johnsherz

Cheers folks! The wedding won't be for a couple of years yet, we're going to have to do some saving up for that first, but I think you can guess where we'll be going on the honeymoon. :)

Well for those of you still following this old thread... We made it down to Salhouse on Monday with our tent, on the anniversary of our getting together. While sitting on a bench at the edge of the Broad, reminiscing about times gone by, I popped the question. She said yes. :)

Fair do's, not worth spending a fortune on if you only use it now and again. For a cheap lightweight option though, you could buy just the furry windshield bit off ebay for a few pounds and attach it to your camera's mic. If the mic is built into the body of the camera (by which I mean it's flush and doesn't stick out), you can cut a small square of the furry stuff out, apply a little glue around the sides of the mic grille, and stick a patch of fur over the top. Costs less than a fiver, and won't add to the weight and bulk of the cam. Anyway, the wind noise is just nit-picking, great video though! Look forward to the next one...

Great video! Some cracking wildlife shots there, particularly liked that little grebe trying to swallow a fish! Regarding the wind noise that you mentioned, what camera did you film this with? If it's got a mic socket, I'd heartily recommend an external mic. I use a Rode Stereo Videomic Pro, with what they charmingly describe as a "dead kitten" attached, bolted onto the top of the camera. The difference in sound quality is like the difference between night and day when there's even a little bit of wind blowing.

She's not a member of this forum by the way, but keep it under your hat hehe... :)

We shall see eh! Hoping to get to Salhouse for a camping weekend in september, that's where we first became "official".

Aye, we don't make a bad team I guess. Planning on asking her a fairly important question in the next month or two actually... ;)

Is it just me, or do fryups just seem to taste better when you're on a boat? :)

Nice one Robin, great video as always! As far as budget boats go, I rather like these bathtubs. Yeah the view is a bit low, but they're so comfortable to live on. Growing up I remember we used to hire a lot of ageing centre-cockpit cruisers, and I remember how draughty they could be at night, especially the ones that used fabric or plastic sheeting at the rear of the sliding canopy. You could be all cosy in the main living area, then it was a mad dash over the freezing cold cockpit area to get to the forward cabin! None of that in the bathtubs though, nice and warm all the way through... To quote Alan Partridge: "It might look a bit poky from the outside, but a Richardson’s boat is deceptively large. My wife and I found it actually offers the kind of luxury and comfort you’d normally associate with a good quality static caravan."

A cunning plan! Still trying to talk my folks into coming along one year...

Yes, I did look into canal boating a couple of years ago - living as we do in Stoke on Trent there's plenty of waterways nearby, but after looking at prices we soon realised that the Broads was still the best bet by far!

Alas yes - affording one week a year is tight, let alone two hehe! When I was a kid in the 80s, my parents chose the Broads because it was a relatively cheap week's holiday, sadly that no longer seems to be the case... :)

Yeah there's no mistaking the sound of a Phantom taking off is there!

Yes, I found it amongst a box of old paperwork and stuff that I was sorting out.

No, late May...

My apologies guys, it's the luck of the draw if I have the camera running at the time! We picked a great week to be out there though eh? Still got the tan to prove it...

I know they have a good reputation for keeping even their budget boats clean and well-maintained, but it really didn't seem worth calling them out for the sake of a faulty oven. Besides which we'd have lost a good half a day's cruising waiting around for engineers - we made good use of my barbeque bucket instead! :)

Of all the drone shots that I took this year, the one that launched from the boat was BY FAR the most tricky! To start with, despite doing all the correct calibration before setting off, the app kept warning of compass errors while on the boat. Why so much magnetic interference I'm not sure, given that the boat is mostly timber and fibreglass - it must have been the engine or the water/fuel tanks that were messing with the compass, but once it was in the air, no more compass errors were reported. Where I made a massive beginner's error was in the app settings though. I normally have my maximum distance setting at 500m (seeing as that's the legal limit), but of course when you're travelling down the river the home point (where you took off from) ends up being a long way behind where you currently are! After a few minutes of tracking the boat, all of a sudden it refused to go any further forward. Brown trousers moment as I realised we were driving away and leaving the drone behind! Worried that we would go out of range of the controller (which would cause the drone to go back to where it started and land itself in the river!) we quickly turned the boat around to go get it, and once I'd regained control, I brought it back to the boat and caught it one-handed in mid-air. I needed a stiff drink after that experience! Still, you live and learn eh. Turn off the maximum distance setting in the app, set it to hover instead of return to home in the event of signal loss, and preferably update your home point as you cruise down the river (not entirely sure how you do this). Food for thought for next time!

I must have an old Hoseasons holiday brochure knocking around somewhere! I've been going through boxes of old paperwork and running them through the scanner, if I stumble across it I'll post it up.

I don't think they changed much over the years, I'm pretty sure the 1988 copy looked practically identical...

Who remembers being given a copy of this on their Broads holidays many years ago? hoseasons_handbook_1994.pdf

Thanks for all the lovely comments folks, it's great to know people enjoy watching our adventures as much as we enjoy having them! Too bad us poorly peasants can only afford to do it once a year though haha. One day if the lottery numbers come up! Already counting down the days til the next one - thinking about heading further south next time, go take a look round Norwich, Oulton Broad, Brundall, places like that. Still more to investigate yet... And yes, the boat review is online now. It was thrown together in an evening, so no fancy production there, but it helps give an overview of the boat for anybody thinking about hiring it. I wish every boat available for hire had a proper review for it, it's always a bit of a gamble just going by the limited info in the brochure! Robin, keep those budget boat reviews coming, I enjoyed that one you did on Bronze Gem a few days ago!

Hi folks, Well it's been a month since the missus and I got back from our week afloat, and as is always the case, I'm missing the place already, so I've got stuck into editing the holiday video. Here it is anyway, edited highlights of probably the warmest, sunniest week I've ever experienced on the Broads!

UPDATE: No, it wasn't. :( Was expecting a warm welcome and a table from the lady that was there last year, instead we were greeted by two guys who barely spoke a word of English, and despite there being a roomful of empty tables, would only offer us takeaway - not much use given that the boat was 45 minutes' walk away! We left and wandered down to the Ship Inn instead, where the welcome, the food and the service was miles better!

Yes, that's the place. Ah well, will have to wait and see next month if it's still as good as it was this time last year...