Lulu

“It fits 6 people” cosy!

Congratulations to you both!

You would be best to call

So envious, all day Ive been at work thinking we should be mooring up at Stracey tonight, grrrrrrr Have a great time everyone and hopefully we will be there next year.

Having moored in two other marinas before, I cant imagine ever moving from Broadsedge. Its so pretty and relaxing we don't always feel the need to go out for a cruise because its just a lovely place to be.

Ferry Marine, Horning is easy access for fuel, pump out and water

Ummmmm......ok then :) Actually, just for my own personal interest its rather nice looking back to previous tales and what we did, especially the wooden boat show last year which unfortunately due to work we cant attend this year. Gutted about that :( We would have been loading up the car today if we could have gone waaaaahhhhhhh! We may have an additional crew member on our next proper break so that crew member may be contributing to the content.......

Friday 24th July A slightly later start as this was our last day. I walked back round to the staithe to get rid of the rubbish before setting off at 9.00 to go back to the marina. We wanted to get a bit of maintenance done and also get plugged into the electric as Selsie was still worried about the batteries. (We have now decided to get an additional battery) We had always intended to stay overnight in the marina before leaving for home early morning on Saturday. We could have stayed another night but knew the weather was going to turn. To summarise the best holiday on Luna we have had! For peak season, because of the times we were cruising, we almost felt we were on our usual out of season cruising. The weather was perfect all week, warm, never too hot, a few rain showers at night. Everywhere we planned to moor, we found somewhere easily with our routine apart from Potter, but that worked In our favour by going to Womack in the end. Being mentally exhausted by lockdown and work and recovering from post viral fatigue, I’ve never slept so much and unfortunately now Im back at work, Ive gone back to my old ways but I’m feeling a lot better. Anyway, few weeks time we are back again for another week so will no doubt catch up with more sleep then! Thank you as ever Luna for looking after us. (I have decided this will probably be the last Luna’s log as it’s probably going to get too samey).

Thursday 23rd July 2020 After a very restful night, we tried to be as quiet as possible leaving the dyke at 7.30am. Selsie was a bit worried about the batteries as we hadnt been doing a lot of cruising so rather than going to Womack Staithe as planned when we saw boats coming out, we changed plan and decided to go back to Acle and fill up with water at Bridgecraft before going back up the Ant with an idea to moor up at Paddy’s Lane. We had a lovely quiet cruise down to Acle, fillled up with water at Bridgecraft, popped £2 in the box and made our way back. As we approached the Ant mouth, I couldn’t see any boats coming out but something made me even more cautious as i began the turn and lo and behold a boat was just about to turn left on my side of the river. I used my newly practiced skills of stopping while they hastily moved to the correct side. Adrenaline running, and because I wont helm under Ludham Bridge, I handed control over to Selsie but i was pleased I’d not panicked and dealt calmly with the situation. After we got passed the bridge I took over again and we had the usual discussion, “if Irstead is free.....” It wasnt so we went to Paddys Lane as originally planned. After finding a lovely spot, we settled down and after a while I looked at what was going on on the forum to find that Grendel had just posted he too was at Paddys Lane. I took a walk around the corner and there he was. After another catch up on all things boating, Selsie and I decided to have an explore and went for a walk around the staithe and up into the village. It was a lovely walk and I was really missing not having a hound to walk anymore. So after not being as lazy as we had been, normal service resumed and we boat watched and I had another afternoon nap and sat on the deck in the sun for the rest of the day.

Not working for me either

Wednesday 22nd July 2020 After a very quiet night, back to 9 hours sleep, we left St Benets at 8.30. We were aiming for Potter but to be honest didnt hold out a lot of hope. We had a back up plan. As predicted there was no room, well there would have been if there werent so many gaps, just not quite big enough. Plan B, Womack. We pootled slowly back and turned into Womack Dyke and went down to the staithe. There were a few spaces and we could have done with topping up the water tank but I really didnt want to be stern moored for the rest of the day so we went back out and found a nice spot in the dyke at 10.10. Another first for us, so another tick as we hadnt moored there before. Such a lovely spot but got a bit hairy at times with boats going past very close and a dinghy that left its mark on a fender. We decided to try and find the much praised butchers in Ludham. It was a lovely walk. Didnt realise the path runs behind the hedge and walked along the road. We found the path on the way back . We popped into the shop for a few things then went to the butchers where we got a pork pie for Selsie, a sausage roll for me for our lunch and bacon and chipolatas for later. What amazing value. We will definitely go back. Its a wonderous thing finding bacon that doesnt foam! Small world, a couple moored in front of us were related to the previous owners of Luna. We sat on the deck chatting to our neighbours when a certain Mr Grendel came round the corner. He moored up a few boats behind us and we had a great catch up. The evening meal consisted of all the chipolatas and veg, so good. We watched a bit of tv then the usual early night.

Thank you. We have never really been on board in peak season and we thought this would be the best way to tackle it, plus we wanted to be totally lazy. It worked for us!

We found exactly the same. It was lovely to chat to people and everyone kept a respectable distance from each other. The two pubs we went to were very organised with signage and the couple of shops we visited, customers all kept to the required spacing. I dont like stern mooring in normal times but we made a point not to go anywhere where we had to stern moor apart from Salhouse. Our neighbours there chose to have their boat slightly further away than normal. Boating is definitely one of the easiest holidays to social distance including travelling to and from home. The thought of airports and being on a plane .....ugh

Tuesday 21st July 2020 We didnt get a lot of sleep. The geese decided to have a party at 2.30pm which continued on and off for the rest of the night. After disposing our rubbish, we left Salhouse at 8.15. We turned left and went down to Wroxham Broad where I could practice some manoeuvring. Selsie always does the mooring and I always helm but i need to get some confidence to be able to do the more tricky stuff. The weather was, as it had been so far, warm and sunny. We felt incredibly lucky. We didn't go into Wroxham knowing there would be nowhere to moor and we haven’t yet had the courage to go under the bridge. We took a slow cruise to St Benets. Again, as we were out and about so early the rivers were quiet. By the time we got to St Benets at 10.30, boats were leaving to start their day and that was the end of our cruising for the day! We were loving this routine. Selsie hadnt been to the abbey before so we went and had a look around then walked to the cross. We had some lunch and the river then got very busy. After our disturbed night I went for an afternoon nap, lulled to sleep by the continuous sound of the boats passing by. I was hoping for another good sunset. I walked back to the abbey in the evening where there were quite a few others poised with cameras. It wasnt as spectacular as the night we were at Stokesby but still a lovely light.

Monday 20th July 2020 After another night of wonderfully restful sleep we awoke to a beautiful blue fluffy cloudy sky. It reminded me of the intro to the Simpsons cartoon. We left Stokesby at 7.30 and yet again had the river to ourselves. We arrived at Acle at 8.00 to get water and a pump out. We moored at the water point on the Pedros side and were told that we would have to wait for the guy to arrive as he takes the hosepipe away. It was a hard life waiting in glorious sunshine. We then saw Bridgecraft opening up at 9.00 so we reversed Luna onto the Bridgecraft side and got the water and pump out done there instead. We left Acle at 9.45 and proceeded up the river. A little way along we witnessed aerial combat between a gull who had an eel in his beak and a heron who was in hot pursuit. This went on for quite a while and couldn’t believe how agile the heron was. Finally the gull dropped the eel and the heron claimed his prize. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture this as it was all too fast. We decided Salhouse was our next destination. It was still pretty quiet, although a bit busier as we went through Horning. We arrived at Salhouse at 12.15 and got an end spot so I could have an uninterrupted view later. We went for a walk then as usual, boat watched, gradually watching the moorings fill up well into the evening. It was lovely having one side with a clear view. I think we were asleep by 9.30

That’s great news Carole! It would be good to meet up again out on the rivers x

Warm welcome to the forum. :)

Thank you Swan. Ive never slept so well as I did that week. Now I’m home and back to work, its the usual waking every few hours.

Been great following your diary and so good to catch up with you when we were on holiday. Have a great time on Water Rail :)

Sunday 19th July 2020 We woke up to a family row at 6.15am . Never heard anything like it on a Sunday morning, disgraceful behaviour! Gulls were screaming and squawking above us, then I realised they were actually running around on our canopy having their domestic. I shooed them away and went back to bed. Stokesby was our aim today. Another first or as we say, ‘another tick’. We wanted to have a look at the shop that everyone is raving about. After a quick breakfast of toast and marmalade, we left Thurne Dyke at 8.10 and also left a brand new rhond anchor so someone will have been able to claim a nice shiney new one dammit. (When we bought Luna we couldn’t find any rhond anchors, so bought a new pair. We later discovered in the depths of a locker, 6 other rhond anchors! We had a chat and said we can give a few away. After leaving one at Thurne Dyke, we will keep all our spares as no doubt it will happen again...) We arrived at Stokesby at 10.10. It was a lovely cruise, hardly anyone about. We of course had to visit the shop. Oh the cakes! Selsie got a scotch egg and I got a brownie. Anyone who knows me, knows I love chocolate. That brownie beat me! it was so rich and umptious that I could only eat half (obviously i ate the other half later). Selsie said the scotch egg was the best he had tasted. As before, we spent the rest of the day just sitting boat watching in the sunshine. This was to be the routine for the week, short, early cruises, moor up for the rest of the day, do nothing. After a while, we saw boat after boat going by, all heading south. It was like the M25 at times. We were very happy as maybe it would mean the northern broads would be quiet We ordered a takeaway from the Ferry Inn, fish and chips this time which were perfectly cooked. Again, easy and efficient system. The pub was busy all day and evening which was great to see and glad we could help support the pubs, although this ended up being the last pub we visited. I was also singing the praises of the cakes to others and i believe I helped with sales that day! After dinner, we watched a bit of tv then watched the sunset. It was so magical and people were coming out of their boats to watch. An amazing end to a fantastic day. We retired to bed again at 10.00.

One was too much for me. I probably ate just over half which seemed such a waste!

17th July 2020 After all these weeks, with a few day trips once we were allowed, a much needed week off arrived where we could actually stay on board! I clock watched the whole day at work until 4.00pm when I literally bolted out of the door. We set off for Norfolk and got stuck at every roundabout on the A11. It took 2 hours instead of 1 hr 15, but we didn’t care. We got to the marina, unpacked and had dinner then fitted our new mooring lines. Luna is starting to look a bit smarter. We had her anti-fouled a few weeks ago, bought some new fenders so they now all match. Still got work to do repainting the deck and more varnishing on the screens but we will get there. We had made the decision that this holiday we would do no maintenance and just relax. We have bought a Planar heater and some other plumbing thing that needs to be done but those jobs could wait. We stayed in the marina overnight, ready to leave early. I think I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow at 10.00pm. 18th July We woke at 7.00. 9 hours solid sleep! All during lockdown, Ive barely got 5 hours sleep a night and most of the time I wake up a few times in the night. We left Stalham at 8.10 and decided to go Barton Turf to fill up with water. The staithe was full so we went to Gayes Staithe instead. We hadnt been there before and it seemed so much smaller than I remembered from the boating vlogs Ive watched. We met some lovely people there, one person mentioned Nipper and had the most stunning drawing of Nipper ready to give to Doug. Lo and behold we saw Nipper as we went down the Ant. Mission today, Thurne Dyke. We arrived at 10.30 and moored by the mill. 11.00am, the Thurne Regatta began which made for very pleasant viewing for the rest of the day. It looks such hard work battling with the flappy stuff. We are way too lazy. We saw Cerise Lady and Trixie pass by. We walked down to The Lion to order a take away for the evening. Easy and efficient ordering system. We boat watched some more,cleaned the boat a bit and had showers then collected our pizzas. Yumm they were so good. Tired but very happy we retired to bed at 10.00, already beginning to wind down. Bliss

Its one of my favourite stretches of river but then i guess it helps that with our boat, if i sit on my ‘perch’ I can see over the reeds.

Ouch!