Lulu

Lovely write up Helen. So interesting comparing our same weeks on board, one south and one north :)

You must come to the forum meet in May at Salhouse. Hope to meet up in the marina some time. We are not sure when we are up next yet.

Thursday 14th November No photos, the weather was so awful! The wind and rain had woken us up at about 4.30am. The forecast was spot on unfortunately. What a difference from the previous day. The wind was due to die down mid to late morning. If we hadnt have needed a pump out we would have stayed. I dont mind admitting I was really nervous about getting away from the mooring. The wind dropped a bit by 10.00 so we made the decision to leave then. The wind was forcing the boat away from the quay heading so we spent some time working out a plan of action. We put a centre line on and released the other ropes. We got away pretty smoothly but my heart was thumping. I took over the helm (I dont do tricky stuff yet) which is the normal routine for us and Selsie rigged up the 12v fan to de mist the screen but even that didnt do a lot. He used washing up liquid on the screen which worked for the centre screen but not the sides screens. The windscreen wiper was on the whole of the way back. Sadly it was a very miserable cruise back. Grey, rain, windy , cold and wet. We got a pump out at our marina in the pouring rain. Drenched, we moored up in the marina. Tidied up the ropes and mopped the decks before going for hot showers. We looked at the forecast for Friday before deciding to call it a day and to go home the following morning. We ate on the boat, Fray Bentos pies and vegetables. A perfect end. Summary: We loved our holiday albeit getting cold and wet at times. The empty rivers and autumn scenery was stunning and we could get very used to having the rivers to ourselves! We ticked a few things off our to do list and have learned a huge amount in dealing with different weather conditions. Getting heating installed is now a priority. We missed out on so many moorings we would liked to have stayed at, Ludham Bridge, Thurne Dyke, Barton Turf, and many others. We couldn’t even stay for a couple of hours at any of them as we were just too cold. Whilst helming it was fine but not to sit around in the boat watching the scenery which is what we like to do. We used on average £2 of electric each day and covered around 60 miles over 6 days.

I had conveniently forgotten about our dinner

Problem is I resisted the cake but the hot chocolate I'm sure wasn't a slimline version ..

Thank you Swan. The reduced daylight hours were never a problem, just the cold. We prefer to cruise in the mornings, moor up early and settle for the rest of the day with a nice view. It certainly is different from hiring where we all felt as a family to cruise as much as possible to get our monies worth!

Wednesday 13th November Woke up to a beautiful sunrise and now we had Irstead ticked off our list, Potter was the next aim. We looked on the webcam and could see there only seemed to be Thunder there so we left at 9.00. We had a lovely cruise down the Ant in the sunshine, passed an empty How Hill and Ludham Bridge moorings and also an empty St Benets. As we approached Potter we passed Thunder leaving. We had looked at the weather forecast and saw that bad weather was coming in overnight and would be really windy in the morning. We turned around so we would have a hopefully easier departure the following day. We hooked up to electric (70p left on the meter) and went to Bridgestones for a hot chocolate and coffee. I resisted the cakes but next time.... We obviously had to visit Lathams where we got stuff we actually needed. We spent all afternoon up on the helm with the sun pouring in. It was really quite warm that we could actually sit there without coats on. In the evening we went and got fish and chips which we ate back on the boat. This was my favourite day.

We know the only chance of getting on there is out of season. Very peaceful and a special place :)

Tuesday 12th Nov We left Horning Staithe at 8.45 in nice weather with another mission to try and moor at Irstead. Again, there was a boat already moored up but their engine was running so we thought as before we would try for Sutton Staithe and if that was full we may have a chance at Irstead. We were beginning to get a bit obsessed! As we started crossing Barton Broad the wind was really starting to pick up. We made our way up to Sutton in the gloom and then a bright blue flash flew in front of us. A kingfisher! Ive never seen one before so yet another first. He perched on a branch as I scrabbled around for my phone to take a photo but was too late as he flew off. As we approached Sutton the wind was getting really quite strong. I was pretty certain the staithe was full again and we didnt want to risk a tricky about turn at the end with the strong gusts so decided to turn in the wide part of the river. We made our way back across Barton when the downpour suddenly started and the wind increased even more. Luna usually hardly rocks about as shes such a lump but wow were we rolling about. The broad was really choppy and the steering needed constant input as we were being blown across as we made the turn back towards Irstead. We prepped in the vague hope Irstead was free. We rounded the corner......yes!!! We moored up in torrential rain and wind at about midday. Got drenched and once settled, of course the wind and rain stopped. Bonus, 40p had been left on the meter. Obviously this is where we stayed for the rest of the day. Another tick :)

Monday 11th Nov We left the marina at 10.00 in the rain. Selsie rigged up our little 12v fan to de mist the screen. It worked pretty well. We went up to Womack where the colour of the trees were stunning then back past an empty Thurne Dyke (we so wished there was electric there) and a little pootle around South Walsham. We cruised through wind, rain and sun before mooring up at an empty Horning Staithe at about 2.15. Although only a few minutes from the marina it was nice to have a pretty view and as it had electric we decided to stay for the rest of the day.

Warm welcome to the forum :)

Hopefully we will meet you soon. Your boat was tucked up safely as we left this morning :) Thank you. Our list is long having not done much cruising on the northern broads so far so it was good to start ticking things off our list this holiday :)

Sunday 10th Nov We woke up to a bit of ice covering the boat. The ceramic heaters set low over night worked really well as well as my fleecy jim jams from Roys. An absolute essential in my suitcase from now on. We had double duvets and fleece blankets and not once during the holiday was I cold at night. We left Ranworth at 10.15 and made our way to The Ant. We havent taken Luna through Ludham bridge before so we weren’t certain how much height we would have. We had plenty so its nice to know we dont have to worry about lowering the canopy, just the mast. As we made our way up the Ant, we cruised alongside an otter for a while. He was to be the only moving traffic we met from the bottom to the top of the Ant. We had hoped to aim for Irstead but a boat was moored there. Next electric post to aim for was Sutton Staithe. We could see as we approached, the Staithe was full so we turned around, hoping by now Irstead would be free. We literally missed it by nano second with a boat just crossing to moor up. We knew we couldnt go back to Ranworth because of the 24hr rule so had no choice but to go back to our marina in Horning as time was ticking on. On the way back we passed Cerise Lady. We arrived at our marina 3.30 and decided on a meal at TFI.

The dodgy area was at the end of the dyke where the shop is and Selsie worrying i was just going to walk straight into the dyke!

So this holiday was all about electric posts. Luna doesn’t have any heating other than some excellent ceramic heaters we got off Amazon which obviously need shore power. It has been very interesting reading Broads01 account of his November break being out at the same time as us. This was a holiday of lots of firsts for us and we have learned a huge amount with all the different weather that was thrown at us. Saturday 9th Nov A short day. We left Horning with sunshine and blue sky at 12.30 and headed straight for Ranworth Staithe for the night. First tick. We havent moored their before.. We hooked up to the electric and met up with Cambridge Cabby. Thank you for the stickers! I completely fell in love a little fluffy hound. We went to the Maltsters in the evening (another first) and had a lovely meal of fish and chips before gingerly making our way back to the boat (note to self, take a torch next time as it was pitch black finding our way back).

Ours is a Dometic which I understand is basically a Waeco. It certainly hit the wallet but is a brilliant fridge. We can hardly hear it. In fact it’s so quiet I used to check it was still working! We did have to get a rectifier to automatically switch between 12 and 240v at an extra cost of £90 as it doesn’t come in the box. It goes from room temp to 3 degrees in about ten minutes if you start it up on boost then turn it down to number 3 and temp is perfect. We have run the fridge for 24 hours on 12v without any noticeable effect on our domestic batteries and didn’t need to run the engine.

Definitely Thunder as we passed on the way to Potter earlier. We are now moored up for the day in roughly the same place :)

She is such a beautiful shape. Absolutely stunning boat

Thank you,

Having a boat with no heating, we are obviously very keen to find electric posts if at all possible. Are there posts at Stokesby?

I was only planning on getting a couple of presents last weekend but it was one of those days where I just saw things and thought perfect and before I knew it, I’d got through the list. I was therefore in the zone and got it all wrapped too. Never been this organised before in my life! I agree with the cards Vanessa. I needed a load of birthday cards and a leaving card and had to go right to the back of the shop with not a lot to choose from.

Ive done all my Christmas shopping, all wrapped, just got the cards to write. prepping for Easter now ....

It is really interesting. I wasnt aware of the document. Thank you Chris

We agree too. They put together a takeaway for us so we could bring it back to the boat. Really good food

Warm welcome to the forum :)