YnysMon

I’m not surprised the Beccles fees have gone up. The yacht station has been noticeably less busy since the Silverline fleet decamped up north to Richardson’s.

Someone once posted a tip on the forum to wipe the screen with a cloth primed with washing up liquid, though I must admit I haven’t tried that myself. We have a small, low powered demister gadget that my husband got from Coopers ages ago in a sale. I think it cost £5 or so. It has a 12v connection. The only snag on Moonlight Shadow is that we need an extension cable from the 12v plug. I bet the extension cable cost more than the demister!

Could that bird be a red kite? My son spotted a couple of birds that he thought were red kites when we were on the Broads last month. I read somewhere that they are starting to appear on the Broads, which is probably bad news, as they could push out marsh harriers. Red kites are becoming a pest in certain areas of the chiltern hills.

I don’t think we are allowed to moor at Whitlingham any longer (much to my disappointment, it was a great place for dog walks). There was news some time ago that it wouldn’t be a BA mooring any longer and the electric posts were taken away. Last time we passed there were some no mooring signs attached to the quay heading, which one of two live aboard were ignoring.

I thought it was Clive at the helm. Maybe I should correct that. At the time I had no idea what Clive looked like, not until I looked at the Horning Pleasurecraft website this week. Anyway, that was a nifty bit of helming. Bon Bon looked very tidy, she does you credit.

Thanks. A great start to your holiday tale. You look very organised with that clipboard. Are you as nerdy as I am with print outs of tides, plans of where to go, and so on?

I love the wellies I bought in a sale in Go Outdoors about 5 years ago. They have a label ‘Coldene’ on the front. They are warm (padded) and very snug on my feet, so comfortable for walking (I find walking in sloppy wellies can be very tiring). The only slight downside is they are quite difficult to take off. I have to use a special welly remover gadget.

Loved the video of Finlay. He was so quick to pick up on the whistle. What a good boy!

Graham and I did some evening classes the couple of years leading up to lockdown. We had a very knowledgeable teacher, very inspiring on his topic, but he inserted the word ‘basically’ in almost every other sentence. Imagine my horror when, the other day, I started a conversation with Graham with the word ‘basically’. Watch out…these things are catching! When we were teenagers, almost everyone in Holyhead said ‘You know’ in every other sentence. Drove me mad.

I’ve read up some accounts of groups taking young people on Hunter’s boats in the friends newsletter. They do have to have one experienced skipper per boat.

I still like a lot of the ‘New Name’ lady’s content. It’s not all just filming boats at Ludham Bridge any longer. She has branched out into other topics that people interested in the Broads generally will appreciate. For instance she did a bit about the origins of village names on a recent video.

I’m getting a fed up of the videos concentrating on mishaps too. Fortunately, there are others out there. I’ve noticed the ‘New Name’ lady seems to have moved on to producing a range of interesting videos about the Brads area generally, which are a welcome relief.

I’m not so sure. Okay, the floods seem to have gone down, but in my estimation over the last fortnight the water levels were still relatively high, going by the gap under Ludham Bridge and the air draft that we had under other bridges.

At least you don’t need to worry about the bridges! We’ve never hired anything with a high air-draft, as we appreciate getting to the less frequented parts of the rivers.

The main thing is try not to panic (we’ve all been there). Take a deep breath and take things slowly, keeping the revs down.

Is there any news on the shop and cafe at Stracey Arms? I'm hoping that it has been sold as they do seem to be continuing to collect the mooring fees there, as the signs had been altered to £8 per night. We didn't stop there, as it was very early morning/late afternoon when we passed, but on our return journey we spotted someone mowing the grass banks.

Never give up! Practise makes perfect!

Does St Olaves Marina have fuel nowadays? When we were looking for an alternative Marina a few years ago we considered St Olaves, but rejected that as an option as they didn’t have fuel (nor pump outs, if my memory serves me).

Where are their nav lights?

Cromer, Sheringham and Holt are worth a visit too, and Findlay would love Pretty Corner Woods near Sheringham. I quite enjoy a wander along the North Norfolk Coast, stopping off at random villages, including the smokehouse at Cley.

Just tried out the H&J Banoffee Pie chocolate that we bought in Jarrolds (from the Beccles choc factory). All I can say is…YUM!

We have used Hippersons a few times when on Water Rail. They are very helpful. I would recommend phoning them beforehand though. When we first visited, we just cruised into their basin but found their fuel quay was taken up by their days boats, so we had to retreat to the Yacht Station until later that morning. If you phone them, they will advise what time they can accommodate you.

Whatever it is (I wondered), I spotted a lot of it too.

I like Desmond’s new natty cable knit number. If you’d put that on either of our two, they’d roast. They both have too much hair! The hair gets everywhere too. Makes cleaning the boat at the end of the week a real chore. Loving the tale, and awaiting more.

Good for the Scouts! Wonder what Scout unit they are? The Scouting lark has a lot to answer for…that’s how Graham and I met each other.