CeePee1952

Just rang The Lion at Thurne Dyke to book a table for Friday evening 3rd Sep 21. Not sure if this is common knowledge but they are only doing "walk ins" at the moment. The girl/lady on the other end of the phone did assure me though that we would get seated when we turn up. Fingers crossed (and maybe a pot of pre-cooked bolognese on board just in case! ). Chris

Bit premature, I know but 2 weeks today and we'll be on our way to Herbert Woods to start our weeks cruising on the Broads. Already stocking up on the essentials - wine, beer and nibbly bits The (4 W's) are me (Chris) and Brenda and our friends from down in Bideford, Chris and Julie. Our surnames all begin with W (Wilson and Wright) hence the title heading. Lists made of all things required and then halved between us. I've had to restrain Brenda a little otherwise we would have had enough weight to get the boat (Sovereign Light) under Potter Heigham Resigned to the fact that we won't get down on to the southern broads this time due to the slack water times for that week but there's plenty to see on the northern broads (it's the first time for Chris and Julie). Chris (the other one!) is co-owner of a cruiser which is moored in Instow and he and his colleague tend to go out at the weekends either to Lundy island or Clovelly, weather permitting! This will be a totally new experience for him and his wife (I hope!). So, cameras, mifi, chargers, binos etc all checked and ship shape ready for the adventure. On a different note, I had my daily dosage of HW webcams this morning and noticed a mid cockpit boat pinned against PH bridge! No idea how long it had been there or how it ended up like that but at about 0800hrs, a small boat arrived from out of HW marina (I suspect one of theirs} and pulled them away from the bridge. The cruiser then made its way down river and the small boat returned to the marina. A Ranger boat also turned up at the scene, pulled in to where the day boats are usually moored, watched the process and then poodled off elsewhere. So, that's about it for now, hopefully still spending our first night in Thorne Dyke (Plan A) and will ring the Lion next week to reserve at table for the Friday night. Chris

Fantastic photos! Being a classic car owner I can appreciate the time and effort (and money!) that is lavished on keeping these boats shipshape and "seaworthy". I love to see the "older" boats being used and cherished. Can't wait for 3 weeks this Friday when we'll be on the northern broads albeit in a modern hire cruiser and maybe see one or two "woodies" close up. Chris

Good old Google WAKE: is a wave caused by the boat moving through the water and displacing it. WASH: is the disrupted water at the stern of the boat, and is caused by the churning motion of the propeller. Chris

Ha Ha!! Look at the name of the service station Nice one!! Chris

OMG!!! That could have so easily become a very serious accident why, why why are some people so stupid? Chris

Hi Tim, I completely understand and respect your views regarding the choice of boatyards. I'm a bit confused though about the 1-1.5K saving that you've quoted? Just had look at the quoted price for Pacific Star for September and we've only paid a couple of hundred more for Sovereign Light?? Chris

Same here! We've got Sovereign Light for the first week in September and it's a 1430 hrs handover as opposed to I think a 1600 hrs handover for the "non-elite" range.

Yes, great race apart from the first corner incident. Alonso drove brilliantly and I think the continuous pressure from Hamilton finally caused Alonso to lose a bit of concentration and have that lock up (he knew his tyres were getting a bit past it!). All credit to Ocon as well. Vettel’s 2nd place still stands (at the time of posting this) while their appeal is looked at. Slightly off topic but I also watched the BTCC on ITV4 taking place at Oulton Park, I got my quota of motor racing in yesterday

I wish I could pluck up the courage and start strumming Chris

I used to enjoy listening to Christian Horner but his comments on Sunday haven’t held substance with me. I got the feeling that he was trying to minimise any comeback from the team’s sponsors and partnerships. I felt he was giving a very biased and blinkered opinion on the incident. I have followed F1 for decades and yes it’s had its high and low moments and always will do, that’s the nature of the beast but his comments regarding Hamilton were really unjustified and he came over (as far as I am concerned), as someone spitting their dummy out. I do support Hamilton and I enjoy watching Verstappen race but this was a racing incident in my books and should have been treated as such!! (I’ll get me coat!) Chris

Hamilton got two penalty points on his f1 licence as well as the 10 second penalty (caught the grenade 😂😂😂) Chris

round crimp connectors (I think!) Chris

Not saying a word - yet!! Chris

I'll only use them if I really have to and to be honest I see thrusters as an aid to mooring/berthing, especially if there's a bit of a "breeze" blowing! Chris

Hi Steve, yes it has but I still won't be turning around down the bottom of that dyke. Depending on the weather conditions I'll only use them to keep the boat straight if it wanders either going into the dyke in reverse or out of the dyke in reverse, depending how far down we moor.

Site is back up and running as at 1422 hrs Chris

Hmmmm, anyone else having problems logging on to their website? This is the Kaspersky notification that I get when trying to log on to it!! "Visiting an untrustworthy website has been prevented One or more of this website's certificates are invalid, so we can't guarantee its authenticity. This happens when the website's owner hasn't updated the certificate in time, or if it's a fake site created by scammers. Visiting a website like this makes you more vulnerable to attack. You were protected from visiting this website by Kaspersky security. You can close this window with no risk." Chris

Not convinced yet that it is any better than the normal weekend format. Looking at some figures on the poll run after the race, public opinion is split roughly 50/50 at the moment. Feel sorry for Perez ending up last on the grid for today. Chris

I'm not even going to mention it to the wife!! That's a lot of sheckles!! Chris

You’re a glutton for punishment 😂😂😂 if you do attempt it, it’ll be interesting to hear how you got on. I’ve already decided that I won’t attempt a multi point turn at the bottom of the dyke no matter what the conditions are like! Reverse in or reverse out will be the order of the day! Chris

Noted Thank you Chris

Difficult to tell how easy he found that to turn but looks like they had favourable weather at the time? I won't be attempting it even if the conditions are calm, Don't want to make a hash of it on the first day - got a whole week for that to happen!! Chris

Yes, I noticed there isn't a lot of room width wise down there! Depending on the weather, I'll attempt to slowly go in backwards (bow and stern thrusters might get a bit of usage!) and hopefully with the use of binos, we'll be able to spot a likely free space way before we get to it Chris

Looking at staying overnight here with a view to having an evening meal for four of us at The Lion (Plan A!), This will be a Friday night (3 Sep), having taken over Sovereign Light from Herbert Woods in the afternoon (2.30 takeover). Boat is 44ft x 12ft. What are the expectations of getting a mooring, based on experience from anyone here? I will worry about getting a table etc at The Lion nearer the time! Thanks in advance Chris