kpnut

Many thanks for writing that up. That’s a long old drive home! I tried downloading it but my phone OS is not a high enough number, too old I suppose.

I moored at Potter at about 10.39am on the Saturday a couple of years ago. That was good, being able to watch without having to walk anywhere, although I did go to the staithe at one point to see the de-masting action at closer quarters. I expect Ludham bridge might be good as you’d moor above the bridge and view from the bridge but then when you have seen enough, you’d be able to carry on your journey upstream. I did think about mooring on the side of the Bure below Fleet dyke entrance, but thought I’d get too worried if yachts were needing to tack near me.

Head for Coltishall for the weekend if you can get under the bridge.

The lanes round there are very small. Bit like living in Cornwall with large unsuitable vehicles trying to pass each other and churning up verges etc.

It's funny how people's views differ. Amongst the members of the farming community I know, it has been viewed as very positive, helping to convey the issues farmers face. Agreed, he has shone a very good light on the issues, particularly the financial, isolation and mental health issues in the industry. I was referring more to his actual practices, wrecking the very environment providing his income. His supposed inability to think a project through without some disaster is taken as a joke amongst my farming friends. I say ‘supposed’ because I would hazard a guess that most of it is staged for the tv. But it still does a lot of damage. He got a digger or similar stuck and gouged out a massive bit of ground getting it out. Anyone with any sense wouldn’t have put it there in the first place. He sold blighted potatoes with a big smile, thinking he was clever to put them in a sack so no-one could see. Pig farming comes and goes in cycles. If you catch it on the up, don’t invest too heavily in infrastructure that cannot be adapted for other enterprises later, and then get out at the top of the market, you do well. I prefer James Rebanks; he has also shone a light on the plight of British farming but actually knows his stuff.

Nor many local residents who've had their lives and locale turned upside down. But agreed, it's a good watch for the other two personalities. How they put up with him is anyone's guess! He hasn't put the farming community in a particularly caring light; of the soil or of the environment or of their produce.

Sounds a perfect day. Thanks for sharing.

I saw the adult (not sure which) bring very restless this morning. And had a glimpse of the chick. And just now both adults were there but then I got distracted so missed the changeover or whatever they did.

No doubt they probably measure the total length and then divide by an "average" length of 25ft or something similar. The official length that mooring spaces are calculated from is published on the BA website somewhere, probably in a policy document I read recently. And you’re right, the length used is much less than the average boat length. I have in my head it was 23ft but that seems ridiculously short, so maybe 27ft? And of course, where double mooring is allowed, that’s added in although it’s rarely done nowadays as Mouldy said. The other week I was moored on the BA Acle bridge moorings and a hire boat went in to moor on the other side, on the Broads Bank quay heading. With no reference boardto refer to (no BA sign saying alongside) they copied Bridgecrafts boats and moored stern on. Two other hire boats then came in independently of each other and copied the first one. You’d get an awful lot of boats on that stretch, all moored stern on. How safe though is not for me to judge.

Me neither!

Hello from me and springer spaniel, sometimes two. You’ll enjoy this forum, lots of diverse discussion. Happy boating.

Hi Will. Sounds like you’ve caught the bug and are hoping to succumb to the purchase of the boat of your dreams and be happy, but penniless! It might take a number of years, but the bug is very persistent. I suffered from the same one. In the meantime, nothing wrong with learning on someone else’s boat from a yard.

I think my crossing was more of a side wind making us roll rather than pitch. Both probably make the same banging noises!

Ooh Peter, glad you’re now warm and toasty again. No more mishaps please. But it’s funny how autopilot kicks in in your head when things like that happen. I know it did for me back in December. An evolutionary safety mechanism I suppose.

I haven’t noticed that cheese shop in Acle before. I’ll do some Christmas shopping in there later in the year. And that fishmonger in GY looks good too. Maybe worth a stop after one of my visits by car to Burgh Castle.

Looking at your photos of the old town, it certainly does have much to share with Hull old town as I mentioned to you it might. Even down to a ship to look round. Ours, presuming it’s still there, is the Arctic Corsair. There’s an extremely interesting fishing museum and the Wilberforce museum all about William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery. It has the most amazing couple of mulberry trees in the garden, I picked them one year and made some delicious mulberry jam. And a couple more museums that I can’t remember the names of. Also ‘the Deep’ - the worlds largest ‘submarium’ which I think is just a posh name for an aquarium. If you ever get up my way, it’s well worth a visit (and a cuppa (of more) at ours!)

The rain started bang on forecast at 7am, but it was really only a bit of drizzle. Still enough to make things more slippy though. I took the dogs out before breakfast and did a bit of ‘maintenance’ on board; washing mud off the decks, and washing and resetting the fenders after all the ups and downs they had while on the Waveney. I showed Tony the little mooring at Wood End on the way over Barton Broad and waved to GarryN on Daisy Chain on his weekend out. We were soon back at Stalham and enjoyed a very sociable half hour at the pump out station, catching up with news from some of the lads on the yard. It was blooming cold though! We spent the afternoon solving the leak on the freshwater pump, replacing a broken washer, and tightening up the casing. I learnt how easy it is to detach the pump for easy ‘getting at it’ and Tony got enthusiastic enough to decide he’s going to relocate it on his next trip so it doesn’t vibrate so much and make such a racket. He also had a look at the bedside light that has a temperamental connection. It’s been like it ever since I bought the boat and I know at least one other light fitting in the saloon has the same problem. The wires were so taut that the crimping joint bits were coming adrift. He’ll have to do that next trip too as he needs new connector bits and his crimping pliers. Sorry for the non technical names! So that’s another trip completed. My poor boat is full of dog hair which will have to be hoovered up in the morning after putting the dogs in the car. Charlie is a much muckier dog all round than Finlay, forever shaking his coat out, scratching the rug to get comfy and the walls seem to get splodges of something, I don’t like to think what, all over them. Thank goodness for the wipe clean walls on the boat. Having both dogs on board has thankfully been a success and they seem to have dropped their competition to be the first to do everything. Charlie does love being out in the front well, but it’s just been too cold and windy to have the front door open much of the time on this trip.

Too much going on in your head Griff. I see the signs - when I start forgetting stuff to take, it’s time for a few deep breaths and a head declutter! Safe journey home again.

I had booked a fuel fill at Boulter’s for 11am this morning, purposely at that time so I could have a slow morning. I wanted to do bacon rolls for breakfast, another ploy to entice Tony back again another time! They were appreciated. I struck lucky at Boulter’s. No wind. I’d drawn Tony a map so he knew where I was heading when reversing in. He’s not keen at all on helping me manoeuvre the boat but giving him time for the info to sink in seemed to work. I’m so used to mooring up on my own that I don’t give him enough notice so he’s still changing out of his slippers by the time I’m tied up and back inside! Our destination was How Hill. The day was beautiful. We saw a marsh harrier, a kingfisher and a duck who hitched a ride - you’ve guessed it - between Horning church and Ranworth. How Hill had four boats in including us. By the time we came back from a walk along to view Buttle Marsh and across to Neaves Mill, we were down to just two of us, and we were cuddling up to each other, nose to nose, so I moved up to Luna’s Nook by the wherry mooring. Buttles Marsh looking across to Neaves Mill and a smart bit of riverbank just upstream! It looked good on our cruise past. I’ll be mooring there again shortly. I then took a walk round the secret garden to take photos and make notes for my daughter who’s establishing a pond and bog garden at the back of her house. The azaleas are just getting going, as are the ferns which are beginning to unfurl. I helped a family with two enthusiastic youngsters moor up for their first time (other than their handover). When they said they were looking forward to tea at the pub after a long drive to Norfolk, I had to disappoint them with the info that it’d be a bit of a walk! They thought they were at Ludham Bridge, so they set off again, making a good job of leaving and turning round. Tonight there’s 3 cruisers and 2 yachts moored and it’s perfectly peaceful.

Thanks Jean. Tony seems to have got in the swing of it all (apart from mooring up). The hot sunshine this afternoon went down very well indeed.

We had a very peaceful night at Womack staithe. The day dawned quite bright, but cold. Then it clouded over and looked a bit drizzly. By the time we cast off it was ok again. And that’s how it’s been all day really; can’t quite make its mind up! Moonlight Shadow was behind us for part of the journey and they turned into HPC as the Southern Comfort past us both on her first trip of the day. First option - Horning staithe Second option - Horning church Third option - Fleet dyke No space at the staithe (well there was plenty of space but split in two by a boat!) so I thought I’d motor on to show Tony all the houses on the way out of the village, then turn round and try Horning church (that had one boat on when we’d been past and room for us too). Coming round Swan corner I spotted the boat taking up all the room just leaving, so I made my intentions very clear to the boat that was approaching from the other direction by whizzing over the river (he was further away than me anyway and theoretically should have needed to turn round to moor against the incoming tide) and I shoved myself right up just overlapping the little dyke outside the closed Staithe and Willow cafe. That gave room for the other boat to also fit and I helped him in. So two boats moored where one boat had been! Good. I don’t know why, but I’ve felt very sleepy today. I could easily have just cosied down with a book but the dogs needed walking and we had a few jobs to do. So the day passed. I took the dogs out on my own; past the radar museum and over the fields towards the new radio mast on the Ludham road. On the lane of the way back, I even managed to have both dogs attached to just one hand, with loose leads - almost unheard of for spaniels, the hundreds and hundreds of hours are paying off very occasionally. I bought some pears in Tidings newsagent to go with the last of the rhubarb from home in a crumble. Other than that, an unremarkable day, just very relaxing. My new TV aerial sitting nice and snug under the grp canopy in the front well. I’ve been trialling it for the last few months and It’s picking up signals extremely well I just need to tidy up the cabling when I have the right bits. It’s a Moonraker 1000 Digi Pro, popular on the canals. Someone I know also bought one and it didn’t work though, so not a complete 100% recommendation. And a nice Horning sunset.

I spotted you in my new wing mirror on the big bend where the wild moorings used to be under the trees between Ant mouth and Ranworth Dam. Glad you’ve had a productive day.

I look forward to utilising your handiwork Griff. Many thanks. Purdey was just doing some inbuilt mountain rescue dog alarm work you (and she) didn’t know she had. Glad you’re OK.

Moving on •••••• Why is Acle Bridge always so windy? I don’t think I’ve ever moored there without at least a breeze. This morning it was blowing directly into the Pedro’s bank which was where I was moored. An extra fender had been put out last night to stop the potential bumping. No breakfast as we were meeting Helen and son Harry with Moonlight Shadow for a breakfast in the Dunes cafe. That gave me plenty of free time to take the dogs for a run up the riverbank towards Upton dyke. I spotted MS coming and just about got over the bridge in time to catch a stern line from Harry. My, it was windy. Breakfast done and dusted, leaving the dogs onboard as I had mistakenly thought I couldn’t take them inside (it is dog friendly after all) and then we had maybe another hour on MS before going our separate ways. Thanks for coming all that way down to Acle, Helen. I anticipated it’d be awkward getting off the mooring in the wind but it was fine. We flew up the Bure and Thurne on the tide towards our destination of Womack, taking a detour up to Potter Heigham first as Tony hadn’t been there by river. We didn’t stop, turning by the bridge as the tide also turned, so we seemed to fly back down the Thurne, only feeling the engine work as I turned up Womack dyke. Womack staithe won the discussion between staithe and dyke moorings. The dogs had another walk with both of us this time, up the bridleway towards Fritton Lane, over the main road and back along the lane that runs parallel, to the village; a walk I’ve done many times. I sometimes think I know the broads footpaths better than mine at home. I filled my rucsac with shopping before we popped into the Kings Arms for a drink. It was very busy for a midweek late afternoon. We’d already decided we couldn’t do the carvery justice after our late breakfast. Greetings from Womack staithe. Two private boats (both forum members but I won’t name the other as I haven’t seen him to ask) and the rest are hire boats. A turnaround from a few weeks ago when private boats were outnumbering the hire boats. The season is well underway.

What a shame as it’s a lovely walk. That’s a very strange place for it to flood. Must have been that rain last night as I walked along there not long ago with it being ok. We too very much enjoyed our meet up and your showing Tony round Moonlight Shadow. She certainly looks bigger inside without the dogs!