Polly

I fill a flask from the kettle when we have a last hot drink at night, this is good for a morning cuppa without waking sleeping crew members first thing. I do the same before sailing so that we can have a hot cuppa/cuppa soup or whatever as soon as we stop.

If you are inexperienced and see the situation being sorted, maybe you think the best thing to do is get well out of the way? That doesn't excuse the shouting I think you mentioned though!

Oh Steve, I was being 'proper flippant' as Griff might say!

You are making the most of what you have Richard, respect!

By way of a contrast, there was a lovely family at Salhouse who asked for help at about 9pm as all their lights had failed. Cleverer people than I am diagnosed that an inverter had drained their batteries. To get light going they would have needed to run their engine, instead they accepted the loan of some led wall lights we had put aboard to use in the meet tent. Nice people.

Given that Griff's daughter is expecting, I think he was remarkably/commendably restrained in his dealings with the 'we want hot water' citizens. Why is the concept of showering when under way so little understood? Yes we help each other on the Broads, long may it remain so.

Supposed to have smiley on this.

Great to see old friends and make new ones! Charlie and Wench thanks for the booze. Simon(Cambridge Cabby) thanks for the funniest joke of the weekend, couldn't possibly print it here, soooo wrong, and soooo funny. Kate won the Mud Weight Down Treasure Hunt, it was close with everyone on the last clue, too. Steve and Nik aced the quiz, while Warp and Jess won the Confessional Blue Fender Award for an episode involving a mud weight line and a dinghy. We named the tent Iain's Bar in signal flags, a good idea from Warp, thanks.

Good to see you guys, but who are you calling peasants eh,?. Eh?? Good job you don't bring your pop guns on the Broads in case of a spelling mistake causing unpleasantness.

If you are going to publish, Steve, please remember the 'naming and shaming guidelines'!

We celebrated! It was fun. Hooray!

Know how you feel, we put Brilliant into a shed for winter TLC and what with one thing and another, she is now tucked up at a yard of our choice and won't be back on the water until spring, 18 months later. But we do know that when she goes back she will be right.

I think we may get through mid tides with a bit of luck, Bootlegger is pretty low.

It looks iffy for Potter Bridge this week, I wanted to go up on Tuesday and back on Friday, but the tides look awkward, given that we are hiring and can't go after sunset. Springs too, so we will be lucky If we make it, I think.

Glad you enjoyed it. I spent much of today trying to get my plays off old media and into my Mac or current Windows machines. Nightmare! Any suggestions about taking .wks files from floppy discs(remember them?) would be gratefully received. I have a usb floppy drive but the Mac doesn't see it at all, while Windows 10 just sees the odd bit. I got two plays off an old hard drive into Notepad, but the one I really want to rework is stubbornly refusing to budge. i had insurance copies on cd rom, they won't read either btw. Meanwhile I should have been helping Phill clear the garden shed.

We won't get there until Sunday, so you will be ahead of us.

It's an armchair and map exercise rather than charging about. I thought the 'mud-weight' down expression was a boaty equivalent of 'couch potato' .

NBN Birthday Weekend Part 3 Please feel free to come and eat your breakfasts around the tent if it's warm enough. Morning at 11 a 'Mud-weight is down Treasure Hunt' each boat invited to compete for a 'major prize' in our map based game. Afternoon tea at 3 - Birthday cake provided please bring your own sarnies and Prosecco! BBQ evening and around the campfire 'The Blue Fender Award' a confessional for most disastrous boating stories with a vote on the most deserving of the award. Monday am break camp and clear site. Fond farewells.

NBN Birthday Weekend Plan Part 2 We will get the tent and gazebo set up while members get settled and socialise. Once set up we can make contributions to a shared bar in the tent which will run as long as supplies do! We will also mark out a shared BBQ area so that we can all bring our BBQs together and cook our own food evening meals more sociably than spread out along the mooring. Evening plan, BBQs of course, then Mike will run a campfire for us and quiz.

NBN Birthday Weekend Plan Part 1 We can start with a Cruise in Company so flags as much as the boat will take is the order of the day. . Mudweight towards lunchtime at Malthouse Broad and be prepared to set off at 1.30 led by Whelptons hire yacht Bootlegger. I hope we will be able to raise the NBN flag to the masthead as the signal to start. Please then fall in in single file behind Bootlegger as flagship. The river will be busy being Bank Holiday, so care is needed and all normal give way stuff applies, we will keep to the speed limits of course and please do not travel two abreast. On arrival at Salhouse (est. 2. 45 or thereabouts) please stand off to allow the boat in front of you in the C in C to moor then come in yourself. We have reserved moorings.

I think some do 12 but not many, maybe they were unofficial passengers

Three week old baby is the key point here. You get a call with that bit of info. you don't mess about. Sure we would have coped, but novices and a lot of them suggests a degree of panic, especially as 5 appear to have left to 'waiting transport' at 11 o' clock or so at night. Where do you take a three week old at that time of night unless local?

Ok guys! We have a small but beautiful group attending at Salhouse Broad on the Bank Holiday Weekend, and it will be fun. But! 'What about the rest of us?' I hear you cry...well I don't but .... Therefore I thought we might transfer the Gracie's Shoes competition to the Forum rather than Salhouse. Here is my plan.... Members decorate and submit photographic evidence of a shoe, or shoes that should be A) highly original B) Gracie/Louboutin appetising. C) NBN/Broads/Boating relevant maybe with practical second applications? Forum guidelines apply so play nice! Please submit pics on this thread. Closing date Sept 1st judges' decision final. There could be a prize........

Cleo our cat was a noisy item whenever Phill was on the phone., not me, just Phill. She was doing that toddler thing of not allowing him to pay attention to anyone calling and would follow him out of the room if need be. As an oriental, that Siamese wail sounded like a baby crying, and if we weren't fast enough at taking her out of earshot, necessitated explanations to the caller that yes it was the flipping cat and no he didn't need to ring off to attend to the baby. Cats are harder to train than dogs..... ...... Now she's gone I miss the pantomime of heading her off from Phill's phone conversations!

Hmmmm ring any bells?