CeePee1952

Been snowing quite heavily here and looks like it's in for the day! Pooch has been chasing snowflakes in the garden and can't quite understand why they disappear when she catches them! Car will need the snow clearing off it before I attempt to go out. I reckon in a few more decades, our summer will be winter etc!! Oh well, time to put the wellies on. Chris

The skippers manual on Supreme Light (same style as Olympic Light) gave airdraft as 8' 6" but the plate at the inner helm station stated 8' 2"!! We always went by the 8' 6" guide to be on the safe side! We will get up to Stalham at some point during the week and we'll make sure we pass under Ludham bridge as close to low water as possible! Chris

We're on Olympic Light 2 (which is the same style of boat as Supreme Light which we had in Oct last year). This holiday we're going to try and do a few different things like swinging on the mudweight overnight and "do" a wild mooring somewhere! I'll let you know if you're weather forecast for our week is accurate Chris

Hmmm, just printed off a tide table for our week on the Broads from 22 Apr 23. I see that the day we take the boat over at HW there is a spring tide and High water around about 3 p.m. ish. We're only planning to get down to Thurne Dyke for the first night and staying on the northern broads all week. I know the northern broads are less affected by the tidal range than the southern broads but do I need to be concerned at all? (And coincidentally when we come back on the 2nd Sep 23, there's also spring tide!!) Chris

So, we're on the northern broads commencing 22nd April. If they do go ahead and charge to moor at Ranworth then we will for the first time (weather permitting) mudweight on the broad (we've aways wanted to "swing" on a mudweight overnight but never got around to it!). Now supposing we want to top up our freshwater there, would they still try and charge us to moor up while doing so? Just a thought! Chris

Definitely!

Just wondering if the hire boat yards will amend their info brochures/ski[ppers manual/website info etc to reflect the new costs for mooring at the places where charges have been introduced/increased? Will payment be by card or cash at Ranworth and Reddham? Some might think that this is a minor point but still involves time and maybe money to change the info! As an aside, we will not now be mooring at Ranworth in April - good excuse to try overnighting on the mudweight (never experienced it!) if we do visit Ranworth. Chris

I usually end up on Plan C by the end of the week's holiday (might not do any planning for our week on the Northern side in April ) Chris

They could use that instead of the yellow post at Gt Yarmouth, nobody would miss it then Chris

This Genevieve? Spotted her during our week afloat, very nice looking too! Chris

Wednesday 19th Oct 22 Slightly longer lie in this morning – didn’t get up until 7 and no sign of any mist on the water! I had already phoned Yarmouth yacht station yesterday afternoon to find out when would be the best time to leave Loddon to get under Vauxhall bridge etc without having to duck. They advised to leave Loddon about 9 ish so with that in mind, breakfast was prepared at a leisurely pace and consumed slightly quicker! I decided that I was going to have a play with the thrusters this morning, so having raised the mud weight and cleaned all the mud off it, Brenda undid the mooring lines and stepped aboard. I used both bow and stern thrusters to slowly move to starboard before engaging forward gear and putting the pointy end in the right direction. Brenda decided that she wanted to experience helming the boat back up the Chet so at a steady 3mph we made our way towards the Yare. Apart from one boat coming towards us and seeing a load of noisy cows in one of the fields, the trip was uneventful. Full credit and admiration to Brenda for navigating the Chet successfully for the very first time! Finally we reached the junction with the Yare and made our way down towards Breydon. Not surprisingly the Yare was void of any boat traffic and we only had to slow down once to allow the Reedham ferry to cross over. We crossed over Breydon at a steady 4mph noticing that it was a little more “lumpy” than the previous trip. Again, not many boats were behind us and we turned up the Lower Bure at the yellow post and passed under Vauxhall bridge with a good 18” to spare. (All credit again to the yacht station staff for their advice). I did find the next couple of hours a bit boring as we cruised up the Lower Bure but we were now starting to see many more boats making their way towards Yarmouth! Our original plan was to either stop over at Acle Bridge or Stracey Arms for the night but that didn’t happen. When we got to Acle bridge I was surprised to see that nearly all the BA free moorings were taken up and what was available would only have accommodated a dinghy sized craft!! I didn’t really want to moor up over on the other side or in front of the pub so we continued on and decided that we would head for Thurne Dyke as we had plenty of time on our hands. Again when we arrived at Thurne Dyke I was surprised to see so few boats moored up so again another perfect side on mooring was accomplished. Cuppa time! I decided to have another go at dangling a maggot and enjoy a spot of fishing from the bank rather than perched on the stern of the boat. No sooner had I started, a bathtub turned up and out of all the places that were still free, they decided to come in astern of us and moor up using a couple of rhond anchors to secure themselves. I did chuckle when I heard one of the guys refer to the anchors as pegs! When we moored up here last year, our mooring fee was collected by a staff member from the pub so we expected the same to happen again. Nah!! I checked on the Lion’s website and noticed that the £6 fee would increase to £10 if the staff had to come and collect it after 6pm!! As it was now 5.50pm I donned my Linford Christie trainers and made haste down to the pub! The pub was virtually empty and on approaching the bar I was informed by a member of staff that the fee was now £7.50! When I said that the website stated £6 the answer back was that the website had obviously not been updated!! Fee paid, I made my way back to the boat. It might be me but I didn’t find the pub in general as good as it was the last time we visited in 2021. On returning to the boat, a large single decker hire craft arrived with young adults on board. They stopped briefly on the opposite bank and the next thing we saw was them coming back past us at a great rate of knots (they must have gone down to the bottom and turned around after deciding not to moor up). Goodness knows where they were heading as they turned right at the mouth of the river and it was already starting to get dark! It was now time to think about refuelling our bodies and rather than eat in the pub and maybe risk being disappointed with the outcome, we decided on a lavish fry up of bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms and fried tomatoes and buttered bread. So, another day done, two more full days before handing the boat back and time for bed at 9.30! Chris and Brenda The Chet On the Yare It's real - honest!! Thurne Dyke

In future I'm just going to say "I pointed the pointy bit in that direction and went that way" Chris

Tuesday 18th Oct 22 Another early morning, waking up at 6! Outside temperature was showing 9 degrees Celsius! Time to get the kettle on and have a hot cuppa. The initial plan was to leave for Loddon at about 8 ish, high tide being at 0709 hrs but due to it being very misty and minimum visibility, we decided to put our departure back until 9 or when the mist had lifted enough to have a safe cruise to Loddon. As it turned out, the mist only just started to lift at 9 so we cast off and made our way slowly along the river, making sure that we could see far enough ahead at all times. We spotted a couple of kingfishers en route but as always didn’t have the camera to hand to capture the moment! By the time we got to Somerleyton bridge all the mist had disappeared and the morning transformed into a bright and sunny day (we have really been lucky with the weather so far!). We passed under the bridge with a about a foot to spare and turned up the Haddiscoe Cut on our onward journey towards Loddon. We passed a couple of boats coming towards us, one of which was HW’s Royal Light! On passing it I shouted “We’ve got that one booked for next year” to which the reply came back “we were on your boat last year”. Spooky!! We passed under Reedham swing bridge, noting there wasn’t that many boats moored up at Reedham but there was a large party of infant school children sitting at the bankside tables, they received the customary wave from us as we passed! Next experience was to pass the Reedham ferry which turned out not to be an experience at all as it was stationary on our port side with no signs of movement. Finally we turned down into the mouth of the Chet with me reminiscing the last time we sauntered down here all those years ago! I need not have worried as we didn’t meet anyone coming from the opposite direction and we enjoyed a nice relaxing cruise down to the quay. There were only 3 other boats moored on our arrival and again I executed another perfect stern on mooring. (It always seems easy when there are fewer boats around!). It was now that I discovered that none of the shore power posts were working – drat!!). Anyway after a phone call to HW to get the right telephone number to report it, I phoned Broads control who told me to ring back after 1 pm and they would put me through to the appropriate department. When I rang back they thanked me for reporting the problem and assured me that a Ranger would be out who would hopefully fix the fault. Sure enough a while later a Ranger turned up and having introduced herself and examined the posts, she went and reset the main trip in the box up by the car park. Happy days – posts working again so we hooked up for the night. In the meantime, the local bobbies turned up (It wasn’t me guv – honest!!) and had a walk round the area after saying hello. Later they turned up with their “meat wagon” and I did notice that they “invited” someone into the back of it – never to be seen again!! We had a slow walk up to the Coop to see if we could find something for our evening meal and top up with milk. Didn’t visit Rosies tearoom because I’d forgotten which pub she was using and by the time we’d got back to the boat my leg had started to ache for some unknow reason so we opted for a relaxing spell aboard. (We did find that the Coop was a tad expensive – for instance we usually have the BOB milk which retails around the £2 where we live – in the Coop it was £2.80 – bloody hell!! So we bought the normal semi-skimmed at £2.10p!!) I decided to do a spot of fishing as it was such a nice afternoon – usual roach etc fell on my hook but nothing of a decent size. The guy on the boat to our starboard side must have been a keen angler because he had a fish finder floating on the surface near him and informed me that although there were plenty of small fish around, there was nothing of a decent size! (I think he was looking for pike!). By 4.30 pm there were a total of five of us now moored up in the quay and it was time to think about our evening meal. We decided (having read some decent reviews) to have a takeaway from Lims fish and chip shop. Brenda opted for plain chicken and chips and I had steak and kidney pie and chips and curry sauce. The reviews weren’t wrong and the quality was excellent – the chips were to die for and so was the curry sauce. The chippy was busy as well, with some customers placing large orders – so glad we got our order in before them! So, evening meal consumed along with the obligatory beer and Koppaburg, it was soon time for a hot cuppa and bed! Tomorrow is back over Breydon and another adventure. Down/up? the Waveney Approaching Somerleyton bridge In Loddon quay Chris and Brenda

We can get a 2kg chicken in ours but that's the limit! Chris

We have had the Ninja foodi for a couple of years now (it has the seperate pressure cooker lid) and we swear by it! We've done a complete sunday roast in it as well as other food that would normally be done either in the oven or under the conventional grill. It also cleans up very well after being used which is a godsend. I don't think you'll be disappointed! Chris

Woke up to the sound of rain bouncing off the cabin roof! Decision time. Today is Brenda’s birthday and the plan was to cruise to Oulton Broad and have an evening meal in one of the local pubs/restaurants. The weather forecast for the day wasn’t looking too good and although we don’t mind cruising in any weather condition (within reason), we decided to stay another day at Beccles. Breakfast was duly consumed (toast and jam) washed down with coffee and tea. I sauntered down to the office to pay for another nights stay and checked the shore power post to see how much we had left on the meter. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had plenty left in credit, despite having used the microwave the previous evening plus the tv and lighting etc AND that although the cost was 50p per kilowatt we hadn’t used as much as we thought we would! By midday most of the other boats had departed, including the couple who had followed us down from Stracey Arms. They had planned to cruise to Loddon and we said we would perhaps see them there the following day (Tuesday) if they were still there. By now the weather had changed a little and we decided to have a spot of fishing to pass the time away. We had already been informed by the guy in the office that no fishing was allowed from the side and we would have to fish off the boat. This is because the local fishing club are only allowed to fish in the yacht station after 1st November when the hire season finishes and they get a bit miffed if people on hire boats are not covered by the same restriction!! Oh well, never mind. Superior Light does not lend itself to being the ideal fishing platform but we made do and had a reasonable afternoon, hoodwinking quite a few fish to fall on our baited hooks! I caught a few nice skimmer bream and Brenda had some nice rudd and roach. Suffice to say, Brenda beat me fair and square on quantity caught but I think I just edged her on weight (thank you bream!!). By 5.30 pm the yacht station had a few more boats moored up, the last one to arrive for the day was a Broom Captain White Heron 1 which moored up on our port side. We both concluded that although it was a nice looking boat it wasn’t our cup of tea and we wouldn’t be tempted to hire it. Because we had amended our itinerary (no surprises there!), we booked a table for 7 pm at Prezzo’s up in Beccles for our evening meal. We set off up the gentle hill about 6.40 and after 10 minutes we were sitting down at the table. For starters Brenda had the calamari and I had the Tomato Bruschetta. Main course was Sea Bass with Pesto Gnocchi for Brenda and I had the Tre Carni Calzone. All washed down with a glass of Prosecco (guess who!) and I tried a bottle of Ichnusa lager which was quite enjoyable. The quality of the food was excellent, table service was good and the price was reasonable. We were back on board the boat for 8.30 ish, had a cup of tea and retired for the night. Chris and Brenda A few of Brenda's birthday cards!

We have friends who live in Bideford and once a year we go down for a long weekend stay with them. Clovelly is a lovely place and we'll either have a drink in the Red Lion or the New Inn, depending how fit we feel at the time (it was these friends who we introduced to the Broads last year and they are doing it again with us next year!). Chris

Beccles - 16th Oct 22 Just entering Beccles yacht station Poser!! Peace and tranquility Anything you can do - so can I!! See - this is how it's done!

Sunday 16th Oct 22 I had phoned the yacht station at Yarmouth yesterday afternoon to find out the best time to pass under Vauxhall bridge and they told me to leave Stracey Arms at 7.30 so up at 6.30, morning chores sorted and finished and departed at 7.25. We passed under both bridges having not seen many boats underway with a good 12 inches to spare under Vauxhall! I must mention that the skipper’s manual gave 8’ 6” clearance with the screens lowered but next to the inner helm it stated 8’ 2”!! To be safe, we always used the 8’ 6” guide!! Breydon was almost flat calm and we spotted another 4 boats in front of us making their merry way across the water. I had estimated about 5 and ½ hours to Beccles from Yarmouth so we were in no rush and slowly made our way across. Spirit of Breydon passed us going the opposite way about halfway across and gave us a cheery wave which was duly acknowledged. Half a dozen other boats were following them – strange that none of them were going exceptionally fast! Finally we turned down the Waveney spotting a few curlews, swans and an otter (why is it we never have the camera to hand when we see an otter!). We passed under St Olaves and Somerleyton bridges again with ample room to spare and arrived at Beccles at 12.50 having spent 5 hrs and 25 mins cruising from Stracey Arms. (So much for my estimate of 5 hrs 30 mins from Yarmouth!!). We decided to moor up on the right-hand side and take advantage of the shore power that was available. Another perfect mooring manoeuvre (surely I was due a mooring dilemma at some point during the holiday!). I hooked up the shore power and thought there was 91p left on the meter and then discovered that the wireless cards do not work with Beccles shore power posts!! I ambled down to the office and paid the £12 for the overnight stay and found out that Beccles use their own card system which must be loaded with credit and then poked into the slot on the meter. Ok, so we spent another £2 to have a card sorted (usage is charged at 50p per kilowatt!) and finally had shore power to the boat. One of the Rangers then turned up in his boat, had a quick chat with the station guy and then came over to say hello etc and asked if we would mind taking part in a survey. We had done one of these last year at Ranworth so knew what to expect. During the survey, the Ranger informed us that if we wanted to go down to Geldeston we would get under Beccles old bridge even in our boat but he couldn’t guarantee our return!! We graciously declined the idea! Survey completed we then set about having bacon and mushroom sandwiches for lunch (we’d had toast and jam “on the hoof” once we had got across Breydon). Lunch eaten and washed down with a much needed beer, I set up the fishing rods for a quick dabble. I had one decent rudd, 2 decent sized skimmer bream and a few tiddly roach and perch within the first half hour, all caught on two maggots (not the same two maggots!). Brenda also had a go and ended up with quite a few decent roach and a couple of rudd. All the fish looked very healthy and all were returned to the water once unhooked. So far the weather was excellent and as at 4.45 pm, there were a total of five boats in the marina including us. The couple who I had helped moor up at Stracey Arms had followed us down to Beccles and were moored up on our port side and had disappeared up into Beccles town with their pooch. Evening meal would be cooked on board again, Chinese flavoured pork steaks, red cabbage and carrot and swede mash – delicious!! Chris and Brenda Crossing Breydon! Being followed by our newly made friends from Stracey Arms Breydon view

Sincere condolences from both of us Malcolm. Our thoughts are with you both at this very sad time. Chris and Brenda

Now the full blog starts of our holiday! (No pics from the first day cos too engrossed in boat handling skills and admiring the scenery Sat 15th Oct 22 So, awake at 6! Breakfast sorted and last-minute checks to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. As always, we did forget to pack a battery powered vacuum cleaner and a window squeegee but didn’t realise until we needed them! First port of call was the kennels and Luna was full of energy when we got there. Then back home to take the dog guard out, drop the back seats and pack the car with our bits and pieces. We set off from Church Lawford at 10 and arrived at HW at 1235 after an uneventful (for once!) drive from Rugby down the M6, A14, A11 etc. Our boat wasn’t due to be ready until 2.30 but on booking in we were told that it would be ready at 1.15 (bonus!). We decided to have a bite to eat in the Flour and Bean and had bacon sarnies and a couple of cappuccinos. £16 lighter we sauntered back over to HW and purchased five electric cards to add to the ones that we had saved from last year. (What we don’t use we carry forward to the following year). Having grabbed a trolley we then started to load the boat. Our intention was to just plonk it all in the front cabin apart from items for the fridge/freezer and sort it all out when we got to Stracey Arms. Handover was fairly quick and we were soon on our way. I remembered to take a photo of the engine hours before we set off so that I could work out figures at the end of the holiday. There was a strong cross wind on the journey down towards Acle which made helming the boat quite interesting! We kept to the speed limits but still managed to be overtaken by another couple of HW 44 footers before the junction for the River Ant where the two 44 footers rapidly disappeared round the bend! We poodled along admiring the scenery that we hadn’t seen for 12 months and noticed that Thurne Dyke was fairly full and there were a fair few moored at Acle both before the bridge and outside the pub. In contrast – Stokesby was empty to my surprise. My first mooring of the holiday at Stracey went like clockwork and I was well chuffed – we were the third boat now moored there. I popped down to the shop to pay the mooring fee while Brenda set about stowing everything away. While chatting to the lady in the shop, it transpired that she also had a GSD and it was all white and also called Luna!! Spooky! So after half an hour of swapping doggy stories I wandered back to the boat. With everything sorted it was time to heat up our previously prepared spag bol and chuck the garlic bread into the oven. About 45 mins later we felt a gentle bump and on looking out of the saloon window I noticed one of NBD boats side on across our stern (we were moored pointing towards Yarmouth). Bless him, he had got the tide direction wrong, moored up his bow behind us and the falling tide had swung his stern out towards midstream and he couldn’t quite resolve the problem. I went out and helped him sort it out and got him safely moored up a few feet astern. With that sorted, it was time for dinner and a drink and then retire for the night – it had been a long day! Chris

In no particular order! Mooring up at HW at the end of the holiday when there's very few spaces (if any) left! Wind, rain, early morning mist. Dropping the mudweight non-electric (I always manage to catch a few drops of water from the "sploosh"!), goose/duck poo. Chris

I never did ask HW to dip the fuel tank when we took the boat over - too worried about getting away early to make Stracey Arms before sunset! I have to admit we thought we'd maybe get £30 or £40 refund but hey ho - we had saved £184 when booking the holiday last year (Early booking/Loyalty discount and Blue Light card) so all in all not bad at all. We also booked Royal Light for next year in Sep when we had finished our holiday last year and made a saving of £207.36 on the holiday price. Chris

We only used the heating once during the week and that was for about 20 minutes at 22 degrees just to take the chill off the cabins. Throttle use was kept as low as possible to ensure that we kept steerage and we even crossed Breydon on the way back up north at a steady 4 mph! I know that we punched the tide at least once on the southern broads and once on the northern broads. I'd have to analyse my written log in more depth to see where we punched the tide. Chris

Just had the email from HW regarding our fuel deposit and what we used. Basic details are: paid £175 fuel deposit, we travelled from HW to Stracey Arms, overnighted there, Stracey Arms to Beccles, overnighted there for two nights with no cruising in between, Beccles to Loddon, overnighted there, Loddon to Thurne Dyke, overnighted there, Thurne Dyke to Ranworth, overnighted there, Ranworth to Wroxham then back to Upton Dyke, overnighted there and finally Upton Dyke to HW. HW have put 111 litres in the tank at £1.75p per litre = £194.25 therefore we have had to pay an extra £19.25 on top of our fuel deposit. We did 33 engine hours and that works out at 3.36 ltres per hour used. I don't think we did at all too badly but stand to be corrected? Chris