Breydon

Hi and welcome to the forum. I Googled "volcano bolt lock" for you and there are all sorts of places selling them from Ebay to Amazon and various chandlers. They are not cheap at around £60-£70 each but very effective in deterring thieves. Its a good idea to register your engine with Norfolk Police and mark it up with Smart Water or other security products of that ilk too. Happy cruising! That looks a very roomy little craft for its size especially with the canopy up. Just make sure that if you are cruising with the canopy up you allow a few open studs at the front and possibly the back fully open to blow out any engine fumes. It is better to take on half a pint of rainwater than make yourself ill with the fumes.

Its a shame that the Broads pubs and indeed many other pubs around the country do not do simple small meals. Personally, I rarely eat in pubs as the portions are in my eyes enormous. I would be paying quite a bit of money for food that would be wasted as I could not eat it all. I used to use a little pub (The Wheatsheaf) in Borough Market, London years ago and their doorstep bloomer BLT sandwiches went down like hotcakes and they did a roaring trade at lunchtimes with them. Also their bacon and mushroom bloomer sandwiches were just as popular. Another one was the sausage sarnies using excellent sossies bought in the market went down a treat. However I recollect that a riverside pub in Norwich did do these doorstep sarnies about three years ago. Even if you can find a pub that sells that sort of fare it usually comes with an enormous pile of chips which would be paid for but not eaten by me. What amused me last year in a pub which was not on the Broads were advertising a light snack of pork pie, pickle and salad for under a fiver. Wonderful I thought and ordered it. Basically, its a quick and easy dish to do and very acceptable to a light eater such as myself Wait for it...........................the bozo in the kitchen had only put the pork pie in the Microwave! It was a really good pork pie as it had jelly in it which nowadays is a rarity and as I cut the pie it ran out all over the plate.

As the saying goes "there is always one". They send out millions of these scam phone calls all over the World and a few people do respond and that is how they make money. Once they lock somebody's computer and get paid to get it unlocked they will find it locked again in a few weeks time and so it goes on. Not everybody is completely computer literate but still use computers in some way and it is usually these people who get scammed.

Having been visiting Norfolk for more years than I care to remember my understanding of the word "rhond" has always been the network of reed roots and marshy peat bog where much of the Norfolk reed grows. In those situations a mooring pin would easily pull out but due to the angle on the rhond anchor the only way the boat can pull it is sideways which is almost impossible. They have their uses in rhond but personally in a firm earth bank I find that a mooring pin bashed in with a 2lb club hammer is much easier to set. Since I rarely moor up in reedbeds I only carry mooring pins. Should I need to moor up in reeds I just sling my anchor into the reeds and tether it amidships which holds the boat admirably.

Wehlau: All the very best for your project. Hopefully you will provide a short term mooring, say 30 mins for us petrol heads who need to top up at the filling station.

Now that is a very good idea, except for the "National Park" bit. Incidentally, I saw the person who I believe is responsible for taping off his family's favourite fishing spot at Deep Go Dyke. He was going down the Ant and he had a face like thunder, he has probably seen the comments on here. Possibly he moors up at Stalham and that could explain the taping off of the wild mooring at the downstream end of Barton Broad. The Barton Broad tape has been removed, not by me incidentally. Please note that if I remove tape I always inspect the mooring first for any dangers. If there is no danger, the tape goes. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with the Deep Go Dyke moorings so just cut it off and moor there if you want to. Perhaps the rangers should be instructed to remove tape that has not been put there by BA. Obviously this should only be done on BA moorings. Owners of wild moorings obviously have a right to tape off their land if they want to and I would not dream of touching that tape.

Oh yes! They do do pizza and it looks absolutely delicious. Just forget the dark colours, the place is spotlessly clean, not a sign of stickiness on the tables, smart young attentive hard working staff and a manager who wants his pub to thrive. Go for it! Breydon.

I visited the pub this afternoon and it was well patronised, once again the staff were very attentive to the customers. I had a few pints of Ghost Ship which is one of my favourite beers and it was excellent. The pub is coming on well and there is an excellent secure children's playground outside securely fenced off from the river and the road. I have been told that there are a lot more improvements will be made to the pub in the coming months but it is well worth a visit now. Come on now, give these hard working people a bit of custom and lets have a buzzing pub in Potter Heigham as it used to be and create some employment for the local people. A.

Not a rugby fan but it would give me the hump walking that far in the pouring rain.

I visited the pub this evening as the weather was dumping lots of wet stuff on us and not wanting to do a three day camel ride up to the Falgate with the possibility of getting run over in the process. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was an all larger and fizz pub but to the far right hand side of the bar there were two handpumps, one with Sharps Doombar and the other Adnams Ghost Ship. Despite the rather dark décor I found the pub basically ok. It is 100% better than we have had in the past where we had a scruffy old landlord who could not care less and after that two loads of weirdos who did not know how to run a pub and made a right mess of it. The manager seems on top of things and the staff are young bright people who were very attentive to the customers. I did not eat there but food passing by looked good. The prices for the food and the beers are quite competitive. What is more there were loads of customers in there. I am not too sure I like the name of the pub, perhaps it should of been "Albion". All I can say is Well done to the owners, staff and management. Breydon.

There are no holes in the bank there! There is nothing dangerous in any way about that piece of mooring. I inspected it myself this morning and cut the tape off again. Anyway, I will be going home soon so I will leave you all to discuss the problem.

Just to put matters straight, I am a keen fisherman as well as a keen boater. Just in case anybody thinks I am anti-fisherman. Breydon.

Found it! Here is the website for guided tours of Heigham Holmes: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/heigham-holmes I am not sure if the tours will go into the WW2 usage but I may go along on one.

There is no point Polly. BA have a duty of care to its customers. If the bank was dangerous they would have made a proper job of it and fenced it off properly with proper fencing or those plastic board things and put up "Danger no Mooring " signs. I have seen these rude, aggressive, arrogant fishermen there before. They just spoil it for everybody else with their selfishness. If anybody sees the tape just cut it off and moor there. It does not belong to BA.

Today I passed the rude fishermen's mooring on the downstream end of the Deep Go Dyke mooring and it is taped off again. Needless to say the scissors came out again. There is nothing wrong with the banks, the quay heading or the mooring posts. The moorings are for everybody, boaters and fishermen alike. First come is first served. If anybody knows these selfish fishermen let them know this. In the meantime, keep cutting off the tape!

Does anybody have any dates for the guided tour? I would be very interested in taking part. No doubt it is on the internet somewhere. Thanks.

The information is all there for all to see on the internet, I tend to research things and I thought this was a little known thing to us boaters and they should know. Anyway, just pause for thought as you pass the bridge. Thanks. Breydon.

I am coming to the end of my second two weeks bashes on the Broads and this evening I passed the pontoon bridge at Martham. When I pass there I always look down the road onto the island and pause for a thought for how many brave souls that passed that way, never to return in the cause of freedom in our country and Europe. Many of them met horrific ends for the cause of freedom. That piece of track was probably the last piece of England that these brave people saw as they passed by. They were our spies who were put onto little Lysander aircraft and landed in France and other places in Europe. There was an airfield on the island dedicated to the transport of our spies. Please spare them a thought as you pass by this bridge. "For your tomorrow we gave our today". Thanks. Breydon.

I really don't think anybody at BA has a clue what is going on anyway so there is no point in phoning them. The rangers (where are they?) should be cutting the stuff down as tape obviously not the sort of thing they do to fence off a dangerous mooring. Personally from now on I will be inspecting any taped off BA 24hr moorings for any dangers when I see them and will be cutting the tape off whether I am mooring there or not. If we all do this then it will quench the problem instantly. In my mind it is first come first served both for boaters and fishermen.

If there was an underwater obstruction there would be yellow poles stuck in the mud. If the ground was dangerous behind the quay heading the BA would fence it off properly with their orange netting. If the quay heading is not damaged and none of the above is present I just put a pair of scissors through the tape and moor there, it is just selfish people denying their favourite mooring to other river users. I know of a rather rude, arrogant family of fishermen who do this to their favourite fishing spot around Heigham Sound. They attempt to take over half the moorings there and stay there for days in contravention of the byelaws. Needless to say, the scissors were put to good use the other day and everybody can now moor there. If the tape returns I urge everybody to cut it off and just moor there.