SwanR

Helen such sad news. That must be a real shock. We're definitely doing the best we can here to follow what has been said. I felt like a walk after I finished working today, it looked so lovely outside. But I didn't want to do it and spent five minutes in the garden instead.

Looking good Griff. My husband did the same with our patio yesterday to treat it for black spot. Ian great idea for people to have an outlet and a place for social contact while needing to be as isolated as yourself.

Great write up. Life is changing all around us but keep that dream alive of being back when we come out the other side of today’s madness.

That explains a conversation that I overheard when we had lunch in there a couple of weeks ago.

There’s lots of little pathways called Scores in Lowestoft that take you up from the old beach village area to the top of the cliff. They have a race every year where people run along the seafront then up a very steep hill along the cliff top then up and down some of the scores.

Oooo err ... I have just found time to read this thread through ... I'm not managing to solve any of these clues, I can only see what they are once someone has said the answer. So where are we up to with this one as I've been around Corton a few times. I can see how that would fit the first clue. What do we have to get next?

Here’s to you Ian I hope that the coming year will soon be feeling better than it must be to you right now. Best wishes to you and Marina to stay safe and well.

I have posted this on other topic as well but wanted to make sure everyone sees it. Richardson’s are now closed until at least the end of April. https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/covid-19-closure/

Apologies if someone else has already posted this but Richardson’s are now closed until at least the end of April. https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/covid-19-closure/

Take care of yourselves JM. All of a sudden the world is a different place. I have been seeing the reports of boatyards deciding to close and some holiday parks. Guess it was only a matter of time.

There are demisters on Swan Reflection and they do work. We found them very helpful when we were out a couple of weeks ago. I've not come across them on any other hireboats that we've had as far as I can recall.

Strange day as we lost my mother-in-law at the end of January. But it's tears of joy today for the life she lived. She was 100 after all and we're glad she's not going through the isolation this virus would have brought. She was the most amazing woman I have ever known. Such a spirit of generosity and love. Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there.

Incidentally, I unreservedly apologise to @princess and @JennyMorgan as only two to three weeks ago on this thread we were talking about whether or not holiday companies like Haven should be starting to allow people to cancel or rebook holidays. And at the time I took the view that as businesses they couldn't afford to. Well look where we are only a relatively short time later. So much of the leisure industry shut down and a lot of our day to day normality on hold. All I can say is that your crystal balls must have been working better than mine and I didn't quite see this coming!! Ooops ... not allowed to do that any more.

A tricky decision to make until nearer the time that you have booked I suspect. However now that my team are working from home, and depending on the restrictions in place over the next few months, I can't see many of them taking leave. Our workload is uncertain as we work with schools and don't know yet how the closures will impact that. if we take a leap of faith that we are starting to come out of this in September, then that will be a lot of leave for everyone to cram in before end of December (our leave year goes with the calendar year). I'm hoping that carrying over leave will be allowed and then issues such as yours will be easier to manage.

Good to hear that things may be returning to something more as one might expect. That's certainly a bitingly cold wind coming in off the sea today, straight from the east.

Just trying to keep myself socially distanced from Helen!

It's the same everywhere. But can you just confirm ... were you joking or have you really bought all that? And yes I have read your further reply but I'd still like to be sure as to whether this is for real.

So today was day one of working from home. I used my lunch break to walk round the corner to the Co-op and got almost everything I wanted apart from eggs!! As my work is with schools we now expect to see a shift in what is coming into us. It's going to be a very strange few months, especially with exams being cancelled. I will be interested to see how that works out.

Thanks David, I'm glad that you enjoyed it. The music I use on my videos is always tracks that I own, so it is music that I like. But you're right that it's balanced with what you're allowed to use these days on YouTube. As a creator there is an area where you can check copyright details of tracks as to whether if used your video will be viewable worldwide, blocked in certain countries or muted. It always takes me longer to put the music on than it does to pull together the clips and photos. I am quite fussy and I have a feel that I'm trying to achieve. If it doesn't feel right to me then the search goes on until I find a track I think fits and that passes the copyright issue as far as I can tell. I think I've got better at trimming the footage or fading the music so that it fits together more exactly.

Ah well. We first hired this boat back in 2012 as novices ourselves when it was based on the southern rivers. Weather was great, loved the boat, and there we were hooked. Both Reflections were newer than the other boats and we just stuck with them. The bedroom and bathroom space is a bit cramped admittedly but we knew what we were getting. We are looking around at what we might book next and it could be time for a change.

Same here Helen. It was a very strange and unsettling day, packing up our things and saying goodbye with no idea when we will actually all be able to be together again. I am quite sure that I am not going to feel as motivated or get as much done from home.

Finally for this trip, here's my video. I was at the helm most of the time so didn't get very much footage while cruising. But I do enjoy putting something together as a memory of my holiday. Enjoy!

Swan Reflection 2 Between numbers 1 and 2 we have hired this boat around six times now. It is best described as compact being only 31 feet long. The brochures tend to describe it as an ideal starter boat. What can I say ... comfortable, steers in a straight line, easy to moor, very good bow thrusters ... and I still think that the ex-Swancraft boats have the best electric toilets on the Broads! My worst mooring was Ludham Bridge for water. The wind was pinning us to the bank and even with the bow thrusters I could not get the boat away. In the end Mr SR pulled us round by the bow rope to give me enough of an angle to reverse out. My best mooring was coming in at Sutton which restored my confidence after the experience at Ludham Bridge .... and of course as we got in by the water point we needn't have actually stopped earlier after all. Here's a few photos of the interior for anyone who might be hiring this boat. And yes, I would definitely hire it again.

The Boat Yard We hired from Richardson's. The staff were very friendly and the handover sufficient as we have had this boat many times. We were delighted to leave the yard around 1.45pm. Reception opens at 1pm for checking in. Yes it can feel a bit like a conveyor belt but it works for them. I haven't been there at a really busy time of year so can't comment on how that works on a busy Saturday afternoon mid-season but it all worked very smoothly for us, as it has done on our previous visits. Unfortunately we did have the engineers out three times, all for the same problem. They were very good when we called and it didn't inconvenience us as we were moored up for a while anyway. They were very polite and always cleared everything up once they had finished. Basically when hooked up to the shore power the inverter didn't work for more than a few minutes. Very odd. Each time they came out they thought they had fixed it only for us to find later on that it still wasn't working. In the end it turned out that the cable wasn't working properly, or wasn't the right one. So it was drawing too much power and overloading the inverter. We also reported that the rev counter was only working intermittently. Didn't matter to us but I think if you were a first time hirer and had been told for example that 1200 revs = 4mph, but then the rev counter stopped working, you might feel a little unsure of what your speed was. Hopefully they have fixed this now. I have to give a thumbs up for the overall package. I do think that they are hard to beat for price. They haven't entered into the last minute discounts that other yards have started doing and I like that. They are one of only a couple of yards where I would now feel safe to book very far in advance.

March Hiring and the Weather!! I would definitely hire in March again, this is the third year that we have done so. The weather was grey and cloudy for two days, then bright and sunny for two days. However the whole week was windy, 25mph winds rising to 45 mph the last day or two. Barton Broad was very choppy and there were waves on the Bure in particular. We seemed to be going against the wind and the tide a lot of the time - we didn't try to factor that in when deciding where to go. We had the heating on quite a bit which probably accounted for a good part of our diesel costs which were £59. Two nights were stern on mooring and two nights were side on. Didn't make much difference in the wind. Noisiest nights we have had on a boat ever. Bouncing against the quay if moored stern on, ropes creaking when moored side on. I would however go later in the month next time. This is the first year that we have gone before the end of the fishing season and it definitely made a difference. More boats out, still plenty of room at most moorings but we didn't get the solitude that we got last year when 3 out of 4 nights we were the only boat where we moored up. I missed that. On the subject of the fishing Mr SR caught a very nice bream and perch at Ranworth. At Sutton he was catching lots of tiddlers!! Where to Eat? We had some very nice bacon baps at Bridgestone's in Potter Heigham before we picked up the boat on day one. That was sufficient and saved us cooking on the boat later ... I didn't cook on the boat all week. The Sutton Staithe Hotel was doing a lunchtime deal of two courses for £7.95. I can recommend the ham, egg and chips followed by apple pie and custard. Great value, large portions - just basic food at an affordable price. Our favourite this time around was The Maltsters at Ranworth. I've not been a huge fan in the past but it's probably a few years since we ate there. The food was so good that we went there twice for lunch - scampi and chips both times. We also went in there one evening for a drink, which is something that we rarely do. The atmosphere and the staff were very friendly and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.