YnysMon

Friday 7th May Last day. (As always, sob!) We set off fairly early again, and had breakfast whilst chugging along (I’ve got quite good at juggling toast and helming). The river was very quiet, the main interest being the antics of some swans and passing a family of geese. We didn’t go far, just to Bramerton Common. Once moored up we took Seren for a walk along the Wherryman’s Way circular route that runs between Bramerton and Surlingham Ferry. The route passes Surlingham church and, amazingly, it was open! The font looked medieval. It’s a shame we got to the Ferry Inn before they open (at 11), as I would have been very tempted to stop off for a refreshing drink. However, it only being 10.25, we continued on our loop back to Bramerton. The route back took us past this (how quaint...I mean the name)... These were on the marshes - water buffalo, or are they highland coos? The last stretch back to Bramerton. Back on board we cast off again and made our way to Brundall. We had slightly bad timing approaching the fuel quay, as a sailey under power just pipped us, and it seemed to take them a while to get someone from Brooms to serve them, so I did quite a bit of mooching about on the river until it was our turn, trying not to get in the way of other passing craft (not that there was much). The guy manning the fuel quay was very friendly, as are all Brooms’ staff, but the wind was taken out of our proverbial sails rather at the news that Brooms would no longer exchange our gas cannisters. They said our management agency should have been informed by email (they hadn’t been) and suggested we try the Blofield Farm Shop up the road. Afterward, Graham duly went to Blofield Farm Shop, to no avail. There’s a national shortage of gas cannisters apparently. We enquired about how the day boats project was going (I mentioned in an earlier post that we’d been told that moving MS to a new mooring had been prompted by plans for Brooms to operate day boats from the key heading that MS used to be on). Apparently, the plans had changed and the day boats would now be in a different location. Some of our syndicate members had been pleased about the change of mooring, but I admit that I loved the old mooring. It was great to sit in the aft well with a cold drink on a sunny evening watching passing river traffic. Very relaxing. I guess the new mooring is more sheltered, though we've yet to be there when it's windy. You never know, the buildings might cause a tunnel effect. Anyway, we needed to get on with cleaning the boat, so it was a case of mooring up in our new slot and knuckling down. We don’t mind at all doing the cleaning ourselves, it’s an opportunity to check things out in more detail. I think the general cleanliness of the boat is much better now than when we first joined the syndicate, when there was a weekly valet provided. It’s still possible to book at valet, but I think the overall standard has improved as several of our owners do the cleaning themselves. (By the way Neil, Graham was very impressed with how clean the exterior of the boat was. That new mop is really good too.) It was early evening by the time we got on our way. Once on the A47 we hit the delays caused by the traffic works south of Norwich. We crawled very slowly across the Postwick Viaduct. Once past the traffic works the journey wasn’t too bad though. So. we are back home again. Our sons have done a good job of looking after their Grandad whilst we’ve been away. And the kitchen didn’t look like a bomb had hit it. Roll on the end of June though. We are (hopefully) next on board from 26th June.

Thursday 6th May We weren’t sure where to go today. We needed to be back at Brundall by lunchtime tomorrow, so as to have time to get refuelled, pumped out and clean the boat before heading home early evening. (Graham didn’t want to miss two weeks of Seren’s agility classes.) We set off early’ish again, around 8am, to take advantage of the incoming tide upriver toward Norwich. This time we just took off straight from our mooring without faffing about pirouetting in the basin. At least that had taught me that we had more room to manoeuvre out of our spot than I had initially thought. Graham helped the boat foward with the stern rope whilst I used the bow thruster to get into a good position for the off. We thought that Whitlingham would be a good option for taking Seren for a walk, then perhaps cruise downriver again once the tide had turned…perhaps to Bramerton. I was quite amused passing under Postwick Viaduct to find we were travelling more quickly than the traffic on the bridge (not so amused on Friday when we got stuck in said traffic on our way home). Not long before we got to Whitlingham the rain set in. That moderately heavy, persistent rain that looks like it will continue all day. We just plugged into the 'leccy point, hunkered down and put our electric heaters on. There were some hardy rowers about to keep Seren alert. Some humans did a bit of rubbernecking too. A brunch was had. I’d used up all our bacon the other day for the bacon butties, but luckily had brought a tin of spam along for emergencies. (Actually, I quite like spam. Did you know it’s very popular in Hawaii…goodness knows why.) So, we had spam with fried potatoes, mushrooms, black pud, beans and scrambled egg. After lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out. We went for a walk around the Broad. Although we’ve stopped at Whitlingham a few times, it’s the first time we’ve walked all the way around. I hadn’t realised that there were some ruins there of Trowse Newton Hall, what must have formerly been quite an important building in medieval times, occupied by the Prior of Norwich. Apparently it was visited by Edward III, who arrived there by river from Norwich. We settled down on board again, Seren mostly occupied in watching the rowers that were still out on the river. For this evening’s meal we had a Co-op Antipasti Meat Selection with salad and crusty bread. We went for an evening walk, this time anti-clockwise around the lake. At least, we both walked in that direction about half way around, then Graham discovered that he’d dropped his dog whistle, so I backtracked to find that as he continued anticlockwise (as the path ahead was better for letting dogs off the lead). Luckily, the whistle is red, so it was easy to spot. We were lucky not to get rained on. There seemed to be quite a thunderstorm going on just north of us. Back on the boat, we caught the next instalment of The Nine Tailors on the radio, before turning in to bed for another early night.

Wednesday 5th May It was beautifully sunny first thing this morning. We were the first of the boats in the dyke to set off the morning, just after 8am. We needed to get a bit of a shifty on as we were aiming south again and didn’t want to hurry our way down the Ant. Traversing Barton Broad (somewhat flatter than yesterday)... Making our way down the Ant. This looks like a convoy, but it was a very small one. I would have like to have stopped at How Hill, as the Secret Gardens are at their best this time of the year, with beautiful rhododendrons and azaleas, but it was not to be. The river Ant was pretty quiet on the whole. As on the way up, we found only a few boats moored on the wild moorings, How Hill and Ludham Bridge. Once we had passed under the bridge (just over 8’ again) I phoned the Yacht Station. They advised that we should be okay going under the bridges if we went through at low water, but to lower our roof if we went through on the slack (an hour later). They also advised that, although low water would be a quarter of an hour later than forecast in printed tide tables, it wouldn’t be as late as my Aweigh App said it would (35 minutes later than the forecast). Thurne Mouth. Seren getting bored on the slog down the lower Bure. In the event we went through about half an hour after the time we'd been advised low water would be. Graham had lowered the roof as we passed Marina Quays as a precaution, but we would have been fine with it up (just about). We had just over 8’ according to the first marker board. As we passed under the second bridge (Vauxhall bridge), I noticed a Mystic Horizon moored up on our port side just below the bridge. Guess he either missed his opportunity to get under at low water or was just too tall even then. The river levels were definitely higher than usual. Breydon was mostly fairly calm, but there were was one section that was more choppy for some reason, enough to send spray up on the windscreen. We headed up the Waveney thinking that we’d make for Beccles. However, it was after 2pm by the time we passed under St Olaves bridge, so we thought we would most likely arrive at Beccles after the Station Master had gone home (assuming he goes home at 4pm?), so that would be us without electric tonight (they have their own style electric cards at Beccles, which you purchase from the Yacht Station). Our aim this evening was to find a mooring with electric, water and a food shop nearby, so we spun the boat around just below the abandoned railway bridge upstream of Herringfleet and made our way up (down?) the New Cut. As is often the case, we had a bit of a dither. Should we go to Brundall or Loddon? We thought we’d try Loddon even though it was late afternoon by now, after all the moorings on the northern broads had been quieter than we had anticipated, and anyway, we would still have time to get to Brundall if Loddon Staithe was full. The staithe was full, so we had another chug back down the Chet, despite there being lots of room at Pye’s Mill. Travelling back up the Yare. It was quite nice to stay on our home mooring overnight. Very quiet apart from the trains, and we were partly sheltered from them by the shed on our starboard side. Graham popped to one of the Brundall Co-ops, we filled up with water and we were happily plugged into free electric (not really 'free' but included in our mooring fee). I made a pasta carbonara this evening. After that we listened to a repeat of an old (1970s?) dramatisation of a Dorothy J Sayers crime novel, The Nine Tailors, on the radio, before watching the Great British Sewing Bee.

Tuesday 4th May Another early wake-up for me. Plenty of electric left on the post, but it hadn’t felt that cold last night. After a gleam of sunshine first thing, the wind picked up again and the rain set in. We left Irstead around 8am, making our way across a rather choppy Barton Broad. Seren didn’t like the slap of the waves against the hull one bit. The plan was to try to get into Neatishead Staithe, preferably on an electric point, but we first took a cruise up river as far as Richardson’s and then across to Sutton Staithe. It was a fairly tight turn at Sutton. There was one space near an electric post there, but it looked a very tight fit and it seems to be fairly close to a busy road, from what we could see. Barton Broad. Sutton Broad. So, it wasn’t until 10 or so by the time we got to Neatishead. There were a couple of boats moored either side of the entrance, and three near the head of the dyke, but plenty of room for us. Later most of them left. We thought it would be good to move the boat to the mouth of the dyke, and took the opportunity to turn her on the ropes, but when we tried reconnecting to the electric we didn’t have any power for some reason. The post had credit on it, and none of our trip switches on board had tripped. We pulled the boat back closer to the post and tried reconnecting again without the extension cable. Still no power. We phoned Brooms, and the engineer talked us few pressing some test buttons, still no luck. I suggested we could return south to the yard tomorrow to have the cable looked at, but they couldn’t promise that they would have an engineer available to look at it, as only one engineer would be working on site tomorrow. Before calling Brooms I had phoned our syndicate management agency (BCBM) and whilst I had been on the phone with Brooms they had contacted our local agent. He had been trying to call me in the meantime and, when I did speak to him, was really helpful. He arranged for an engineer from Horning Marine to call at the staithe. It turned out that some of the wiring near the shore cable plug had become damaged (from extended use no doubt), so the engineer cut away the end of the cable that was damaged and re-wired it. So, we had electric again. We had been intending to have a takeaway delivery from The White Horse for lunch, but yet again we put that off, just in case it arrived at the same time as the engineer. We had bacon butties instead. Mid-afternoon, after the engineer’s visit, we went for a walk. I had read that dogs weren’t allowed in the Alderfen Broad Nature Reserve, so part way through our walk Graham and I split up to take different routes. I went toward the Broad, and he continued on toward Irstead Street. When I got to Alderfen, I found that there was just one nature trail that was restricted (marked in purple on the map). We could have walked along the other (yellow) footpath with Seren. The footpaths around the fen were quite muddy (not surprising after all that rain) but at least it wasn’t deep mud – not like the very deep peaty mud you get in several other national parks. Highlight of the walk was hearing my first cuckoo for several years. Not heard one since we last visited the Broads in May 2017. I must say that the signs for public rights of way are a bit hit-and-miss in Norfolk. It’s lucky that I had my OS map with me as the signs for several footpaths were missing. Thanks to the map I didn’t get lost, and luckily met up with Graham again by happenstance, as we were both making our way back from Workhouse Common to the Staithe. It was very changeable still, and although we started off our walk in bright sunshine, we did have a brief hail shower part way through. We finally had our takeaway from The White Horse this evening, delivered to the Staithe (between them, The White Horse and The Lion at Thurne have quite a good range for delivery). We shared a BBQ box for one and a goats cheese pizza. Yum. Neatishead is a pleasant, quiet mooring. It would have been even quieter if one of the boats moored near us hadn’t run their engine so much. It wasn't a problem for us, as they only ran their engines during the day, not the restricted times, and the engine wasn't particularly loud. I guess we were just puzzled, as it was by far the newest boat there and (I checked on the Yard’s website) advertised as having 240v. They also had some solar panels. Maybe they were having problems with their elecrric connections like us! The only other snag about Neatishead was the poor condition of the paths running along the quay heading. We brought a lot of dirt into the aft well on our feet. Seren wasn’t keen either, though she liked the walks. Every now and again a shot would sound-out from bird-scarer contraptions in nearby fields, and she would go and cower in the galley or the passage leading to the forward cabins. Despite these minor downsides, we really like Neatishead. It will be lovely to be able to actually visit the pub properly again. We listened to the radio again this evening, having discovered the BBC Sounds channel.

Bank Holiday Monday, 3rd May With the weather forecast being for strong winds from late afternoon and overnight, we were wondering where would be our best option for tonight’s mooring. Should we play safe and return south or look for somewhere sheltered up north? We had scuttled back down south last September, due to strong winds being forecast. This time we wanted to spend more time on the northern rivers, so we decided to head for Neatishead. The river at Acle had seemed pretty busy yesterday, so we did wonder if we would be able to find a mooring available on the Ant. There were…lots. I had another early morning, waking just before dawn and getting up around 6 again. Graham, got up around 7 and we set off shortly after, after filling with water at Pedro’s basin. We saw quite a few Herbie Woods boats, all going in the direction of the Thurne, but other than that the rivers were quiet. Passing St Benet's. We had no problems getting under Ludham Bridge with our roof up (just over 8’ on the marker board) and there weren’t that many boats moored up just beyond the bridge nor at How Hill, and at least half of the wild moorings on the Ant were free, including Johnny Crowe’s staithe. Irstead Staithe was also unoccupied, so we stopped there instead of continuing to Neatishead. It’s a mooring that is slightly exposed to the East, but the strong winds we were expecting were Westerlies, or South-Westerlies, so we thought it would be ideal. Pity the church was closed. In normal times it is kept open and is well worth a visit as it has a lot of interesting features inside. There is also this stall with painted pots for sale near the stathe. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cash, otherwise I would have been tempted. As we had started off so early, it was still before 10am by the time we settled on our mooring for the day. Graham read whilst I went off for a walk to the Barton Broad Board Walk. It was lovely to come across spring primroses and bluebells on the way. I went by myself as dogs are not allowed on the Board Walk, so I was a bit miffed to find a family with a dog with them when I got to the viewing platform. They made up for it as they were throwing some food for the birds, so I was able to get some shots of a some geese and gulls that were swooping down for the food. When I got back to the boat I made us a brunch (sausage, bacon, black pud, mushrooms, tomato, scrambled egg). After eating that we set off for a walk together, this time passing the entrance to the Board Walk and having a nosy down the lane to Gaye’s Staithe (only five boats there, so plenty of room for more) and Neatishead Staithe (room there for just a couple of boats). We carried on to the village. I popped into the shop to get some cookies for Graham and into The White Horse to request a takeaway menu. We then walked back to Irstead by a different route, along a footpath that branches off the lane between the two staithes, which took us over the brow of the hill to a lane with cottages (marked on the OS map as Workhouse Common). From there we took the lanes running back to Irstead. We’d had some light rain during the walk but luckily got back to the boat shortly before a heavy squall. I was pleased to meet another forum member. ‘Rumpunch’ took the trouble to come over to the staithe to say hello. That was really nice of him. There was quite a lot of traffic on the river until well past 5pm. I thought everyone would have hunkered down by then as the forecast was for +40mph gusts from 4pm onward. I couldn’t help wondering where they were all going, and what the conditions were like at Ludham Bridge (I don’t suppose it’s easy trying to get under that in a strong westerly). We had intended phoning The White Horse for a takeaway delivery this evening, but felt rather overloaded after our heavy brunch, so we just had a light meal of pasta with pesto sauce this evening. We listened to the radio this evening, before having another early night.

That Little Ships website seems to have been frozen for quite some time. So no, not current.

Yes, cleaning the exterior of the boat would have been a bit of a challenge for Graham this morning. I get the soft option of cleaning the interior.

Before we went up to Anglesey a few weekends back, Graham picked up some of the testing kits from the pharmacy in our Sainsbury's store. My cousin had offered to feed us whilst we were spending the weekend cleaning my father in law's house (didn't fancy cooking in his kitchen given the state we'd found it in), so we thought we should test ourselves before meeting up with more family members. Not the most pleasant kit to use, but reassuring all the same.

We booked our jabs through the NHS site, just a week or two before our local surgery contacted us.

I asked my father in law - as he completed an apprenticeship as a joiner in the Marine Yard, Holyhead in the 1940s. In those days Marine Yard used to do all the maintenance of the Holyhead to Dublin ships, and other boats. He hasn't got a clue what they are either.

We found out yesterday that Brooms will no longer supply boats moored in their Marina with gas. There's such a shortage they are reserving gas for their hire fleet. Left us up the creek rather...

Sunday 2nd May I woke before 5 this morning. Seren must have heard me, as she came through to say good morning. We have dispensed with using the crate she normally sleeps in whilst on board, as we’ve found she’s quite happy sleeping in the lounge. I managed to persuade her to return to her bed and not wake Graham up. I stayed in bed until just after 6, closed the cabin door so as not to disturb Graham, took Seren out briefly and checked the ‘leccy point. Still 45p left, so I put the fan heater on instead of the Webasco (quieter) and made myself a cuppa. The electric credit lasted out another hour, with both the dimplex and the fan heater drawing on it. By that time, Graham was ready to get up and we quickly got ready to depart Loddon. I had checked the weather forecast and could see it was promising strong winds from Monday through to Tuesday, so we decided to go north today. We had a lovely sunny cruise down the Chet and Yare, having breakfast on our way. Some photos from the Chet. The lower Yare, below Reedham. It was lovely seeing a Hunter’s Yacht in full sail crossing Breydon Water. We went through Yarmouth after the forecast time for slack water, but the tide still seemed fairly slack, and continued like that up to Acle. We didn’t rush anyway. There were a couple of spaces left on the BA moorings at Acle. We got the one closer to the electric points, but it wasn’t close enough even with our extension cable. I was pleased with how the mooring went, as the gap was only just about big enough for MS. We had a sandwich lunch, keeping a lookout for anyone leaving a mooring closer to the electric. After an hour or so, we could see that the boat next but one in front of us was preparing to leave, so we started up, pulled out of our mooring and ‘hovered’ whilst they vacated the spot. They had left 75p on the post, so that was a bonus. We took Seren for a walk along the north bank, as far as the plastic-capped dalek windmill (Oby Drainage Mill) just beyond the spot opposite Upton Dyke. Yet again, we were lucky and dodged the showers that were falling not that far away. Spotted this little bird on our walk. We relaxed the rest of the day. Yet again, there wasn’t much on telly (for us anyway...there was an eagerly awaited final episode of 'Line of Duty’, but it isn't something we've been watching) so spent the evening reading. I’m currently reading ‘The Third Nero’ by Lindsey Davies. Dinner was ‘bung in the oven’ gammon shanks with a maple and orange glaze with veg. Another early night.

Trip 6. May 2021 Saturday 1st May We started off nice and early this morning, having partly packed the car yesterday and put the alarm on for 6am. It was a bright, sunny morning, but by the time we were nearing Norwich it had clouded over and was trying to drizzle. We were planning to pick up the boat from 12 noon, as the previous occupants had gone home early, and allowing time for a viewing by some prospective shareholders. However, we were a rather early arriving, even allowing for doing our shop in the Thorpe St Andrew’s Sainsbury’s. It wasn’t even 9.30 when we got there, so we dawdled over our shop and browsed the clothing section. To kill more time, we drove to Acle Bridge, where Graham took Seren for a walk along the north bank. When we got to Moonlight Shadow, we found she was looking much smarter internally, having had new carpets fitted and new vinyl flooring in the galley. We also noticed that she had been spruced up internally generally, presumably during her winter maintenance. Last time we were on her in November the silicone sealant in both the heads was spotted with mould. This had been replaced by new sealant. Malcolm and Debbie had replaced the shower curtains last autumn, and we had taken the window curtains home to wash during the lockdown, so both the heads were looking much better too. Later in the week we found that the slow drip from the helm hatch that we had experienced during persistent rain had also been fixed. MS had been moved to a new mooring spot, backing on to the main boat hire area, and just ‘around the corner’ from Lightening’s mooring. We had been told that Brooms intended developing the quay heading where she used to be as a site for day boats. As I was walking around the basin where she is moored, trying to figure out the safest way of manoeuvring out of the mooring, I met Susan (fellow forum member snunn). She and her husband had been on Lightening the past week and also had her for the coming week. Picking the boat up two hours earlier made a big difference to our afternoon. It was around 1pm by the time we had moved our stuff on board and we then had a short delay starting off due to a heavy shower. I was extra cautious starting off, moving forward and pirouetting in the basin (I decided later in the week that this was completely unnecessary). Once on our way we were lucky and dodged the showers even though the sky looked a bit black at times. The sun even came out occasionally. The Yare was pretty quiet as we made our way to Loddon, the Chet even more so. It was so quiet, Seren got bored. This wasn't on the bank last time we cruised up the Chet. We passed Malcolm and Debbie on their boat Norfolk Lady, moored at Pye’s Mill. We continued to the Staithe where there were a couple of spaces left. As we were journeying to Loddon, I thought it looked like the river levels were pretty high, so my plans for getting under Wroxham bridge looked pretty unlikely. I had planned to do another food shop on Monday or Tuesday in Roy’s, so I decided I should do some more food shopping in Loddon’s Co-op before going north, as a precaution. I also thought it would be good to check out where the Loddon butcher’s shop was. That was a bad decision, it was shut anyway and I got pretty wet walking back up to the Co-op in another heavy shower. When I got back to the boat, Graham popped across the road to Bridge Stores, as they are stockists for the electric cards. We already had 6, but were reckoning that we’d use one or two each night if we were lucky enough to find moorings close to electric posts. Fellow forum member and MS syndicate member Tempest had difficulty getting hold of electric cards on his first trip on MS, so we now like to keep up our stocks of ‘leccy cards. It was pretty peaceful on Ludham Staithe on the whole, though we did get alarmed when some loud music started up. It sounded like someone somewhere nearby had get up an outdoors live music gig. Fortunately, it didn’t last long. We had steaks with baked potatoes and veg this evening. Nothing on telly that we wanted to watch, so it was a quiet evening spent reading and an early night.

We returned home yesterday, as Graham wanted to take Seren to her agility class this morning. He really needs to check his email whilst we away though, as this morning's class was cancelled. Just think...we could have had an extra half day and overnight. (Can you guess I'm a bit miffed with him?) Anyway, we had a good time. I'm switching over to the normal 'Carried Away...' thread now to post up a proper (i.e. longwinded) account of our trip. Will hopefully be back on this thread for our next week on MS, starting the final Saturday in June.

Those eggs looked good Grendel. It's pretty unusual to get one double yolker, never mind two! Where do you source your eggs from?

Sorry to hear that your ailments spoiled your holiday Susan. It was lovely to meet you. Hope we see each other again on the rivers some time. Roll on July! Helen

Have a lovely time!

We were delighted to pass one of the Hunters boats on Breydon when we were making our way up north last weekend. I took a few photos, so they should feature in the holiday tale that I’m intending to start posting up tomorrow.

When we were hiring our priorities were: 1.a boat that could get under all the bridges (apart from Potter), 2. a good size fridge (some are tiny...ok if you mostly eat out but useless if you like to prepare most of your own meals) and 3 an 'island' bed, so one of us didn't have to crawl across the other for loo visits. Depends on what's important to you personally.

I think it was probably around 8.30. We're at Whitlingham, sitting around hoping the rain will let up, or at least ease off a bit.

That spot at Brundall won't look so familiar soon. MS is now on a new mooring. Apparently, Brooms are going to develop that bit of key heading into a site for day boats. Did you get on your way before we passed Bramerton this morning, or was I just too dozy to spot you moored up there? Isn't the weather horrible this morning. Seren wants a walk. We want the rain to stop!

It was a chilly night. When we took Seren out before bedtime I could feel the rain drops on the roof were turning Icy.

I find it odd that someone would hire a very recently built boat that has 240v. They moor right next to an electric post, do not plug in, but run the engine a lot (not after 8pm I hasten to add). I haven't mentioned what boat it was, as I do want to name and shame. Anyway, there might be a reasonable explanation, like Jean's case, where they had been given the wrong cable.

That's just it, we know getting on an electric point isn't essential. We have hot water bottles and the Webasto, so we could do without and have done so quite happily in the past on chilly nights. However, having the dimplex on in the evening is lovely, a luxury, but we have taken the trouble to bring it with us and it is much quieter compared to the Webasto, and we can keep it on all night.

This made me chuckle. In our house Dad is Graham and eldest son Harry. Next door we have Dad Harry and his son is called Graham. Of course, the sons have grown up now, but we've been neighbours since the 1980s.