stumpy

If you're looking for waterside or nearby pubs:- Ramsholt Arms,anywhere in Woodbridge, Waldringfield Maybush, Felixstowe Ferry FBI, Levington Ship, Chelmondiston Red Lion and Pin Mill Butt and Oyster are all highly recommended. To maintain the Broads link, Arthur Ransome lived for a while beside the Butt and Oyster.

Thanks for that - definitely off the list now!

I seem to recall the yardstick for 'waiting for the tide' is not leaving the vessel - as soon as you do "Kerching!"

And the pull cord comes off the flywheel, whips over your shoulder and smacks the young lady you were trying to impress in the chops!

Aspen is cracking fuel, we use the ready-mix 2T in our strimmer and rotavator on the allotment. Never had any starting problems after being stored for some months. £20 odd a gallon but with 25c.c. engines a gallon lasts a couple of years.

Re: Single handed hiring. I'm sure I read somewhere a while ago that the new MAIB-driven guidelines to hireyards require there to be two 'capable' adults (for which read 'fit') on every boat. Kathy spotted it and commented "Well that disqualifies us with one good leg between us!"

That's what it was! We were coming up on Monday and passed her leading a convoy going South around Thwaite. Heading for the Thames perhaps?

Tyna I'm sure Vaughan will confirm, in Norfolk and Suffolk that's known as a duzzy Rodger - no-one knows where they come from!

We're firmly in the 'early morning ' camp. Our best trip so far involved leaving Stalham at 03:30 to get through Yarmouth around 7. Creeping down the Ant as the sun came up through the mist was idyllic!

And leave enough slack in your bridle that the exhaust water doesn't fill it up - I learned that lesson the hard way!

Re: magnet fishing, I'm sure I read a few years back of someone hauling a sawn-off shotgun out in Norwich- plod were quite interested.

A mate used to minicab in a diesel Morris Oxford estate with a mighty throbbing BMC - that did quite well on central heating oil. 😉

Just seen on my news feed a piece from BBC East that EnvAg have rescued 45,000 fish from Womack, a trustworthy witness who watched the operation reckoned 6 or 7 thousand. Who does one believe?

Re: Jaspers , yesterday afternoon there was an A4, probably laminated sign on a wild mooring a bit further upriver reading "Danger, Wasps nest". Perhaps they're itinerant too?

Meantime and others - thanks for the clarification, I've been afloat for a week ducking into and out of signal so not seen the previous gen.

Many years ago, just for a change, we hired a narrowboat to chug down the Wey and up the Thames and back. At one point the dogs gave the well known to dog owners 'dump imminent ' signal. As the nice lady at the yard said we could tie up anywhere there wasn't a no mooring sign, we did. Lovely piece of manicured greensward it was too. The deeds had just been done when a green Range Rover rolled up, two very nice young men in blazers and flannels with bulging armpits suggested we might like to move along please as Her Majesty didn't appreciate picnickers in her back garden. Oh how we laughed (a bit later!)

I'm sure I remember reading some years ago, possibly in another place, that the gabions along the New Cut were shifting into the channel. I think, at the time, it was blamed on large twin-engine jobbies possibly from Brundall hammering up and down.

That's a sweetie! I spent my formative years crewing Dragonflies round the cans at Waldringfield.

We were on the Broads that week, got the news Sundày morning outside Rockland New Inn. It felt so wrong driving home the following Saturday we pulled into a lay by on the A12 behind an Eastern Counties bus and listened to the funeral on the radio.

Can't help feeling the technical term for the condition is 'kindling'.

Cherry Brandy I believe 🙂

I heard a viscous rumour last week that a yard up North had been selling BA cards for £1.50! Apparently soon shown the error of their ways.

We spent most of our honeymoon on Gays Staithe- just us and a tawny owl in the tree above us, mind you, it was the last week in November!

A mate (now deceased) had a Safari at South Walsham. Make sure theres a cover for the stern well, the drain is prone to blocking and will overflow into the accommodation. He single handed his for many years until at 80-odd and after his second bypass the quack called 'time'. His was a mk 3 with the front door and no sliding canopy.

Having read the article, the old buffer would be very lucky to do any damage with that piece. Although it looks like an automatic Colt pistol, it's a BB gun, charged by racking the slide to put a puff of air through a 2.5" barrel - effective range about 10 foot! Very disconcerting for armed plod however if one is pointed at you,I've been told.