YnysMon

We recommend the EzyDog buoyancy aids for dogs too, having bought one for our collie puppy earlier this year. It came in very handy when she took a dip in July as we were able to scoop her out of the water very quickly using the handle on the back. She's quite cautious about water, so I was quite surprised that she fell in whilst trying to hop back on the boat. Her front legs made it, but her back legs didn't! Welcome to the forum by the way, Helen

We've now had a week on all three types of Hunter's boats (sailing not static) over the past three years. We do love them, but we do tend to bang our heads a lot over the first few days, especially on the Hustler and Wood class boats, where the roof hinges up. The Lullaby class have more cabin space and a bit more head room. My advice would be to wear a hat to soften the blows! We've found the showers and loos at the Yard are kept spotlessly clean. Allow some time to have a look around the sheds - they are fascinating with some really interesting displays on the history of the yard and boat building. Enjoy your stay! Helen

Sorry for the delay in posting about our second day. I had a few abortive tries week before last which I deleted 'cos of problems in posting photos, then my cousin came to stay mid-week so no time for posting, and then I had to go back to work.(That was a shock to the system I can tell you!) Also we had a day sail on Friday 14th which was lovely. Bit exhausting, with the drive from MK and back either end of the day, but worth it! Anyway...to get back to the first week of July... Sunday 2nd July A lovely sunny morning again. Shortly before waking I had a dream in which Graham woke me up to announce it was after mid-day...what a waste of Norfolk time! Phew! Calm down Helen... it's only 6am. Whilst taking Seren for an early morning walk Graham went to check out the opening times for Bridge Stones of Potter. It opened at 9am, so we went there for breakfast. Graham and Harry had the All-day Breakfast and I just had a sausage with egg, hash browns and tomato from the individual items. Then we had a short browse in Latham’s. After breakfast we sailed up the Thurne past Martham up toward West Somerton. However, we noticed that there was far more weed along the straight stretch above Martham Ferry than there was last year. In places it looked like the water lilies were almost meeting in the middle. We also spotted a sail around the bend near the entrance to Martham Broad, so we assumed that someone was already moored on the wild-mooring that we had planned to use for our lunchtime stop, so we decided to turn around shortly before the bend in a relatively weed-free spot. We were able to reach down as far as Candle Dyke, but it then took us ages to tack the next few hundred yards just past the entrance of Candle Dyke as the wind was very fluky. At times we were going backward not forward. [By the way, can anyone tell me why early accounts of the Broads, including Arthur Ransom's Coot Club, refer to it as Kendal Dyke? Was it just that visitors thought that was pronounced that way due to the Norfolk accent?] Once we got to the bend where there's the first stretch of informal moorings we stopped to take our reef out. We gave Seren a walk along the bank and then had a light lunch (jam butties and tea followed by Rock Buns from Roy’s). As we were finishing off our tea Seren fell in the water whilst trying to hop back on the boat...and this is a dog who is very wary of water! Luckily she had her buoyancy aid on, which has a handle on the back of it, so it was easy to fish her out. After lunch we tacked down the rest of Candle Dyke and across Heigham Sound. Once in the Sound the wind was much fresher and tacking easier. We only went as far as Deep-Go Dyke moorings as we fancied staying somewhere quiet, getting there shortly before 4pm. There were a couple of boats on the moorings when we got there but they both left early evening. Both had a dog with them and I took Seren along to say hello so that she wouldn’t bark at them. Harry went for a sail in the dinghy, so Seren barked at that instead. She did calm down once I distracted her. We had spam hash for dinner, followed by a few hands of rummy before turning into bed. We had intended to stay up to see the stars, but as usual were too tired. I was going to add some photos, but am still having problems. Helen

Aww...how romantic! Hope the weather behaves itself in September. Helen

Lovely vid! As someone else has already said, what makes it really special is your 'double act'. Your affection for each other really shines out. Helen

Whilst trying to tack up Womack Dyke last week, and passed a little too close to the reeds for comfort, we got reminded (quite politely and helpfully) by a passing BA ranger that profile of the bank makes it quite shallow at the edges.

I had a day's sail yesterday and thought there was slightly less traffic compared to the previous week, when we had a whole week's sail. That's only on the Northern Broads though. Helen

Graham and I won't be on a boat that weekend, and we'll have to be back in Milton Keynes by Monday as we've volunteered to help out with the Woburn Sands Band Fete. But...we are thinking that we might camp overnight Saturday, possibly Friday too, so that we can meet everyone on Saturday/Sunday. Will post on the sign up thread if we do decide to come along. Helen

Saturday 1st July The day after Mam’s funeral, held in Holyhead. Not such a sad event; more a celebration of a long and mostly happy life, and very well attended as my Mam had such an extensive network of friends. We had travelled back home to Milton Keynes late afternoon/evening of Friday. Fortunately, we had packed most of our stuff for Norfolk before travelling up to Anglesey. We had intended to start off by 7am, but were a bit slow in getting up and packing the car, despite getting up at 6. We had our usual brekkie stop at Caxton Gibbet Costa’s and arrived at Hoveton just before 11. Harry and I went off to Roy’s and the butchers to buy ‘fresh’ provisions whilst Graham took Seren for a walk along the river. We then went on our way to Ludham and had lunch at Alfresco Tea Rooms (Coronation Chicken Sandwiches for Graham and I, Norfolk Pie and Salad for Harry, all washed down with Norfolk blend Tea). We got to Hunter’s Yard shortly after 1pm and checked in with Vikki. We have messed the Yard about this year, and they have been very good and understanding about it. We had originally booked four-berth Luna for this week, but changed the booking to the three-berth Wood Violet for the previous week when my Mam’s residential respite booking got changed to nursing respite care. A few weeks ago I phoned Vikki to warn her that we might have to cancel altogether, but subsequently changed the booking back to this week once we had confirmation of the funeral arrangements. We also switched from Luna to Lullaby on Harry’s request. He had watched the DVD of ‘The Coot Club’ and knew that Lullaby had taken the part of Mrs Barrable’s yacht ‘Teasel’ in that series. We were also slow getting our stuff packed onto Lullaby, so slow that Phil came along in a dinghy and started to varnish the starboard side and stern of Lullaby. The first thing that Harry did once we had unpacked was to hoist our Ddraig Goch (Welsh flag). Just before we started quanting to the area at the entrance of the dyke reserved for raising sails a fellow sailor gave Harry the hint that it would be best to just quant from the stern rather than along the side due to the direction of the wind, so that made things easier for us. Graham walked along the bank whilst I took the tiller. Seren was a bit of a pain though. She was in the well with me but started barking like mad at the dinghy. She was even worse when she saw a lad going past in a canoe. Once we moored at the entrance to the dyke I left Graham and Harry to sort out the sails (one reef) and walked along the dyke with Seren to try to distract her. She first took a dislike to dinghies when we were on the Broads in May, and has disliked swans since one hissed at her when she was quite small. Not sure why she barks at canoes though – perhaps she thinks they are large swans. We got on our way around 3.30pm with a fair wind and made for Potter Heigham. We managed without tacking though shedsville, though our progress was slower along that stretch as the wind was a bit fluky, as it usually is there. Before coming in to moor at the de-masting area we tied one of Seren’s leads to the ladder amidships, so that she had enough slack to lie down in either cabin, but couldn’t get into the well to get under our feet or tangled up with the main sheet. We did this quite frequently during the week so that we wouldn’t have to worry about keeping an eye on her when we were trying to tack or if there was any risk of a gybe (were the boom swings across from one side to another suddenly). She whined a bit to start but soon settled down. Got through the bridge around 5.15pm, which was just in the nick of time as we only had about 1cm clearance (low tide had been around 1.30pm). Since the wind appeared to be dropping we decided to moor overnight along the stretch just beyond the bridge (the Martham Bank moorings). Not ideal due to the traffic noise, but we all felt very tired. Graham got the BBQ going (we had brought our portable BBQ with us) and we had large and juicy angus steak-burgers (bought from the Hoveton butcher). Harry also had a chicken drumstick, but Graham and I were too full of burger to eat ours. Apart from the road noise we had a quietish evening sitting in the well in the evening sunshine, Graham was listening to a podcast of The Archers whilst I was reading. Very pleasant. Harry took the dinghy along the river for a short sail… We turned in early around 9pm. Graham, Harry and Seren went off to sleep quite quickly. Seren slept in the fore cabin with Harry. As a precaution, we had taken the mattress off one of the beds and left it in the Yard so that we could put Seren’s bed on that bunk. I took longer to get to sleep, finding the road noise more intrusive as the light faded. In the information pack that came with the boat I found a facsimile of a log from the first voyage of Lullaby, dating from May 1932, which was fascinating. I know this sounds silly, but it brought a few tears to my eyes. Their breakfast included ‘Post Toasties’ (one of the first brands of cornflakes in the UK) and I recall my Mam telling me that she used to have Post Toasties for breakfast. I guess cereal was a novelty in the 1930s (Mam would have been aged six in 1932). Once I did drop off I slept soundly.

We sailed down from Womack to Acle and back yesterday. When we sailed down the new BA moorings looked ready but had that plastic orange net fencing up. When we sailed back the netting had gone! Yes, the moorings are definitely open!

An online tide table is showing springs for today. Wonder if that will have any bearing on things since low tide isn't due at PH until after 9am? Perhaps all is not lost?

I thought altitude was quite apt! Okay, I'll crawl away under a table now...

I loved my school. It was decidedly rough in parts, but gave me so many opportunities to stretch myself. I've since found it was the largest comprehensive at the time (70s) but at least it gave me the opportunity to move from being streamed as CSE grade upwards ( bit of a late starter). I've also read somewhere that it was one of the first comprehensive schools in the country, maybe why it didn't feel odd. I don't think I would have gone to University if I'd been in a County that had grammar/secondary schools. Just one person's experience...

Me too, somehow with having looked after my Mam for the last couple of years, and been constrained over how much 'gadding about' Graham and I could do, I've rediscovered a wish to make the most of this summer. I know my Mam would have wanted us to...

Wondering whether to report this thread as being seriously damaging to general wellbeing of forum members and general viewers. Come on chaps...let's enjoy the summer while we can and not get depressed about WINTER drawing in. Sheesh! Okay, I grant that the past week or so was probably our Summer. Been looking at the week ahead forecast and hoping that it's not too chilly the week beginning 1st July.

Nooooo! For goodness sake, we're about to come on our midsummerish jaunt on a Hunters boat from the first week of July. You know how to make someone feel they're on the downward slide to Autumn. Behave yourself!

Certainly do Griff! Helen

Steve, I can only respond with... eeeuk! Helen p.s. Last year on one of the Hunter's Yard boats Graham and I realised that if we used the paraffin gimble lamp rather than our battery lamps that mozzies were virtually eliminated. Bring back paraffin?

Thingamybob, Have you tried using Avon's 'Skin so soft' original dry oil spray. When I was planning a jaunt to Scotland last year I googled about Mozzie repeller and found several recommendations for it. I know it sounds a bit daft, but lots of people swear by it. Another recommendation is 'Smidge', not cheap but works. Helen

Very well done! Hope you get to go to her graduation to cheer her on! Helen

Love the video Bryan. Especially love the photos of the tiny cygnets and the videos of the Grebe trying to feed her/his chicks with an overly big fish. Classic. Helen

Oby looks such a cutie. Now with our Seren we daren't let her off her lead, otherwise she'd be off into the blue yonder. Hope she settles down a bit as she gets older!

The difficult part is remembering to drive on the left after being on a boat for a week. Graham momentarily forgot this year when we turned out of Ferry Marina. Good job there wasn't anything coming the other way!

I've looked it up again and the website says it was the base for spigot mortar. The website is ludhamarchive.org.uk, there's a page on WW2 remains under the 'interesting stuff' section.