Hockham Admiral

Doesn't mention St Olaves in their blurb... PLATINUM EMBLEM - Sleeps 4 + 2 Bridge restrictions do apply (Wroxham, Potter and Beccles), but there are still plenty of places to visit.

Yes, Lori, those old wooden boats are beautiful, aren't they. The second one, Missouri Star was at the recent Summer meet at Beccles and she is a credit to Steve and Jax :clap http://www.thenorfolkbroads.net/forum/uploads/monthly_07_2013/post-146-0-54507300-1375033284.jpg

I guess fish would be the speciality answer, Lori, in this part of Holland. Our personal favourite (if we eat out) is an Indonesian Rice Table with up to 20 different dishes! It's a bit like a Meze. Eating out is expensive, say a minimum of £20 a person for a simple meal; so we mainly enjoy varied salads etc. onboard.

Before we leave Sneek I've taken a few more pics that might be interesting to some of us. Here's a sight I didn't think I'd see! The following is a sequence I’ve taken of a very long cruise barge manoeuvring to get through the bridge. I’ll put individual comments with each pic. When we first saw her we thought she'd tied up on the water pontoon but in fact a crewman was fastening the forward starboard mooring warp to the very substantial bollards on the side of the bridge. When the bridge starts to open the Skipper puts on full starboard helm and lots of power! He then waits for the boats to come through the opened bridge Before putting on full helm again and a quick burst of full power to get her straightened up for the transit The crewman has now untied the warp and if your Dutch is up to it you can correct me because she's a KERKSCHIP (Church Ship) for Sundays at 10am! Now her bow is snugged into the bridge entrance and she starts to move forward And through she goes!

Nick, Hi. She certainly has a TV/DVD player and I'd be amazed if she didn't have a radio/cd. Ditto a frying pan but I'd certainly take your own sharp knife! Give them a bell to be certain. I'll PM Neil (Speed Triple) and ask him about your route, he lives in Bournemouth. The A12 Ipswich Gt Yarmouth is a nightmare at any time and on a Bank Holiday Monday it will be no better... Try Googling "Roadworks" (http://roadworks.org/) and you'll get the latest update for the Barton Mills/Thetford new dual-carriageway roadworks. Then click on Live traffic congestion.

I've just looked, Alan and they've got quite a few cruisers moored up there tonight!

Hello again Soupdragon ...(do you have a name we may use, please?). Two 13 year olds to entertain, eh? Do they like to fish, cos that would keep them happy for a while. At Ludham Staithe you can hire a pedallo or possibly a canoe for them if they like the water. They can then get around all the inaccessible-to-boats parts of Womach Water. At Wroxham you can moor at Barnes Brinkcraft or Faircraft Loynes and your boat will go under the bridge (with a pilot) so you can get up to Coltishall for a night. Have a look at the BB or Hotel Wroxham webcam to see around there. http://www.norfolklive.org/cameras.html Horning has the old 2nd World War Radar plotting museum at Neatishead nearby which they may find interesting. Also a climb to the top of Ranworth church would be fun. Whatever, we hope you have a good time! I'm sure there are lots of other suggestions waiting out there!

Absolutely, Maurice. I've just posted half a dozen pics (on our Dutch Hols Topic) of the barges on a Saturday morning here in Holland. There were quite a few more but I didn't want it to get too boring! They seem far more long-term sighted over here.

HI, again Jim, I'm well impressed with your workmanship! That leccy looked a nightmare (Before you sorted it!)

We eventually spent the afternoon onboard with a glass of chilled vino each watching the many and varied boats go by and some of their antics. The sun came out and the wind dropped; with a view like this it was an idyllic way to pass the rest of the day! We were also lucky enough to see this beautifully renovated steam powered boat which I thought Clive might like the look of! If you look carefully you may see it says ‘STOOMBOAT ALD FRYSLAN’. I would have love to get aboard to look at the engine as what I could see was impressive and looked immaculate. The Dutch are fine engineers! She accelerated very quickly and the steam fog-horn was a delight to hear!

About half way along we came to a railway bridge (shades of Somerleyton and Reedham). As you can see there’s a video notice board which counts down to the opening…… to the second! I then noticed a lock ahead… now that I hadn’t bargained for in Friesland… fortunately for us it was permanently open! Sytze had printed us off a Google map of Sneek with the route to the most favoured mooring spot in the town highlighted, although we were not optimistic of finding a free spot on a Saturday morning. As we approached the centre we were following a yacht and a cruiser to the three bridges we had to wait for…. everyone of them opened as we approached! So could our luck continue? We passed through the final bridge and saw just one vacant slot around which 2 or 3 other boats were milling, undecided whether they could get in. I was on the upper deck and could see that we might just, so I went for it and next you can see us squeezed in tight! Now this is a truly lovely mooring just off the town centre and the bridge is the busiest I’ve ever seen! I reckon he must open very nearly every 5 minutes over the weekend! After a pot of tea and a light snack we set off to wander around the town but were waylaid by this attraction!

Here we go again but I'm only going to do it bit by bit! Saturday morning arrived dark, overcast and windy but we slipped our mooring just before 09.00 to get the first bridge opening. The Brug Meister duly obliged, dangled his clog, (!?@) and wished us ‘Goede Morgen’! Just down the river we saw possibly the Dutch equivalent of Harvey Eastwood: Along the Princess Margaret canal again, in the opposite direction, enroute Sneek, we passed by another couple of typical Dutch yachts: As some have shown interest in the amount of barge traffic I’ll say that I was very surprised by the amount we passed/passed us on a Saturday morning! Our old friend ‘Noraly’ appeared, again well-laden, heading North, possibly to Groningen. She was the first of many, and the two who overtook us whilst one was overtaking the other caused quite a bit of rock ‘n roll! I’ve shown a few below:

:naughty: !

Jim, Hi and a belated welcome aboard the NBN from us. My holiday wifi has been a bit hit and miss over the last week and I'm very interested in your new boat as I built one like her from scratch with marine ply many years ago... she was 18ft long and I squeezed five berths into her!

Hello Soupdragon and welcome to the NBN. We're a friendly lot and you've come to the right place for advice. I see you've hired a good old Alpha (same as our Friday Girl) and you won't go far wrong with her. With two 13 year olds it will be a breeze mooring her and Richardsons are great at helping first timers. Their taster video is well worth watching to give you an idea of coming alongside and tying her up. Have a great time and I'm sure you'll be offered suggestions for where to go!

Choco, Hi, and welcome aboard from us. Perhaps you'll be able to tell us a bit about yourself, please?

My goodness me, Jill, I wasn't intending to buy the shop!

Crikey, Mate, even I can't remember back that far!

What a lovely (rambling) tale you do tell! :clap

At least I've got the narrative saved in 'Word' but the 23 pics I downloaded and then had to edit into my blog are gooooooooooorn! two guns

Gosh, I'm really not too pleased. I've just spent over two hours and when I went to "Preview" all it said was that it couldn't display this page.... probably wifi-comp problem. I might try again tonight, sorry peeps...

Thank you Alan, fortunately I have plenty of it (spare time!). I write the narrative in 'Word' while correlating with 'My Pictures'; you are correct, it does take a wee bit of time! I use 'Word' as in past long posts I've either made a mistake and deleted an hour or more's work or in the previous version of the NBN it's just disappeared! It's not a pleasant morning here in Sneek and I'm just about to start on yesterday's voyage. Stand by later today!

If you compare the White Stalk with the Little Egret there are differences.

Yes Robin, I agree with Fred on that, take it slowly! We've been up and down the Chet several times recently, once near LWS, and didn't have any problems with depth. I've just had a look too and she does seem a good looking boat at a cracking bargain price!

On a more sensible note, we shall be looking for new light fittings soon. Are they horrendously expensive, please?