Lulu

Saw that some boats must have crunched through the ice on the main river. Despite the glorious sunshine, the marina is still frozen over

But if these two popular moorings are going to be chargeable then there will be no stopping the rest of the free moorings being changed to chargeable so there won’t be plenty of free moorings at all

A very chilly night. Woken up to marina and main river frozen over

Nice and toasty with the diesel heater on. Just been pouring with rain so assume that ice will have gone/going

Warm welcome to the forum

Just taken Desmond for a walk around Broadsedge and could see the main river has ice along the middle. Thin ice in places in the marina so glad we made the decision not to go out this weekend

Knowing how clumsy I can be, even tripping over thin air, I know I’d step out and trip over the fenders if we kept them on deck and …… sploosh! We often make a last minute decision to moor and cant be doing with extra trip hazards and prep

I haven’t got a massive issue with the toll this year, although would feel differently if they add the same percentage or more next year. The issue I have is free moorings being turned into chargeable moorings. If it happens at these two places, it opens it up to happening to every mooring.

We’ve only moored a couple off times at Ranworth as we need the side on (taxi rank ) because of the dog , so only choose out of season to see if its available. We certainly wont even attempt to go there if we have to pay. How would fee collection work out of season anyway? Would our tolls be paying for a ranger to collect the money for the few boats that come in? We have worked our socks off to get a boat and maintain it. We’ve had a lot of expensive outlay 2022. We can tolerate the increase in tolls this year. We all knew they would increase considerably but the loss of one of our favourite moorings (Barton Staithe) and now the likelihood of everyone having to pay at Ranworth, where does this end? All free moorings will become chargeable? Other moorings will be lost? The amount of days we are aboard a year, would cost us a huge amount which isnt in our budget. Our contingency fund is for maintenance issues, not additional mooring fees. Before this thread, I had been thinking of selling the boat and maybe changing it for something with rear access for the dog so we can stern on moor but If this is the way things are going, it will become very likely we may as well sell and take our hard earned cash somewhere else.

Thats where i meant. I didnt know it was for unpowered craft only. Is this a new thing?

I’d be interested to know too. I thought the dyke by the ‘waiting for the pilot mooring’ on the left hand side (nearest the road) was a public mooring and the side nearest the hotel isnt. Ive seen on Robin’s vlogs he’s often moored there.

I saw that item too. They ask for a small donation to collect the tree then that money goes towards buying trees to plant. Great scheme

Im exhausted just reading your account 😂 I realised how unfit myself and Desmond are last weekend. My version of a long walk is in no comparison to Kate’s! We only went on a short walk (for Finlay and Kate) but for us I could tell Desmond was starting to flag towards the end, whereas Finlay was still just as energetic as at the start. Kate kindly kept Finlay on the lead which must have been annoying for him but I cant let Desmond off the lead as if he sees something, being a sighthound, he will be off into the distance in a flash of ginger but we did discuss the advantages of a whippet being a quick wipe clean dog!

Its ok, I stopped him as he was about to make the move 😉 Lovely photos, finally some blue sky

It was lovely to see you yesterday. You didnt make a hash of reversing at all. Nice and slow and steady and the wind certainly wasn’t helping. I’m surprised you didnt hear me this morning as I had to tell Desmond firmly just outside your bedroom window not to wee on the ropes! If anyone has an answer to why there are weirdly positioned red cones on Barton Broad, Kate and I would love to know. Certainly confused me coming from Irstead bearing left to Neatishead. I dont think we’ve ever moored there without having to use our steps.

Happy New Year everyone x

Awww Helen. What a nightmare and typical it happens on a bank holiday weekend, but glad the hounds are settled. We also didn’t have the best of starts by getting caught up in a queue of cars crawling past an accident so didn’t arrive until it was too late to go out then found the front cabin covered in mould which has never happened before, even after leaving the boat for months during Covid. I had to spend an hour or so cleaning what had been previously spotless when we left the boat last time. Hope you can get things sorted quickly

I’m also a Lathams fan. I went into our local equivalent QD store on Christmas Eve and found a pink unicorn fleece blanket. No, it wasn’t on my list. I wasn’t looking for a pink unicorn fleece blanket but I saw it and just had to purchase for my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter who absolutely loved it on Christmas Day. 😁

We maybe onboard over the weekend. Not absolutely sure yet

Its ok everyone, Christmas has been saved!

So Christmas Eve just got very stressful. The family are all doing different parts of the Christmas lunch so we can all help mum who is determined to have it at her house tomorrow . All was going well. Pigs in blankets prepped, next lot of goodies about to go in then the oven died at 3.00pm. A frantic search online, most ovens out of stock or can only be delivered not collected, then found one at Currys. Just managed to collect it in time before the store shuts at 5.pm. We thanked the lad who served us and said he may have just saved Christmas. Interestingly we weren’t the only ones in the store also having a panic with appliances packing up on Christmas Eve. Graham is now installing it. Please let it work!

Merry Christmas everyone x https://www.noradsanta.org/en/ Just under an hour to go and he will be on his way, if you have all been good this year …

Simpsons? I hope Barton Turf will still be available especially as its now a dedicated water point. Really miss being able to moor there 😞

These alarms are great if they bloomin wear them! Mother in law, and my grandmother had them. We would say have you got your alarm button? ‘Yes dear, its beside the bed’, or ‘its in the other room ‘🙄

If we had stern access it wouldn’t have been such a problem but if one of us slips we both slip and i cant let him off the lead. Its been a long day but i will sleep well knowing the boat is fine. We did some tweaks with the dehumidifier and left the curtains open to let the sun come in and warm things up a bit as and when it decides to make an appearance. Still cant get over how the engine started first time. Good ole Perkins.