vanessan

You can't beat Izal,

That is an awful reply from what is supposed to be a professional body! They're basically dodging the issue, or maybe they really do not have a clue as to what the restrictions ect are at the Potter Bridge moorings. Interestingly, if you look at the BA moorings list, there are 2 sets of moorings listed, one on the Repps side and the other on the Martham side. It is a bit confusing, can anybody clarify?

Did the ferrets have bouyancy aids on I wonder!

Back to dogs again. We used to use the 'flicking method', in fact we had a store of neatly cut 'flickers'! Now being somewhat decrepit, bending down/over and trying to flick has become difficult. I am rather glad that we don't use that method anymore and use bags instead. It's all very well flicking into long grass or into woods but kids tend to stray off into those places too for one reason or another. I now think that anywhere a body could get to should be clear of doggy doings, particularly footpaths in the countryside. Ok, so you may have to carry a bagfull on most of your walk, tough. Think about where young families may walk and where kids may stray to, think about where a buggy or wheelchair may be pushed. I get very cross when someone has left thir dog's mess right in the middle of a footpath. Morons! Yes, I feel very strongly about this subject and if I offend anyone by carrying a liitle black bag with me, so be it. On a lighter note, I read a story once of a lady who walked her dog regularly and religiously cleared up after it. She didn't like to be seen carrying the little black bag so used an old handbag to carry it in. One day a cyclist pedalled past her furiously and snatched the handbag........................ Serve him right!

If you want to live and thrive, let a spider run alive. That's how the old saying goes! My real fear of spiders disappeared after a lengthy stay in the Australian rainforest. The Huntsman is a fearsome looking creature but I learned how to deal with them. When you have to live with them for a while and can't avoid them, you sort of get used to them. I still won't physically touch anything big though!

Can I have one please? We helped a r & s into Rockland Dyke a couple of weeks ago. They had run out of diesel and hadn't got any sails on board - does that count? (Must be something to do with the Rockland area!)

The £5 charge is for mooring at any time for anything up to 24 hours. There is a warden who comes round on a motorised bike to collect. I suppose if you were lucky you might avoid him but probably not as he does pop round at any old time. With regard to private landowners charging for mooring, why shouldn't they? Those who have decided to no longer lease to the BA and collect the fees themselves I believe may have just shot themselves in the foot. As we have seen on here, some will not pay fees and rely on BA moorings whilst some (like me) are quite happy to pay if the mooring is where they want to be and is well maintained. As Marshman has said, quay headings are darned expensive to maintain or replace and it may be that the privately owned fee payable moorings may eventually become unusable. Maybe that's what the landowners have in mind, charge whilst the mooring is safe then close it. We shall see.

One of the best things we ever bought was a spidercatcher from Lakeland. Hands don't have to get anywhere near the darn things and you can then deposit them wherever you want. We have one on the boat and after being at home for 6 weeks during the school holidays, the spiders had taken over the bathroom. I caught 15 large ones in one go in the spidercatcher, if I had had to use my hands I would have gone spare! Only £9.95 and worth every penny. Catches all sorts of bugs, wasps seem to have taken over some spots and they got dealt with very easily.

It would always be in the wrong place!

The sign on the metre very clearly says 'mooring charges'. Maybe one day someone might use it and then give us chapter and verse on it, maybe.........!

I blame it all on Brexit!

The Red Lion has a sign outside saying they are dog-friendly. A nice pub too.

Aldeby Hall is well worth a payment of £5 for a 24 hour mooring, they also have no objection if you want to stay for 48 or 72 hours as long as you pay. You can't stay for more than 24 hours on a BA mooring whatever. It is a quiet mooring and you can fish there. The walks around are lovely, riverbank or around the fishing lakes or across fields. If you want to be nearer Beccles, you could stop at the recently refurbished moorings a little further upstream, the name of the property escapes me at present. They are charging £8 for 24 hours with no facilities. Not as nice as Aldeby IMO.

Welcome from me too. After a long break you will still be re-discovering all the lovely places to visit and moor despite your visit this year. Any questions that crop up I am sure you will find the answers here. Spring will (I hope!) come very quickly, my favourite time of year on the Broads.

Oh dear, now you've made that public knowledge it will probably be even more difficult to stop at Church Fen and Rockland Staithe! It does seem to me that there have been more large visiting craft this year than usual, maybe some of them think that the bye-laws don't apply to them. Mind you, there are plenty of regular boaters that think that too aren't there?!

I have often seen Silver Melody (from Silverline of course) out and about with one person on board. I would think a smallish aft cockpit cruiser like that would be ideal to hire for a solo cruise.

I rather think the problem may be the overstayers at Whitlingham, Brundall Church Fen and Bramerton. The BA seem to ignore what goes on in these areas and turn a blind eye to boats moored for a few days at a time. You're absolutely right though, it's certainly a me, me, me attitude.

Whoever the moorings are/were owned by, they are now under the stewardship of the BA.

I would say that the mill moorings are not officially open yet as BA moorings, no doubt the tape will be removed in due course. Those mill moorings have been available for use for a long while now, nobody bats an eyelid if boats are there. I thought I read somewhere that some of the land there is RSPB land but I have no idea which area. The signs very clearly state that they are BANP moorings - Berney Mill.

I got on a bus from Norwich to Wroxham last week around 4pm. Lots of young people on it returning home from school. I reckon every one of them was plugged in to earphones! Whatever happened to conversation? Having said that, they all said thank you to the driver as they got off, very impressive.

The BA have now taken over the Berney Mill moorings so you don't need to use the Berney Arms moorings. Half of the Burgh Castle moorings are closed as they are unsafe but in early October you shouldn't find it too busy anyway. The only problem we have found at that time of year is possible fog early mornings, we were once stuck at Burgh Castle for over 24 hours waiting for the next suitable tide and hoping it wouldn't be foggy again.

Sadly the young lady died in hospital, there are now flowers at the location in the Yacht Station.

Chartered is only another word for hired surely? Where is it stated that only private boats can fly red ensigns? I'm not meaning to be argumentative, I am genuinely interested.

I have seen the new NYA hire boats, Moneypenny and Cover Girl, with red ensigns presumably provided by the hire company.