Lulu

Ludham bridge marker this morning was 7ft 9 Quite high at Potter currently but not overlapping the quay heading. Having to clamber on and off the boat using the steps which is rare for us

Having just forked out for a new fuel tank and calorifier over the summer we are hoping that’s it for a while and can enjoy lots of winter cruising. Currently on the rivers now until Sunday. Bliss 😁

Definitely remember the brochures arriving when I was a kid and Dad keeping them by his chair for months. If only he had kept them. I often wonder now if I would have seen Luna or Wren as I think she would have been called back then, little knowing I’d own her one day. Id love to get an original brochure with her in it, but the prices of these brochures are crazy.

May see you both in a couple of weeks and will attempt Gayes staithe. Completely forgot we have a BT engineer installing BT fibre into the house on Friday then my car is being serviced on Saturday. Gutted we have to wait another week!

My 89 year old parents have already made arrangements. Dad showed me he has paid in full and had great satisfaction showing me the invoice. They do not want any kind of service whatsoever. All that will happen is the funeral directors come and do their thing and thats it. The instructions my brother and I have is only when they have both gone, we can have a “damn good party” to celebrate their lives. In one way Im relieved but at the same time not sure us as a family will have any sense of closure but we obviously will respect their wishes. I think what Kpnut did with the flowers will be something we will do also as our ‘closure’ as the Broads were very happy times for all of us as a family.

Have a lovely time. Hoping to go up next weekend. Are the rivers generally quiet? How Hill got quite busy last weekend then light dawned as we realised it was half term. We would really like to get onto Gayes Staithe on the side on for the first time as we cant do stern on with no access for the hound.

We spent last Christmas on the boat. We all decided as a family not to get together because of Covid. It was absolutely wonderful. A lovely cruise down the Ant in the morning. We had intended to go to Ranworth but it was full. I suspect others had the same idea because of covid but other than Ranworth, the rivers were empty and we spent Christmas Day at Ludham Bridge totally on our own. We took decorations and Christmas crackers and had a mini roast dinner totally off grid. Would definitely do it again if we had the chance.

I agree, I cant think of a better way. A beautiful moment Kate x

The hotel where I work is about to go cashless. The only time I have cash is pound coins to pay for water for the boat and £5 for the dog’s nail trim. I went to Aldi for the first time the other week to see what its like but didnt have a £1 for the trolley so went back to Tesco as usual. I was a bit astounded by the ever developing technology when my son just had to wave his watch in front of the ticket machine to pay for parking at the hospital the other day.

This is where I’m feeling guilty as we have the chance to get another whippet next spring who used to be bestest buddies with Desmond but I’m dithering because of space on the boat. At home it would be ok.

Im thinking we may try again in the spring. We are still a bit exhausted by it all at the moment. It took 5 months before the chain fell apart and peoples mortgage offers ran out. I believe in fate and now feel maybe the house wasnt the right one for us after all and there was a reason why it all went wrong. Just wish it hadnt been such an expensive exercise!

Much love to you Kate. You know Im always at the end of the phone. Looking forward to a massive hug when we finally catch up again on the rivers x Btw I think most of us have left things on our boats. We left a full rubbish bag under the saloon sofa for two weeks, ugh. I do believe another member here left some sausages in a fridge for quite a while….

Cant believe its been a year already Ian. So very envious. Our attempt at moving to Norfolk this year failed miserably after the chain collapsed and has cost us too much in fees to carry on for the time-being, but one day!

So sorry about your mum Malcolm. However much you thought you were prepared, it would still have been a shock. The Broads are such a mentally restoring place to be. I know Graham and I feel it’s our reset place. Those pictures are glorious. We were on board over the weekend and couldn’t believe our luck with the weather until we got back to the marina at 10 and got drenched!

Definitely the early mornings. We are usually cruising by 8 and the rivers are usually quiet even in peak season. One favourite moment that will always stand out for us was the first cruise after we were released from lockdown 1. It was only a day trip but we both got quite emotional as we left the marina after months away and also relief the boat was ok

Wind…… both from dog and weather! The most frightening times for me have been mooring up or leaving in the wind. Trying to leave the free moorings at Potter freaked me out once. We had delayed our departure for as long as we could. We planned exactly what we were going to do. Didnt work the first time, rethought our plan and managed to safely set off but I was a complete bag of nerves. This fear also stems from when I was walking the dogs and a large oak tree came crashing down a few feet in front of me when some sort of mini hurricane thing whipped up suddenly. We are not fair weather boaters by any means but we do try and avoid very windy conditions

Your cruising day was almost identical to our usual routine. Moored up by 10 for the day and Irstead to boot 😁Just so peaceful

Catfield

Sutton

It took quite a while getting Desmond used to being left alone and building it up slowly. He’d been with a pack of about 12 other dogs for 3 years then suddenly on his own. The pitiful howling was awful. I was convinced he was doing it the whole time. One day I set up the ipad to record while i went out for an hour. Came back and reviewed the footage and saw that he had paced and whined for about 10 mins before going to sleep. He always gets a chew when we leave and a bonio when we get back so he associates both coming and going with something nice. We try not to fuss him too much when we first get in. He always brings us a gift of a slipper which is promptly discarded as soon as the bonio box appears. The other thing is we always leave the radio on for him. He seems to like Classic Fm

Apologies if its been posted before, possibly even by me but couldn’t see it for looking. Fascinating film

Umm can the average hire boat fuel tank actually take £400 worth of fuel!?

Took himself off to bed. Found him waiting patiently for his bonio

I’m so sorry Doug. I remember little white balls of fluff getting on and off Nipper at Beccles a few years ago. My condolences to you both

Love his tail. Is he getting used to his new name?