A giant leap forward

What’s it like sailing on the Broads? We have been asking ourselves that for some time. Once we actually sailed on the Thames from Penton hook to Chertsey, in full sail followed by onlookers running down their gardens with cameras. The bridge at Chertsey forced us to pull all the sails down after what was an ‘all too short’ taster. The sail up to Norfolk on the sea was done in less than favourable sailing conditions due to lack of wind and time constraints. Our intended sail from Yarmouth to Lowestoft was cancelled due to a rough sea state. So, with childcare on hand and conditions inland looking good we set about rigging the boat. If this was our moment then we’d get everything ready including the bow sprit, as we had learned that the sails forward of the mast were important to balance out the power of the main sail. We had also just fitted a new depth sounder to the boat and had established that 2 metres under the hull should be adequate depth; with the lee board down. After about two hours of preparation we were finally ready to cast off and once passed the swing bridge would start raising the sails. On approach to the bridge we noticed they were displaying two flags: denoting that the bridge was out of order. Typical, I thought, after all this effort we were to be thwarted yet again. Fluorescent jackets could be seen on the bridge so perhaps all was not lost. As we moored to wait I reminded the captain that the bow sprit was out, which was just as well because we were mooring behind the boat owned by the parents of Chris who had helped us up from London. A twelve foot pole punched through the back of that boat was going to do nothing for inter-boat relations, or our confidence, in what must be admitted is quite an ambitious undertaking. After a catch up with Chris’s dad someone announced that the bridge was opening. We set off, with our friends’ boat behind under engine, but quickly decided that we’d slow down and let them by as if things were to go wrong we’d rather do it without an audience. The leeboard was dropped and the long process of raising the main started. It’s heavy work and can be done hydraulically but we opted to take it slowly in case anything jammed. Then the stay sail went up followed by the furling head sail - which did indeed jam, for reasons I won’t go into but it involved me sliding out down the bow sprit and giving the drum a manual turn. The sail then spun out to full size causing the bow sprit to shudder in a most unnerving way, prompting me to safely return to the boat. All this was done in a section of the river that put us head to wind and the captain admirably kept her cool keeping the boat on track throughout all these goings on. The river then turned to put the wind on our side - or even slightly astern - which helped stabilise the sails and finally we were underway. One engine went off and the other reduced to an out of gear idle. Once happy the captain shut this engine down too and all was quiet except for the creaking of ropes and the sound of water. We’d been making 4.5 mph over the ground against the tide, which is frankly quite fast enough, when we rounded a bend to see a hire boat with a child at the controls right in our path. Helm control was positive so the expected roar of engines never happened, however the blast of Golden Mean’s horn was enough to raise the child’s father who swiftly got their boat onto their side of the river. We sailed on across Haddiscoe marshes with a freshening breeze powering us on our way from a forgiving angle. There was one more tricky moment as the depth sounder registered less than 2 metres but nothing indicated that we’d made contact with anything. And then, all too quickly, we were back home. The sails came down easily and the captain did another of her textbook moorings. We opened up a bottle of champagne to celebrate what undoubtedly is a giant leap forward for the crew of Golden Mean.

Castaway on the Southern rivers

On 16th July 2005, Golden Mean played host to a wedding reception on a small island in the Thames in Berkshire. Four years to the day later we cast off from a small marina in the Waveney valley, with two small live-in crew members (not present at the wedding reception), one ship's hound and the mothers of the bride and groom who have now been promoted to the titles of 'granny' (or variations on that theme). In addition we have a third Granny on board; 'Granny Crew', who, in her role as ableseawoman, friend and Pyrenean walking companion to the paternal grandmother, and general 'good egg', has been adopted by Port and Starboard and is an essential part of the team on such adventures. Our mission: to collect Granny Partridge from the station in Norwich. In order to avoid the tedium of a 30 minute car journey we decided in our wisdom to cruise to Norwich, heading north on the Waveney through St Olaves where we would de-mast to go under the first fixed bridge at Haddiscoe. We would then continue up the New Cut to Reedham and join the river Yare travelling in a Westerly direction to Norwich. At just under 11 feet our air draught did not permit us to travel the full distance to the yacht station conveniently located opposite the train station, however we did make it as far as Whitlingham Country Park on the outskirts of the city before securing a suitable mooring and receiving the aforementioned GP via taxi. On the return leg we stopped just north of Somerleyton (famous for it's red brick making in the 1800s) and re-rigged the boat ready for our first river sailing. With two grannies on childcare and the third on sail trimming, we successfully sailed from the swing bridge at Somerleyton back to the Waveney River Centre. Nothing broke, nobody fell out (or in) no last minute jibes and no collisions. We were lucky - and pretty pleased with ourselves I don't mind admitting. Our only regret was that we didn't position somebody outside the marina where there is a spectacular view for several miles across the marsh where a large tan sail would have been gliding seamlessly across the horizon on the evening of Monday 20th July. It's a little hard to get more than a quarter of the sail in shot from the deck. However there is now no doubt that we will repeat the experience and we will ensure that we have camerapersons at the ready across the marsh next time. Here is a backing track for our first Broadland voyage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3V_bfnHUk8

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Now hear this! William Blythe would be proud of you Port. Granny Crew supervises the raising of the mast. No.1 is doing the winching down below!Granny Partridge and Grandmajo take to the hills (Herringfleet marsh) with Port and Starboard, whilst Golden Mean is prepared for some river sailing Granny Port and Granny Starboard!

Port and Starboard take their Grannies for a tour of Reedham quay, whilst the Captain ponders how best to extract Golden Mean from a very tight spot, in a very strong current...

Sundowners at the Woods End Tavern, Bramerton

Now this grassy mooring reminds me of Shepperton (although a lot less busy).... and it's a popular spot for fishing too. Grandmajo found a chap who had just caught a 7lb bream (I'm pleased to say he returned it to the Yare after he got the obligatory photo)

Safely moored at Reedham with the 104 year old swing bridge in the background.

Intrepid explorers set out from a woodland mooring at Brundall for the quiet backwaters of Surlingham Broad

Granny Crew teaches Starboard a few nautical tricks, whilst the ship's hound keeps a look out

Starboard enjoys Surlingham Broad and trailing her fingers in the water

Whilst Port is an old hand and takes a turn on the tiller later

We love these woody hide-outs. Even when the tide goes out at 3am and we all wake up on the tilt!

Alongside Whitlingham Country park in Norwich, awaiting collection of Granny Partridge.

Stretching our legs on Buckenham marshes

The gaff and boom are reattached after the last non lifting bridge at St Olaves, on our homeward stretch South

A long view over Buckenham marsh

The new walkway makes a mooring like this much easier, although Magic got a bit of time to get used to using it. Our bow is tied to a tree and our stern to the sign saying 'End of water-ski area'.

Back in the early days on the Broads, sailing with the square sail on Oulton Dyke with four of our children's godparents on board.