[Equipment on a hire boat]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the site. As allready said, the Northern rivers are not as tidal as the Southern. What I do when mooring is leave a little slack and before going to bed always check them and alter if needed. Deck shoes/trainers as long as non-slip are OK.

You have asked two very good questions, as if mooring and footwear are taken too lightly they could cause problems. But for the most important question, asked by your OH, a bad hair day is definatley a no no, and the boatyard could supply (probably for a small charge) a hairdrier.

Have a great time, I am sure you will get hooked.

[fishing atRanworth staith]

hi all,

I have read this thread with intetrest.

I am not an experienced helm, only been on holiday on hire cruisers 5 times, but It is in my oppinion common sense that if a yacht is tacking towards you, you slow down, watch what they are doing and pass to the stern after they have tacked to your side of the river. The times that I have met yachts I have always done this and have had a wave of thanks from them as they head towards the other side of the river. The best experience I have had on the Broads was on my second time, going past Horning (Ithink) my wife told me to "look over there, what a lot of sails, are they on a broad" I said that I didn't know but there are some round the corner and to get the map so that we could see what broad it was. As she got the map and I turned round to get it from her she screamed. The small yachts were not on a broad they were rounding the corner straight towards me. I throttled down went to the far right of the river and got the most freindly waves of thanks from all of them. It must have taken them all about 10 minutes to pass and myself, my wife and kids thought it was fantastic, 20 or 30 of them all waving and looking like they were having fun. I should have got the camera out, but I didn't want to take my hands off of the wheel and throttle, just in case.