Broad enjoying ourselves, and ignoring the chaos in the cabin (!)

Having said that, we didn’t achieve the angle of heel we did on the southern rivers when we doused Robert’s bunk… (https://broadssailing.blog/2019/10/18/cruise-2009-day-3/)

Whilst thundering around the Broad, we allowed ourselves a giggle at a hire-yacht branded with ‘TRY SAILING’ -which at times seemed a good suggestion for the helmsman to follow. (!)

Fun over, we decided that a tack down the Ant would be impossible – so we became tourist-esque. We motored to Stalham to wander around. It was at this point I bought a Tilley lamp, which turned out to be a complete lemon! (I think we were desperately trying to find ways of drying out the boat)

Sadly even the charms of Stalham weren’t enough to keep us there, despite a ‘en masse’ decision for hot showers at Richardson’s boatyard (behave! Not like that) So freshly laundered, we gave into the inevitable and motored downriver to Ludham Bridge, where we moored in half a bloody gale… holiday’s afloat eh?

The crew at this point abandoned me – choosing to sit in the cabin rather than endure another cold & wet slog into the rain. Can’t blame them! (but I will)

‘Enjoying’ ourselves in the summer weather.

The weather did moderate a little, which enabled us to stop at ‘How Hill’ (more tourism) – walking around & inspecting both Toad Hole cottage & Boardman’s pump. Boardman’s pump is a trestle open frame mill, complete with its turbine pump (dating from 1897) – it’s amazing what you’ll read on an information board when you’re soaked through & fed up!

Sensibly at this point, we sought refuge in the ‘Dog Inn’ for the evening. Highlights (or not) was how we ended up in conversation with a film crew who were filming a short film called ‘Jam Today’ – for the UK independent film council. The weather meant these lads were stuck on a boat with beautiful young women. Bastards.

(https://www.instagram.com/p/CR_WN1zCVyU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link))

Night.

Cruise 2010 – Day 3

Today started with a sense of deja vu… Although without such a vibrant soundtrack, Mr Jalil was nontheless forced to vacate his bunk in search of drier sanctuary in the cockpit…

(At the time, we ended up duct-taping bin bans to the cabin side & routing them behind the bunk-shelf – diverting water mostly away from the mattress and sleeping crewmate)

This was to prove a persistant issue – and it wasn’t until 2016 I was in a position to attempt a permanent repair.

After such inclemency, the weather did improve somewhat. However before I divule such metrological bumphf I should mention the nice lay who sold us eggs… It’s all in aid of ex-battery hens & extensive testing of the said eggs (with bacon & fried bread) revealed that they are DELICIOUS!

Testing the rescue eggs… note the ‘new’ galley!

Our cruises to Hickling seem to follow a set routine, where we tack away from the staithe in half a gale of wind! (see 2008 https://broadssailing.blog/2019/06/15/the-cruise-2008/)

Tacking out of Hickling – note the small rig (Day 3 of double reef / No. 2 jib!)

Despite this usual ‘slog’ – we bravely carried on! (I suspect heads may have been sore after the Greyhound P.H) and began a long tack into Potter. There’s little which can be said about tacking against the tie, however if you add a narrow river, moored boats, bungalows and trees… suddenly it becomes a more ‘entertaining’ scene. One small piece of Willow was our only trophy for our endeavours!

Mooring at Potter Heigham proved to be quite eventful… The Hunter’s yacht ‘Luna’ who after several abortive attempts made a down-tide mooring which saw our harassed bowsprit bending most alarmingly. Full credit to the skipper who performed a leap worthy of a gymnast which Theo was dragged along the bank trying to tether same yacht with its bow-line. Still… it’s only varnish!

Such excitement behind us, we motored slowly out down the Thurne, before tacking up the Bure toward St. Benets, this 2nd bout of tacking proved to be the only sunny interlude of the day – something which we remembered fondly later on…

I can’t speak much for our trip up the Ant, except that I was busy repairing No. 1 jib (three repairs) and en-route we selected Neatishead as our destination for the evening.

Mooring & navigating to Neatishead requires care at the best of times, you dodge trees, motor-boats & other obstacles all the way up the dyke. So we went slowly…

… our unusual caution meant us getting caught in a viscous downpour which soaked us all to the skin. In such circumstances, we moored & ‘awned’ in record time. With both burners going on in the galley – we recreated a sauna whilst re-waterproofing Theo’s bunk with more bin bags.

Now, the pub.

Night.

Cruise 2010 – Day 2

Last night there was rain, not your average ‘oh dear it’ll do the garden good’ rain… but biblical, bouncing off the cabin roof deluge.

Still – could be worse!

Truthfully my first conscious memory of the day was to see Mr Jalil storming indignantly out of the cabin (whilst still in his sleeping bag) muttering something about “Mr Farrow & his so called waterproof boat” (!)

Needless to say, he slept the rest of the evening in the cockpit – a miserable experience. ‘Corsair’s’ benches are just under 6ft long, and work ideally as seats – but not beds!

Sated with a cooked breakfast (these engineers are so very tempremental) we decided to keep our cut-down rig and sedately proceeded upriver to Potter Heigham, where with ice cream & burgers we lunched with CD & co.

Having quanted through both bridges – we were treated at this juncture to the sight of several Hunter’s yachts scattering themselves across the river.

Evidently trying to ‘shoot’ the bridges, some had masts down, some halfway up, some just were a tangle of legs, string & quants… We noted all of them were ‘uptide’ of the new bridge (how brave!)

The Hunter fleet at Potter – with an interesting yacht below the bridge

Eventually, we set sail upriver toward Hickling, sliding along as we tacked through the bungalows to Kendal Dyke.

Here we were treated to a bit of champagne sailing, the wind had filled in to a steady sea breeze and ‘Corsair’ stormed across Hickling, narrowly beating local YBOD ‘Monarch’

By now we felt truly ‘on holiday’ – Jalil managed to dry his bunk mattress in the evening sunshine, and as we were moored in the aforementioned sun, we sipped at Cab. Sauv. whilst writing this.

Afterwards in the wake of a spectacular sun-set we ventured ‘up the road’ to the Grayhound P.H. The skies were fantastic, purple even!

It’s a hard life…

Night.