SwanR

A quick search on Amazon turned up this one. Herbert Woods - A Famous Broadland Pioneer by Jennifer Woods. A few copies currently available.

It doesn't matter how many times you get out on the rivers, there's always things to do and things to see ... and you come home every time looking forward to the next time.

As all those before me have said, welcome along and what a lovely boat. Will try to remember the name and say hello if we see you anywhere next year.

Wonderful write up Helen, and beautiful photos. It was really lovely to finally manage to be close enough to meet up, we certainly must do it again next year. I'm sure we'll find somewhere. Thank you to both yourself and Graham for making me so welcome. Not forgetting Seren who is absolutely adorable! Hope the agility class went well yesterday.

Loving seeing all your photos and reading about where you went. Glad you managed to get in at Irstead. Having experienced how busy it is in the summer months it always seems so strange to come past empty moorings but that really is the joy of being out of the main season. It's a toss up in the end between the daylight hours and the chance of warmer weather against the delight of having popular moorings to oneself.

Agreed. Great write up and so interesting to hear how you feel now you’re in the syndicate. Loved our holidays at Caister many years ago at the Haven holiday park. As for Hemsby, we drove past a couple of months ago and I can’t understand why the Pontins site is just sitting there derelict. Strange place.

Beautiful photos and what a glorious start to your week. :)

So this appears to be an ongoing issue. Seemed to be resolved by clearing my cache on Chrome a couple of days ago but today I had to sign in again, despite having ticked the "remember me" box. And once signed it it gave me the error message before loading perfectly normally once I clicked on my saved view.

Our first hire was Gracious Girl from Summercraft back in the 90s. There was a long gap until we returned in 2012. We would have gone back to them if they had a boat that suited us. It will be a shame if this is true as their boats still look so distinctive out on the rivers.

Lovely photos. Enjoying your write up. We were fortunate to get onto a mooring at Irstead in March as there were so few boats out, that was one place that I wanted to tick off my list.

I do love the John Lewis advert this year. Almost made me cry. Poor Edgar.

We really only go to the pubs for a meal mostly at lunchtime and never just for a drink! Each to their own. But we also rarely use electric hookup when we’re out in March or October. We don’t like restricting ourselves as to moorings. With a good 3 to 4 hours cruising each day we run the heating on board for an hour or so in the morning and evening and find that mostly that’s ok.

Interesting to read your thoughts Simon. I think it has felt colder sooner this autumn. Even in October we didn’t have the kind of weather we’ve had other years. But I think the darker evenings are a disadvantage too. Once you put the lights on and pull the curtains or cover the windows it’s a long evening.

Clearing the cache and all the browsing data does seem to have sorted this out. Thanks for the advice. :)

I’ve been having the same issue on Chrome on my Mac but it’s been fine on Safari on my iPhone. Will have to try clearing the cache although I’ve not had a problem with any other sites. Has there been any kind of software upgrade recently?

Take it easy and have a safe trip home.

Lovely photo Simon. It was nice to say hello this afternoon. Helen had kindly invited me over given that I have been at the caravan for a couple of days at Lowestoft. Only a 30 minute drive to Loddon and up to 2 hours free parking in the car park at the Staithe. Took a little snap as I left.

What a beautiful day it turned into. Lovely photos. Have a great day whatever your destination.

Anyone who owns their own boat will know how it handles and probably have the experience to make the necessary judgment call. But how many times have we read posts on here, on other forums and on social media, pointing fingers or having a go at some poor person who has got themselves in a situation they should have avoided. For that reason I firmly believe that we should all do the responsible thing. Hirers often come in for criticism, sometimes deserved, sometimes not. But we should never encourage them to disregard the water level gauges or the stated air draft of their boat. It might be more than just their own holiday they spoil if they get it wrong. Just my own opinion.

We were in something of a similar position on Zircon Emblem recently. I'm sure that boat goes under Ludham Bridge a lot of the time, especially at low tide, but we knew there was a chance that if the river levels were high, we wouldn't get up the Ant. It seems to happen frequently in October. We've also hired both Silver Emblem and Moon Beam (when it went from Horizoncraft at Acle) and we stayed along the Bure and Thurne on both of those. It's fine when you're on a short break but is restrictive when you're out for longer. However I would never encourage people to try any bridge thinking that the gauges are inaccurate and you've probably got more room. To me, as a hirer, it's not worth the risk.

Well Richardson’s have just put 2021 on sale!!!

Thank you for your kind comments. The music always takes me longer to decide on than putting the video together. I’m quite particular about the feel of the finished piece. I chanced on the singer Lizz Wright when I found her version of Southern Nights.

I’m not sure about plans for next year yet. I did love being out in March and would be tempted to choose that over October. I loved the quiet of less boats being out, the solitude of having the moorings to oneself on occasion and the abundant wildlife with the coming of spring. Hmmm .... must give that some serious consideration.

Thanks for your reply Simon. That is absolutely right. The shower was lovely but I think the toilet certainly used a lot of water. We're always very conservative with our water usage when we're afloat but were filling up the water every day instead of every other day. I was surprised by how deep that back step was and almost tripped over the ledge of the door on one occasion. I don't know whether the depth of the steps made the floor any lower and gave the extra head height. As for the bed being so close to the door I think with it only being 36 feet in length this is how they fitted a large double in. The bed was definitely bigger than the usual double on a boat. There is definitely enough head room all through the boat. My husband is 6'4 and on most boats would be wearing a baseball cap all week to avoid banging his head but didn't have any problems on Zircon. However the upholstery is a different matter. It hasn't worn that well and the light colour was a mistake. Chatting to various lads at the yard, the fit out wasn't done by FM. I've checked out the photos of Silent Emblem and Fair Marquess at NBD. I think they're the same boat but they've learnt one or two things about the design of the living area.

Enjoyed reading your write up. Ferry Marina is a good yard to hire from in our experience. And Horning makes a good location to start and finish.