An “Unfortunate” Holiday

The holiday was long awaited and seemed to be forever in the planning stages, but at last we had arrived at the boat early on Saturday ready for a full weeks cruising from the Southern Broads to the Northern Broads and back.

There were four of us on board, myself, my wife Angela and our children Kirsty and Craig. We had planned every contingency this trip including the tides!
In tow we had our trusty little Spitfire speedboat along with 2 outboard motors… an 8hp Johnson seahorse and a 10hp Evinrude sportwin of 1960 vintage that went like the wind when it had a mind to. (As shown in picky below)

Our first stop was Waveney River Centre to put in copious amounts of petrol (in those days we had a 170hp 6cyl petrol engine fitted in Osprey) for the weeklong trip and a few last minute supplies before heading off up the Waveney to Breydon water.

The plan was to cross Breydon at the earliest convenient time when the current would be with us.

Kirsty and Craig were following along in the speedboat and all was going well until “Ospreys” engine locked solid. At this point I had no idea what had happened but because of the strong currents I felt the best course of action would be to throw out the mud anchor before we were dragged into any one of the green or red marker posts at 4 plus knots.

After deploying said mud anchor it seemed as if we were gaining speed if anything so the sea anchor was next to go over the side, fortunately this grabbed and we became stationary.

Unfortunately we had drifted back quite a way, just enough to be directly opposite the Fisherman’s public house and restaurant, the relevance of this will soon become apparent.

Next was to investigate why the engine had stopped so violently so I engaged neutral gear turned the key and hey presto the engine was ticking over a treat, next was to put her in gear and bang………. all stop!

After raising the outdrive leg the reason soon became apparent………… we had picked up 2 tyres and a stack of nylon mooring line around the prop. As the bathing platform completely hid any access to the prop there was nothing left for me to do but to jump in after first attaching myself to a cleat due to the currents.

After an enormous struggle I eventually managed to free the prop which although damaged would suffice for the time being. I started the engine and left her ticking over whilst I cleaned up, by this time it was getting quite dark and the trip across Breydon was a no go (although we have navigation lights we did not have a spotlight)

As I returned on deck I noticed the temperature gauge climbing alarmingly high and I then decided a mad dash to a mooring on the bank side was in order, unfortunately (you will have noticed by now this word appears rather a lot n this little tale) all the moorings had gone but I spotted a spot at the side of some old pilings and aimed for this.

Unbeknown to me due to all the excitement our two wonderful children had moored alongside “Osprey” with the little speedboats stern pointing in the same direction as “Ospreys” bow, they had tied to “Ospreys” fender ropes and were sat waiting for Dad to sort things out.

So off I go flat out for the safety of the banking amid screams of “Stop… you have sunk the speedboat and Kirsty is in the water!”……….Unfortunately as I was pushing against the tide the water pushed over the stern of the speedboat (with the kids still in it!) and sank within approximately 3 seconds, Craig managed to make a grab for the side and clamber aboard but the best Kirsty could manage was to grab hold of a fender on “Ospreys” port side!

So due to sheer panic I left the helm unattended and scrambled to the port side to haul my daughter back aboard before the current became to much for her, once hauled aboard safely Angela took her down below to calm her down and dry her off.

Unfortunately we had drifted quite away from the safety of my pilings so again out came the sea anchor.

We now had a situation on our hands, we have a main engine that is nearly fried, a distressed crew (note the order of importance here!), a sunken speed boat attached by a line fastened only by a decorative fitting on the bow, very little light, even less idea of what we do next and an audience of 40 or so from the aforementioned public house enjoying the impromptu entertainment.

Back to the problem in hand, how to raise the speed boat from the murky depths of Breydon Water, I had managed to untie the line from the side of “Osprey” and refasten it to the large cleat on our stern so I could stand on the bathing platform and try to drag the bow of the little boat onto the platform and start bailing or something! unfortunately no matter how we tried the little boat would not come the right way up, it was always showing her hull to us, all that happened was that tanks of fuel and various other bits from her that floated sailed down Breydon water never to be seen again!! Actually I tell a lie we managed to retrieve the main fuel tank but in hindsight I wish we had never seen it again………the reason for this will also become apparent!.

After much deliberation we decided we needed either divine intervention or help from a more mundane source so we called Bure Marine who in fairness came to us within an hour or so and duly raised the little boat. He offered to tow us to the marina (at a cost) and take a look at our little boat (at a cost) and also repair “Ospreys” engine…..you guessed it.(at a cost) so being a polite time served mechanic I politely refused and paid him a sum of money which left me wondering if I should have cut my losses earlier and let the little boat go several hours ago! (Picture below shows the speedboat being lifted out of the water.)

So now came the time to haul up the anchor and make for the pilings, everyone and everything in position off we went and we just about made it before frying the still overheating main engine. Once tied up I investigated the cause of the overheating, this was due to thin strands of nylon choking the rubber impellor, a job soon corrected.

The next saga in this ongoing tragedy occurred at around 3am the next morning, I found myself awake, as I tried to sit up in bed in order to gain composure I found myself constantly falling over to the starboard side of the boat, several minutes passed before I was able to take stock of the situation and realise that “Osprey” was listing at an ngle of no less than 25 degrees.

I don’t know if anyone has ever given up the will to carry on boating but I must confess I was getting too close for omfort by this time. After crawling out of the cockpit onto the bank it became apparent that the starboard gunwale had got caught on one of the pilings as the tide went down and had left us well and truly hooked.

As I wasn’t sure how much further down the water would drop I felt I had to free us from the piling in order to prevent sinking “Osprey”……. one sinking per weekend is more than enough for most.

After ruining two boat hooks we finally managed to free “Osprey” and she splashed into the water rather loudly waking several holidaymakers on hire boats moored nearby but hey what did I care by this time!

Surely now nothing else could go wrong, we had survived the fateful Saturday and took everything it had thrown at us, and now our holiday was to begin, all would be perfect from here surely. I had suffered every emotion known in those few hours and had remained relatively calm throughout………………until 8am the next morning!

After eventually getting back off to sleep at around 5am I was awakened at 8am by a very loud banging on the roof of the galley and the sound of loud and irate voices. I clambered to the cockpit and unzipped the canopy to see two men one of whom upon seeing me went into a rage about how I should not be moored where I was and asked me if I was blind as there was a sign saying “no mooring” here, after saying all this he then intimated he wanted paying for my overnight stay!

Amazingly for me, I did (honestly!) remain calm and try to offer an explanation as to the previous evenings events that had led me to be moored in this particular spot……….. I explained about the sinking, the engine problems we had encountered and that it was a mad dash to anywhere I could fasten a mooring line etc.

They did not seem to be to interested at first but as I came round from slumber and the red mist began to appear, I felt they started to appreciate my situation!

The next day we crossed Breydon water without any mishaps the only dampener was the fact that the children vowed they were never going to go in the speedboat again due to the previous days events.

I explained that if the speedboat had been tied to “Osprey” facing the same way i.e. both bows facing the same direction the sinking would never had occurred, if nothing else this made me feel less responsible.That day we sailed all the way to Sallhouse Broad, (with the little boat in tow) as this is our children’s favourite spot with a shallow sandy beach were many people bathe and swim. Soon they were in the little boat again and all was well with the world.

Unfortunately because the fuel tank had been underwater for a few hours I didn’t give any thought to the fact that water could have entered and be sitting in the bottom of the tank where the fuel pickup pipe is situated and that the engine therefore, would draw water from the tank rather than fuel…………. and it did! After hours of frustration I eventually managed to change tanks and engines so Kirsty and Craig could have some fun in the little boat, after all I hadn’t towed it on a 450 mile round trip just for the sake of it had I? (The picture below shows us at Sallhouse Broad complete with speedboat!)

In fairness the rest of the week was superb, good weather, no mishaps fun was had by all……..until we came back across the dreaded “Breydon Water” Kirsty and Craig had got their confidence back in the little boat and were getting a little too confident at times.

Before rounding the yellow post where the river Bure leads onto Breydon, Kirsty and Craig had decided they wanted to open up the little boat and speed across Breydon in front of us…..great!!! This gave me a chance to stretch ”Ospreys” legs and get her up on the plane after days of river complying with river speed limits.

Unfortunately (last time!) because I had swapped the fuel tank on the little boat for a spare one I didn’t realise the breather was blocked, this meant that when the little boat was flat out it starved itself of fuel and consequently stopped dead in the water.

Meanwhile I am opening up “Osprey” for the first time all holiday and as you all know before you get on the plane some boats adopt a similar angle to a 747 on takeoff so there is very little I can see, …I certainly can’t see a little blue speed boat directly in front of me that has no power and therefore no means of getting out of the way of two tons of fibre-glass heading directly at them at a speed of 20 knots……….can I?

Fortunately (a word very rarely used in this tale!) Angela was on the bow of “Osprey” and could see all,….. But when your reaching maximum revs there is a fair bit of noise emanating from the engine bay directly below you, however with some very choice loud words and hand gestures I was made to understand the situation quite quickly and was able to turn sharply and shut off the revs just in time.

How the ensuing bow wave didn’t sink the little boat for a second time I will never know…Kirsty and Craig climbed aboard “Osprey” in tears with very little to say until hours after.

…They later told me of the sight of “Osprey” bearing down on them with the bow pointing to the sky, and they sat there only 6 inches above the water with no engine or paddles (as the paddles were lost in the sinking earlier in the week!) almost resigning themselves to the fact that this that this could have been the end for them.

Needless to say we have since sold the speedboat and are now the proud owners of a 9ft inflatable dinghy which seems to be more suited to all our needs, and as yet we have had no major incidents!

I suppose the moral is, even with the best intentions things can go wrong and when afloat often do! But somehow boating more than compensates because I personally feel that when things are going well there is no greater reward.

Cap’n Gary