Cal

It's red diesel. These prices you lot are quoting seem very high for diesel. We currently pay 75ppl here in Lincoln. Might top the tank up before we come down next week.

It won't rain. We will still be there. It never rains when we are in Norfolk.

And the boats were no better. Thought we would escape the rat race and take a nice relaxing river cruise. It crashed three times in an hour! It is the only way to see the city though. Well worth the money for the entertainment value alone.

As a Yorkshire lass I couldn't possibly comment

We plan to do the trip up the Wensum probably next weekend for the first time. Looking forward too it. We always enjoy venturing onto waters new.

It is a glorious morning in Lincolnshire. Bit early for my liking mind but needs must.

There is a greylag goose at our marina with that condition. She must be quite old as she was there ten years ago when we first moored the boat there and is still around now. Not sure what the average lifespan of a goose is?

Fully agree. Almost got wiped out stepping off the bus in Amsterdam at Easter despite the driver warning us to watch out. None of us (45 on the coach) expected the cyclists to be quite so manic as they were! Still not sure what the rules if the road were now. Just seemed to be every man, woman, dog, child, horse and bike for themselves!

Lincolnshire makes Norfolk look normal!

Taking the Hull to Lowestoft route added a considerable distance to our usual Boston to Lowestoft route and we didn't have an awful lot of fuel left when we arrived at RNSYC. We went straight to the fuel berth. It isn't funny when you still have ten miles to go and the fuel gauge is half way down the red! We have since found out the fuel gauge is very pessimistic and there were 60 litres left in the tank which is quite a percentage of the full 225 litres it holds.

The wild fowl on the Fossdyke don't eat the healthy fruit veg and seeds you are supposed to feed them. They look at them in disgust. Drop an onion bhaji, spring roll or chip and they will have your fingers off for it. Proper junk food addicts!

We will be swelling the numbers by one, quite small one, for a couple of weeks from next Friday. No doubt all of the other boats will have come out to play by then and it will be silly busy :)

About five hours but we had good conditions at that and could keep up a decent speed for most of the journey.

Southwold to Wells next the Sea In and around Wells Time to head home

Norfolk to Southwold

The Broads Part 1

Some pictures from our trip to the Broads in 2013. Burton Waters Lincon to Torksey to Hull Hull to Lowestoft

No need. We have our own battery bank sorted.

Surely the battery banks should be sized to allow for the boats systems to be used once moored up. Of course this assumes the hirers will then use the boat the next day for x amount of hours to recharge the batteries.

A very good point. Although it wouldn't stop people firing up their engines at silly o clock in the morning to get hot water! Have never understood that. You are paying over the odds for diesel at the yards so don't waste it moored up making hot water. Go cruising and make hot water at the same time .

We have heard from hirers some shocking things that yards have told them over the years. The best one last time was that it doesn't matter if they hit another boat it is like dodgems. Obviously we put them right on that point. With regards batteries obviously you can't expect all hirers to look after them or know how to look after them so a little advice from the yard doesn't go amiss. Bit it also wouldn't hurt the yards to check that they are sending boats out with batteries that are fit for purpose. I know that can be difficult I a boat has been sat a few days between hand overs with items left running such as fridges, but for batteries not to be able to start the heating the next morning after a good long run the day before is not really good service from the yard. They should check the batteries on a regular basis rather then leave it to hirers to find out they are not at their best. After all at this time of year even the cheaper yards charge through the nose for their boats. If I was paying those prices I would not be expecting problems with the boat. We always hire out of season either at the beginning or the end so expect a few problems due to winter lay up or a hard season use. We wouldn't expect that mid season when we were paying highly for the privilege.

In the past ten years of ownership the batteries on our boat have never failed to start the heating in the morning. We change our batteries before they get to that point. I know that there is a difference in how a private and hire boat are used but there is no excuse for sending hired boats out with shot batteries. By all means advise hirers on the number of hours a boat needs to run to charge the batteries but don't instruct them to run the engine to start the heating!

There is no way that you should have to run the engine to start the heating. That is a sure sign of shot batteries. It makes me angry that yards spout this rubbish to their customers instead of spending some of their money they have taken in hire fees on ensuring that the boat is up to standard.

Indeed. We hired Viscount which had a full interior refit. It was really very nice and put some of the more modern boats we have hired from other yards to shame.

We were genuinely surprised when we hired from Richardson's for the first time last year. The standard of the interior of the boat far exceeded our expectations. It was by far the cleanest and tidiest interior of a hire boat we have had over the years. The exterior was showing signs of having had a hard season but we hired at the back end of the year so that was in some ways expected. They will certainly be our yard of choice next time we hire. Our opinion of the yard certainly changed last year.