SwanR

Just a thought but if you make the fee redeemable against a meal, how is that going to work for the farmer? Personally we are happy to pay for a mooring and always ensure that we have some cash with us when we are out on a boat for exactly that reason. Let's face it, when you moor on Ranworth Island you pay for overnight and you haven't got any facilities at all.

Hope it all goes according to plan. Look forward to hearing all about your new home and how you like life living in Norfolk. :)

Great write up. I always enjoy reading other people's experience of the Broads. We almost had a close encounter with a tree similar to yours on the only occasion we have gone into Black Horse Broad ... we were going in but someone else decided that they were definitely coming out of the gates first!!

Always enjoy your videos Bryan. :)

Lovely photos. Was the garden open at that big Dutch house? I expect you know the one I mean, between the dyke and the staithe. Would love to see inside there.

I need to make a list of places to visit. Sounds as if I need to put Waterhaven on there. Probably not too far from the brewery shop at Woodbastwick as well. Hubby has run out of bottles of Wherry. ;)

So with grateful thanks for all the suggestions here, we finally made it to the garden centre at Lound yesterday. Lovely place with very helpful and friendly staff. We found a few bits and pieces that we will go back for at some point once we've sorted out a couple of other things. What we did buy were a couple of hand painted ceramic tiles for hanging on the wall of our dining room at home. One of them is a scene on a canal with narrowboats. :) And of course we had to check out their coffee shop which in itself is a handy place to know about.

The Cambridge roundabout! That certainly brought back some memories as I spent a lot of time around Southgate, Wood Green and Muswell Hill in my youth. Never drove round there though as I didn't learn until I was living in Essex. When we first moved to Chelmsford I used to try to find any alternative ways to get somewhere without having to go round the Army and Navy!! Doesn't sound as if you will have any such fears Robin. And Norfolk should be a piece of cake after London.

Evening Howard! I checked the pictures of Olympic Light and think I am correct in saying that it is very similar to Moon Beam which we hired from Horizon Craft / Richardson's last year. The view from the inside was poor but we were blessed with fantastic weather in September and didn't need to helm from anywhere other than the top every day. However there was actually a notice that was either on the inside helm or in the skipper's manual, I forget which now, that said you had to helm from on top when mooring!! That's not a great recommendation is it, rather an admission that it would be very tricky from inside!

What I love most about the Broads is simply the slower pace of life. When I get home and back to work I tell people not to expect any quick decisions as my brain is still only working at 4 miles per hour.

That is certainly a powerful piece of writing. And there's really no words to sum up what all those very brave members of our emergency services did on that night ... and will do every day. All we can do is show them our support at every opportunity. You never know ... it might be yourself or one of your family that needs them one day.

Really enjoyed reading about your trip Bryan. We had the same problem with the mop on Sonnet. Hubby commented it was the worst mop we've ever had!! And I am surprised about the little things that were not quite right on Encore given how new the boat is. I would have been disappointed with that. Still in two minds about Barnes Brinkcraft as a yard - in fairness we've only hired from them twice but they're not top of our list to go back to.

Well we walked up from the moorings to the corner of Fleet Dyke and the Bure when we were out on Sonnet in May. Just looks like that could the moorings at St Benet's at the top and Robin wild moored somewhere along there in one of his videos - Brinks Belmore?

I thought it looked like the top of Fleet Dyke with St Benet's in the distance.

Sounds like a great weekend. Looking forward to hearing about your next trip.

Lovely to read of your experiences with that bridge. Did you have a crowd watching? You might even find yourself on YouTube if anyone was filming it.

Ten years sounds like quite an achievement given how often we seem to be talking about places changing hands around the Broads. Congratulations to them for establishing what is obviously a successful, thriving and much loved business.

The yards aren't usually watching what you're taking on board. And I've never known them to have a BBQ as an optional chargeable extra. And they would charge ... if we read the paperwork correctly Barnes Brinkcraft even charge you for a mallet to use with your rhond anchors!!

I can also confirm, having hired from six different yards over the last few years, that the advice around checking and clearing the filters does vary from "please do it every day" to "we find that hirers cause more problems by trying to check them than if they left them alone". As such we really haven't worried about it for the most part. Interesting to read about the issue with the winch! And also about the bedroom layout. I am constantly disappointed by yards who build nice new boats for two but then effectively put the bed the wrong way round with the headboard in the middle of the room. That rules them out for us.

Intending to visit Reedham on one of our weekends away soon so very good to see that this is open and looks really nicely fitted out now.

Enjoying your holiday tale very much. Intriguing as to the presence of Evening Shadow everywhere you went. As for the Waveney to Beccles, I really like that stretch and always enjoy the cruise. We moored at North Cove a couple of years ago which is one of the smaller moorings along the way. Delightful and highly recommended if you happen to pass that way again and find a spot free.

What an enjoyable read and a very interesting post about how you found the Broads to be now Vaughan. Helen, NBD make considerable effort to be environmentally friendly and even had a bin for saving your recyclable items separately. A bit of a pain because they didn't really have a good space for it so we kept shuffling it around. But it did the job and we saved everything that we could.

Lovely to start reading your tale. Please do continue to write it. There's something obsessive about the Broads. No matter how many times you are there and how well you think you know it, you will pick up little things from reading about other people's trips ... and whilst wishing you were there you will still be enjoying imagining every moment.

Good to know. We didn't have any problems on Sonnet 3 a few years back. It only took so long for the engineer to fix it because of where they have located it as well. If it was more like you see on other boats, dropping over the middle of the bow on a winch, then the chap said he could have sorted it out in minutes! Still it was useful to have and we wouldn't let that put us off this or any other boat with an electric mudweight.

Personal recommendation from other people if possible is the best way to find a good instructor or driving school. My daughter did just that and they weren't the cheapest but she booked two or three lessons per week and passed first time within a few months. And that was learning around Birmingham city centre. Passing your driving test is one of very few things in life that makes an immediate difference. So good luck and I'm sure we'll all be congratulating you very soon.