Rincewind

A few moons ago, we were daft enough to purchase "food" from the awful chippy in Potter Heigham. The service was abysmal and the "food" inedible. Utterly vile...even the seagulls turned their beaks up at it. It was THAT bad. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to learn that the hygeine rating there is also poor. We have never returned and have no intention of doing so in the future.

Encourage spiders...they love to eradicate ants. Failing that...an aptly-named product called "Dethlac" will work. It's a spray which is applied to the surfaces you wish to protect rather than to the tiresome invaders themselves. Smells vile upon application and carries a COSHH warning but it's excellent stuff.

Beautiful aircraft...

Some to be found at the top end of Ferry Lane, Horning just after the public telephone box...

The Garmin E-Trex Venture is our weapon of choice. Small, robust, accurate and you won't have to sell a kidney to procure one.

One could be forgiven for postulating that the owner of said vessel is trying to compensate for something.

That port stairs door is most definitely a daunting prospect for anyone with mobility issues.

Throughout all the years we've been visiting the Broads, I have never understood why people feel the need to hammer about everywhere. It defeats the object of going on the rivers in the first place IMHO. Why not simply soak up the scenery, revel in the sheer delight of being afloat and chill out. The cardio-vascular system will definitely thank you for it. It would probably be fair to say that many of us have been a tenth or two over the speed limit from time to time, and I'm not condoning that error, but...some of the blatant speeding we see is beyond comprehension. Andy seems to have the perfect mindset as regards speeding on his boats and respect to him for that but... ring Barnes Brinkcraft with a report of speeding or idiotic behaviour, and we have done in the past, and you'll most likely get that "we coudn't give a flying, mate...we've got their money" response I'm afraid.

The Connoisseurs are a good proposition IMHO. Very strong, well-built and able to navigate most of the bridges on the Broads. Yes, they're a bit noisy, especially the older ones, but that can be easily sorted. A lot of boat for the money. If we ever decided to swap, the Connoisseur would be very high on our list as would the Sheerline 950 centre-cockpit.

I guess Rolf Harris was the only Aussie not likely to be out by lunchtime!

A long time before we bought our boat, and like many other owners, we hired boats regularly. Unfortunately, we'd been given 'advice' by someone that we should "steer well clear of the old leaky, smelly and damp wooden boats". As we were newbies to the scene, we took this 'advice' at face value and chose GRP vessels. It's only now when we look back that we realise how bad the 'advice' was and how it caused us to miss out on some truly lovely traditional timber boats. Of all our GRP hires though, our favourite has always been the Royall Stuart.

The 'backwards P' mark is a paragraph symbol, or pilcrow. Basicaly, a formatting mark that helps to represent the end of a paragraph. If you want to remove such formatting marks, Click the Microsoft Office Button then click Word Options. Click Display Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen clear the check boxes for any formatting marks that you do not want to show in your documents at all times. Incidentally, doing the above should also prevent the full stops from appearing between each word in a sentence.

Bow thrusters are a great bit of technology and nobody should be shamed into not using them by the opinions of others. If using thrusters avoids one vessel clouting another then that's a 100% winner in my book. Incidentally, there are neither bow nor stern thrusters on my boat as it has twin-engines. If, however, thrusters were to be fitted, I would feel quite happy to use them should I feel that the situation demanded such assistance. What I wouldn't do is look for the approval of other people on the system before thrusters were deployed (early morning and late night mooring excepted, naturally).

The Norfolk Mead at Coltishall is indeed excellent but...you made need to sell a kidney before going there!

The unfortunate lady may not have even been on a boat to start with so not surprising that she wasn't wearing a life jacket. How many if us wear one for a riverside stroll? I know I don't. Let's hope she pulls through and recovers 100%.

Ok, Dave..I goofed. I stand corrected. Fred and Wilma, first 'man and woman' couple shown in bed together on prime time TV.

The first couple to be shown in the same bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone...

Would be just another enormous PITA if it hits the A17.

If all the drunken, hen-party ladies during a summer season on the Broads were laid end-to-end... ...nobody would be the slightest bit surprised.

The sound of a Vulcan bomber is one of the most evocative sounds to me. As a kid, one of these beauties regularly flew over our area and I would just stand transfixed. Awesome piece of kit. The sound of the Vulcan, for me, is second only to the Merlin engine on song...whether single in a Spitfire or 4 in chorus on a Lancaster. Beautiful noise with no equal. IMHO of course.

Some of the very best cruises we've ever experienced have been those undertaken at 'daft-o-clock' in the morning. The 'Golden Hour' light enhancing the natural beauty, tranquil rivers with steam rising off the water, riverbanks alive with all manner of wildlife, raptors soaring looking for breakfast and the gentle, mesmeric and therapeutic lapping of water as we meander along at 2mph. At blissful moments like those, all the expense and occasional hassle of boat ownership simply fade into insignificance.

I chuckle at boat names which appear to derive from personal experience... 'Money Pit' 'Coste Grande' 'On A Whim' 'Last One' Then there's the somewhat miffed-looking chap driving a boat called 'Helen's Choice'. He obviously lost the domestic argument on that one.

Yep...with you on that one..can't stand the man. I suppose it gives an alternative meaning to the phrase 'short break' though... ..sorry

@dnks34 If you have strainer filters on the raw water line(s) check that the top(s) is(are) screwed on tight as water can leak out when the engine is running but stops as soon as the engine is still. This was the cause of regular water appearing in our bilges...I noticed the leak one day quite by accident when our port engine was running and I was checking for something totally unrelated...