Mouldy

No. Ultimately, this one is supposed to extend to cover all Broads bridges, but since it’s inception, I don’t think any more have need added: https://broads.bridgeheight.com At 8ft 10ins, as late into the season as you are going, I think the chances of passing under Ludham Bridge would be low. We struggle sometimes with an airdraft of 8ft 3 ins. If cruising The Ant forms an important part of your holiday, then you would be best sticking with something with an airdraft of less than 8ft. There is probably some safety margin in their measurement and the boards at Ludham are notoriously inaccurate, but there are plenty of craft available to hire that will negotiate the bridge more easily.

I would like to pick up on a something from Robin’s post - the lack of shoreside activities. What shoreside activities are we suggesting? Branches of Costa/Starbucks dotted around or more McDonalds? Frankly, I can’t think of anything worse, but that said, I do fit into the long-standing, returning visitor category, who comes for the peace and tranquility of the area, not the throbbing nightlife. My view is that, as a nation, our tastes have changed. I know people now, who pop over to Prague for a weekend. That sort of thing was unheard of back in the sixties and seventies, when foreign travel was becoming more available and as a result, more popular. Long haul holidays are commonplace these days. Places like Benidorm are ever popular - all inclusive deals with meals and drinks included give people on a tight budget, an real idea of cost and affordability. Cruise liners are becoming ever larger. I read about one that’s coming into service soon, to accommodate around 8,000 holiday makers. That may be what some folk want - water slides, casinos, cinemas, onboard shopping malls and all, but does everyone crave the same thing? Just over twenty years ago, we were invited to accompany my mum and dad on a cruise. Dad paid - it was beyond our reach at the time. It was a small boat, especially by today’s standards, carrying less than 600 passengers. It was a little frayed at the edges, but absolutely good enough. The food was ample and varied, the onboard facilities were adequate, but the atmosphere was great, the service from the crew was superb and the destinations we visited, were wonderful. If we were to go on a cruise in the future, I would be looking for a similar ship, certainly not one of those oversized gin palaces that seem to be advertised so much. As for Benidorm, do I really want to sit on a beach overlooked by multiple high rise hotels? No, I don’t. And that’s it really. Different things suit different people. I’m sure that the number of visitors who go to The Broads will stabilise. Some young families will go and enjoy it, returning time and time again, whilst others will prefer their flyaway breaks. There is no doubt that the area has had its heyday, but when the economy settles down and the post pandemic need to go abroad, following a few years when it wasn’t available, has subsided, visitors will return to pre pandemic levels. I don’t remember a time when a boating holiday was ever cheap and for many at the moment, probably even taking a holiday anywhere is out of reach, never mind the weather, despite what the good doctor believes.

No idea on a Samsung phone, but on the iPhone, if your wife goes to the ‘General’ app and types WiFi calling into the search, you should see a heading for WiFi Calling. Select ‘allow’ and you should then be able to phone using the WiFi.

The restrictions on overflying for drones weighing less than 250gms are comparatively relaxed and flying over built up areas is permitted, although they shouldn’t be flown over crowds. There is clearly some interpretation over what constitutes a crowd, but there is much more freedom to fly using a sub 250gm drone. The biggest area for potential contravention of the law would be maintaining visual line of sight, which obviously limits how far away from the drone pilot they can be flown. As far as cost is concerned, to get a decent quality drone, capable of taking reasonable quality images, you are still looking at £1000 with a controller. Cheaper ones are available, but the quality is poor.

I guess as far as moorings are concerned, the cost of maintaining those is increasing too. I agree that some mooring charges are excessive, like the ones imposed at The Swan, Horning, but five pounds a night, as charged at Womack or even the charge levied at The Lion, I don’t find unreasonable. From the pubs point of view, they could either load the price of food to all customers, or just charge a mooring fee to visitors arriving by boat to fund maintenance of moorings. We can always refer back to what things cost years ago - it was one of my late mum’s favourite things to moan about. She used to pick something up in a shop and say ‘I can remember them costing two bob!’ Times have changed, some things cost more, but some things a lot less. Only twenty years ago a 42” plasma TV would have cost £4000 and I vividly remember standing in a hifi shop in Northampton, staring longingly at one, thinking ‘I wish.’ Now, a 42” flatscreen TV is commonplace and by comparison, far cheaper. Maybe, from time to time, it would be worth remembering how lucky we are to live in a relatively civilised country, with running water in our houses and so many things some folk could only dream, of available to us. Recent events in Morocco and Libya should serve to remind us that in reality, we really have much to be thankful for.

I spent a few hours at the boatyard yesterday, giving Norfolk Lady some attention. We should be on board for a few days at the end of next week, so needed to get her looking cared for! A light compound and a coat of wax later and she’s looking much better. I’ve got to go back again to clean and re-proof the canopy sometime next week. I called into Brian Wards on the way home to buy the necessary products, but they were out of stock of the proofer. They’re expecting more in on Friday, so as long as the weather is okay, I should be able to get that job ticked off, too.

Looks great, Kate. A real professional job! We need a patio laying soon. I’ll contact you for a quote! 😁

Since 2016, drones have been categorised as aircraft by the CAA and in the UK it is illegal to shoot one down. I am a CAA licenced drone pilot and am able to fly drones heavier than 250gms with certain restrictions. My use of them is to extend a lifelong interest in photography. It is highly unlikely by hat a phot taken from a drone 150ft in the air would breach and data protection laws - only the professional ones used by tv and film production companies would have the optical power to render a photo of the quality required and not many recreational drone users have the tens of thousands of pound that equipment of that standard costs. Whilst parish councils may have restrictions regarding where drones can take off and land, they do not control the airspace in which they fly, which is controlled solely by the CAA. There are restrictions where flight is restricted, however and these are clearly defined. There are clearly defined laws regarding drones and their use, far more than in the original post. Sadly, as in all aspects of life, the majority of drone users respect the law and use them legally, it’s the few that choose to break the laws that spoil it for the rest of us.

How long ago was mooring at Womack, Norwich and Yarmouth free. Womack is a Parish Staithe and they’ve just increased the fee from £3 to £5 overnight. I’ve never moored at Yarmouth, but have moored at Norwich many times. I honestly can’t remember not paying there. The farm moorings at Stokesby have charged for many years. These aren’t newly imposed charges. The only BA mooring that has started to charge recently is Ranworth, which doesn’t appear to have dented the popularity of the location to any great degree, especially considering the massively decreased visitor numbers this year. We can harp on about moorings and associated charges, but we wouldn’t moor at pubs and risk our precious gel coat on damaged quay heading, so if a pub levies a reasonable charge to moor at well maintained moorings, that is surely their entitlement. We only moor at pubs if we want to - we aren’t forced. The biggest issue here seems to be the BA and their alleged shortfall in navigation revenue and the good doctor’s explanation. It seems to me that, when faced with the choice of paying the mortgage or having a holiday in the current economic crisis, the holiday takes second place. It doesn’t take a university degree to work that out, surely? What worries me is how they go about covering the shortfall and it probably means another double figure toll increase.

I read something about speeding and associated prosecutions.

If that’s the case, it’s about time some effort was put into prosecuting the ones who don’t, instead of penalising the ones that do. 😡

Might still be there, rotting in the overgrowth behind the yard.

Sounds like there’s a big tap root, straight out of the bottom of the root ball. I’ve had to deal with quite a few of those!

Been there, done that many times, but further south. I think, on reflection, the Gorge du Tarn region was my favourite and maybe we’ll go again one day, but we’re very happy with Norfolk and The Broads.

Much the same as when folk say ‘it’s 6AM in the morning.’ For some reason I thought the suffix of AM or PM defined whether it was before or after noon.

I dropped my weight into a folding chair, strategically placed in the shade of a nearby tree at Pyes Mill and enjoyed a lovely afternoon there. I had to force my weight out of the chair a couple of times to replenish my glass and to set the Cobb up to cook dinner. Days like these are made for idling on The Broads.

We’d intended to spend this weekend on board Norfolk Lady anyway, but a new owner was in Norfolk and had asked if it would be possible to see Moonlight Shadow whilst he was on a pre-arranged holiday in the area. This meant leaving home earlier than usual, so the wife brought her work laptop with us, so she could continue to do what she needed to from Norfolk Lady in Brundall, whilst I went to Horning. I’d noticed a new mould in Silverline’s yard, that was in the process of being moved for fitting out. Obviously, there is still a programme of new builds in progress, despite the apparent downturn in visitor numbers. With our belongings, the wife and dog safely on board, I left for Horning and as usual, got stuck in traffic entering Wroxham, arriving at my destination just after 15:00. Our new owners arrived on time at 15:30, which was a bonus as I’d just finished measuring all the galley cupboard doors ready for a planned future upgrade. We spent an hour, going through the boat and systems, before our American owners arrived to start their two week allocation. After having a chat to them and saying goodbye to the new owners, it was time to head back to Brundall, where I pulled into the yard, parked the car and walked to our boat, when the wife said ‘did you call into the Co-Op on your way back?’ By the time I’d been to the shop for necessary items that the wife had forgotten to bring (still in the fridge at home), it was getting late, but we set off anyway with a view to get to Short Dyke, Cantley, Hardley Mill or Cross. Oh, we do miss Langley Dyke! We had a pleasant cruise watching the sun go down and arrived at a fairly full Cantley just around the time of sunset. There was room for probably one more boat after we’d arrived. We had dinner on board, just a quiche and salad, but it was tasty and filling. There wasn’t much of interest on the TV, so I did a couple of crosswords to pass the time before retiring. The weekend weather looks promising, so we’re both looking forward to a pleasant couple of days.

Good move. If The Ant is an important cruising destination, then something that will pass under Ludham Bridge easily is a better option. Enjoy it!

Ouch! Makes the carvery at The Kings Arms look fantastic value, especially on a Wednesday, when you can get two for £22!

Not to mention the ‘out of town retail parks, where parking is free and major stores seem to have branches. There are several such sites around Northampton, where we used to live and they continue to be busy, whilst the town centre has all but died. Anyone who lives close to Rushden Lakes Retail Park will know how popular that is and how much it’s damaged local towns. We can all bemoan the death of the high street, but most of us are guilty of shopping at supermarkets, instead of local shops, at retail parks or online. We therefore, must all bear responsibility for what’s happening now, including the change to a cashless society, which was probably led by retail outlets refusing to take cash through the early stages of the pandemic and forcing us to use debit cards or our phones instead.

Nice one, Ray! Our old girl just glares at the wife if she dares to sit on the navigator‘s seat, so the wife moves and the dog jumps up . . . . . . well, when I say jumps, gets helped up. She is totally relaxed on board, which is a bonus! Enjoy - deeply jealous, although we’re heading up for the weekend tomorrow afternoon!

I wouldn’t swear to that - possibly more like 8ft. We went under in July and the river was a few inches below the concrete. Height markers were showing 8 feet and we went through with very little clearance. I still think that the chances of getting under Ludham Bridge that late in the season in a boat with a stated airdraft of 8ft 10ins are slim, even allowing for a bit of safety built into that figure and the inaccuracy of the height boards.

Personally, I’d be looking for some with a lower airdraft. Sometimes the clearance at Ludham is less than 8ft. Our boat has an airdraft of 8ft 3ins and there have been times in September when we haven’t been able to negotiate the bridge. It is true that the height boards are pessimistic, probably by three or four inches heading from The Bure, but slightly less in the opposite direction. Spring tides and the weather also affect the river levels, so if cruising The Ant is an important part of your holiday, I’d definitely be looking for something lower to hire.

Enjoy it, Ray!

Forget the week after. We’re up for a week on 22nd so wet and windy is almost certainly guaranteed!