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Mouldy
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Posts posted by Mouldy
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3 hours ago, kpnut said:
Totally agree Mouldy.
If I mentioned the word ‘finished’ I meant this bit of work!!!!I have a list a page long or more, although it has been extremely satisfying to put red pen through various lines of it.
And of course, my ears and eyes are on the lookout for the next problem to jump out to relieve me of some more money.
I have the pots, at least in my head, one for running and repairs, the other for improvements. It’s that one that’s in the red at the moment😂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!! 😁
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10 hours ago, kpnut said:
. . . . . . . . . . . Hopefully the battery issues of last month are no more and I intend these 10 days to be relaxing and worry free. When the boat’s having work done, I’ve realised how much the worry builds up, I suppose cos it’s not knowing when the next problem is round the corner and not doing the work myself, that feeling of not being in control and fearing the worst. I can’t be the only one who feels like that surely? So then having the boat back I can see everything is ok and stop losing sleep over it.
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.
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2 hours ago, Paul said:
Overseas holidays should not, the law changed many years ago to stop holiday companies advertising prices that were not reflective of the actual price you would pay, so any unavoidable room supplements, taxes, etc must be included in the advertised price. How UK holidays get away with all of these things I'm not quite sure.
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.
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29 minutes ago, SwanR said:
You always manage to take such stunning photos. Love them.
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!
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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.
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12 hours ago, hungryhippo said:
That's the closest post to what I was going to say.
Just got back from a week on the Broads with wife and now adult daughter. My wife and I have been going to the Broads for 24 years now, at least once a year and often twice. We always avoid summer, but always go in early April and sometimes October. We always hire from family boatyards. We must have spent tens of thousands on boats, pubs, restaurants, tea rooms and gift shops in that time.
As others have said, this is really the thin end of the wedge at a time when everything costs more. I can only speak as a boat hirer, not an owner, but this is profiteering, nothing more or less. As far as I'm concerned, a customer that's hired a cruiser ought to be able to expect suitable free mooring to access amenities as a basic starting point. We didn't stop at Ranworth this year, precisely because of this charge. Mind you, pubs all seem to be getting in on the act as well now. I read that the Swan at Horning wanted £20 for overnight mooring, the excellent Lion at Thurne has put their charge up to £7.50 overnight and even The Bridge at Acle don't allow the increased overnight cost of £8.00 to be redeemed against food now. We regularly eat and drink at these places and others (not The Swan anymore). but paying for food and drink has gone up approximately 30% in the past 3-4 years. This is just another cost on top. I know that's my choice, but it's part of what makes our holiday as well as helping local businesses.
For what it is, The Broads is now a VERY expensive holiday and I'm not sure that the costs are justified. With the demise of many family boatyards in the past 10-20 years, there are fewer boatyards to moor up at and seemingly fewer places to dispose of refuse or fill up with water too. I remember a conversation I had with one of the workmen at Summercraft just before they sold most of their fleet in 2019. He said we were one of only a few 'returners' they still had and that the Broads increasingly relied upon 'new' boaters, but the problem was, very few returned after a first visit. I think this is what the BA rely on and consequently, they will willingly pay the £10 (and other charges that will no doubt follow) and the returners will gradually stop returning.
On a positive note, we now use the excellent Bridgecraft in Acle, and it was heartening that ALL of their boats were booked out, both last Saturday and today.
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.
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11 hours ago, NeilB said:
. . . . . . . . . .Malcolm (Mouldy) is on the opposite bank with Norfolk Lady!
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.
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5 minutes ago, Wussername said:
Who has made their feeling known?
Which FB group?
What BA actions?
I just wish for transparency why smoke and mirrors. I find it most confusing. Tell it as it is?
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.
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8 minutes ago, BrundallNavy said:
Full at Potter and lots of boats at Womack dyke and Thurne. The new restaurant in the granary must be fuming.
They have made their feelings known in a post on a FB group, questioning the BA’s actions.
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9 minutes ago, Ray said:
Over refreshing can be a problem... I'm told 😁
Presumably those in serious need of refreshment will find it anyway and those decent folks who would simply like a glass of wine with their picnic will be the only ones to suffer - it was ever thus 🙁
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.
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3 minutes ago, grendel said:
I have 2 wifi dongles, one is on )2 PATG data and the other is on 3 (who I believe use the EE network) the O2 one is a 20Gb data sim that lasts until run out or 12 months, the 3 one was 25gb and lasts for 2 years
Fairly certain that 3 use their own network.
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9 hours ago, Broads01 said:
True but further back in time Richardsons had a small oval sticker on the side of each boat with the Richardsons name. Barnes have their name, as do Herbert Woods, NBD, Ferry Marina and others, so I can't understand why Richardsons don't have theirs.
Possibly makes it easier to debrand when they go on the market for sale.
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3 minutes ago, YnysMon said:
They dredged the Chet not that long ago…I know because we we’re delayed getting past their works, and you could see all the fresh spoil that had been dumped on the bank along the Hardley Flood bank just 12 months ago.
They dredged the Upper Ant last year (we couldn’t get past the works to get to Wayford Bridge last July) and are doing it again this year.
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14 minutes ago, Broads01 said:
. . . . . . . . . . .The Chet has encroachment of reeds into the channel in a few too many places for my liking . . . . . . . .
Good job the Blessed Authority are maintaining navigation with the funds they’re squeezing out of us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . or not, as appears to be the case down The Chet.
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29 minutes ago, Ray said:
Lebara is looking like the way to go so far, their sim only prices easily beat BT even after the Broadband discount.
I'm intending to drop the landline and TV packages altogether, they are pretty much redundant for us as long as we still buy a TV licence we can get what we need.
BT offered me a deal... for only £10 more a month I could have exactly what I have now with a more exciting description 🙄
We don’t bother with BT TV and I may well drop the landline. All we ever get are cold calls, which do provide some great entertainment if you engage with the person on the phone. We have Amazon Prime, which even with the forthcoming price increase, is still good value for what it offers. I gave Sky up a loooong time ago - another company that talked the talk, but with lamentable customer service.
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Hi Ray. We too are with BT/EE. I’m not impressed with their price increase either, but I’ve been with them for many years, since an absolute nightmare with home broadband from TalkTalk.
As Deb is still working, largely from home, reliability in the service is paramount, so we’re going to soldier on with them, as they’ve proved to be very reliable, both where we used to live and now in Norfolk. We have full fibre to the home, with good speeds guaranteed.
As far as mobiles are concerned, we’ve been with EE for a long time too. Their customer service is good, when needed, as opposed to Vodafone who were a nightmare.
You might get a good sim only deal from one of the secondary suppliers, like Lebara or Smarty. Their service piggybacks on the major networks and are generally quite reasonably priced.
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2 hours ago, ScrumpyCheddar said:
. . . . . . The gents toilets is off a different planet 🤣🤣🤣👍👍 Even FF enjoys The Iconic
Could be worse!
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57 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:
If a BA person assists me to moor, using a boathook, and that that BA person is an untrained volunteer, should damage to my boat occur, to whom should I look to have such damage repaired. I would like Tom Waterfall to become involved with this discussion.
I did comment a couple of days ago that the BA have not been involved in any of the discussions regarding the mooring fees at Ranworth or Reedham and the toll rise. They’ve obviously been reading the forum, because of input in other threads.
Perhaps the anger felt amongst the boating community is filtering through the hallowed halls of Yare House.
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1 hour ago, bucket said:
It is only a few days now until our first week afloat this year on Blue Mist.......a few things to sort first at home but come Thursday morning we will on our way to Horning and the boat.
We will be staying up north all week. The forecast and tides might allow passage at the weekend through Wroxham and on to Coltishall where I hope to get up to the lock. I have always previously turned at the Norfolk Mead so a new bit for me after forty odd years on the Broads.
It is a shame about the delay to completion of the staithe works at Neatishead.....one of my favourites.....and from what I hear from fellow forumites the green at Sutton is consistently occupied.....but I will have a look see for myself.
I hope to have a look at Upton if we can moor at the end and walk down to the staithe.....at 38ft we might be a touch long to turn if the staithe is full? Somewhere new for me again.
I look forward with a smile to recognising fellow NBN'ers on our travels, and hopefully saying hello to some of the characters.......
And I can't wait to support some local businesses......particularly them as sell beer!!!
So......a very happy Easter!
I managed to turn Moonlight Shadow at the end of Upton Dyke, just before it opens up to the boatyard. The bow thruster was definitely used, to good effect, but as long as EW have two or three boats out, you should be good, even if you turn on the ropes.
The pub is worth the effort, without a doubt!
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27 minutes ago, Andrewcook said:
As to Cambridge Gabby did his Homework on how much gets £249 Per Day that's a fair wack that amounts to One Thousand Seven Hundred Forty-Three per week that more than pays for its self that's not with the 13% Toll hike there's something fishy going on with all these extra fees.
If they’re to contribute a certain doctors leaving present, I’m in!
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25 minutes ago, CambridgeCabby said:
Katie has had a reply from the BA ,
Wonder if they’ll turn off the water and electric over the winter period.
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I didn’t realise how much stuff we’d accumulated whilst in our last house until we moved. It took ages clearing the loft and a couple of days clearing the garage. I’ve vowed that the bungalow won’t get like that and banned the wife from storing tat in the loft.
We’re still trying to sort out the things in storage from mum’s house and I won’t leave our son to deal with a similar situation when our time is up. I cannot believe the things we’ve had to go through. Some of it has been heartbreaking. I can understand why mum kept her wedding veil and decorations from her wedding cake, I suppose, but we can’t continue to hoard things like that, we just haven’t the space.
Good luck with the building work. We had a similar problem with my first house in Milton Keynes. The walls upstairs had caused the joists to deflect by a significant amount and to compound the problem the cold water tank in the loft had been installed illegally. We had to move out for three weeks whilst the builders moved in and took all of the upstairs walls down, reinforce the joists and rebuild the walls.
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Just think, if the Blessed Authority can’t get their own way and get charging for moorings in at Reedham implemented, they might have to inflate the pricing at Ranworth to compensate for their budgetary shortfall.
Maybe they plan to close the moorings at Ranworth over the winter, as they do at Yarmouth and Norwich, remove the hoses, turn off the taps and shut down the electric posts.
Am I alone in wondering why the BA have had their input on other threads here recently, but have remained noticeably absent from any contribution to justify their actions with regard to mooring charges?
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Norfolk Lady Tales
in Holiday Tales & Blogs
Posted
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!