YnysMon

Lovely account Mouldy. Ludham butchers are great, glad to hear that Rodney is still popping in to advise. We thought they had a much wider choice of meat this year on display, looked very tempting, but I hope they're not overdoing it for the amount of custom that they have. We still think they do the best bacon ever. We always visit when we are on Ludham. Loved your photos too. The best for me is of Harry. That's one bright-as-a-button boy. I've got a Harry too, but he's more than 20+ years older, also bright but I sometimes wonder how 'grown up' he is. Helen

Thanks for the feedback chaps. We did mention the throttle when we got back, I mentioned it to the person filling the fuel up on the boat next to us...she commented that they were probably used to the travel on the throttle and so didn't notice it as much (fair comment). I also reported what we felt were 'snags' on the feedback form that they gave us. Actually, we were impressed that they provided a feedback form, we haven't had one one of those before. There was also an extra feedback form on moorings, which I suppose came from the BA. If so, good on them. That was another first for us. I'm wondering whether to email my review to NBD, in a constructive spirit naturally. What do others think?

It's just struck me that perhaps I should have posted the review in the hire boat discussion section. If the moderators feel it should be moved that's fine with me. Helen

Wow! Just brilliant! What more can I say? I obviously need to pick myself up and start learning again! I used to do so many things, allotment, choirs, OU courses, brass band, most of which got dropped when we was looking after Mam. Have made the first step back to normality by signing up for an OU course. You have my deep respect Timbo. I think you're one of those people who can turn their hands to anything. A true polymath! Helen

Is it the case that southern England has been sinking slightly and Scotland rising? I vaguely remember watching a TV programme ages ago which put forward the theory that this was really happening, and that it was due to a delayed reaction to the melting of the ice that had covered the northern half of the country in the last ice age. Of course, I may be dreaming!

Fair Regent Boat Review Fair Regent is a very comfortable boat for two, though there are two seats, one in the cabin and one in the lounge, which extend under the decks that can be made up as additional beds, so you could fit a family of four on board. It's a modern version of a 'bathtub' with a split sliding roof. We were looking for a boat that is bridge friendly, has an island bed, a decent sized fridge (in my opinion some are so tiny as to be impractical) and enough space in the lounge area for our dog’s crate, which we didn’t want to dismantle during the day in case we need to put the dog in it during stern moorings or when a pilot came aboard. We also thought it a bonus to have a proper bathroom with domestic loo and over-bath shower, rather than the normal tiny wet-room type arrangement. Nice touch having towels provided too. We were really pleased with how spacious the boat is and the amount of storage space. There is plenty of kitchen cupboard space and another double-door cupboard to right of the bow door, plus deep drawers under the sofa. In the bedroom there is a wardrobe (backed by a window oddly) and a set of four drawers plus a cupboard each side of the bed. We found the island bed very comfortable, as was the sofa, though we were glad we’d brought extra cushions as the ones provided were quite thin. Everything was very clean. The upholstery was fresh looking and all looked well maintained. The drop-leaf table was pretty sturdy and luckily there was room for the both the dog's crate and the table between the sofa and helm seat. It was well equipped, especially kitchen wise. I did take my own frying pan and sharp knife with me, which I was glad of. I did wish that I’d taken a small baking sheet or similar though as the grill pan provided was fairly small. We appreciated the welcome pack (prosecco, crisps, tea, coffee grounds, UHT milk sugar, Broadcaster newspaper). It was also good to be given a proper Broads map, with moorings, speed limits, pubs etc. marked on it. Previously we’ve relied on our OS map. Making up the bed wasn’t a problem, but that’s another first for us as the Ferry Marina and Hunter’s Yard boats that we’ve hired previously have come with beds made up for you, which is a nice touch. We very much appreciated having GPS (another first), which really helped our awareness of speed limits. Also appreciated having indicators for the waste tank and battery charge. We only used the heating on one occasion, but it seemed fairly efficient. We couldn’t see the point of having the thermostat hidden away below the sofa seating though. We loved how friendly the staff at NBD are. We had a lovely welcome at the reception and they were very accommodating to our request to pick up the boat earlier than 4pm (as early as 1pm). We appreciated having a fairly short handover as we wanted to get on our way, though we later wished that we’d asked more questions regarding checking the engine and so on, as the Skippers Handbook folder was big on giving instructions on things to check but a bit scant on how to locate the things that needed to be checked. The engine was below our bed, and it took a bit of fumbling before we got the knack of how to flip the mattress back and raise the bottom end of the bed to access the engine. Despite searching every nook and cranny we never did find the weed filters, which was a bit worrying given the number of weedy places we visited (up to Coltishall Locks, Dilham and Geldeston). Still, we kept an eye on the engine outflow and temperature and didn’t appear to have any problems. I liked the fact that you could cut down on the engine noise by shutting the bedroom door whilst underway. We also liked the second folder that was provided that contained lot of information on places to moor, places of interest, walks and places to eat. The other thing that impressed us about NBD is their emphasis on protecting the Broads environment. They advise customers to bring eco-friendly toiletries (which we have been doing) and they also supply eco-friendly washing up liquid and a fat trap. There was also a separate tap for filtered water. We didn’t use this much as we’re in the habit of bringing bottled water with us. Things we weren’t so keen on. Readers of my accounts of the first few days will have noted my moans about the throttle. It had so much play on it that it was really difficult to control the speed of the boat, especially at at low speeds. It was also impossible to stick strictly to a 3mph speed limit as the slowest we managed all week was about 3.4 – 3.5mph, which made it a bit awkward following craft that were travelling slightly slower than that. We did get the hang of the throttle by the third day. I was a bit worried initially that the boat didn't have a bow thruster, but didn't really miss it once I'd got the hang of the throttle. We weren’t impressed that the inverter seemed to be inoperable most of the time when we were underway. It did work when we were hooked up to shore power. We did get it to work one day whilst underway, but I’ve no idea why it worked on that occasion and not the rest of the week. Shore power didn’t seem to do much either. We hardly drew down any credit (luckily, we were drawing on other people’s credit and didn’t need to use any of our own cards). The shore power didn’t seem to make any difference to the temperature of the water. Maybe it would have helped if we needed to run the heating, but the evenings were too balmy to need the heating. We were also a bit miffed to find that the caffetiere filter section was broken and loose, and so ineffectual. I'm betting that whoever broke it hadn’t reported it. We ended up buying ourselves an additional caffetiere (rather a nice stainless steel one, which we’re pleased to have). It seemed rather a silly thing to call the Boatyard about, so we didn’t. We also found the swab cushion on the helm seat slightly sagged (either that or too thin). When either of us sat at the helm for any length of time the wooden coaming that surrounded the seat was a bit uncomfortable, so we used one of the boat’s cushions to give a little more padding. All in all, though, these are quibbles. It was a lovely comfortable boat and we had a wonderful week, and we would consider hiring the boat again, especially since NBD offer customers a 5% loyalty discount on their next booking. We did think the Ferry Marina boats were better mechanically though, in terms of the throttle, being able to run heating for a few hours without running the engine, and being able to use the inverter whilst underway, so may hire from them next time despite the NBD discount. I took a few photos of the boat. They were taken mid-week when the boat wasn’t it’s tidiest, but hopefully they’ll help to convey what the boat was like. NBD have a good ‘walkthrough’ facility in their details of the boat. Link to Fair Regent details here: https://www.broads.co.uk/boats/fair-regent/ . Helen

Saturday 30th September We had set the alarm for 6am this morning, so that we would be ready to set off at dawn for the journey back down from Coltishall Locks to Wroxham. Graham took Seren for her walk whilst I started packing. We set off a couple of minutes after sunrise, which was just before 7am and arrived at Wroxham about 8.15, just in time to complete our packing before calling the pilot. I’m glad we had the pilot to take us through the bridge this morning as he took us all the way into the NDB basin. It was very impressive how he manoeuvred the boat into a very tight corner. By the way, one of the advantages of hiring with NBD is not having to pay any pilot fee. We managed to get our stuff off the boat fairly quickly, being moored not that far from where our car had been parked for the week. I was pleased to find that we got £23.30 back on our fuel deposit. Having travelled so far, I was afraid that we would have to pay extra, but then we did try out utmost to travel everywhere with the tide and I had planned out a variety of possible routes in advance, taking tides into account. I guess we’d have saved even more if we hadn’t arrived at Yarmouth before slack-water on our way back. After leaving NDB we went for our usual final morning breakfast at The Staithe and Willow, Horning, which is very dog friendly and always serves a good breakfast. We then made our way to Hunter’s Yard, which was holding an open day for ‘Friends of Hunter’s Yard’. I’d sent off my membership form for the Friends just before our holiday, a bit late really, but we had a really warm welcome. Although we hadn’t booked any activities in advance we were invited to go on a morning wildlife walk if we wished and they managed to find a couple of spare places on an afternoon sail on Wood Sorrell for us. Late morning, we walked up to the village to buy ourselves a picnic lunch, and sat around chatting to other Friends during the lunch break when the morning walkers and sailors had returned. They even had the Nancy Oldfield Boat ready to take out less mobile/elderly Friends for a jaunt on the river. The weather was perfect, with just enough wind for a relaxing sail and beautifully warm and sunny. What a lovely end to our week! I didn’t manage to take any photos whilst we were sailing as I was too busy trying to ensure that Seren kept out of the way, but here's a few that I took at lunchtime. Whilst at the boatyard we noticed a large number of boats from Martham making their way down river. Sorry that only the foreground is in focus! On the way home we decided to stop off at Acle Bridge Inn for a drink and a snack. It’s not somewhere we’ve stopped at before, but I’ve noted that a lot of NBN members rate it highly. It was shortly before 5pm, but we didn’t want to be having to make dinner when we got home. I had their Haddock and Mozzarella Fish-Cake Starter with a side of chips whilst Graham had an Egg Mayo Sandwich which came with crisps and a side salad. All lovely and freshly made. I must say I think the service in the Bridge Inn is about the friendliest and most professional that I’ve come across anywhere. Certainly, somewhere we’ll be going back to. Lovely pint of Little Sharpie too. What a lovely week! Helen

Hi John. We stopped at Somerlayton late Sunday morning. Isn't a lovely mooring! It helped that weather was so beautiful that day. Graham vaguely remembers mopping up muddy paw-prints. However, if you were there later in the week it may have been Fair Regent 1 or Fair Regent 3 as we came across them a few times during the week. all the best Helen

Friday 29th September Last full day (as always…sob). It had been raining overnight and although it had eased off when I started out taking Seren for a walk along the Thurne riverbank, it started again part-way through our walk and we got wet pretty quickly, so that I had to change my trousers when I got back to the boat. We left Womack about 7.30am. The river was very quiet to start with. It continued to rain on and off as we made our way up the Bure. We had a detour into Blackhorse Broad (the first time we’ve managed to get in there) arriving around 9. We mud-weighted and each had a bath/shower whilst leaving the engine running. Graham put the heating on to try to get rid of some of the condensation. We then continued on our way to Wroxham. The rain had eased off fortunately. Just as I was approaching the mooring beside the bridge the pilot brought another craft through the bridge to moor there, so I had to turn around and do a second approach. Still, at least we didn’t have to phone the pilot or moor up properly to wait for him. We enquired whether we might be able to get back through the bridge tomorrow morning, as the handover chap had advised that a good option on the final night was to moor the other side of the bridge. The pilot advised us that it would be fine, and to call him at 8.30 the following morning from the Hoveton moorings between the bridges, so we were all set for an overnight stay at Coltishall! Before leaving we filled up with water at the tap outside the Le Boat boatyard which is on the Wroxham bank between the two bridges. It works on a £1-coin slot and the timer is set for about 5 minutes, which is more than enough time to fill up. We handed the hose to a couple who had moored up behind us as we’d filled up in half the allotted time. We continued at our slowest pace up river, taking a detour into Wroxham’s Bridge Broad (another first), and spotting more kingfishers on our way. This isn’t a very good shot, but I thought I was lucky to catch it at all since I was on the helm at the time. I always like the first view of Belaugh. Seren was enjoying the view too. Coltishall moorings looked fairly quiet, and the availability of electric posts was tempting, but we continued on our way and moored at Colishall Locks, arriving around 12.30. We then walked to the Recruiting Sergeant for lunch. Don’t the trees on the path from the locks to the main road look spooky! The Recruiting Sergeant looked fairly busy but they found us a table. I think I would book in advance if we were planning to go there again though. It looked full of ‘ladies who lunch’. Great to find another dog friendly pub. Graham had Pork topped with Bacon Jam and a Rarebit with sweet potato fries and side salad. I had Sea Bream stuffed with a Prawn Jambalaya also served with sweet potato fries and side salad. All very yummy, but they serve such a huge portion that I couldn’t finish my fries and salad. The rain had eased off by the time we walked back to the boat, but the sun didn’t really come out much apart from the odd gleam now and then. We chilled away the afternoon on board until about 4 when we took Seren back across the main road for a walk up-river. Someone had been busy cutting back what looked like very thick undergrowth, so the path was fairly clear. It was very quiet and still up there, and a bit wild. It would be a lovely place to go in a canoe. We could have walked all the way to Buxton (half way between Coltishall and Aylesham) along the river, and it looks on the OS map as though you could go further, but we only went a mile or so from Horsham before turning back. Watched some TV in the evening. Again, we weren’t really hungry after such a large lunch so just had a freshly baked baguette (the type you buy part-baked, but this one was a bit special, a brown multi-seed type) with some smoked Norfolk Dapple cheese, sliced ham and tomato. There was a lovely sunset this evening. I was too lazy to leap up and get my camera though. Helen

Congrats Griff! Both Mum and babe look beautiful. all the best, Helen

I've been enjoying your posts James. Looking forward to hearing more! Helen

Thursday 28th September Okay, I've gone a bit mad with photos in this post. Didn’t wake until after 7 this morning. (Hurrah!) Even the dog didn’t seem to want to get up when I opened her cage. Is there something about the air in Dilham? We didn’t feel the need to hurry away this morning anyway. The plan was to head for Womack going down the Ant and Bure on an out-going tide but to reach the turn-off for the Thurne at the turn of the tide (around 12’ish?) and to get to Womack around 1pm. After Seren’s early walk we started the day with a fry-up (local sausage from Roys meat-counter, fried potatoes, tomato, egg) and left Dilham Staithe around 9.30’ish. We took it at our slowest speed down from Dilham to Wayford. No problem getting under the bridge again, despite the heavy rain that we heard in the early hours). It had started to drizzle again as we started off. Drat! Just beyond Wayford Bridge a boat very similar, if not the same, as the one we’d followed up stream yesterday turned out just before us and proceeded at the same pace as yesterday. The trouble was that this morning we met a few other craft going in the opposite direction, and seemingly each time coming around a corner just after I’d tried to slow down and was drifting a bit. When we got to Barton Broad we decided to have a nosey at Barton Turf and Paddy’s Lane moorings, not having been there before. We spotted a water hose on the Staithe and moored up to fill-up (our earlier plan had been to stop over at Gaye’s Staithe for water). White Emblem from Ferry Marina was at the Staithe and the chap hiring her called out to ask what part of Wales we were from (having seen our flag). Turned out he lives in a village in mid-Anglesey. We ended up having quite a natter (or in Norfolk speak – ‘mardle’) about Anglesey and the place that Graham and I grew up in. Saying farewell, we carried on across Barton Broad and down the Ant at a nice slow pace (luckily without boats wanting to go at a faster pace behind us). I find that having GPS does make me much more aware of how many people are speeding – which I’m sure we did too on our previous trips. By this time the weather had dried up and the sun was coming out as we made our way down the Bure. Graham got some nice shots of Thurne Church... ...and the cormorants on St Benet’s Level Drainage Mill opposite Thurne. We got to Womack Dyke just after 1pm as planned, but all the moorings on the BA moorings were taken. We wondered whether to continue to the Staithe, but it wasn’t somewhere we wanted to moor overnight as we’d been plagued with neighbours starting up their engine late in the evening last time we were there. We did want to visit the butchers and Thrower’s though. Luckily, we had spotted that the wild mooring between the BA moorings and the entrance to the dyke was free, so we turned around and bagged that. The ground was slightly squelchy after last night’s rain but it wasn’t too muddy. Once moored we walked up to the village and had lunch at Alfresco Tea Room. We visit the Tea Rooms at least once on each of our Broads holidays, sometimes more than once. Graham had Brie and Cranberry Sandwiches, which were served with a side-salad and crisps, followed by a Bakewell Cake. I had their Ham and Cheese Ploughman’s (cheddar, ham, warm bread roll, sliced apple, home-made coleslaw, salad-leaves, tomato, cucumber, sweetcorn and a side dish containing a pickled onion, piccalilli and chutney). I couldn’t finish it! The ham was particularly nice. We then visited the butchers for bacon and Thrower’s before returning to the boat, stopping off at Hunter’s Yard on the way to ask if it would be okay to drop in on their ‘Friend’s’ day on Saturday. We just lazed about the rest of the afternoon and evening, though Seren did have a couple of walks (runs off the lead) along the riverside path. It was pretty much the highlight of the holiday for me - just sitting on the front of the boat with a glass of wine, my holiday journal, a book, camera and a bag of swan food (proper stuff from the pet shop that doesn’t sink). The Waitrose bag at my feet contained the (large) bag of swan food that we’d brought with us. I didn’t do much reading as I was too busy watching other boats and wildlife. It was a lovely sunny warm late afternoon and evening, though the skies had a few ominous black clouds here and there. After 5pm there were fewer boats going past, so it was very peaceful. The sunset was lovely too. As soon as the sun had set a mist started to rise over the Bure and the surrounding fields, not so much on the dyke though. When I looked out later the mist had mostly cleared and the half-moon was just coming out from behind a cloud, perfectly reflected in the still water of the dyke. Spent some time looking at the stars. Having had a late lunch, we didn’t need much this evening. We just had half a Steak Slice each with a small salad. Turned in early again.

Wednesday 27th September Woke later today – at the really late time of 6am! Got up shortly after that and I took off the blinds and wiped down the windows while Graham took Seren out. One thing we thought that we didn’t like about the boat the first day was having to put external blinds on the bow windows. However, we are now thinking that they seem to cut down on the condensation on those windows, and so are probably a good thing. Mind you, we hadn't had to put them on in the rain. By 7am we were ready to depart and did so as quietly as possible. We kept our speed down below the speed limit, partly because it was so misty. It didn’t help that the sloping windows to the fore of the boat kept misting up both inside and out. Graham ended up taking her down the Chet, the Yare and across Breydon as he was tall enough to stick his head above the roof line to see out. This one is taken later when we were on our way down the Yare. Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to stand on the side of the boat and take lots of photos of the misty landscape and the sun climbing above the mist. We struck lucky as we passed under the Reedham Swing Bridge, with a train passing over whilst we passed under. I'm not a train nut like my cousin, but do have a soft spot for them as my Dad was a train driver (don't remember Dad as he died when I was a baby). It was still pretty misty when we first turned onto the Yare but it had cleared by the time we got to Breydon. I took the opportunity to take more photos of birds, this time with my second camera that has a closer zoom (which had been out of battery going over on Sunday due my having used it to video). It's pretty difficult trying to capture birds on a close zoom whilst chugging along and hanging on to the side of the boat though! This was my best attempt, but I had to delete nearly all the shots I took. Unfortunately, we slightly mistimed things and ended up going through the Yarmouth bridges about quarter of an hour before the forecast slack water time, so we ended up chugging up the Bure against the last of the outgoing tide. It wasn’t very fierce fortunately, we kept our revs down as far as was reasonable and ended up taking nearly twice as long to get to Stracey Arms as the journey down on Sunday, so that can't have done much for our fuel usage! Stopped off at Stracey Arms to make a sandwich (pastrami with tomato, gherkin and mayo on Roys ‘Norfolk Crunch’ bread). I was a bit startled whilst we were there. I was busy tidying up stuff on the boat and when I raised my head to look up this was not far from our bows. At least we could be confident that he knew what he was doing! By the time we’d finished our lunch we could see that the tide had slackened off but not turned. We headed off again up the Bure and then the Ant making for Dilham, which we reached around 4pm. We knew we were chancing it by getting there fairly late in the afternoon and were actively looking out for alternative moorings on the way. But we struck lucky! There were two boats of a similar size to ours there, but room for one other just around the bend, next to an electric post. A small area of the quay heading on the corner was taped off as the wood was rotten (hope they fix that!). I did find the stretch from the Stalham turn-off to Wayford Bridge slightly tedious, even though it’s so beautiful. As I've mentioned before, his boat doesn’t want to go any slower than about 3.4mph (judging by the GPS), try to go any slower and you just end up in neutral and drifting all over the place. A private boat turned up river from Stalham just before I got to the turn and proceeded up river just slightly slower than my minimum speed. I don’t mind going slow, and had intended to, especially on such a lovely quiet section, but it’s a bit of a pain to have to try to fall back now and again by going into reverse. We saw some more kingfishers and a small snake swimming in the river though, which more than made up for the slight frustration. By the way, I like the look of Hunsford Mill. (Yes, I know it’s a fraught subject!) It’s certainly striking, but at least its an improvement on the’ cottage’ with faux shutters that was pictured in the 60s/70s. Given I was a teenager in the ‘70s why do I find a lot about that decade a bit naff now? We had another bonus at Dilham. More than £1 credit on the electric post! Why on earth did I buy £5 of electric cards in April? I haven’t used one yet! The weather today has been very mild again, alternating sunny/cloudy spells with a fresh breeze on the lower Bure but not too windy. Once moored we took Seren for a walk along the lane opposite the Staithe then turned right, down Broad Fen Lane and then turned left onto a couple of footpaths back to the village. We then walked to the Cross Keys pub and both had Rib-Eye Steaks for our dinner. Very friendly welcome at the pub and a nice pint of Ghostship. Again though, we were the only ones there (okay, it was early). We do worry about the sustainability of some of these village pubs, whose landlords are obviously doing all they can to attract local custom. We were back at the boat by about 7pm. Watched some telly but by 9 we were both nodding off, so decided to call it a night.

In reply to Vetchugger's and Gracie's posts. You are lovely people!

Tuesday 26th September Another 5am wake up this morning, both of us waking before Seren. She sleeps quite happily in her crate in the lounge area at night, with some blankets over the top and sides of her crate to keep out the light. We lazed around in bed until she woke and started to whine, then Graham took her out. When he came back I cooked bacon, egg, tomato and fried new potatoes for breakfast. By the time we had washed up we thought the tide might have dropped enough to allow us to get back under the bridge. It was now 7.30 and low tide wasn’t due until 11, but we were fine with quite a generous amount of clearance. We were hoping to get as far down the Waveney as possible before the tide turned, low tide at Reedham being forecast for 9.30’ish. The journey down the Waveney was lovely. It was so still for the first hour or so, with a mirror-like river. It was getting on for 10 by the time we were going along the New Cut and we didn’t think the tide had turned. We started to lose some speed just as we were reaching the end of the New Cut, so guessed that must be the start of the incoming tide, and we speeded up again (without adjusting our revs) once we turned onto the Yare. It didn’t take long to reach the Loddon turn-off. I took it easy up the Chet at the minimum speed possible, finally getting used to the throttle that I’ve been moaning about in previous instalments, though I still couldn’t go any slower than 3.4/3.5mph. Only passed about four boats going the other way, one of which was ‘Ranworth Breeze’. The Staithe at Loddon only had a couple of boats moored, so I had a hassle-free opportunity to do my first stern-on mooring without the aid of bow-thrusters, and it went fine. Loddon is obviously my lucky place as I did my first ever stern-on mooring there (with the aid of bow thrusters) last year. As we were passing the Pye’s Mill moorings we couldn’t help noticing a partially submerged boat called ‘Liberator’. What a shame, it had obviously once been someone’s pride and joy. We noticed later when we went for a walk that their patchwork quilt was still on the bed. We did feel for them. Once we were moored Graham went for a shower/bath, making the most of the lovely hot water. We then went to The White Horse, Chedgrave for lunch. The bar was really crowded when we got there, full of a party of retired gentlemen, but we had a warm welcome. One of the woman serving apologised for the noise, assuring me that the party would be going through to the restaurant shortly, but I commented back that it was so nice to see a village pub so busy. Yesterday we had found The Wherry at Geldeston a really lovely pub, but we were the only ones there apart from a rambler who just ordered a cup of tea. Today we both had Open Steak Sandwiches, and enjoyed them very much. The dish was medium-rare steak with enoki mushrooms and crumbled stilton on a bed of wilted spinach on onion sourdough bread and a side of chips (really nice home cooked chips with no peel on them!). The service was really friendly. We asked if we could have some extra mayo sachets, and instead the waitress brought us out a dish of home-made mayo which was delicious and really put the final touch on the meal. Graham finished off with a Raspberry Eaton Mess which was brought with two spoons (without our asking). I may have helped Graham out a bit, since it was such a generous serving. After lunch we went to Co-Op for a few bits and pieces, returned to the boat with them and then went back up the High Street and through the churchyard for a walk to Pye’s Mill and back. Really warm and sunny this afternoon. Tee-shirt weather. When we got back we just chilled. This evening we didn’t feel much like cooking (or eating) after our lovely lunch, so we just had some pasta again with jar of sauce. Watched ‘Bake-Off’ and turned in early after Seren’s evening walk.

That's very kind of you, but I'm not sure my photos are a patch on some of the wonderful pics that other members have taken!

Lovely! Thanks Tim!

That's beautiful Tim! Can we see any other examples of your art works? Helen

Monday 25th September Didn’t wake until after 5 this morning, which seemed late in comparison to yesterday. Graham and Seren were both asleep. Seren didn’t wake until around 5.30 and Graham got up a short while later to take her for a walk in the Nicholas Everitt Park. It was already getting light in the East, so I opened up the forward door and watched the dawn approach, taking photos now and again. My camera is so light sensitive that the first photo appears much lighter than it actually was. It was lovely seeing masses of seagulls head inland as the sky gradually got lighter. Dawn. We only had a light breakfast this morning, tea and porridge for Graham and cereal for me. Shortly after 8 Graham went to pay our mooring fee and then we set off on our way to Beccles, still debating whether to stay overnight at the Yacht Station there or Geldeston or the Lido moorings. Somewhere between the Waveney River Centre and North Cove I spotted a kingfisher, my first ever, so that was a bit of a thrill! The river was very quiet, I don’t think we passed more than 10 boats the whole journey down to Beccles. There were a couple of boats moored at North Cove, one at Worlingham Staithe and one at Aldeby Staithe. There was plenty of room under the old Beccles bridge, but then we did arrive around low tide, which was lucky as Graham forgot to lower his make-shift flag pole (we’re flying the Ddraig-goch - Welsh flag - again). We continued up river at a very slow pace, enjoying the peace and quiet, as far as Geldeston and moored up against the dyke bank using our rond anchors, since the posts were pretty small. Seren had a good run up and down the grassy bank off her lead and played chase with a passing Labrador. We then walked into the village. It was only 11.30 so we had a walk through the village and back to while-away the time before the pub opened at noon. We sat in the pub courtyard, but they were happy to have Seren inside too. We very much enjoyed our lunch. A very generous fish-platter for two, washed down with a pint of Ghostship (me) and a Bitburger 0.0% for Graham. The platter had a crayfish and prawn cocktail on top of very fresh mixed leaves, cucumber and tomato, served in a deep glass, also rollmops, home-made smoked mackerel pate, poached salmon and smoked salmon, all served with toast and butter. We couldn’t manage all the salmon, but Seren finished off the poached salmon and enjoyed it very much. I didn’t give her the remaining piece of smoked salmon as I thought it would be too salty for her. After lunch we cruised slowly back down to Beccles... ...and moored at the Lido pontoon moorings. The first day we had kept Seren off all furniture, but it was pretty obvious that she wanted to jump up to look out of the windows, so we decided it would be less hassle to cover the seat in front of the helm with a blanket and allow her to sit there. She loved it. Once moored up at Beccles I walked up to Tesco and back, using the steep stairway that leads to the church, whilst Graham waited for the Lido caretaker to finish laying some concrete in some pot-holes and get the water hose out. Once I’d returned to the boat we both went back to Tesco’s, having decided to buy ourselves a caffetiere as we were fed up of trying to sieve our coffee through kitchen paper. We took the dog and our recycling rubbish with us and Graham wandered around the car park in search of the Tesco recycling facilities whilst I was shopping. We were not impressed…you can recycle bottles and newspaper there but no card or other paper, nor tins or plastic. Bit useless really. It was still fairly early when we got back to the boat. I had a half-shower/half-bath (yes, this boat has the luxury of a proper bath, plus a normal domestic loo and generous size wash-basin) whilst the water was still hot. There wasn’t anything we wanted to watch on TV so we just read. Later on, I used the dongle I’d borrowed from my son to stream an old ‘Time Team’ episode on YouTube. I've recently been working through the set of 'Time Teams' episodes on YouTube starting with series 1. Am now on series 5. We weren’t very hungry this evening, and I didn’t feel much like cooking, so just had the remains of the quiche that we had Saturday, again with new potatoes and salad. By 9pm I was falling asleep, so Graham took Seren out and we were all in bed by 9.30. You can hear some noise in the distance from the Norwich to Lowestoft road from the Lido moorings, but I’m sure that it would be much louder at the Yacht Station. There was a lot of light pollution though, with a big floodlight shining out all night over the pontoon. I guess it’s reassuring though, as it’s a very quiet spot at night, especially if you are the only ones moored there, as we were. I'm planning to add more photos than usual to this account, so I've resized them to a 1/4 of their original size in the hopes that I won't overdo it! Here's an extra photo of the stretch up to Geldeston...so peaceful! Helen

Oh drat...I accidentally posted the above post about Sunday whilst only half way through copying and pasting it and I ran out of editing time whilst trying to add the rest and some photos. Here are photos that I was going to add to this first section: and the rest of the day went like this: It was fairly busy on Breydon. At the far end of Breydon we turned left down the Waveney. Most of the traffic seemed to be going the other way and we didn’t pass many other boats for the next stretch. It continued to be beautifully sunny as we stopped off at Somerlayton BA moorings. I had a brief chat with a couple on ‘Lightening’ who were on their first trip after joining that syndicate. We then took Seren along the footpath that leads to the Herringfleet drainage mill. She had a wonderful time as we were able to let her off the lead for a change (absolutely no risk of coming across any cars!). The mill was impressive, but it was a shame that a couple of its sails had broken off and were lying in the grass. We then went to the Duke’s Head for lunch. When we arrived, we decided to sit in the garden (they do allow dogs inside though) and found the music blaring from loudspeakers really intrusive – far too loud. I asked at the bar whether they could turn it down but the girl serving didn’t know how to operate the sound system, but said she would tell the manager when he returned. Fair play, they did turn it down later on though it was still mostly the ‘thumpy’ type of music that we both find annoying. We both had burgers, which were obviously home-made (very large patty, at least an inch thick, which I found quite difficult to get my gnashers around) with crispy lettuce, tomato and bacon jam in the bun and a tomato relish and gherkins on the side and thick home-made chips. All very nice. My only quibble is that I’m not keen on the current craze of leaving the skin on chips. After lunch we continued up the Waveney to Oulton Broad. I had phoned ahead and booked a stern-on mooring with shore power. When we got there the reserved mooring was in a fairly tight space with boats moored stern-on opposite. After one failed attempt at positioning the boat to reverse I decided to head instead for one of the side-on moorings on the other (outward) side of the pontoon. I still hadn’t got the hang of the throttle when trying to manoeuvre at slow speed, so although the side-on mooring was more expensive I decided it would be foolish to continue trying to reverse into a tight space when I didn’t feel I could fully control the boat. Since it was fairly early in the afternoon we thought we’d have a look at Lowestoft. The Harbour Master was very good at telling us where we could catch a train and the alternative walking route. The walk was interesting – quite an odd route across wasteland and behind boatyards. There was a pleasant bit along a lakeside before we hit a public park and then we followed the road that passes Morrison’s (which I popped into for a few bits and bobs) and the railway station. We strolled along the pier overlooking the harbour by the Yacht Club and stopped to watch a largish old sailing vessel being manoeuvred on ropes into the its berth. We were pretty tired by now, so took the train back. We nearly messed up by buying tickets for Oulton Broad North before finding out that the train to that station would be an hour later than the one to Oulton Broad South. Luckily the train guard/ticket collector said it would be okay to travel on those tickets. In the evening we just relaxed. Watched Countyfile’s ‘one man and his dog’ competition filmed from Hampstead Heath (Wales won!) and had some pasta with a jar of puttanesca sauce and then turned in quite early I was a warm night, so again no need for heating.

Sunday 24th September I woke at the ridiculous time of 3.50 this morning and could get back to sleep. Not sure why, the bed was very comfortable. I guess I was a bit excited about crossing Breydon again. It didn’t help that Seren woke at about 4.30. It was still dark but some traffic had started up. By then Graham was awake too, so we got up about 5, took Seren out for a short walk, had a cup of tea and read for a bit, and then spent some time discussing our plans for the day. We decided to make for Oulton Broad as that would mean that we could travel to Beccles the following day and arrive around low tide as we intended getting under the old bridge. We had coffee and croissants about 6.30. Very disappointed to find that the filter section of the caffetiere was broken and had to improvise by pouring the coffee through a kitchen towel lined colander. By the time it dawned we could see it was going to be a fine morning. The night had been surprisingly warm. We hadn’t needed the heating on and I was half wishing I’d brought cooler nightwear. Once the sun was properly up we set off upstream, turning just beyond the moored boats. The sun’s glare on the river was pretty intense…good job the river twists and turns so much. We chugged along nicely at 6mph and could see a couple of boats some way behind us going roughly the same pace. Half way down to Yarmouth a private boat from Beccles came storming past all of us, creating a huge wake that was churning its way up the banks. Honestly! Graham took us through Yarmouth whilst I had a go at taking a video (which turned out rubbish – far too shaky). I tried taking some photos of the different birds on Breydon Water and some of those turned out okayish.

Didn't I see it on the Waveney a couple of weeks back? Also, the boat with all the detritus on the bank above Beccles? It's such a lovely part of the river we were extra shocked to see such a mess. Helen

If solo cruising becomes a problem maybe NBN could set up a 'buddy club' of people who need cruising partners. Just a thought. Though I'm sure that solo cruising has its own attractions. Peace, perfect peace. Helen

As we got used to the throttle we did detect a gentle 'engaged' sound. Took us a couple of days to find it though!

I'm not sure I understood much of this Cheesy, not being technically savvy, except that it rings bells with when the handover chappie told us to set the revs at a certain point when running the engine in the evening when stationary, also that tick over was just above 1000. Not that we did run the engine in the evenings. Luckily we didn't need the heating. We also noticed that despite being hooked up to shore power that the water wasn't really heated effectively overnight. I'm wondering how we got away without running engines in the evening on Ferry Marina boats, even with using the heating. One of the problems that we had with this boat was the inverter not working most of the time when we were underway. I did come away with the impression that this boat wasn't mechanically maintained to the high standards of Ferry, but it was certainly very, very comfortable and very clean and really spacious for a boat for two. Helen