SwanR

Congratulations to all the family. Hope your daughter and grandson are doing well. Lovely photos.

Too late for this year Helen, but next year watch out for Barnes Brinkcraft's brochure competition ... don't know why I'm telling people rather than keeping the chance of winning a holiday voucher to myself! :) Lovely photos - Womack Dyke is one of our favourite spots and we also prefer that to the stern-on mooring at the staithe.

In agreement with everyone else ... beautiful photos Helen and a lovely write-up. You certainly covered some miles.

Brilliant, thank you. I have bookmarked that one and added to my list of webcams I like to check from time to time.

More lovely photos. Enjoying seeing where you went.

That's really useful to know about the new moorings in Short Dyke. :)

Lovely photos. What a parade across Breydon. The boat you saw is Excelsior which you can read about here. We saw it sailing off the coast that weekend while we were at the caravan. I got some photos but when the sun was shining the sails were down, when I saw it the next day the fog was rolling in.

Enjoying reading your write-up Helen. It certainly does make a difference when the bed is made up for you. Just one of those nice little touches that helps you to settle in quickly. I found it took quite a while to get used to Sonnet's steering earlier in the year ... I thought I was past the point of zigzagging down the river but this wasn't as responsive as other boats we have had. Incidentally, when out on Fair Prince we were told that we would probably have to start the engine to get the heating on in the mornings if we weren't on an electric hookup somewhere. Being October it was pretty chilly and sure enough we had to do exactly that although we did try to wait until after 7am but we do like an early start.

Loving your write-up and the photos. My visit to Norwich was not whilst out boating so I have yet to experience the pleasure of arriving by river. One day ... The cathedral is hugely impressive but as a grown-up (allegedly!) I wish they would leave those kind of places out of school trips. I don't think as a child that one appreciates the beauty and the sheer triumph of how anything like that was built.

Thanks for sharing the photos. I am hoping that the river levels will have dropped when we're next out ... short legs and very high tides are not a great combination for getting on and off a boat!!

What are the moorings like at Thurne Dyke these days? That's another one we haven't done yet.

What he said! :)

Great start to your trip. Looking forward to reading how the rest of your days progressed.

The worst thing is that once heard it's hard to ignore especially in the otherwise very quiet early hours of the morning! It's only happened to us a couple of times. Doesn't matter which way you are facing at a side on mooring, if the tide turns in the middle of the night it will get you one way or the other!

March is a great time to be out on the rivers. I'm sure it will all come together perfectly. :)

Can only agree with everyone else. Great write up, loved seeing all your photos ... and interesting little nugget there about the church mooring. Will look out for whether that is free next time we are along that way. :)

It needs a major transformation for us to ever want to stop there. Looks dowdy and far too commercial and the last time we ate there the food really wasn't good. Shame as it's such a prime location.

I usually love this programme but I just can't sit through the two hour long shows with all the dancers still in at the start of the series. Not finding this year's celebrities very engaging so I recorded the show and then just whizzed through the dances. And they keep changing the pros as well so I don't feel I know them as well this year either. However Debbie and Giavanni made a very sweet couple and Alexandra was simply amazing. That's one dance I will definitely find on YouTube to watch again tomorrow.

Been watching the webcam ... still looks very busy in Wroxham this afternoon. Two of the large trip boats have been caught up in chaos getting back into NBD. Boats all over the place trying to decide where to go and generally drifting around. Everything I've been reading on Facebook as well sounds as if the northern rivers are still packed. Hoping it quietens down soon for our return.

Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery from this little mishap. Hope you are feeling more comfortable now.

The company I work for has several feedback mechanisms in place and the positive feedback that we get from our customers far outweighs the negative. We pass it on to the person concerned and the best comments go into our internal newsletter as well. When we close a case an automated email goes out with a link to a survey. And when we close a remote session on someone's computer the option is there to leave feedback. If the customer leaves their contact details then we call them back to ask if they would like to discuss any negative comments left. "A complaint is a gift" as someone said on a training course I attended some years ago. Without the negative feedback we can't improve the customer experience. Yes it is early in the day to be quoting my customer service management handbook. Anyway ... I would urge everyone to remember to send in positive comments. It really boosts morale and motivates people to care about doing a good job.

We always report issues to the staff in the office when we take our buoyancy aids back or sort out the fuel deposit. They are always noted down ... and that's the best you can do really. But I think the option to fill in a feedback form to include any issues is a good idea. We've had that on other holiday types, particularly hotels, and it only takes a few minutes to fill in. Having said that, many of these have switched to emailing you a link for a survey. That would be fine for feedback but wouldn't help with sorting out repairs.

Very interesting to read your review of the boat. Have to say that I think that the electric toilets used on the Swancraft boats are absolutely the best of all the hire boats we have had from various yards. With two of us aboard we have done short breaks and full weeks with just the one toilet. Careful use of water for washing up and showers has meant we only ever need to fill up the water every couple of days, sometimes not even that. And we have never needed a pumpout. So each to their own. For us Richardson's felt too large and too much like a holiday camp check-in ... but the lure of the ex-Swancraft boats might prove too much at some point!!

The ex-Swancraft boats certainly seem to be bringing in good business for Richardson's. First boat hubby and I hired together back in 2012 was Swan Reflection. We chanced upon something that has been hard for anything else to live up to. And given that we hadn't researched anything, read anything online, watched videos or anything like that, we weren't worried at all about the southern rivers and fell in love with that side of the Broads.

Enjoyed your video as always Bryan. Thanks for sharing it. :)