Touring Norfolk in a motorhome

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Day 22: We hire a boat

Forgive me Neptune, for I have sinned. I did hire a motorboat when out on the broads and not a sailing boat as I should have done! (I own a sailing boat called Arwen and you can find her blog here at www.arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk if you are interested in her and our adventures together sailing the south west coast of Devon and Cornwall. She also has her own Youtube channel at www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy )

We have been touring Norfolk and Suffolk in our motorhome Bryony. It has been our longest trip to date and we have spent a few days around Hickling Green and Hickling Broad. Most of the time we have been cycling but today we felt somewhat sore (having cycled over 150 miles in seven days) and so opted for a day on the water.

Maggie wasn't confident about me hiring a day dinghy and when I saw what was on offer, neither was I to be fair. The little boats seemed barely water-worthy! So, we opted for an old motorboat with a diesel inboard engine. Hired from Whispering Reeds Boats at Hickling Green, we got a white painted plywood hulled boat with varnished rails and coamings. A bit dilapidated, with a patched hole in one corner, the varnish was peeling in places and the screws rusting badly. The bow painter was blue knotted polypropylene string; the stern warps black 12mm plaited rope. It wasn't neglect but this was a boat in need of some cosmetic TLC. Otherwise, it was positively charming and we loved it.

Our intention was to spend four hours gently motoring across Hickling Broad and up through the cutaways into Horsey Mere before going up the river to Horsey Mill for a coffee and cake at the National Trust owned windmill. If there was time, we would then head back down for a quick tour of Heigham Sound.

The Whispering Boats yard is traditional; a few staithes with some permanent liveaboard boats alongside; some boats out of the water on hard standings; a narrow gently sloping ramp and a large corrugated boat building shed. Clean and organised, it has an air of old-fashioned competency about it, a place where apprentices once learned their craft from master boatbuilders. But now, trade isn't what it used to be and there are signs, that like the launches, some cosmetic TLC is required.

After a quick briefing, a warning about getting too close to the reed bed margins (clog the prop) and 'watch out for traditional sail boats coming around the bends' we were duly shown to our boat. The first problem, how do you turn 18’ motor launch 90 degrees out of its ‘stern to’ mooring in a staithe canal channel which is only 4' wider than the boat length; and with two other launches of identical dimensions moored gunwale to gunwale either side of you!

I should at this point, just in case you were all saying 'easy'......tell you that the steering was a steering wheel and then a wire and pulley affair to the rudder. A system so stiff, you physically had to yank the wheel one way or another. Think a steering wheel on a tank - non power assisted! Then throw in a throttle which was at best temperamental; stiff, unruly, prone to slipping and not holding its position! Truly hilarious. The only positive was the engine. Its regular chug chug beat and tempo just spoke reliability, trustworthiness, integrity. One of the yardies came to our rescue and helped push the boat out and turn it at right angles using the various lines. After that, it was pretty much plain sailing, or boating!

 

It took me ten minutes to work out how to caress the throttle; a further ten minutes on how much effort to put into turning the wheel one way or the other to get some form of turn in the bow. Subtle steering it was not! Gauging speed wasn't an issue! There was slow, dead slow and stop!

Gently chugging out of the narrow yard entrance canal past moored boats of all descriptions and sizes, we entered between the first of over forty 12' tall square posts that marked the centre of the broad. Depth gauges on some of the posts suggested we had around 8' under us at the centre of the broad. With gentle breezes bow on, I was able to stand upright leaning on the top of the windshield with left hand on the steering wheel and right foot nudging the throttle down or up as required. A rather cavalier approach I am sure, but given we had the whole broad to ourselves, I wasn't unduly worried. We were only doing 3 mph max and when other boats approached, I sat down and did things properly with one hand on steering and one on the throttle.

(Rules of the road on water are slightly different to those on the road – for a start boats pass each other down their left-hand sides, so think driving on the left. Motor always gives way to sail; and smaller motorboats always give way to larger ones.)

 

Gently chugging along was blissful. We passed flocks of swans cleaning themselves and shooing their broods of cygnets out of the way. Marsh harriers swooped above the reeds and out in the distance in a secluded corner of the broad, inaccessible to our boat an enormous bird of prey flew above the water in lazy circles. Was it an Osprey? It looked like one from a distance! The only thing I would change is perhaps opting next time for a hire yard where they had electric boats. These chug along silently. Much better for wildlife watching!

At the yellow and black marker post we turned to port and started up the narrow channels that ran between marsh and reed bed islands. The channel was barely 20' wide and we were hemmed in by thick tall green reeds. Our horizon was those reeds punctuated by the odd oak tree or distant windmill. A closed world, a fascinating world, a gentle world. A ‘natural’ world of a sort.

Time slowed down, it practically stood still. The sun shone; the breeze whispered through the reeds. Reed buntings provided a sound track. A blue damselfly landed on my hand and stayed with me for twenty minutes up river. Ahead, huge dragonflies, the 'Gazelle helicopters' of the insect world buzzed and darted frantically across the water, skimming low and evading the sudden rises of Chub and Roach. Past motionless herons, their faces downward, peering in to the dark waters, waiting to rapier any small unsuspecting fish, we chugged along, our soundscape being enhanced by the repeated call of a distant cuckoo.

You know when sail boats are approaching. You can see the tips of their masts and pennants streaming out at mastheads. Some are motoring, their masts devoid of sail. But then there are boats that are sailing, with acres of tan, cream or white sail clothing billowing in the breeze. Around the corners they creep, their booms invariably hung out over mid channel. Such handsome, majestic craft.

In such circumstances, I found the easiest thing to do is to wait, throttle into neutral and then judicious use of forward, neutral and reverse gears to hold station as close to the reed margins as I dare, allowing them sufficient room to drift by silently.

There is a grace, beauty and charm to the traditional broad cruisers with their cream hulls and varnished topsides and I’m sure you could get a suntan just from the reflection in all that glossy varnish work.

Arriving at Horsey Mill staithe is tricky. Along the starboard side of the narrow channel are private moorings. On the port side public tie-up points. The channel between the moored boats either side is around 10' in width. The channel is a dead end with a right-angled bend just before the mill. And, it is in the full glare of the public gaze, for this is a popular attraction. There is no place to hide.

There is no being timid here. Accurate, bold but cautious decision making is required. And commitment too! You have to moor into the wind or the river flow, whichever is stronger. To try and moor going downwind or downflow is to invite disaster. You simply won’t stop without excessive reverse thrust.  Turn at the wrong moment and get caught by the wind, beam on with too few revs and its disastrous.

Today, I have to turn the boat in the channel for the wind has shifted to come from astern and it’s picked up! There is a 10' long gap between boats on each side. That is my turning point! Decision made.

Now, I do have Level 2 powerboat qualifications but frankly they are of bog all use here. It is an inboard engine with a temperamental throttle and antique steering system, not a sleek rib with an outboard slung off the back. Maggie makes encouraging 'you've got this’ comments. But, is that a death grip hold she has on the coaming?

It’s like doing a three-point turn in a car only you are using a balance of reverse, forward and neutral in quick succession and, of course, you are turning the wheel counterintuitively at the same time as engaging reverse. It sounds more complicated than it is but unbelievably, and I do still have to pinch myself as I remember this, I actually did it. I turned a boat with lousy steering in only 1' surplus distance at each end of it and then brought it alongside a staithe with a minimum of bumps.  To a complete stop alongside a mooring ring. Boom, mic drop and that’s how it’s done!

Five minutes later, whilst Maggie has sauntered off to find coffee (to sooth her nerves), two experienced sailors manage to wedge their 20' cruiser with bow sprit in that right angled bend just ahead of me. I did get there before the impending disaster happened and I did plea with them, several times, to throw me a stern line so I could slow the boat and spin the stern around quickly. But they listened not and I was left to try and free their bowsprit, bow sprit tackle and various other bits and pieces from the quayside ladder. It was some tangle. I’ve never seen a laddered skewered by a bowsprit before. Fascinating stuff.

The wire tackle slung below the bowsprit had dug itself into one of the wooden staithes. That took a few minutes to retrieve! A husband-and-wife team there had clearly been some disagreement and miscommunication between skipper and deck hand on the best way to proceed as they made their final approach. What she instructed and what he did up front did not tally with each other, that’s for sure.

Ah well, easily done and there but for the grace of God went I a few minutes before. And I didn’t, in fairness, have their length or windage issues. It is an unforgiving sailing ground, these narrow broad's channels!

Back down at Heigham sound, we moored up alongside a near empty staithe for a picnic and watched a couple tack their stunning broad’s cruiser up the channel under full sail and jib, gracefully done with confidence and ease in tricky wind conditions. A master class, even if their sail had that same familiar crease that my Arwen's main sail has!!

Our return trip was serene with the same wildlife to see but our arrival back at the yard was tricky. More boats had arrived and had moored directly opposite the turn into the little staithe we had to occupy. Moreover, two motorboats had occupied my space, leaving me right on the end. There was barely any turning room at all and the wind was coming from astern as well. You recognise a looming disaster when it presents itself.

I didn't hit any moored boats.  However, it took three tries to get that boat in to its little canal, turned at a right angle and then stern moored onto the staithe. We bumped a little at the end but no damage done.

It pays to be humble and I'm glad I didn’t gloat up at Horsey Mill. I learned a long time ago that it doesn't matter how good you think you are, or how experienced or inexperienced you are - the water shows no mercy to those who don't show it due deference, thought and respect.

The website for Whispering Reeds Boats is http://www.whisperingreeds.net/

Hickling Broad is normally a quieter broad with less traffic than others in the national park and so is good for those who are new to boating or don’t feel confident about motoring in the busier sections of the broads.  The boatyard also hires out Canadian canoes as well.

 

For those of you thinking about visiting the Broads, please do so, you really won’t be disappointed. Remember the Broads are not a natural phenomenon, but the result of human activity, basically medieval peat cutting. The diggings became flooded giving rise to the 63 broads.

The broads as a holiday destination were popularised in part by the publication ‘The handbook to the rivers and broads of Norfolk and Suffolk’ written by G. Christopher Davies, first published in 1882.

This book ran for fifty editions and his evocative descriptions caught the imagination of all. With railways making inroads into East Anglia, and the coastal resorts becoming popular Victorian holiday destinations, it was inevitable that the Broads would experience this tourism boom as well.

One of my favourite descriptions written by Davies, is as you would expect (knowing I am a keen small boat sailor), about the Norfolk wherries of old

“No Broad scene would be complete without the presence of a wherry, which is perhaps, the most picturesque and graceful of all sailing goods-carrying craft, and certainly the swiftest and handiest of all which voyage on smooth waters. The course of the river through the green marshes is, where the water is itself invisible, marked by the tall high-peaked sails of these craft which seem to be gliding along the land itself’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GNMOCGGUwA