salhouse – A Broadsman

2011 Cruise – Day 5

Rain. Lots of it. A brief, but dense shower woke us all & peppered us throughout breakfast. There was a fierce competition as to how many people could fit inside ‘Corsair’, under cover. Eventually we realised it was futile, broke camp & set off to Wroxham.

This week, it seemed every S.o.B & his wife was out on the river – it was mayhem. As we approached Wroxham bridge, we were VERY glad to have stopped & left ‘F’ on a mudweight on Salhouse Broad.

As a side-note, ‘Corsair’ has an ingenious folding bracket which holds the outboard motor. Sadly this also means that it folds itself when you go hard astern… so in confined manoeuvres we go VERY slowly & hope nothing pulls out in front of us.

Teaching the tourists some anglo-saxon – we made a swift stern mooring, and were safely tucked up outside the coffee shop (oh no, of all the spots to pick!)

Hot showers suitably revived us, and special attire (lord knows what that means – Ed.) was donned in advance of ‘PollyWog’ joining us.

One brief & quite shouty evasive manoeuvre later, both ‘Corsair’ & ‘PollyWog’ escaped un-scathed despite the best efforts of ‘Queen of the Broads’ (!)

On the way to Horning – ‘F’ was recovered, whilst ‘Corsair’ went on, and moored outside the sailing club again – to allow us to raise sail, before leisurely heading to Ranworth. Almost immediately the wind fell to a flat calm. (bugger).

30 mins of quanting later, we’re huffing/puffing past the Ferry Inn, when Billy (in search of baccy) discovers he’s left his jacket at Horning Sailing Club. (Groan!).

Ten minutes of full-chat outboard later, we’re back at the sailing club, thankfully someone has kept the jacket safe having spotted it. (phew!) We’d left ‘Polly’ & ‘F’ to complete their slow drift to Malthouse Broad. We, on the grounds of likely mutiny chose to motor…

As the evening drew in, with a choc-a-block staithe, we simply waited until the ferry stopped running before putting all 3 craft in the dayboat dyke. (simple!), before scarpering to the Maltsters.

Mostly uneventful, we went to bed, gratified by the sound of a tourist falling in…

Night.

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!

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 2008 – finale & postscript.

Day 8.

So – Monday 25th. The final day of our 1st cruise…

We started with minor hangovers (compared to yesterday!). Also, similarly to yesterday we were forced to make some further adjustments to the bobstay. We wanted chain, but also a rigging screw to tension said chain!

This was achieved by beaching ‘Corsair’ bows-on at the edge of Salhouse broad. The water came just over the skipper’s neatly folded trousers legs (!) But. The task was completed with far less shouting, splashing and conflicting ‘advice’ than at Gay’s Staithe the previous day.

It was almost like being sober improved our motor-skills. Weird.

We then motored to Black Horse Broad, and positioned ourselves alongside MH, to steel ourselves for a quick blast around the broad itself. Sailing on Black Horse would be a first for me, little did I know it was where ‘Corsair’ had her first sail under new ownership, back in 1961.

It was a fantastic sail! We’d reefed, and set the repaired jib. Theo managed to take some photographs of us as well;

One thing I had learnt, was that to get the best out of ‘Corsair’ was not to be shy of reefing. If you keep her rig balanced, she’ll sail in almost anything.

During our sail, we spotted RCC S/N 72 – ‘Brit’, a very beautiful clinker river cruiser. Her increased size, and beam meant she was handling the weather slightly better than us.

However, more importantly, by sailing on Black Horse, it had meant that on this cruise, bar Bridge Broad (Belaugh Broad), we had sailed on every navigable broad on the Northern Rivers!! Quite pleased with that.

However, the need to return to civil life forced us to motor back to Oby Dyke, and to put ‘Corsair’ away for a few days.

So yes. The first cruise of ‘Corsair’ was brilliant, if at times somewhat ‘full on’ – we stayed out late, we drank too much, we generally enjoyed ourselves.

Success!

And what does the cabin look like, after 4 blokes have lived onboard for over a week…

Theo provided one final illustration, and then we were back to the car. I’d given up on drawing the maps, because frankly they were crap compared to his efforts.

Black Horse broad – spot the jib repair & chain bobstay!

Postscript – 2008.

To write a summary of the cruise is always difficult. Mainly because lots of things happen, and once it’s all over, you are left with too much to choose from. Overall I am tinged with regret that the cruise is over, but once again really elated (exhausted) to have done it.

However. This year, if I were to point out my worst moment, I would say it was when the bobstay broke on Saturday afternoon, when we attempted to race ‘Corsair’ for the first time in my ownership. My disappointment came more to with how pleased I was, with everything. Then BANG. Rig failure.

The best moment however, well. Where do I start?

There is the thoroughly stormy sail across Hickling Broad where with a triple reefed main and storm jib I suspected I had reached the limits of ‘Corsair’. I was wrong.

I could choose the delightful light air sail we had Sunday evening, on Salhouse broad where we were relaxed and happy doing what every bunch of friends should be;

Simply messing about in boats.

Until 2009.

Joe

Cruise 2008 – Days 6 & 7

Day 6.

Well, having spent an enjoyable night in the White Horse, today we were forced to make a particularly early run from Upton to Ludham Bridge. I helmed, whilst cowering behind the awning as it pelted with rain. The engineer & first mate were quite sensible, they stayed in bed!! (Swines).

We had big plans for the lunchtime, as after motoring to Irstead we were due to start our illustrious racing career. Alas, it was definitely memorable (!), but for all the wrong reasons!!

First race, we rigged and got onto the Broad in perfect conditions. We ‘jockeyed’ around in the fleet, until we spied the red flag. No life-jackets onboard meant we were forced to abandon, before we’d even started! Heyho…

At this juncture, CD & JW appears on ‘MH’, and things did become slightly ‘hazy’…

There was an equally abortive evening race, which saw ‘Corsair’ start (quite well), and round some of the course when our bowsprit suffered a mischief. The bobstay (stainless steel wire) snapped cleanly at one end (and it was a flat calm, look at the photos!!). Although a temporary stay was rigged, we returned to Gay’s Staithe.

Rigging a new bowsprit was ‘interesting’ – we went for chain. It was rigged using a variety of the crew in various positions, all trying to bend the bowsprit into the right place, and get the chain to stretch! Eventually we used a nearby Tinker Tramp inflatable dinghy. After an hour and a half, it was fitted.

The evening race…
‘Engineering’
It fits!

One BBQ, one bottle of Jägermeister (!), one of vodka, one of gin, eight strongbow and twelve kronenburg later, we’d made friends with most people we saw, several trees and at least one puppy.

Finally, at the midnight hour, whilst roaring drunk, we motored out into Barton Broad, where we set-off the remains of our fireworks. These fitted nicely into the ensign staff of ‘Corsair’, whooshing up into the sky, only inches above the outboard and petrol tank. (!!!)

The effects were quite spectacular. At Barton regatta, all competitors mudweight on the broad, staying on their boats for 72 hours, in a series of large rafted up enclaves. Imagine. It’s midnight. Most are asleep, many of the boats have their families aboard.

BOOOOM! WHIZZZZZZZ! BOOM! BANG! KABOOM!

Judging by the plethora of lights that started coming on in boats, and the shouting that followed, our fellow sailors were just as impressed as us with the fireworks. Navigation lights doused, we fled.

(n.b; We were young, stupid, drunk and stupid. I would not EVER repeat this)

Eventually we retired at 2am, it had been a loud and enjoyable evening.

Goodnight.

Our route.
The bobstay breaks!

Day 7.

Today started reasonably slowly… mostly due to the industrial sized hangovers we suffered from.

A quick motor to Stalham however saw us re-stocked with food, and a general consensus was reached that racing was a very bad idea. Plus it was raining and ‘orrible.

So instead, we ate restorative bacon sandwiches and decided that we would head to Salhouse Broad. Motoring down the Ant, we avoided the melee, and stopped in Horning for the most civilised practice (after last nights behaviour!) for an ice cream.

Horning to Salhouse was covered by sail, as by then most of us had recovered from the night before. Most enjoyable it was too! We gently tacked up the Bure, and drifted onto Salhouse Broad for a quiet sail on the last of the zepher like breeze available to us.