Mouldy

Just seen this on the Blessed Authority’s website. I suppose it couldn’t have been done over the winter, when hirefleets aren’t out and moorings aren’t at a premium. I suppose they know what they’re doing! https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/boating/navigating-the-broads/boating-news/temporary-closure-horning-marshes-24hr-mooring-due-to-maintenance-works

Stokesby?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-65263789

Both and possibly a kidney! 😉

I’m sure that someone will come along and tell me otherwise, but I believe that Wilds led the way with their Caribbean cruisers back in the sixties, although the Dawncraft DC30 must have been introduced a round the same time. It was certainly the start of a kind of revolution in Broads craft design.

I do and live in Norfolk too! Boy, has it gone up a lot? 😡

Emergency stop button? I don’t think I’ve seen one of them In over fifty years of visiting The Broads.

Hmmmm! You only live once! That’s all I’m saying.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23450448.inquest-death-laura-perry-broads-boat-fall/

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 4) So it was another chilly night and I had to get the heating on before returning to bed whilst things warmed up a bit again. I think it must be my age - I’m feeling the cold a bit more these days. The morning essentially followed the pattern of the previous two days - I worked on clearing the condensation with the help of a Karcher window vacuum and leather, whilst the wife took Harley for a walk. When she returned, we got ready to set off. I wanted to get to Somerleyton before the tide rose too much and we had to wait for the bridge to open again. For a welcome change, the weather looked far more promising. I grabbed a quick photo of Rambling Rosie, moored at Peto’s Marsh, looking very shiny in the morning sunshine before we cast off and headed back up Oulton Dyke. We were punching the incoming current, but making good headway. The river level looked lower that when we were travelling in the opposite direction a couple of days earlier and there was more than 10ft 6 ins clearance indicated when we arrived at the bridge, allowing us to slip through easily. We continued along the New Cut and through Reedham, which looked quite busy with moored craft and past The Ferry Inn, which didn’t. It seems a shame that a pub that used to be so popular and busy, looks a little dilapidated and so quiet these days. Maybe it’ll pick up as we get more into the season. Moving with the rising tide, we were soon at Hardley Cross moorings, where I wanted to stop, shower and then cook brunch. It had been a long time since I’d prepared a ‘proper’ breakfast on board, but it wasn’t long before we were tucking into bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes and scrambled eggs. We were both quite hungry, it was past eleven o’clock and it went down a treat. A couple more boats had moored in the meantime, one of the owners used to moor at Swancraft, but had sold his old boat and bought something larger, forcing him to moor elsewhere in Brundall. I had a chat with him and his family for a while before we cast off again, heading for our overnight destination. Easter Sunday was also the wife’s birthday - not just any birthday, but a significant one. We were going to celebrate her becoming a sexagenarian with a meal at The Ferry House. Still being helped by the rising tide, we made good progress, arriving at the pub mid afternoon. On the way, I’d spotted a hawk flying, so I grabbed a few shots with my long telephoto lens. The bird was a bit too far away to be honest, but I’ve added a couple below. Despite having booked a mooring, I couldn’t see our boat name displayed on a board and there wasn’t a lot of vacant spaces, but I found a spot to moor stern on and managed to execute the manoeuvre without making an idiot of myself. It was sunny, but quite chilly and I was surprised by the number of people sitting in the beer garden eating and drinking. I went into the pub to buy a couple of drinks, which we had back on the boat whilst we waited for our table booking. When it was time, we made the short walk and went in. It was busy, just as it used to be pre Covid, which I was pleased to see. We found our table, I went to the bar for drinks and we’d soon chosen from the menu. Our starters arrived quickly, which we both enjoyed, but neither of us were prepared for the size of the steak that appeared for mains. I honestly thought I’d been cast on that program ‘Man V Food.’ It was good, though, but I couldn’t manage the chips, which was a pity as for once they were proper crisp, chunky ones. We had to pass on dessert - we were both full. I paid the bill and we walked up the lane, far enough for Harley to do what she needed to before returning to the boat. As usual, we watched TV for a while before retiring to bed around 22:00. For the wife, her birthday had been quiet, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 3) We had a peaceful night, surprisingly so given how close the moorings are to the road. It had been another chilly one, so I got out of bed just long enough to flick the heating on, before returning for a lie in whilst the boat warmed up. I guess it was about 07:00 when we got up. Dressed, I set about the condensation whilst the wife took Harley for a walk. Sadly, arthritis has affected our poor dog and she’s no longer capable of long walks, so a wander around the green behind the moorings was enough for her. We topped up with water before setting off and had a gentle chug down The Waveney. We passed about six or seven ‘gin palaces’ heading towards Beccles, which I suspected might have been the craft the spaces had been reserved for at the yacht station the previous afternoon. Deb went for a shower whilst we were on the move and we moored for a while at North Cove so I could shower too. It’s probably my favourite mooring on the river and for a while, we had it to ourselves, but were joined by a hire boat from Barnes a bit later. I’d intended to moor at Oulton Broad overnight, so we set off again and turned down Oulton Dyke. As we approached the Tea Garden moorings, I could see that there was only one boat moored there. I was tempted to join Neil at Peto’s Marsh, but was well aware that he was with his children and would probably prefer to spend quality time with them than to talk to us, so we turned into the current and moored on the Tea Garden pontoons. We had a quiet afternoon watching the comings and goings on the dyke, Deb did some cross stitch and I read. I also had to clean up the foredeck of Norfolk Lady, where a large dollop of Norfolk silt had been deposited with the mudweight when I pulled it up at Beccles. It had been cool and cloudy all day, but as with the previous day, brightened up in the evening. Dinner was some Southern Fried chicken pieces, with sweetcorn and potato slices. A couple of glasses of wine helped it down and we had a quiet evening in front of the TV, catching up with something on the iPlayer, before retiring as usual around 22:00.

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 2) I woke fairly early and at about six, ventured out of bed to turn the heating on, before returning to my pit. With the boat warmed up a bit, I felt brave enough to get up and pull some clothes on. With no electric hook up, I didn’t want to run the engine to heat water for showering, so whilst Deb took the dog for a quick walk to the river end of the dyke and back, I set about clearing the windows of condensation. It really is the worst part of boating in cooler temperatures. With the wife and hound safely back on board, I started the engine and we set off, with Beccles the intended destination. I was keen to get to Somerleyton and negotiate the bridge, hopeful that we could get through without the hassle of waiting for it to open. We were punching the rising current through as far as Reedham, made easier since the fitting of our new prop with a bigger pitch. As we turned down the New Cut, the current was in our favour and helped to push us along without any increase in engine revs. There were a few boats on the move by now and we passed a few heading towards Reedham as we progressed along the cut, surely the most boring stretch of The Broads to cruise. The weather was fairly bright - sunny periods with broken cloud, but warm, it wasn’t. There was a cool bite in the breeze. We were quickly at the St Olaves end and continued towards Somerleyton, where it soon became apparent that the clearance was tight, especially as we were being carried by the incoming current. We turned and moored, before I found the telephone number for the bridge on the BA website, not having a VHF radio. It wasn’t long before the bridge opened and we carried on with our journey. As we neared Beccles, there were an increasing number of boats heading in the opposite direction, but I could well imagine it was nothing compared to the northern rivers. We turned into the yacht station to see that all of the vacant spaces on the side with electric had reserved signs visible, so we moored on the opposite side about halfway along. The current was still rising and our bathing platform was level with the quay heading, making it easy to get on and off the boat. It was lunchtime, so we had sausages in rolls before heading up into the town. We didn’t really need anything, but wanted a walk after our cruise. A few shops were shut, including the needlework shop that the wife likes to visit. . . . . . . . . . . . Phew! I wanted a scrubbing brush and found one in QD, before getting a couple of cakes in Greggs and some sweets from the nearby sweet shop. We had a quick mooch round before returning to the boat. The aft cockpit was suffering from winter neglect, as was the bathing platform and stern rubbing strake, so I spent a while with my newly acquired scrubbing brush and a bucket of Flash, scrubbing and cleaning. After about an hour, I was satisfied with my efforts and sat down with a hard earned cuppa. I had a lengthy chat with the skipper of the hireboat that had moored nearby. Frequent visitors, it was their first trip to the southern rivers. I shared a few pointers of places to visit. Being Good Friday, it was fish for dinner . . . . . . . .but from the chippy. I walked into town to The Beccles Chip Shop on Smallgate. It was very good, all freshly cooked. The length of the queue outside should have given an indication of that, but be warned if you go and I recommend you do, the large cod was truly massive! Back on board, we enjoyed our fish and chips. We watched TV for a while before heading for bed at the end of an enjoyable, if slightly cool day. Not many photos, sadly. I should have captured more of the sunset, which was glorious, but my dinner took priority!

No, no mention of the word finished, merely suggesting that it’s no use worrying about it. If you expect the worst and it’s not as bad as you feared, it’s a bonus!! 😁

Almost four years into ownership now and I very soon realised that you don’t ever ‘finish’ spending. There’s always something that can be improved, changed or breaks down and needs replacing. I remember collecting Norfolk Lady from NYA in Horning. By the time we’d reached our moorings in Brundall, the alternator had failed and within a week or two it became apparent that the Victron charger/inverter was inverting but not charging! It was apparently beyond economic repair, due to its age and we needed a new one. Needless to say, as it’s boat related, it wasn’t cheap! But would we have it any other way? No, is the simple answer. It took me too many years to achieve a long held dream - fortunately one that Deb shares too and we’ll continue to fill that hole in the water that we bought with money until either infirmity or poverty stops us.

There is always the option of using either NBD or Ferry to hire from. Both advertise their prices as ‘all inclusive,’ which I believe include fuel, parking, insurance waiver etc, so there’s no more to pay other than for your food and drink. To be fair, boating holidays have never been cheap. I can’t honestly remember how much my dad paid for our first holiday on a Caribbean cruiser back in May 1969, but I’d guess it was around fifty pounds. He wasn’t on a big wage and it probably equated to around 3 weeks wages. Assuming the average wage in the UK is around £500 per week, £1500 for a week on a boat at this time of year is probably a similar multiple.

Thanks Jean. To be honest, I’ve not taken many this trip. The weather hasn’t been very inspiring, but we have a week on Moonlight Shadow very soon and I’ll try harder then!

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 1) I’m fairly certain that Norfolk Lady has been feeling a little neglected of late. Previous years had seen us up to the boat every other weekend, with the exception of the lockdowns obviously. A combination of uninspiring weather and a need to clear what seems like a never ending amount of ‘stuff’ from my mum’s house, that’s currently in storage and costing too much a month, had caused us to not be infrequent visitors over the winter. However, we’d agreed that we’d head up for the Easter weekend, so we loaded up the car on Thursday afternoon and set off for Brundall. We hastily transferred our belongings from car to boat and by 17:00, we’re ready to go. With over two hours before the sun went down, we set off and arrived at Langley Dyke to find the moorings empty. With the boat safely tied up, and our dinner in the oven to warm up (a shepherd’s pie that I’d made earlier), we settled down at the start of our weekend away. The weather at home was fairly grim when we woke in the morning, but the rain stopped early in the afternoon and it was a pleasant, if slightly chilly evening. We had our meal and settled down to watch TV with a glass or two of wine, before heading to bed around 22:00.

Frankly, I’m not surprised that the cost of eating out has increased by that much. The hospitality industry has been hit by as many, if not more, increases in their costs than we have. Finding staff has been impacted by demands for higher wages and availability of people, heating and lighting costs have multiplied threefold, not to mention the cost of food. It’s a crazy spiral for us all at the moment and if we don’t support the independent establishments, they will all soon become part of a chain or close. I also have some sympathy with the mooring charges. Replacing quay heading and maintaining moorings is an expensive process. Pubs could apply the costs to their food and drink, but that would impact customers who arrive by road. Don’t get me wrong, rising prices are squeezing (almost) all of us to a massive extent. The welcome increase in my state pension has been swallowed up by the ending of the subsidy on fuel and our council tax rise. However, I have a roof over my head and live in a relatively safe country, something that many millions of people in this world can only aspire to.

Thought that might have been you, Neil! We did think about joining you, but thought that as you had your youngsters with you, you’d prefer to spend the time with them.

The owner of The Granary Restaurant has questioned the BA’s actions in applying a mooring charge at Ranworth, which may have affected his business. This was on the Love the Norfolk Broads FB group.

They have made their feelings known in a post on a FB group, questioning the BA’s actions.

I have a video of three dayboats from a certain hire company based in Wroxham taken last summer. Possibly some of the worst behaviour I’ve seen on The Broads. Beer and wine being sprayed and thrown over the party members on the boats, people jumping from boat to boat whilst underway, music playing loudly and much shouting and generally anti social behaviour. Don’t get me wrong, there’s having a good and enjoyable time, but this was disgusting (imho). Cleaning the boats up after they’d vacated must have been a fairly lengthy process.

Fairly certain that 3 use their own network.

Possibly makes it easier to debrand when they go on the market for sale.