Lulu

Exactly, we should be staying at home if at all possible!!!! I freely admit my mental health is not in a good place right now. My dog died during first lockdown and finding it impossible to get another at the moment, especially now the rescue centres have shut again. My work is extremely stressful and I actually want to be furloughed to have a break but that wont happen. Going to the boat is my sanctuary. Even if our marina was open, I wouldnt go because the message is to stay at home. I will not interpret the guidance to suit what I want to do.

These are a few photos of a fun day out on Oulton Broad on Water Rail for the first time a few weeks ago

I was actually reading my own Luna’s Log the other day from the beginning. I realise now, even if it’s for just my own benefit how lovely it was to look back at the great times and bits I’d would have forgotten about if I hadn’t done my log

We made the decision at 6.00am today to get to the boat to winterise after seeing the news. Seems others in the marina may have had the same idea as the carpark was really filling up this morning and now it’s nearly empty again. We’ve made a list of what we need to do in the morning to winterise then will go home tomorrow.

Have a great few days afloat both of you :) We are on our way now making a last minute dash to the boat to winterise before we get locked down. Not planning to go out on the rivers, though we may be tempted...

Warm welcome back Robin! I was watching an old vlog of yours this morning funnily enough. It was great to switch off and chill out away from the depressing news channel.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Ian

Got to agree. We loved being out and about on the quiet rivers last year. Now we have installed heating it will be even better not trying to always go for the electric posts

Congratulations! She’s so beautiful

I’d love a list of water points on the northern rivers too for winter use. We used the electric posts at Horning, Ranworth and at Potter last year. Hopefully the new ones at Acle will be up and running soon

This is what the forum is all about. Supportive, make great friends and loads of advice.

Great video and music. Ive subscribed and will look forward to seeing more videos from you!

Used Avon Skin So Soft a few weeks ago when we were bombarded by midges on Ranworth island. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

We find a fleece blanket over the top of the duvet works wonders and fleece jimjams which I got from Roy’s are an essential for me. It certainly was chilly last night.

What was the bridge height Griff? We are in debate on whether we are going through tomorrow

Congratulations!

We always love eating at the Wherryman

Think this is the one https://www.nya.co.uk/boats-for-sale/defender-40/

We haven’t tried those yet but certainly will do.

When i was a kid we did one canal holiday and one on the Thames but the rest of the time on the Broads. The Broads feels like home to us and not really interested trying elsewhere..., although I am watching a lot of canal vlogs lately and the amount of available moorings you can stay on for days is rather appealing.

Hence why we havent moored at How Hill and Ludham. Maybe we can do this sooner rather than later if we keep an eye on the weather.

Places we intend to go out of season where we havent been before will be Dilham, Neatishead and Sutton and now Womack Staithe. Come to think of it, we havent moored at How Hill or Ludham Bridge overnight yet either, so lots more places still to tick off. :)

18th September 2020 Oh how we loved Fleet Dyke. So pretty and quiet. The water was absolutely still when I woke up. Definitely on our favourite list now. We left at 7.50. We wanted to get through Ludham Bridge before the predicted wind got up again. The usual conversation ......if Irstead is free......it wasnt. As it was our last night, we decided on Paddy’s Lane as usual. Paddy’s Lane was still full, well it was still really early so we decided to go up to Wayford as we hadnt been there before and wanted to take a look at the bridge for a future trip up to Dilham. We didnt notice the wind too much as it was so sheltered. Hunsett Mill suddenly appeared. I hadnt seen it since I was a kid when it was chocolate box pretty. We got up to Wayford and I got confused thinking the moorings cost £15. We had seen a space at the end of what I now realise are the free moorings but by that time we had aborted our mooring up and was already turning around. We decided if there was still no space at Paddy’s Lane we would just return to our marina for the night. By the time we got there, plenty of spaces had materialised. The wind was getting very gusty. We moored up but a very squeaky tree caused us to move further down. We untied Luna and ‘took her for a walk’ instead of starting the engine and tied up near the corner. We had a bit of rubbish to get rid off and went for a walk. We decided Neatishead was too far to walk to in the end so came back after a while. We did our usual thing for the rest of the day, doing not a lot. The following morning we left early as usual to get back to marina so we could clean Luna and pack away and get home for the weekend. We had had another fantastic week. We realise we have been incredibly lucky to have picked two weeks over this year of amazing warm and sunny weather. We will continue through autumn and winter as we are not fair weather boaters by any means, but we will look back on these last two holidays as particularly special, especially with all what has been going on in 2020. This week was also the cheapest holiday we have ever done. Moorings, water and pump out £36 plus a bit of diesel when we fill up again.

17th September 2020 After a very quiet night and a wonderful sleep, we left Stracey at 8.00am. We moored up at the newly refurbished Acle moorings for a short while, hoping that the electric posts will be completed for when we start our autumn/winter cruising. We then set off up the Bure with Fleet Dyke in mind. The wind that had been forecast was getting quite strong. We spotted empty moorings at the cross end of St Benets. We’ve always seen boats moored there before and thought our luck was in. The wind by this time was really strong and we were using all our concentration to get moored up safely. I got onto the bank with both bow and stern ropes and struggled to hold Luna until Selsie quickly grabbed the bow rope. The wind was really pushing us away from the quay heading. Finally safely tied up, we saw a flappy thing pinned to the bank on the other side. They were calling for a tow. A boat towed them off the bank and let them go as they got near to us. We yelled across if they wanted help, to which they said yes immediately. They threw us their ropes and we pulled them in alongside Luna and then to the free space infront of us. The young girl looked quite alarmed by it all and we think she must have got a taxi or a lift back by road because the gentleman took the saily off by himself later on when the wind wasnt quite as bad. Again we helped him with his ropes as he left as it was still very gusty. We had been at this delightful mooring for a few hours, seen Albion go by, when Selsie decided to check the ropes. He came back saying as he had been sorting the ropes and checking Luna’s hull, he had seen some small signs saying Private moorings St Benets, permission required, or something like that. Being the law abiding citizen I am, I was horrified, as I put it, we were now “Moored illegally!”. We've always seen boats moored there. We tried to do a bit of research on the internet and asked some friends if they knew anything about them but we decided we had to move. By this time I was completely paranoid everyone passing by were saying they are not allowed to moor there! But if we hadn’t have been there, we wouldn’t have been able to rescue the flappy thing. We had done our good deed for the day so I didn't feel quite so guilty in the end. We slunk away at 2.00pm and hoped we weren't going to struggle to find somewhere as we were now looking for a mooring quite late again for us. St Benets was full. We tried Fleet Dyke and there was a lovely space for us and as we hadn’t moored there before, another place to tick off. It was so peaceful and sheltered and a pretty sunset finished off the day rather nicely.

So you saw the porcupine too!