Mouldy

The path between Hunter’s yard and Womack Dyke has always been well maintained. Not now, it isn’t. Bloody glad I put my jeans on to go to The Kings Arms!

Most of the yards we hired from have long since disappeared: F B Wilds Porter &Haylett (Connoisseur). Gale Cruisers, Chedgrave. Russell Marine, South Walsham. Brister Craft, Hoveton. Royalls, Hoveton

But didn’t we have affordable social housing back in the sixties and seventies. Many folk have made a great deal of money by buying their council house. Good luck to them, but replacing them with housing associations, who are businesses to make money and private landlords who appear to have ever expanding portfolios of rental properties to let at high prices (yes, I’ve watched Homes Under the Hammer occasionally) is no substitute for affordable social housing. How are our children and grandchildren going to buy into our crazy housing market, when property values are so high and lenders requiring many thousands of pounds as a deposit before even considering lending a mortgage? It’s impossible for them to save, whilst paying stupidly high rental prices. Is it not the fault of all of us, whose desire to own a property has pushed the price of housing up to ridiculous levels? Why are houses in most of France so much lower than over here? Why is renting not frowned upon in much of Europe as it is over here? We have a strange set of values in the UK, where the size of our house is a measure of status. A big house and a BWW or Mercedes on the drive and you’re well on the way. Climbing the housing ladder by buying ever bigger properties seems to be the goal of so many, driving the prices up as they go. One day the bubble will burst, surely. If there are no first time buyers, the chains will stop. It needs to happen, so that prices fall and new buyers can get on the ladder. Either that, or sensibly priced social housing needs to make a comeback. My opinion obviously, but I strongly believe this to be the case.

I’ve mentioned that we went to a site in Cornwall (in a static caravan). It was booked for 2020, but postponed due to the pandemic, so we went in 2021 instead. We enquired about rebooking for 2022, in the same static, but the price had increased from £550 to £850 for the same dates. We went to a different, but cheaper site instead. When we went this year, the price had dropped to less than £500, again for the same van. It seems that they’ve taken note of both the economic situation and the relaxation of foreign travel restrictions. I might be wrong, but the costs associated with running a caravan park are probably less than maintaining a fleet of hire boats, but even so, I read that as caravan park in Northampton (Billing Aquadrome) along with their parent company, has gone into administration.

Doesn’t get on with the council, the BA or his neighbours either now. Seems a likeable sort of chap, doesn’t he?

After 42 years of marriage, she’s wise to all of those. I need to be a little more . . . . . . . . . . how shall we say? Maybe subtle? 😉

Low at 08:15 on Saturday morning. With you canopy and screen lowered, you should have more latitude.

I had a message from someone I know who spends his summers on The Broads. He came through Yarmouth about an hour and a half after low this morning and there was only 7’6” clearance. I called the yacht station to get some idea of when to cross on Saturday morning and they told me that springs are actually tomorrow, but unless things change dramatically over the next couple of days, we should be okay to get under the bridges on Saturday morning, as long as we go through at low, not slack.

I bought an IKEA speaker for the boat, made by Sonos. Sound was good, but we had issues pairing it to an iPad using my iPhone as a hotspot. Bought a JBL Bluetooth speaker instead and it works well. Not sure I like having to use the Sonos app with the limitations that come with it. We had a Bose Acoustimass system in our old house, but it would have been a bit over the top in our bungalow. Just settled on the Denon/Wharfedale system for now, but I do want to upgrade the CD player and amp at some stage, hopefully with streaming capability too. We’ll have to see what I can get when we’ve finished decorating our living room.

Springs were yesterday, I believe. We’ll be heading north on Saturday, so we’re also hopeful that the levels go down to allow us under Ludham Bridge. I know the markers aren’t accurate, but we need 8’3” clearance to pass. With a fair few of Richos fleet now having a high airdraft, I wonder how many of them could be prevented from getting under the bridge over the next few days.

It’s getting more and more difficult. Her ability to detect bovine excrement seems to have become more acute just lately. I’ll let you know how I get on, when the times right!

The speakers are better than the source at the moment. I’m currently using a Denon DM41 DAB, which for the money is hard to fault, but when my wallet recovers from recent expenditure, I hope to upgrade to separates. I’ll have to make a good job of the decorating and then sweet talk the wife!

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen a Broom dayboat moored outside The Reedham Ferry Inn. That said, the view from a dayboat between Brundall and Reedham would surely be fairly uninspiring, sitting so low. Much more to see heading towards Norwich, with a detour into Thorpe and the pubs a better destination. One can only assume that whoever is responsible for customer safety at Broom has done their homework and set navigation limits that their craft can reach and return from, especially in the light of the recently introduced QAB scheme that Broads hire operators are now required to belong to.

We moored there last July, having crossed Breydon earlier, but we arrived well before sunset and had a very pleasant late afternoon and evening before retiring. The photos show NL moored. We were joined for a while by one of Martham’s fleet, but they didn’t stay overnight. The only issue may be the quay heading, which when we were last there was in poor condition. You had to be a little selective as to where to moor. There are a couple of angling platforms there that should not be blocked, but they are nearer the main river. Weve been down to the public moorings at the end of Upton Dyke in Moonlight Shadow and Norfolk Lady. Turning MS down there was easy, with the bow thruster, but we turned NL on the ropes (no bow thruster).

Ian, yes there is. The satellite picture on Google hasn’t been updated to reflect the changes to the ‘beer garden,’ however the general layout hasn’t changed. I’ve highlighted where the visitor moorings are.

Hmm. It’s a bit like the situation at Short Dyke then. The BA are working with the RSPB, by not cutting the grass on the BA moorings, but just cutting access ways to the path. Frankly, I’m not sure what will be achieved, as no birds will nest in long grass so close to the moorings surely, especially when there’s a great wide expanse of marshland just a few feet away. It just smacks of another reason for saving a few quid by not strimming the moorings for the toll paying boating community. When I spoke to someone at the Blessed Authority, I asked why this hadn’t been publicised, but they couldn’t give me an answer.

They moved some quite large private boats out of the way to create them, so they’re definitely long enough for most, if not all hire craft.

If only I’d known. Currently at Norfolk Lady doing some more polishing and tidying! 😁

Good shout, Simon. 6’10” with canopy and screens down and 7’10” with them up.

The monthly amount paid to the Moonlight Shadow syndicate is £1800 over the whole year (£150 per month). This covers four weeks usage per year, one week per season and all running costs, mooring fees, maintenance etc. The exception may be if there is extraordinary additional repairs when members may be asked for an additional contribution. Winter maintenance was completed in February this year, when the boat was lifted, hull and superstructure polished and waxed, heating and engine serviced and all onboard systems checked as necessary. We also had new saloon upholstery fitted. All this additional work was completed without extra funding from syndicate members. The only extra monies are for refuelling and pumping out the toilets at the end of each member’s allocations. Compare the cost of a summer week on a similar boat to Moonlight Shadow against the value offered for a similar cost of four weeks per year, as well as the opportunity to claim additional unused weeks for no extra cost and the benefits of syndicate ownership soon become apparent. This page from the website explains it all in detail: https://moonlightshadow.net/syndicate-ownership

There are nine syndicate boats on The Broads, as follows: Moonlight Shadow Evening Shadow. Blue Mist. Thunder. Lightning. Silver Cloud. Goosander. Southern Crusader. Ranworth Breeze. Southern Crusader and Ranworth Breeze are both Birchwood cruisers and due to their airdraft will have some limitations to their cruising range. That said, they are lovely craft and well maintained. There are shares available on Ranworth Breeze currently ( https://www.boatshare.co.uk/shared-broads-cruiser-ranworth-breeze ) and the syndicate does have school holiday allocations. I believe Thunder currently has similar allocations, but as far as I’m aware, it is currently fully subscribed. As Yns_Mon said, Goosander is a two berth craft, all others would suit a family of four. Hope that helps!

Jason was back yesterday to install the granite hearth and returned this morning to fit the chimney liner and log burner! It’s a dramatic change from the ancient gas fire and eighties fireplace that was here before and we’re very pleased with the finished job. All I have to do now is decorate, get new carpet, furniture and settees, not to mention a log store and logs, ready for the winter! The further I get into retirement, the more I wonder how I found time to work as well. I’m off for a sit down to think about it (before I take three big bags of garden rubbish to the tip)! 🤨

There is currently a share available on the Moonlight Shadow Syndicate. Details of the boat and monthly costs are on their website: https://moonlightshadow.net/ Welcome to the Forum, by the way! 😁

Isn’t that true for most of us? I think we’re often oblivious of places that are nearby, concentrating more on places we visit on days out or holidays. Maybe we just take our everyday surroundings for granted.

It’ll be a Heritage 36 from NBS, surely, or if not, one built on those moulds.