vanessan

There is little doubt in my mind that many of Robin's ideas will eventually come to pass and my initial thought was 'please, not in my Broads lifetime'! However, if there was a way to penalise the overstayers, constant speeders etc more quickly, that would certainly get a thumbs up from me. The idea of mooring charges being taken automatically leads to another debate though - should BA moorings still be free? I'm not sure I like the idea of full technology being a draw to 'more affluent boaters', that could possibly mean more boats that some would consider not really suitable to the Broads or put hiring a boat out of the reach of some. As things are now, there is something for everyone and I hope that doesn't change for a long while.

Hope the BA don't take too much notice of this, our tolls will increase dramatically with all that waterway!

I cannot speak highly enough of Creative Covers in Catfield. They have done both inside and outside work for us, very reasonably priced and great people to deal with.

I think to anyone who really loves the Broads, cruising out of season is wonderful with empty rivers and moorings. November has mostly been very mild this year and made for some splendid cruising, I know it's all changed now though. Whilst we have our boat taken out of the water for 3/4 months over the winter, we still enjoy early and late cruising. (Ageing bones/joints and our distance from the Broads preclude us from the coldest months sadly!) It is a shame that there are not more hire boats available during the winter but, reading the reasons that Freedom limit hirings, does give a real insight to the difficulties faced by hire boat operators. One of the most fascinating books I have read is 'A Broad Experience' (Diary of a Norfolk Broads hire fleet 1999 - 2006) written by Robin Godber who owned Alexander Cruisers. I really recommend it to anyone, both current hirer and ex-hirer, it contains loads of lovely stories and really had me laughing at some of them! It was published by Hamilton Publications (who else?!) in 2010.

I am a paper person although use computer technology when called for and I do enjoy browsing online anything I need to research. But, I like to browse through catalogues/brochures and it seems a lot of us do. One thing that really irks me is the lack of paper manuals these days. I bought a new camera recently, it came with the briefest of paper instructions and I have to refer to an online manual if I want to know any more. This is annoying as I don't think I will ever get to grips with it unless I print the manual in its entirety - hundreds of pages. Or I guess I could probably purchase one from the company at an exorbitant price! When hiring boats, the brochures I used became dogeared in a very short space of time as they were so well thumbed. I still have some going back to 1982!

Mandybstorm Until last autumn, we had our terrier on a raw food diet and managed to source the raw blocks from only 2 places. The pet shop in Stalham and the pet shop in Beccles, both walkable from public moorings. I did try the pet shop in Wroxham and was referred to the angling shop (!). The guy there produced a few blocks but they were all 6 months out of date so be careful if you do go there and ask. Happily we now have our dog on a mixture of complete food and home-cooked - much easier as we spend around a third of the year afloat. vanessan