YnysMon

Oh my...why is it that man, many NBN threads get so, ummm...weird...with-the-fairies...whatever...in winter. Love it... You just get a better class of madness on NBN. Is that an advert?

Eeeek and Yuk! Maybe we’d best get that discussion back onto the original MS thread? Sorry Steve!

Well, that one’s better than ‘smelly’!

Your jigging Santa still makes me chuckle, btw.

Jay...the eternal optimist.

Now, I must admit that Graham and I did get a bargain price on a Moonlight Shadow share. There were more than the usual number of shares up for sale last summer due to a couple of members having bought their own boats plus a share offered up due to ill health and another due to bereavement. These things happen. What we found at the AGM was that the shareholders were committed to keeping the boat ‘up to spec’. Which is just what we had hoped. So, my advice is: the share price on offer may be due to departing owners’ circumstances. Don’t take it as a judgment of the standard of the boat.

Love the kingfisher photo. ‘It must have been 20 years ago since i was last there. They didn't remember me. Poor service nowadays.’ Lol.

I’m sure it must have been after all the care you had lavished on her to keep her in such a lovely condition. Always thought how smart she looked wherever we went through Horning. Guess you will have been suffering ‘withdrawal symptoms’ for some time up to the sale and will be for some time. Kudos to Griff for the offer.

The only thing that put me off Silverline was the excessive charge for pets. I’m sure they would get a lot more bookings if they revised that policy.

So, I take it you are hoping to get some snow ❄️ on your Christmas Moonlight Shadow weeks Jay?

I liked the info board near Loddon Staithe...about the trade that went on in the area conveyed by Wherries. History...not birds. 😀 Mind you... on our recent visit I could have done with an info board that reminded me what a Moorhen looked like (thanks Marshman).

That’s just beautiful!

When I said ‘bah humbug’...I wasn’t meaning me! But thanks Mr J-dancing-Christmas.

I really like the Father Christmas avatar Jay. Please keep him dancing until Christmas! (If you don’t I’ll conclude it’s all Bah Humbug!)

Unfortunately for me, Waitrose in moved their MK store a few years back to a point just about half way between my home and work. Nowadays, on my way home, the car just sort of turns into Waitrose automatically.

Thanks for posting the photos of Moonlight Shadow Warren.

Thanks Marshman. Always helpful to have the info...as you will have guessed I’m not that confident at identifying birds.

One of the things I learned at the AGM. Shareholders have a real pride in the boat. I get the impression that’s the case for other syndicates too.

That’s still the case. Even when the weekly valeting arrangement was in place it was our responsibility to clean the outside of the boat.

That’s a lovely looking boat. Welcome! Helen

Thanks. Yes, I appreciated following your tale too. We missed each other at Potter by a few days it seems, but obviously both appreciate Bridgestones.

Thanks Jean. It was lovely to meet up at last. I really enjoyed our chat. Hope your hubby has got over his cold. Helen

Friday 15th Nov As the forecast was for rain again today Graham suggested we go home today instead of tomorrow. He wanted to be home by lunchtime Saturday anyway, as he didn’t want to miss two weeks of Seren’s Saturday afternoon agility classes and on this trip we needed to clean the boat before we left it. We had collectively made a decision at the AGM a few weeks back to stop the weekly valet of the boat. Those who want to pay for a valet still have that option, but those of us who prefer to do the cleaning ourselves don’t need to pay for a valet. We had thought to go somewhere by car this morning and finish packing/do the clean this afternoon, but the weather was so miserable we decided to just sort out the boat, go somewhere for lunch and then go home. First, we went to refuel and get a pump-out, which cost just over £63. I think the pump out is around £13, so guess we spent roughly £50 on fuel. Obviously, we ran the heating a lot, and although we didn’t do a lot of cruising, most of that was done against the tide. Pretty cheap holiday, especially considering this was an ‘extra’ week. We left MS just after 1pm and drove to Loddon as we fancied having lunch at The White Horse. The staithe was virtually empty. We both had burgers: Graham had a lentil and nut one and I had their crab and lobster burger. Both were good. The chips and onions rings were the best we’ve had for years. Lovely freshly made chunky chips and the onion inside the rings was really chunky too. Simple food, but very well done. The landlord was very welcoming too and there seemed to be quite a few parties of locals having lunch there. The journey home went well until we hit the roadworks north of Cambridge. Graham accidentally took a turn off toward Huntingdon, into a tailback of traffic, then it took us ages to get back to the A14, only to hit another tailback. Grrr. The journey took almost twice as long as normal. Never mind, we were so relaxed after our week and weren’t in desperate need to get home by a certain time, so it didn’t matter so much. Roll on February, when we have our next week on MS.

Thursday 14th Maybe Hardley Windpump wasn’t the best mooring choice last night. This morning dawned with a squall of heavy rain lashing Moonlight Shadow and strong wind blowing directly onto our mooring. I’m sure we could have got off okay, but the weather was so horrible we decided to just put some more credit onto the electric post (there was only about 15p left from overnight) and stay put for the morning. Graham took Seren out but was caught in another squall, so they both returned pretty wet. Seren looked a bit fed up. At one point Graham asked her if she was having a good read. I made us lunch using the leftover haggis, mixed with mash and fried onion to make patties, served with beans. By 1pm the sky started to brighten up. The rain stopped and the wind had dropped too, so we got on our way. The weather forecast for Friday didn’t look too good, more rain, so rather than aiming for another mooring beyond Brundall we just chugged back to our home mooring. The sun came out, and although we had another light shower it was a beautiful journey. Passing Cantley we thought that maybe Hardley Windpump wasn’t such a bad choice after all, as the river was very high (springs tomorrow) and almost overtopping the quay at Cantley. Although we had a short detour through Rockland Broad, it didn’t take that long to get ‘back home’. There were lots of pheasants on the banks of Fleet Dyke (leading to Rockland). This particular one was trying to chase the others off what he obviously thought was his territory. We had another quiet evening. Dinner was an easy-to-make option: sachets of rice and tadka daal warmed in the microwave to accompany cauli roasted in the oven and hardboiled eggs. We watched this week’s Masterchef Professionals quarterfinal and had another early night.

'Fraid not Speedtriple. We have our next week on board in early February and then the first week in May. We won't be able to use the whole of the May week though, as we had already booked a holiday with family for the second week in May, so we'll have to skedaddle from the boat on the Thursday to travel down to Somerset on the Friday.