JennyMorgan

Grace, we live here for fifty weeks of the year, out of choice. We could sell up and move abroad, but no, the Broads is our home, our way of life.

I don't know if this picture predates Robinsons or not but I do know that it is early 1900's and it is the same boatyard.

Grace, my wife & I go abroad lol! We fly from Norwich and when we come back we generally fly over Hickling where we peer out of the window, taking it all in, and admit to ourselves that we are glad to be back home!

Was a time, in living memory, when both the Waveney Inn & the Geldeston Locks were served by holes in the ground. You learn't to eat with your right hand and wipe with your left! The landlord at the Waveney Inn, 1940's, was well known, I kid you not, as Dirty ****! Edited to add: Laughable, seems that anyone known as an abbreviated Richard gets asterisked!

Just a thought, are you working the varnish enough when applying so as to burst any air-bubbles that occur? Another thought, is your brush solvent free? Have you, or do you use foam rubber brushes? My gut feeling is that your brush is not as clean as it might be. Do you use a comb to help clean your brush? Are you cleaning your brush between coats with turps substitutes?

Broken glass makes for a good cabinet scraper. Cheap too!

http://www.classicboat.co.uk/practical-advice/paint-varnish/how-to-varnish-a-wooden-boat/

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2014-10-23/25-000-fish-killed-on-norfolk-and-suffolk-broads/

Tides back to normal at Oulton Broad.

It did survive its ordeal, as did the quay heading.

http://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/update_train_disruption_at_haddiscoe_due_to_flooding_expected_until_at_least_4_30pm_1_3815608

High water from the salt side was higher in the Lock last night but it didn't top the gates, just a bit of a surge.

Dave, that was it. Actually as a freshwater flood it was as high as I have ever seen it on my garden. This boat must have been floating at least two feet above the road level where I was standing.

Next to being stranded in a pub I suppose a good cafe comes second! These imbibers were on an island, unless they wished to paddle.

The water was pouring over the top of the Lock Gates and out to sea. Provided the salt tide is lower than the freshwater tide then allowing the flood to poor over the 'flood gate' helps prevent major flooding.

Oulton Broad Yacht Station was well under water.

I've never owned one! I wonder if this Calypso has had one fitted Seen on Oulton Broad this morning, two hours from high water!

Well meaning, self professed 'experts' are probably a boat's worst enemy. I know of one well known Broads houseboat that fell victim to a house-builder who went ahead doing things as only a house-builder would but a boatbuilder most definitely would not, poor old girl. I also know of a large motor yacht that suffered the same fate, the next owner is spending a small fortune righting the wrongs that befell her whilst owned by such an 'expert'.

Above mooring is no longer available, sorry.

If that becomes general practice then many moorings are going to become no go areas for some boats.

Blinking windy on Oulton Broad, Frank! At one time this afternoon a vicious squall hit whipping up the spray off the surface like a sand-storm, amazing!

Wise words, Maurice. Re that loss of a valued member, rather more to that one than a few personal slights though. Anyway, water under the bridge now. As I see it, once the public is persuaded to believe that the Broads is a National Park, even if only in name, then that will, I'm sure, be used to assist the BA's demand for formal NP status. Coincidently we are within months of a general election and many BA committee members are coming to the end of their tenure, a good time to push the issue. Devious or not, such tactics have, been admitted to and used before.

On some boats, with springs and head-ropes well set up and when facing the oncoming tide, it's often possible to put the wheel over, and tie it with a lanyard, so the tide reacts against the rudder and the tide will hold you away from the shore. Worth trying.

The BA has posted this on it's website: http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/news-and-publications/news/broads-national-park-branding-under-discussion It has also published it's own persuasive, clearly biased publication, a copy of which I picked up last week. http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/496210/The-Broads-National-Park-Making-the-most-of-a-brand-which-is-internationally-recognised-Consultation-Document.pdf Neither refer to the fact that Parliament threw out the Broads National Park Bill and that DEFRA told the BA's Chief Executive that the Authority could not use the National Park name tag, something that many of you already know of course. However, I hear a buzz that some £35,000.00 has been spent on this latest campaign.

Or the problem might be that some bathing platforms, especially those that stick out over the water as an add-on to the transom ride over the bank or get stuck under the quay's timber work. Would I have one? No.