On Royale Emblem - April/may 2017

[YnysMon]

Sat. 29^th April

On board me, my hubby Graham, cousins Sandra and Chris, Chris’ wife Barbara and our (very lively and excitable) 8 month old Collie, Seren (her name means ‘star’ in Welsh).  We set off nice and early from MK despite Barbara’s warnings that it’s impossible to get Chris up early, i.e. before 8am.  It was Sandra and Chris’ first time on the Broads, Barbara’s second visit after a long gap.  Graham and I had hired Turquoise Emblem last year, but it’s the first time we’ve hired anything this long (42’).  We stopped off at Costa’s at Caxton Gibbet for breakfast (or, for some of our hobbit-like crew, second breakfast) before going on to arrive at Wroxham at 10.50.  We should have got there around 10:30 but I misdirected Chris on the outskirts of Norwich, so we ended up going through Salhouse instead of the direct route. 

Once in Wroxham we took Seren for a walk along the River near the St John’s moorings, then walked across to have a look at the railway stations (Chris being train-mad).  We then went to find some lunch.  Had a look at the menu of the River Kitchen Café first.  Although the menu looked good it wasn’t very inviting as we needed to sit outside with the dog and all the tables had puddles of water on them, so we plumped instead for the Hotel Wroxham.  Had a very nice lunch there, apart from Graham’s weird tartar sauce, which came with a whole gherkin hidden in its depths.  His fish was pretty bony too.  I had a lovely salmon and crab fishcake starter, Sandra had prawn and crayfish cocktail with chips shared between us.  Chris and Barbara shared a halloumi burger.

After lunch we popped into Roy’s for bread, milk and wine then went on our way to Hoveton, arriving at Ferry Marina about 1.20pm.  Once we had loaded our stuff a youngish lad came over to do the handover.  Although we didn’t need a trial run it took a while as we asked a lot of questions, some of which he didn’t know the answer to and had to go and check, also he took much longer than expected to bring the sailing dinghy that we’d hired around to the boat.  We suspect that he forgot as he was chatting in the office some of the time whilst we were waiting.  Before we left I bought some cards for the electric posts.  I was relieved to find that they had them in stock, having read various comments on the forum that some places had run out of the new cards. 

Graham had first turn on the helm, then Chris and I had took turns.  This is the first time we’ve hired a centre-cockpit style cruiser and we found the extra height gave us a good view of the surrounding landscape and for reversing. 

We were making our way down to Acle or Stokesby, intending to cross Breydon Water early tomorrow.  We got to Acle by around 5.30pm so decided to continue down river despite there being plenty of moorings available.  Sandra had her first go at the helm just before Stokesby then I took the helm to moor.  Unfortunately there wasn’t any room at the Stokesby moorings apart from a stretch of quay heading that looked all rusty and rotten.  Once I realised this I aborted the mooring (not terribly well, getting my bow thrusters mixed up, but at least I didn’t hit anything) and continued down to Stracey Arms.  I messed up the mooring there too.  My excuse is that I thought the oncoming wind was stronger than the outgoing tide, but the tide swung my stern around.  Oh well…at least there weren’t any other boats near us and no harm done.

Once moored up we all went along the path to the shop to give Seren a walk and pay our £5 mooring fee.  The donkeys and goats are still there, though I’ve heard that the shop has changed hands.  We noticed one chap looking very startled as he entered the windmill – there was a donkey standing inside facing the door! 

Sandra made our dinner (warm quiche and new potatoes with salad), then watched a beautiful sunset before settling down to play ‘Race Night’ – a DVD game where you consider the ‘form’ of the horses in each race and bet on them before watching the race on the DVD.  I’ve never bet on anything in my life, apart from a few raffles, but I did get a bit carried away cheering my first horse on to win.  If I turn into a gambler it’s Chris and Barbara’s fault for bringing the game with them!  After a short constitutional for Seren we all turned in for the night.

[Timbo]

Helen's holiday tales posts are brilliant but always make me hungry for some reason! 

[YnysMon]

Hmm..I do spend quite a lot of time thinking about food.  Guess it shows...in my blog entries and my waist!

[SwanR]

Lovely start to your holiday. Looking forward to reading how everything goes.

And I know that Costa's at Caxton Gibbet very well. I frequently have to drive up to Bedford for work meetings and often go along the A428.

[YnysMon]

Another photo from our first day, on our way down the Bure. Seren has a way of always stealing the limelight.

 

[YnysMon]

Sunday 30^th April

I woke really early this morning – well before 4am and tried not to toss and turn too much so as not to wake Graham.  After what seemed an age the dawn started to show.  I had a peep out of the window and got a glimpse of a lovely sunrise.  I would have gone outside to have a better look but I didn’t want to disturb everyone else, especially as Seren was sleeping in her crate in the lounge.  Around 6am Seren started to make little yelping noises, so I got up and took her for a walk along the bank in the early sunshine.  The wind was picking up to a stiff breeze and I wondered how choppy Braydon Water would be.  Graham had got up by the time I got back and we tried to keep Seren as quiet as possible whilst the others slept.  Shortly before 7am the first few boats came past on their way to Yarmouth.  Since we had got to Stokesby more quickly than anticipated yesterday, despite checking on a GPS app that we weren’t going too fast, I decided not to leave Stokesby at 7am as originally planned but to leave it until 7.30.  Barbara got up around 7 and Sandra shortly after.  No sign of Chris though.  I almost messed up starting off from Stokesby as I momentarily forgot to put the engine in gear (doh!).  The journey down to Yarmouth was lovely – and quite interesting since it’s first time we’ve been down the river beyond Acle.  We took our canopy down shortly after passing Marina Quays as we knew we had 6’10” air-draft with it down but had little idea of our air-draft with it up.  We had asked the chap doing the handover what the air-draft with canopy up was, but he wasn’t sure.  It would have been nice to know.  .We had tried to leave the canopy up until the last possible moment as the wind was really gusting by now.  In the event we needn’t have bothered putting the canopy down since Graham normally has to stoop slightly when he stands up in the cockpit area, and he had couldn’t touch either the Vauxhall Bridge or the Road Bridge through Yarmouth.  The tide was definitely slack as we passed under the first two bridges.  Just before the yellow post we saw Lustre, one of the Hunter’s Yard boats.  It looked like they were preparing to raise their sail. 

Once on Breydon Water we could see that the tide was starting to flow up it, so I think we had timed the passage pretty well.  It was pretty flat too (slightly disappointingly so) as the wind was now blowing off our aft port side and so with the tide.  We had Breydon Water pretty much to ourselves.  We could see one boat before us in the far distance, then when we were over half way across we spotted Lustre’s sail following us in the distance.  Once we’d completed the crossing we moored at the BA moorings at Berney Arms to take Seren for a short walk and to have breakfast (again for some it was second breakfast).  I managed to get the mooring right at last, so I think (hope?) I’m starting to get the hang of helming the bigger boat.  Shortly after we’d moored Lustre came sailing along - a great sight. 

Whilst I was sitting in the cockpit munching crumpets (one topped with plum jam and the other with Seville orange curd) and drinking coffee I watched the boat in front trying to leave the mooring.  The helmsman was sensibly trying to do so stern first, but the wind was really strong and blew him back onto the quay heading two or three times before they had help from a member of their crew to spring-off (if that’s the correct term) with the bow rope held around a post, so when it came to our turn to leave the mooring we decided that we should do the same.  Managed it at first go – yay! 

After that we had a lovely cruise up the Yare.  The weather was quite sunny, but we kept the canopy up due to the wind.  The swing bridge at Reedham was closed, but we reckoned rightly that we had plenty of room to get under without lowering the canopy again.  It was quite interesting seeing the different effects that the wind had on the river as it twisted and turned, changing from very choppy to pretty flat.  One section had a rolling wave action that set the boat gently rocking up and down.  As we approached Cantley we could see that Hardley Drainage Mill’s sails were turning.  A lovely sight. 

We had left Berney Arms around 10.30, so we didn’t want to stop again for lunch until well after 1pm.  Around 12.30pm we were approaching the turn-off to Rockland Broad, but decided to carry on further before possibly mooring on Bargate for lunch, depending on how sheltered it was.  However, as we approached Coldham Hall there was a sailing race going on.  I was so distracted in keeping my distance from the Sailies that I completed missed the first turn off to Bargate.  By the time we got to the second entrance we had decided that mud-weighting in such a wind wouldn’t be a good idea, even during the daytime, so we continued on down the river.  Bramerton Common moorings were full.   There weren’t that many boats on the moorings since they were mostly taken up by very large boats, some really huge gin-palaces and a couple of very long river barges (I think that’s what they were anyway – they weren’t narrowboats).  The barges had been considerate enough to double-moor otherwise they would have taken up the majority of the moorings.  Brundall Gardens BA mooring were full too, so we continued on to our intended destination, the Commissioner’s Cut, crossing our fingers that there would be room for us.

When we arrived there were a couple of boats moored on the left side, a large Richardson’s and a medium sized private boat, plus a small day type boat at the entrance on the right.  Luckily I managed to get in without touching any other boats.  The owner of the private boat helpfully came over to take one of our ropes. 

We had cheese, freshly baked bread (the type you buy part-baked) and salad and wine for lunch.  Shortly after the three other boats left, so we ended up having the Commissioner’s Cut to ourselves.  Then some of us had a nap whilst the others took Seren for a walk.  We went to check out the Rushcutter’s Arms to see if they allow dogs in.  They do in the area opposite the bar but the tables in that area were fully booked for the evening, so we decided to return early evening to see how busy the outside seating area would be.  In the event it wasn’t busy outside, probably because the wind had been chilly earlier in the day.  Once the wind had dropped the evening was quite pleasant to sit outside.  Graham had rump steak, I had sea bass with scallops and a prawn and pea risotto, Sandra had lasagne with chips, Chris and Barbara both had vegetarian ‘fish and chips’ – i.e. deep-fried battered halloumi and chips.  All very nice.  Not much choice in beer though.  They were accommodating in changing Barbara’s chips to sweet-potato fries, and changing Sandra’s order to chips instead of garlic ciabatta and salad (she felt salad-ed out after our last couple of meals). We started some banter on allocating each other some ‘aptly assigned aliases’ for the trip (AAA’s), starting with mine – Helm-Hogging Helen (which we thought sounded quite Icelandic if you say it quickly).  Seren is Sofa-Surfing Seren (we keep having to tell her to get off the sofa when she tries to jump up to see where Graham is when gets off the boat).  Chris regaled us with the tale of how he got locked into Colditz (accidentally) when he visited Germany with a choir.  Most of the choir were staying in Colditz while he was accommodated in a guesthouse in the town.  He left his fellow singers after an evening drinking session then found he couldn’t get out of the Castle nor could he get back into the accommodation block. 

When we got back to the boat we had a few games of cards then turned in for the night. 

[Timbo]

Steak...yes, halloumi...as a starter, but vegetarian fish and chips? 

I had a wife who was vegetarian, I got sick of the sight of Quorn. As I did all the cooking I soon learned to swap the Quorn for succulent chunks of chicken or pork mince but retained the Quorn packaging and dropped it in the bin. For a whole year I was lauded as a supreme vegetarian chef...until Quorn changed their packaging and I was still using the same packet to put in the bin and my secret was discovered. We then had a spate of 'I'm a vegetarian except for chicken and fish' rigmarole. However repeated nagging for me to stop smoking resulted in my comment 'I am a non smoker except for cigarettes and cigars'...

Keep the blog coming Helen!

[Labrador]

Keep hearing what you all had to eat, but no mention of what Seren had!

[YnysMon]

Poor Seren was mostly confined to her usual dog food.  We try not to give her too many snacks as we don't want to end up with an overweight dog.  The dog that my husband had when he was a kid was really overweight as his Dad get feeding it titbits.  However, we did take a bag of carrots with us especially for her (she loves carrots and it's impossible to prepare them for dinner without giving her one) and also a 'Tub of treats' filled with tasty dog chews and bones, so we're not completely heartless. When I post the final day's blog you'll discover that she also had a special treat in one of the cafe's that we visited.

She was completely spoiled this holiday as she had so much attention from us all. On chilly mornings when you don't want to wake up the rest of the crew by turning on the heating it's quite handy to have a lovely cuddly dog sitting on your lap.

Helen

[YnysMon]

Monday 1^st May

I didn’t wake until 5 this morning – an improvement on yesterday.  Seren started to whinge around 6am so I took her for a walk along the riverside and back through the nature reserve.  It had started to rain just before I got up, but it was fairly light, so I didn’t get very wet.  Graham was up when I got back.  I settled down to write yesterday’s blog.  Everyone else got up by 7, apart from Chris.  We had a light breakfast (cereal and crumpets) and set out for Norwich Yacht Station around 8.30am.  Very quiet on the river apart from a few rowers from the rowing club. 

We initially moored up about half-way down the Yacht Station moorings.  Chris, Barbara and Sandra went off for showers.  Graham and I topped up with water and then we recalled that there are electric points available.  Having spotted that they are situated at the far end of the Station we turned the boat around on the stern rope and went to moor up further down.  The Ranger helped us moor and pointed out the slots that had the most credit on them (a couple with over a £1).  He also pointed out that we had a good view of the Cathedral from our mooring, so it was worth mooring up further up just for that.

View from the boat...

and of our mooring...

Chris, Barbara and Sandra went off to have a day looking around Norwich whilst Graham and I settled down for a lazy day, since it’s no use trying to have a look around a city with an excitable eight month old Collie in tow. 

We first had some coffee and cake (got to get one’s priorities right!) before taking Seren for a walk across Bishop’s Bridge, finding the riverside path behind the Red Lion pub, and walked along the river past Cow Tower.  We then doubled back and walked to Morrison’s, trying as far as possible to avoid walking along the road-side since Seren is so hyped up by cars (she wants to chase each and every one of them). 

Once I’d done our Morrison’s shopping we went back to the boat and had a late lunch of Morrison’s steak pies.  I then had a shower before going up to the Cathedral just after 4pm.  The original plan had been for me to join my cousins in the Cathedral for evensong, but it turned out that there wasn’t an evensong this evening, contrary to the information on the Cathedral website (grrr).  Still, I wanted to have a look around as I normally love looking around Cathedrals.  I can spend hours in them.  Today I just felt so exhausted I had the attention span of a two year old and wandered around not taking in anything in particular before walking back to the boat.  Must go back sometime when I am more with-it. 

Once back on the boat I thought I might have a nap, but no sooner had I dropped off than I was woken by the boat banging against the quay heading.  This happened twice, so I got up and had a grumble about it and Graham got the spare rope that he had brought with him to rig a spring line.  He also took a couple of the starboard fenders and fixed them lengthwise between port side fenders.  That fixed the problem.  Next time though we'll bring two spare ropes with us. 

Shortly after my cousins phoned to say they were on their way back, then phoned again to say they were in the Red Lion, just over the bridge.  We joined them for drinks then we all went back to the boat for dinner.  As we were all getting aboard, Sue (sorry if I’ve got your name wrong – I’m hopeless at remembering people’s names), another forum member on the syndicate boat Moonlight Shadow came up to introduce herself.  It was lovely to meet her - first time I’ve met another forum member in the flesh!  She and her husband kindly let Graham and I have a look around the boat and told us a little about the advantages of becoming part of a syndicate.  It’s something we shall probably consider in future, but at present the combination of my work and our caring responsibilities, with having to book my Mum into respite care, restricts the times we can take off during the year, so being allocated certain weeks within a syndicate probably wouldn’t work for us just now.  We like the idea though. 

Following our dinner of baked potatoes with beans and cheese and salad (Barbara’s favourite food) we watched ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (the newish film) on DVD before turning in.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 2^nd May

Woke up at 5am again.  Seren woke earlier this morning too…shortly after 5.30.  After a reasonably quiet night the traffic was starting up again on the road alongside the Yacht Station.  Graham took Seren for a walk along the river bank whilst I stayed cosy in bed for another half hour, getting up when they returned.  We had a hot drink and tried to keep Seren quiet whilst others slept on.  It was pretty chilly this morning.  Shortly after 8am I had a bright idea…since there weren’t any recycling facilities at the Yacht Station I thought it would be worth checking if there were any near Morrison’s.  Success!  In case anyone else is interested, the recycling bins at Morrison’s are on the edge of the car park, backing on to the petrol station and facing the store. 

Once Barbara and Sandra were up they made us all breakfast (crumpets again) and shortly before 9am we moved the boat to get a pump-out before setting off.  We didn’t really need a pump-out yet, but thought it would save us having to search for somewhere later in the week.  After a gleam of early morning sun it had clouded over but the morning was quite mild.  Once we had set off we realised that Seren hadn’t been off the boat since before 7am, so we decided to stop off at Bramerton Common moorings for her ‘comfort break’.  What a difference to Sunday!  Not a gin-palace in sight!

We continued down the Yare, taking down the canopy to get a better view and some air.  On the way we had a couple of detours into Bargate and Rockland Broad. 

This one's taken on Rockland Broad...

We moored up at Hardley Drainage Mill pontoon for lunch (soup and bread) and had a walk around before continuing to Loddon.  Chris was at the helm for the journey up the Chet.  We only met about 2-3 other boats coming the other way.  There was room for a couple of boats in the middle of Loddon Staithe and I did my first ever stern mooring…and didn’t mess up…yay!  Having bow thrusters helped I must admit. 

By this time it was after 3pm, so we wasted no time and made our way up toward the church as I wanted to take photos of the rood screen there.  It’s fairly crudely painted compared to others, and more bashed up than some others too, but it has a unique panel depicting St William of Norwich being killed by the Jews of Norwich, the tale of which is a typical piece of medieval anti-Semitic propaganda (that's the panel on the left below).The church was very interesting and they had a local history exhibition in a room which my cousins viewed.  I was too busy talking to the very helpful elderly gentleman who was acting as guide to the church.  Graham and Barbara took Seren for a walk around the churchyard.

We had agreed to meet up again in the bar of The Swan, which is opposite the church.  Had a couple of drinks each and booked a table for the evening, having found that it’s a dog-friendly pub, before going back to the boat.  Graham had a shower, taking advantage of the hot water following our cruise. 

We had a really lovely meal at The Swan.  The menu was fairly limited, but there was fish and chips and burger on the menu as well as other things that were less ‘pub-y’.  The waitress was very friendly and helpful.  She brought us some home-made herbed rolls with sundried-tomato butter and a dish of rapeseed oil and balsamic.  I had hake with crushed new potatoes, broccoli and a beurre-blanc sauce, Sandra had the grilled sole from their specials board, Chris (who doesn’t eat meat) had herbed polenta with deep fried goats cheese, on tomato sauce with asparagus, Barbara (who is vegetarian), who didn’t fancy either of the vegetarian options, asked if they could do griddled halloumi with chips with mushy peas, which they did.  We all teased Graham for asking for Fish and Chips yet again, but were impressed when they served it…not your usual battered cod.  Rather than a fillet, he got a beer battered loin of cod (i.e. a large thick chunk of cod) and triple-cooked chips which were very crispy and fluffy inside.  We asked him how it compared with other fish and chips that he’d had (it’s his favourite pub order) and he rated it the best.  The peas were more like smashed fresh peas than your usual mush. 

Back at the boat everyone else sat down to play a James Bond DVD quiz game.  I was too dozy to play and watched then for a while but soon went off to bed.

And finally...I think Graham is trying to make a point...

 

[CambridgeCabby]

Seren looks a beautiful girl , we have a couple of collies Alfie a 8 year old black/white dog and Willow a 5 year old blue bitch.

sadly neither of them enjoy being in a boat , Alfie is terrified, so we have to leave them with our boys at home when we are afloat , this turns me (according to kate) into a "puppyphile" as I can't resist greeting and stroking all dogs we encounter .

[YnysMon]

Awww, they look gorgeous!

Seren is a sweetie pie, though our 19 year old cat doesn't think so. Seren is only just about getting used to the idea that the cat doesn't want to play with her.  This video was taken when she was about 4 months old.  The cat is definitely the boss!

What a shame that your two don't like boats.  Seren seemed okay, but she hated being picked up to go ashore or back onto the boat.  She also took a real dislike to dinghies, so were hoping she'll be okay on the Hunter's Yard yacht that we've hired for July!

Helen

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 3^rd May

I woke fairly early again, just before dawn. It hadn’t been the most restful night as it was very windy with a fair amount of ‘bow slap’ and creaking noises, and the dinghy was banging against the bow too (should have remembered to move it to the quay heading the previous evening).  Shortly after dawn it rained quite heavily, but it had dried up by the time I got up around 6.30am, after Seren began to whine.  I took her up the high street, around the churchyard and down the footpath at the far end of the churchyard.  Part way along that path there was a really strong small from masses of wild garlic. 

Graham and I had thought a breakfast from Rosie Lees would be good, but dogs are only allowed in the garden area that they have across the road, near the Staithe, so we skipped that since it was fairly cold (another day perhaps).  Back at the boat we waited for everyone else to wake.  Once Sandra was up we put some crumpets on for breakfast and left Loddon Staithe just before 9am, aiming to get to Gt Yarmouth for the 11.15am slack water. 

It was very quiet travelling down the Chet.  We only passed one vessel, a small Broads Authority boat, and got a friendly wave from them.  It was pretty quiet on the Yare too until we neared Breydon Water.  The Yare was very choppy from the strong north-easterly that was blowing, and even before we got onto Breydon Water we were throwing up a fair amount of spray from ploughing through the waves.  There was quite a bit of traffic coming toward us across Breydon Water.  One Summercraft boat gave us a bit of concern.  He was overtaking, but so far over the channel that he was quite close to the posts on our side, despite having plenty of room on his starboard, and he didn’t show any signs of moving across until last minute either.  When he passed us both his hands were occupied in holding and eating from a bag of snacks.

Once we had passed through the bridges we found ourselves in a convoy behind a very slow moving boat and had to wait until the river widened at Marina Quays to pass.  The journey up the Bure was pretty boring, still choppy at times as the wind veered north.  We thought we would like to stop off at Stokesby for lunch, but thought it unlikely that we would get a mooring.  Amazingly the BA moorings there were free, but they soon filled up as another boat moored up behind us as soon as we were moored.  We were aiming to have lunch in the Riverside Tearooms.  Sandra and I went in to check the menu and see whether they allowed dogs in the café and were pleasantly surprised when they said they did, provided we took the dog around the side of the building to the rear entrance, not through the shop.  Unfortunately, we didn’t like the strong smell of chip-oil that was lingering around the café, so although we liked the look of the menu we decided to go to the pub instead, which had a lovely roaring fire that was very welcome on this chilly day.

At the Ferry Inn we had rack of ribs (Graham), burger (Sandra), jacket potato with beans and cheese and coleslaw (Barbara), fish-finger sandwich and side order of chips (Chris) and steak with chips, tomato, mushrooms and peas (me).  Chris had the Adnams bitter, I had Ghostship.  Graham got a Carlsberg 0% which he hadn’t come across before and would recommend (his pet-hate is Becks Blue).

After our lunch Seren had a fine time with a Frisbee on the green at Stokesby.

 

After lunch we continued up the Bure and down Fleet Dyke.  After a circuit around both the inner and outer broads we moored up at the Fleet Dyke moorings.  It was still very windy and we thought this would be a good sheltered spot, which it was.  There was plenty of room on the moorings when we arrived around 4.30pm. 

Graham and Chris decided to do a bit of sailing, since we hadn’t yet used the sailing dinghy that we’d hired with the boat, and spent the next couple of hours sailing up and down Fleet Dyke (the broad was a little too windy). 

 

…and yes, they did come to realise that they hadn’t got the rudder down properly!

Sandra and I fed a swan, some ducks and a couple of geese and their nine fluffy goslings. 

 

Later that evening I cooked a mushroom carbonara with garlic bread.  Then we had a game of Pictionary (for the first time).  Since you need even teams, Chris acted as adjudicator.  However, he couldn’t help joining in with guessing and I slightly spoilt things by getting annoyed at him for doing so when it was my turn to guess.  Oh well…I was tired and a bit fractious (another two-year old moment).  We packed-in Pictionary and played a few games of Pontoon before turning in for the night.

 

[adam]

Really good tale

[CambridgeCabby]

26 minutes ago, adam said:

Really good tale

The tails excellent too

[YnysMon]

Thanks chaps...good to have feedback!

[lakesailor]

Enjoying reading this , looking forward to next installment

[Broads01]

Me too. I always enjoy your tales Helen. 

[YnysMon]

Thanks for the encouraging feedback. As a relative newbie I'm still a bit unsure on whether I'm just boring the pants off everyone or not.

Next instalment should appear shortly. Just powering up my laptop now...work and making the dinner have got in the way of more important matters today!

Helen

p.s. Seeing the list of people attending the meet later this month is making me intensely jealous. Wish I could be there!

[deebee29]

We love a holiday tale here Helen so please keep them coming.

Enjoying this and looking forward to the next instalment 

you're definitely not boring us

[ranworthbreeze]

4 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

Thanks for the encouraging feedback. As a relative newbie I'm still a bit unsure on whether I'm just boring the pants off everyone or not.

Next instalment should appear shortly. Just powering up my laptop now...work and making the dinner have got in the way of more important matters today!

Helen

p.s. Seeing the list of people attending the meet later this month is making me intensely jealous. Wish I could be there!

Hi Helen,

We love to hear of peoples visits to the Broads.

Be careful however of who's pants you bore off

Regards

Alan

[YnysMon]

Thursday 4^th May

Graham took Seren for her constitutional this morning, taking her as far as Fairhaven Gardens near the village, going past the pir-ate  gorilla on the way.  We got away from our mooring just before 9am this morning.  Despite a gleam of early sun it had clouded over again and was still fairly chilly, with a stiff breeze, though not as cold as earlier in the week.  We had thought to visit Ranworth, and when we got as far as Malthouse Broad found that there were two or three moorings available, one on the extreme right side facing on to the Staithe, and some more room at the side.  The side ones were past quite a long cruiser and it didn’t look like there was much manoeuvring space.  I attempted the mooring at the front, but the strong cross wind made things too difficult and I abandoned the attempt. 

We carried on up the Bure, making for Wroxham, where we moored just before the bridge and called the pilot.  Our first time through Wroxham Bridge!  The pilot dropped us off beside the Le Boat boatyard and we filled with water there, since the water point was handy. 

Barbara took the helm for the first time on the first stretch as far as Belaugh, then I took the helm as far as Coltishall Lock where we used our rond anchors (another first). 

Unfortunately The Recruiting Sergeant pub had stopped serving food at 2pm and we didn’t get there until 10 past.  Instead we bought a large sourdough loaf and some more cheese in the ‘Farm to Fork & Fish’ farm shop opposite and went back to the boat for a lunch of cheese, bread and chutney, and some wine...but not too much given we had to get back down river again.  It was about time that we ate Graham’s Camembert, as you could smell it every time the fridge was opened!

We then pootled back down the Bure, picking up the pilot near Le Boat again.  Once through the bridge he hopped off onto a day-boat moored outside Wherryman's advising us to pull off gently forward, so no delay in mooring up etc. 

Once past Horning we checked the time and thought it feasible to get as far as Barton Broad, so we phoned ahead and booked a table at The White Horse for 7.30pm.  Once we got beyond Horning it was very quiet on the river, even quieter on the Ant.  It was still pretty windy though, and Graham had a slight argument with Ludham Bridge as we went through – a couple of nudges either side. 

Graham was keeping an eye out for the tree that we got stuck in when we were on a Hunter’s Yard boat last year, just north of How Hill, and was pleased to see that it had been cut back severely (serve it right).

We tried going down Lymekiln Dyke, but Neatished Staithe was full apart from a stern-on mooring right at the far end.  I didn’t fancy trying to reverse all the way down there, so we went to Gay’s Staithe where there was space for 2-3 boats stern-on in the corner of the staithe.  My second stern-on mooring (not counting the aborted one at Ranworth).  On the way to the pub we bought some fudge from the stall outside one of the houses on the way. 

We had a lovely meal at The White Horse.  I had a scallop starter, which was absolutely divine, Chris had grilled halloumi, asparagus, local pickled beetroot and parmesan shavings with salad leaves, then we both had risotto, which Chris enjoyed but I didn’t so much, finding it a bit oily.  Graham had fish and chips again.  Barbara had The White Horse Veggie burger (a large mushroom, halloumi, spinach and red pepper) and chips, Sandra had sausage and mash with parsnips.  For pudding I had passion fruit parfait, Sandra had brownie and ice cream.  Graham and Barbara had Blueberry and Almond Eton mess, which Barbara wasn’t very keen on but Graham loved.  My parfait tasted wonderful, but it was served with honeycomb crunch which I felt overpowered the delicate flavour of the parfait (I’m being very picky here).  We asked how the renovation of The Lion at Thurne was going…seems it’s a lot of work! 

Once back at the boat we were all too tired to think of playing any games or watching any DVDs, so we all turned in for the night.

Here's a video of our Wroxham Bridge passage...

Norfolk-Broads-6-156.MP4

[YnysMon]

Friday 5^th May

Our last day (sob)…where has the week gone? 

Woke to a clear sky and sunshine this morning.  Seren woke around 5.30am – even earlier than normal.  Graham got up and took her for a walk through the fields toward Threehammer Common and back along the lanes.  A while after Graham returned with the dog I went for a walk by myself to the Barton Broad Boardwalk (where dogs are not allowed).  

When I got back shortly before 8am a boat next to us was already running its engine (and had been since 7.30am). 

We decided to go on our way to How Hill starting off around 8.30.  Once there we had breakfast.  Barbara decided to go back to bed for a nap whilst the rest of us went to the Secret Gardens.  It was well worth the walk as I think we caught the gardens at their very best.  The colours from the azaleas and rhododendrons in full bloom were wonderful.   

The walk through the wood down to the gardens was lovely too with masses of bluebells. 

We then popped into Toad Hole Cottage before continuing down the Ant to pass under Ludham Bridge.  Graham suggested that we go to the Dog Inn for lunch, so we moored up at Ludham Bridge.

I enjoyed what I had off the specials board (stack of pork medallions and black pudding with apple jus, mash and veg), but on the whole Graham and I thought it wasn’t as good as the meal we had there last year.  The menu is a bit more restricted.  We also thought the barman had a bit of an attitude, though he did helpfully give Chris and I a taste of the two real ales on offer.  He refused Sandra’s old style £5 note, even though today was the final day when it was legal tender.  Graham had the fish and chips (yet again), Chris and Barbara shared a cheese and onion panini and side of chips, Sandra had a child’s portion of fish fingers, chips and beans.  She had been intending to order the ‘home-made’ crumble for pudding, but was put-off that when we overheard the barman ordering a pack of crumble over the phone from their suppliers, so we left without having pudding.  I was too full anyway.

After lunch we made our way to Womack Water and managed to get a place on the Staithe.  It would mean an early start in the morning to get to Horning, but it’s a pleasant mooring  (well we thought so initially) and we were able to top up our water after the showers taken yesterday (we forgot to top up at Gaye’s Staithe this morning).  We did consider going to Ranworth, but would probably have ended up on The Island.  Last time we moored there we found it covered in masses of goose poo, not good when taking the dog for a walk last thing in the dark. 

We had a wander up to the village and around the Church and then popped into Alfresco Tearooms for tea and cakes/cream teas (as if we hadn’t had enough lunch). 

We returned to the Staithe, had a look around the shop, fed the ducks and generally relaxed.  Sandra and Graham went off for a row around Womack Water. 

After they returned a Richardson’s boat crammed in the space on our port side (without an inch to spare) and shortly before dusk another boat with a party of youngish lads holding beer cans (stag party?) arrived to take up the last space further down.  About 8.30pm the Barnes Brinkcraft Boat on our starboard started up their engine, but a chap from further down the staithe came to ask them to turn it off.  When I thanked him for intervening he mentioned the fatalities at Wroxham Island last year from CO poisoning and his concern about people running their engines at tightly packed staithes.   

Barbara made supper this evening, using as much of our left-over food as possible.  Graham wasn’t very hungry and just had the rest of the camembert and crackers.  Chris had an omelette with potatoes and salad.  Sandra and I had baked potatoes with cheese and salad and Barbara, having cooked all our suppers ‘to order’ just had bread and jam.  Graham turned in shortly after supper and the rest of us just sat with our glasses of wine chatting quietly and recalling the best bits of the week.  We were all turning in for the night around 10.30pm when the party from the Richardson’s boat returned and promptly turned on their engine.  Given how close they were it was really loud, so I went to knock on their door.  As I suspected the chap that answered hadn’t been aware of the ‘not after 8pm’ rule.  Perhaps I should have mentioned the CO thing too, but I didn't, being a bit dozy.  He said that he’d been told to run the engine when putting the heating on.  At least he didn’t argue and went to put his engines off, so that was fine.  Just after 11 the stag party rolled back and put their engine on…by that time I was in bed and they were about 5 boats away so I left it for someone else to deal with. 

[SwanR]

Great to read of your experiences. Sounds like it was a successful holiday.