Lulu

Exactly the same as Mermaid. Is this a Hampton thing?

Great write up Simon and good to see you even if it was only from the other side of the river each time! Looking forward to your review and also your Thames trip

Lovely and interesting right up as always Helen. One day we will meet in person rather than just waving madly at each other! We keep saying we will have days out but never do. Maybe when we can have more than one week on board we will. You have definitely given me some ideas of where to go.

6ft 6

Oh how I can relate to this 😂. Having now downsized to a Hampton, we were absolutely determined to be ruthless of what we keep on her. It’s so difficult and there’s been a couple of occasions this week where Graham didn’t have something on board to fix issues whereas Luna had everything for the ‘just in case’ times. is the telescopic thing for a tv aerial? Thats what we have for ours.

It was lovely to see you Kate and looking forward to meeting up with you again when you are afloat x Yes, Jean we were on that video. Thank goodness I didn’t mess up! She is much loved already. We have had some issues this week with leaks but at least we were on board at the time. Will go into more detail on Mermaid’s thread :)

Woods End staithe?

We had exactly the same one on Luna with the same issues. Graham disconnected it and replaced it with a modern shower bar from Screwfix for £45 . We are going to buy the same one for Mermaid

Nice to see you again en route to Potter. It certainly was very cold last night. The very gusty wind has caught out a few people here today. Thankfully it’s died down now.

We did wonder if you were going south but obviously not when you came back again! We were tempted with Stokesby also (for cake) but resisted.

We had plans to move Luna from Horning to Broadsedge at the end of that March. I said to Graham I had a gut feeling we would be going into full lockdown within days so called David and asked if we could bring her week early. Thank goodness we did. Put her in her new mooring and that was that for what seemed like forever. I lost my sense of taste and smell a few days later. It was like a switch had been switched off. Graham had made a particularly hot curry and I couldn’t taste it at all. I felt a bit rough but at that time there was no tests and I don’t think loss of taste and smell was on the list of symptoms . Like Mouldy, 4 years on nothing tastes as it used to especially cola and chocolate and onions but I’ve got used to it. I worked throughout including furloughing people. How I wished I could furlough myself. Exhausting and relentless. I can remember getting incredibly annoyed and resentful of all the people staying home making banana bread and taking up new crafts while I was working my socks off! By July I wasn’t feeling well, stressed and really tired. Had some blood tests and discovered I had antibodies so proof I’d had Covid and now had long Covid. Funnily enough I felt far worse after each jab. My most vivid memory was the day after we were told to stay at home, looking out of the window and our usually busy road completely empty and taking Desmond for a walk and everyone giving eachother a wide berth. The hardest moment was my son going to his grandmother’s funeral in Hampshire when it was limited to a certain number of people. My son said there was hardly any vehicles on the motorways and was very eery. My daughter wasn’t allowed to travel from Scotland. She still talks about how hard that was for her bless her.

If you could , that would be great 👍 Graham has just asked do you have a plastic or stainless steel holding tank. Ours is stainless steel

I’m not sure where the dipstick would reside after its first plunge 😂 I didnt go to the boardwalk. Im not sure you can take dogs but someone did tell me it had been shut, possibly flooding?

Yep Traveller on Luna. Much more simpler arrangement! We just want to know how full the holding tank is without having to dismantle the side panel. Sounds disgusting but with the Traveler you could just look down the hole. Hope people dont read this while eating their dinner!

Jabsco with what i think is such a complicated system (for me to remember anyway) - pump water in, do your thing, pump out. Im just used to a foot pump and its gone arrangement on Luna 😂

7th March Graham was owed some hours so left work at lunchtime and we both booked Friday off as we decided we needed a proper shakedown weekend and actually stay onboard before our week’s holiday to make sure we had everything or needed to change anything. We arrived at the marina mid afternoon after following a very slow police escort from Acle and it was too late to go out so reluctantly stayed in the marina. We had our first meal on board using what Kate told me is the magic table. Ingenious design how it just pulls out from the bow. The new cupboard proved invaluable in storing all the dry goods and things we use all the time. An Amazon flatpack purchase for £37. Bargain! 8th March Woke up to a beautiful day and set off early. Destination Ranworth. Had the most lovely cruise. I dont mind being so low down. As I think Ray said, you see the wildlife up close. The Ant was quiet. No one about at How Hill. The bridge marker was measuring a lot different to a few weeks ago. The wind was increasing though as we got to Ranworth. There were a few other boats when we arrived. Graham reversed and Mermaid did her crabbing to starboard thing. This is our main worry. We are used to a bow thruster but know its just a matter of practice and getting used to the different handling. I took Desmond for a walk before I gave Mermaid a good clean. We then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about watching the very choppy water. The wind eventually died down a bit. 9th March Woke up after a bit of a disturbed night. Desmond didnt want to sleep in his new ‘donut’ bed so ended up in the saloon with me and the geese woke us up having some sort of party when it was still dark and a lot of rope creak which we just couldnt resolve but it was quite breezy and choppy on the broad. Think I’ll swap Desmond’s bed for his old cave bed which takes up less space anyway. This was the whole point of the weekend, to see what was working and what wasnt for us. The sun was shining again , beautiful blue sky and we set off quite early as we had a family celebration in the evening at home. Graham and I practiced stern mooring at Ranworth island for a while before setting off for another stunning cruise, heating on and sitting comfortably. I cant say how much this has changed things for the better. Standing for hours with no heating in the helm on Luna wasn’t doing our old bones any good! We got back into our mooring better than last time! It was nice to visit Ranworth while its still free. Some more tweaks to do, little stuff like putting up some hooks, changing the tv aerial, putting down some more treadmaster pads and adding caravan step in the stern well. The other thing that has been brilliant is how dry Mermaid is. Hardly any condensation both mornings. We got home at lunchtime with the intention on tackling the garden on Sunday but rain stopped play. Cant believe how lucky we were with the weather while we were onboard. More meanderings to come….

We’ve made a few visits over the last few weekends to the marina to get jobs done, including fitting a new water pump as the pressure valve wasnt working, and a Victron battery charger which Graham is loving as he can monitor things from an app on his phone. We measured the holding tank and water tank as we had no idea of capacity and will be fitting gauges at some point. We put up a cupboard on the wall for extra food storage and basically a lot of sorting out finding places to put things. We are absolutely determined not to have so much on board. We ended up with a ridiculous amount of stuff on Luna for those ‘just in case’ we need it times. I will admit downsizing has been a lot harder than we thought but we are getting there. The main issue is trying to keep out of the way when Graham is pulling things apart! Desmond and I sat in the bedroom until order was restored. The BSS was done a couple of weeks ago and passed with flying colours. We are in a debate about the loo. We feel its using way too much water and we dont know how full or empty the holding tank is at the moment unless we pull the wall panel off and tap the side of tank. We are going to see how things go on our week onboard that’s coming up then maybe go for an electric one which I believe uses less water?

Just gone past at 9.00am approaching Ludham

Not sure if its been posted before

Have no clue but good luck! There’s mention about wearing a mask

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24150234.norfolk-broads-firms-raise-fears-potter-heigham-bridge/

Warm welcome to the forum Tony from myself, Graham and Desmond. It was great to meet you on Saturday.

Lo and behold, here she is on our maiden voyage along with Pipedreams!

17th February 2024 Well the big day finally arrived, pick up Mermaid day. We had an easy drive to Horning and got there about 8.30. We were a bit worried about the road being flooded. It wasnt too bad and I came equipped with wellies. Desmond isnt a fan of water but he sloshed his way through. We got the keys and I hastily put blankets on the sofa. Desmond got on board with ease, found his spot on the sofa and went to sleep. Not phased at all. Graham took the car to Stalham. Chris from NYA brought him back and after handover we set off back to Stalham. We cannot fault NYA. The team are absolutely brilliant to deal with. The river levels were high but we knew we wouldn’t have to worry about Ludham bridge. We both took it in turns to helm to get used to the different handling and being aware of more boat behind us and the bow being only a few feet away. I decided to be brave and took her under Ludham Bridge. I couldnt see the path either side as it was under water so but we got through safely …phew! We waved at Pipedreams who suddenly seemed very high up and had an absolutely delightful cruise up the Ant. It was such a treat to be sitting whilst helming. Heating on. At one point we did see what it was like with the roof back but not for long. Cannot wait for the warm weather. Graham took over to put her back in our mooring. It was a bit tricky. We are used to a bow thruster and Mermaid does like to crab to starboard in reverse but he did brilliantly and after a couple of attempts got safely in. I then drove to Wroxham to get another set of keys cut while Desmond helped Graham sort things out on the boat. I also bought some new boat slippers for both of us along with much needed sustenance in the form of sausage rolls. It was a long day but we are so happy. I knew she would be a game changer for us. I know it was really hard for Graham saying goodbye to Luna but we were getting more restricted with our back and knee issues so a ‘bungalow’ boat was the way to go. I didnt take many pictures. There was a lot to do and also a lot of concentration learning how she handles but now really looking forward to settling down and off on our meanderings.

Lovely to see you. You suddenly seemed very high up compared to before! We were wondering if you would be able to get under the bridge.