SwanR

Apologies if anyone else has already posted this somewhere. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-33737486 This is the fish and chip shop in Beach Road at Hemsby. Eight fire crews attended and according to a BBC radio Norfolk reporter, the shop has been completely destroyed. What a shame just at the height of the family holiday season.

Pyes Mill Common, Loddon Basin and Langley Dyke are regular stops for us when hubby wants to fish.

Alan I really enjoy reading your tales and looking at your photos. Thank you for sharing them.

I would like just to add that it's perhaps also not helpful when you read posts on any forum, or hear comments in videos, that the bridge height gauges are not always accurate. Bridge height one thing, air draft another but still got through with more to spare than expected. Giving the impression that hire companies may exaggerate the clearance needed and that the bridge height gauges may show lower than the space under the bridge, only encourages people to take chances.

Someone I know is out on the Broads at the moment on their Dutch barge - Notso. They wintered down in Devon and have been making their way back up round the coast. They are now spending some time up and down the the rivers, both north and south. A few days ago they went through Wroxham Bridge. Here's the video. https://youtu.be/ACLpdoNHksU

Lol, welcome back then. I have only joined recently but it's lovely to have somewhere to chat about our favourite place with other people who understand completely the attraction of being out on the rivers. It's hard to do it justice when trying to describe it to someone who's never been. Hard to put into words why it feels so different to be sat on a boat on the river rather than sat on the bank watching.

Iain, I would think that the ferry could be quite an expense if you lived there, although I would imagine frequent travellers must have some reduced price option. We always book the ferry with the hotel and sometimes get the crossing thrown in for free if we've booked a special offer. David, I work with someone who grew up in Portsmouth but never went to the Isle of Wight. I was amazed how you could live that close and never have got on one of the ferry, catamaran or hovercraft services for a day trip. Mind you, we've never stopped in Portsmouth to have a proper look around the harbour to the city.

We moored at North Cove in June and it was my favourite mooring of the week. Really lovely spot. But you only get two or three boats at each of those moorings so when it's busier in July and August I don't know whether they tend to be free or are a bit like Instead on the north - lucky to ever find the mooring free. I think there's also another mooring just outside Beccles which is private land but there's an honesty box for leaving a donation for staying overnight.

Thanks David. Do you know, so many people that I mention the Isle of Wight to when we go there, start to reminisce about holidays they've had down there as well. You might be thinking of this hotel - Spitbank Fort. http://www.amazingvenues.co.uk/venue/spitbank-fort/

Whenever we go to Bembridge I do like to check the cruise ship schedule - it will usually be a couple of hours after the ship leaves Southampton before we can see it ... and in October it's almost dark by then so not always easy to see them. But the larger Brittany ferries are also quite impressive when you see them come close by.

We've been talking about this at work and decided as we have no real need to take Windows 10 we are going to leave it. The main reason is that we have no idea whether it would be compatible with all the other software we use. So if you have other programs that you use a lot you might want to err on the side of caution rather than taking it and then wanting to roll your computer back if there are any compatibility issues.

Well having enjoyed putting some of my recent Broads photos into two slideshows on YouTube I decided to see what else I had got. Having checked back over the last few years I seem to have been a little obsessed with boats of various kinds and was surprised just how many photos I had accumulated. So I thought I would share some of them here even though they're not the Broads. First I turned to one of my other favourite places to go - Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. Now at this point you may see why things might appear to be a little obsessive. I know the Portsmouth webcam has been mentioned before but as someone who goes by ferry from this port I have found it fascinating to watch. http://www.hmswarrior.org/webcam And if you then use this in conjunction with http://www.john-ambler.com/ais/google.html if you see a boat and you want to know what it is, you can find out - see where it's going and the route where it's come from as well. Anyway ... I wanted to experiment a little with a couple of the programs on my Mac that I had never used. Some of the photos on this video are not the best quality as I zoomed in a long way to take them. The volume on the soundtrack seemed to come out a little loud so be prepared ... Boats of the Isle of Wight and the Solent ... enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRRFcmdOx4

Welcome along. Not been here long myself but I used to read the forum all the time so thought I might as well join in.

Lovely photos Eric ... but I'd still take Norfolk any day.

There's another report on this site with some photos. http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2015-07-25/summer-soaking-sparks-floods/ Apparently the wettest place was Norwich. And there was flash flooding in Bishop's Stortford which is just over the border from Essex into Hertfordshire. It was certainly a very soggy day down here in Essex but the garden needed it. It's been so dry for so long we've been watering our flowers most evenings for several weeks.

I did take a look at the camera a few times this afternoon just to see if there was any chaos. I wondered whether the high winds were a factor as I saw some very strange manoeuvres!

Andrew there is every chance that you will indeed be hooked. We don't feel inclined either to want to go abroad these days. Went on a boating holiday for the first time in a long time back in 2012 and have been twice a year every year since then.

We have had Silver Emblem and it was a very comfortable boat and lovely to steer plus we liked the all inclusive price from Ferry Marina.

We always enjoy mooring at the yacht station and going for a wander around Beccles. Going in June we haven't needed to book but if I was wanting to go in August I would be tempted to book- it could be quite a long journey to get back up the Waveney to anywhere else were the yacht station to be full. Either that or be prepared to moor up quite early to be on the safe side.

Enjoy your holiday Andrew. I would be interested to know how you like the boat as we haven't hired this kind of cruiser yet. Certainly looks like a lovely boat.

The reason that hubby and I like to have bow thrusters available is just to give us a bit extra control and reassurance when arriving or departing from a mooring. As there's only the two of us we don't have spare crew to get off and take the ropes, one person front and one person back. Now I know there are other people who solo helm and manage the whole lot themselves, but it really helps for me to know that while hubby is dealing with the stern, if the bow starts to drift I can bring it back to where it needs to be - I'm always at the helm to moor up or to leave the moorings while hubby deals with the ropes. Admittedly having now had more experience I hardly used them on our last trip but would still prefer to know I have that option.

Enjoyed reading your tale and looking forward to hearing how you get on in August. Which boat are you hiring?

I've let my passport run out and haven't got around to renewing it. Guess that means I'll just have to keep coming back to the Broads. Going over the Dartford Crossing is the more expensive way out of Essex ... they don't have border controls or charges to get into Suffolk and beyond.

I love your description of the "mud weight police" at Ranworth. We do sometimes see boats moored stern-on that seem completely oblivious to putting down their mud weight. You mentioned about yacht crews ... the worst one I encountered was a man on his own who came whizzing up the starboard side of Swan Reflection2 as we were going down the Chet at 3 to 4 mph. Being in that style of boat I had no way of seeing him on my inside until he was level with the front windows. Really dangerous thing to do as I could easily have pulled over towards the bank at any time. I wasn't a long way out either. Sorry ... back on topic ... I agree that Ludham Bridge is an interesting place ... hubby tends to let me take the helm at that point!

Welcome Sue. We also have that dream of moving to Norfolk but it's that old conundrum - move and hope to find a job or wait until retired! Some days I dream of handing in my notice and moving anyway but it's not reality so we have taken to hiring two boats a year at the moment. I think what everyone says about being bitten by the bug once you arrive on the Broads is so true. Not sure I would want to hire a cottage again now that we've been out on the rivers.