YnysMon

Harry confined himself to a pint fortunately. That stuff is probably stronger than it tastes! Please do post a tale, I love reading what others have got up to on their Broads holidays.

Spent the morning visiting the secret gardens at How Hill. They are at their very best at the moment, so it would be a crime not to!

Such a peaceful evening and night! Not one person made any racket yesterday evening or overnight, and even now at almost 9sm there's hardly a sound. Bliss!

Thanks very much for coming over Neatishead Kate. It was lovely to meet you. I hope you got back to Gaye's Staithe before the heavens opened!

No fudge. I've already eaten too many sweet things today!

Would be nice to meet, but the rain has really set in. We are softies and have abandoned our planned walk. So glad we came through Wroxham when we did this morning, I'd hate to have to take the roof down in this.

We had intended to return under the bridge sometime close to low tide this afternoon. However, on waking I checked the weather which was promising a band of heavy rain late afternoon, around the time of low tide, so we hurriedly set off hoping that the pilot would be able to take us through at 8.30 or soon after. We got there just before 8 though and thought we had sufficient clearance, so took her through ourselves again. We are now sitting in yet another White Horse ...the Neatishead one. Harry is quaffing a pint of that whisky cask cider that the Admiral likes so much. Harry does too.

Happy birthday Malcolm. Sadly we can't make it either. It's just too close to our current jaunt on Moonlight Shadow.

One of the things that struck me when hiring was how every boat handled differently, so the first couple of days of any hire was like relearning how to handle a boat. Even when we hired Fair Regent twice within 12 months I had problems as the engines of FR 1 and 3 were so different. 3 had an engine that was very happy at low revs but hated anything over 1800, so much do that it almost stalled on Breydon and really struggled against the tide on the southern Broads. FR1 was the opposite. It was almost impossible to limit ones speed to 3mph, but was quite happy at higher revs. That's one of the reasons I like syndicate boating so much. Knowing how the boat is likely to handle is such a boon.

If you are careful, yes. I momentarily thought I'd grounded myself on the first attempt at mooring, but we managed to push off and moor nearer the turning point at the head of navigation. Even there you have to be careful as there are some old roots sticking out of the bank at the end nearest to the turning point.

It certainly brightened up. Now at Coltishall Locks, and guess what...we got here without the aid of the pilot. I must admit that I'm a bit chuffed with myself. I had intended using the pilot, but when we saw the amount of clearance Graham encouraged me to just take MS through myself.

We spent the night in our new Marina and were up early again this morning. Currently moored up on the BA moorings at Potter H, waiting for the rain to ease off before visiting Latham's. We are thinking of going up to Coltishall later, low tide at Wroxham not being until mid afternoon. Photo of us moored at Horning yesterday evening, and a rather more gloomy looking one from this morning.

We are well on our way to Horning, approaching Thurne mouth. The rivers are remarkably quiet, and we had Breydon Water to ourselves until we approached the lift bridge.

We have booked a table for 12, but are currently back at the boat. After lunch we'll set off down the Chet to catch the last of the incoming tide up the Yare. One for Uncle Mike ...we are moored next to Chameleon.

Thanks Jean. We are off for a walk in the direction of Chedgrave Staithe this morning.

Gosh, that was an early start! It would be lovely if we were neighbours.

Just booked a table at The White Horse for Sunday lunch tomorrow, having first enquired about what they offer for vegetarians (for Graham).

Yes it will, and we are looking forward to it. My son Harry and I will be taking her north on Monday whilst husband Graham drives the car up to Horning. He's planning to take Seren for a good walk whilst he waits for us to get there. Currently at Loddon, which we thought would be convenient for returning to Brundall tomorrow afternoon, ready for an early start Monday.

Graham and Harry are both about 6’4” and can’t recall having any issues with the boats we hired, which were Turquoise Emblem, Royale Emblem, Fair Regent and Bronze Emblem. Graham has bumped his head quite a lot on Moonlight Shadow though (LOL), mainly when going down the steps from our lounge to galley when the roof is lowered.

That’s okay, I wasn’t reacting to your post really. We’ve had comments over the years from people who normally hire who think we are mad to stay on our home mooring…for example.

When we were hiring a late takeover would have been a BIG problem. We are a lot more relaxed now we have four weeks a year (sometimes more if another member offers up a week). On our last few jaunts we haven’t rushed away the first day but have stayed overnight in the Marina. I don’t think people who haven’t experienced syndicate boating quite comprehend the change in mindset.

Yes, I think that’s the case Sue.

Thanks Matt! We are currently having an online discussion about the turnaround day, though it looks like Friday has all the votes so far. To be honest, a lot of people left the boat on Friday when it was at Brooms, as it was impossible to get fuel and pump-out anywhere nearby before the early time that we were supposed to vacate the boat on Saturday morning. It's all happened rather fast today, as we only got the final confirmation that we had the mooring this morning. Lots of whoops of joy and gifs on our Moonlight Shadow owners WhatsApp group! By the way, we've really taken a step forward in communication in the syndicate recently with the website that Warren has created and the WhatsApp group.

Thanks Alan. Yes, it will be nice to have a little 'syndicate club' at Horning. We are looking forward to meeting more people from other syndicates. Helen

Only one more sleep to go! Even more excitingly, it will be the final time that we pick up the boat from Brooms. We have secured a mooring at Horning Pleasurecraft, so we'll take the car to Horning on Monday and then stay up north for the rest of the week. We are planning to spend most of our July week down south, so staying up north next week won't be a hardship. Hopefully I'll be able to take a few photos of her new mooring next week and send them to Warren for posting on our lovely new MS website: https://moonlightshadow.net/ Helen