YnysMon

Enjoy! We had one of their takeaways last May and it was very good.

I have been contemplating retirement these past couple of months. There are changes afoot with our pension scheme, and if I wanted to get out before that happened I would have had to put in my resignation by today. But I haven't, so that's me working for the next few years I guess. The past two and a half years have been interesting though. I've been fortunate to have been offered secondments to temporary roles. The latest one was a bit scary for the first couple of months, as there was so much to learn. However, they do say a change is as good as a rest.

Thanks Ian. I sorted through my freezer yesterday and found several items from 2020. Whoops! Today I have plans to make cranberry sauce, bread sauce in preparation for tomorrow's dinner, and also prepare a nut loaf for Graham. Harry and I are having turkey as usual, but Graham gave up meat a few months ago. I'm also planning to make some raspberry jam, having taken two large containers of pureed raspberries out of the freezer yesterday. I cooked down and sieved the raspberries in the summer but was too lazy to get around to making the jam.

Merry Christmas, hope it's a good one for everyone. Helen and Graham

I’ve liked the post Ian, but the last sentence was a bit ominous!

I don't think previous experience of boating is guaranteed to be a help, it just depends what type of boating. Last July we took my 89 year old father in law with us for the first time. He was the skipper of a lifeboat in the 1970s and used to man the rescue launch during sailing races in Trearddur Bay, but he still did some zig-zagging on Moonlight Shadow when he first took the helm. He'd never helmed anything that slow before. As posters above have pointed out, it takes a while for the boat to react when you turn the wheel.

One piece of advice, take it nice and slow, and try to remember that when things don't go quite as planned. it’s in those situations when most us of newbies panic and put on too many revs and lose what control we had. Keep the tide table to hand (or an app such as Aweigh) so that you have an idea what the tide is doing. Also, there are lots of resources online which will help you get your bearings. e.g. Barnes Brinkcraft has an interactive map showing moorings, pubs etc. There’s lots of info on the Broads Authority website. The website that has helped me most though is this one: https://www.mynorfolkbroadsboating.co.uk/ Lots of good advice on moorings, bridge heights, how to moor/leave a mooring and links to a good tide table. Also, I used to follow Grendel’s practice of reversing out of a mooring whatever the tide. I’m sure that’s much the best option if you do not have any crew to help out. It worked for me on several hires and our first few trips on our syndicate boat Moonlight Shadow anyway, and that’s what we still do when leaving if the tide is flowing toward our stern. However, I don’t do that any longer if the tide is onto our bow, unless the wind is fresh and blowing us onto the bank. I find that having crew to push the bow out, assisted by the tide taking the bow out further (and maybe some more help from bow thrusters) is all I need.

There's a page on the Broads Authority website that explains the process. Here: Bridge heights and openings (broads-authority.gov.uk)

Grapes seems a very familiar surname to those who have hired from Hunter’s Yard. Is it just a common local surname or a family deeply connected with boats?

I infuse the onion studded with cloves in the milk along with some peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves (I use fresh ones from the bay tree I have in the garden, but I'm sure dried ones would be fine). I bring it almost to the boil and then let it cool a while before straining off the onion and other gubbins. It's always tasted great, even when I do a non-dairy version with dairy free marg instead of butter. Oh, and I also use nutmeg at the end too.

It is good to catch up with family. We had a holiday on the Broads with my cousins a few years back and it turned into an annual event (though not on the Broads), until 2020 came along.

Yes, but...as MM commented, it probably won't end well as most of us have entrenched opinions on the subject. Maybe time to withdraw from this thread agreeing to disagree. I just think it's a shame that a post on saving lives should be dragged into the political realm.

That was some breakfast! By the way, welcome to the forum Marge and Parge! Helen

It's a shame about The Angel. New owners took over not that long ago (just before Covid struck I think?) and they seemed to be attracting really good reviews for their food offering. I had been hoping we'd visit sometime.

Qualified people from other countries who are currently employed have a good chance. Qualified people displaced by war and other circumstances, not so much. Many of them when they reach this country are barred from working until their status is sorted out.

That looked like a plateful and a half. Did you have room for Christmas pud?

I wish I could like the last couple of posts several times.

If you get a boat with shore power you can be nice and toasty all night. Graham and I started taking a small dimplex electric radiator with us on our last three hires. Now that we have a share in Moonlight Shadow we have two. It costs us about £1.70 to run both overnight, depending on how cold it is and whether we keep it on low or ramp it up to max. We’ve taken to using it on the inverter instead of using the Webasco when we are cruising along on overcast days. No heating needed on sunny days. I can’t recall when I was last cold on a boat, and that includes a couple of November trips, couple of February ones and March.

I shall try to remember that. I don’t normally do Facebook.

That’s a relief! I was wondering if something dire had happened.

That sounds good!

Having heard many tales from my father in law, who skippered the first rib lifeboat to be stationed in Trearddur Bay, I'm not surprised that some lifeboats went independent at some stage or other. His frustration (this was in the 70s) was not having communication equipment that worked properly, so once they had launched it was difficult to check out latest position of casualty and so on. I do admire the RNLI and all the independent services though. I've been catching up with the latest series of Saving Lives at Sea on iPlayer recently. Episode 6 featured the rescue of a surfer that I reported on in a post I did back in May. We happened to be visiting Trearddur Bay at the time and saw the rib lifeboat coming back in. The conditions were horrendous. I noticed over the course of the whole series that there were several incidents reported from the same weekend. Griff, I think your support for the rescue services is great, but I do recommend that you watch the final episode of the Saving Lives at Sea series, which involved the rescue of refugees off the south coast, it might help you see their plight with a new light. They might be illegal immigrants, but it takes a lot for most people to leave their home and risk everything, including their lives. I can't imagine how desperate people must be to pack their family onto such a small and overloaded vessel. When they returned from that shout the skipper remarked that the crew had abuse shouted at them from some bystanders who had collected by the quayside, for rescuing illegal immigrants, but he explained that they have a duty to rescue all. It's a shame that their funding efforts should be affected by that. By the way, there were children on board the rescued vessel.

I noticed that when we visited the beach that Caister lifeboat service is independent too.

Me too!

Ooo, I like this perfecting the recipe malarkey. I don’t have the patience myself, but I’m looking forward to the final recipe that you settle on.