dom

From what I remember, normal tides were pretty minimal, and you only really tended to notice a visible drop with Springs. The height was more like 7' to 7' 3" back then though.

If you happen to venture further afield over the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend, be extremely cautious with lock approaches, and especially if you make it to Godmanchester. There's been a sunken tree there for a while now, which EA marked with a buoy, but it has obviously been interrupting the flow and there's a huge amount of sediment settled around it. There's probably 6ft+ out from the lock landing which is now only inches deep. You want to approach the lock right down the centre - if the guillotine's closed and there are no volunteers, keep well toward the downstream end of the lock landing.

Although the water treatment plant is in Belaugh, the outfall is actually downstream of Caen Meadow. It's about 3-400 yards upstream of the upper entrance to Bridge Broad. It was never particularly great. There was always evidence of raw sewage making it into the river back when I used to kayak around the area in the early-mid 80s. Even when things were running correctly, the water being put back into the river never looked particularly pleasant.

It always throws me for a minute when people refer to Castle Staithe, despite the fact the Castle Inn was probably the first pub I knew. It's always just known as Caen Meadow locally. I suspect the kids antics are probably a bit tamer these days than they used to be. One favourite pastime amongst teenage lads used to be to climb onto a dinghy being towed by a passing cruiser. If they were unlucky, they'd get spotted and often pushed off with a mop. Local hero status went to anyone who could hitch a lift to Wroxham bridge, then another back in the opposite direction. It's probably a good thing dinghies are a rarity these days, as you can imagine the uproar over H&S if kids did the same now. It was a bit of a blackspot for high risk activities. We also used to sledge there in winter. If you got it right, you could hit a huge speed down the hill, but it was always a gamble, as someone usually over-cooked it and ended up in the freezing river most days. They also used to hold a huge bonfire and fireworks display there, my overwhelming memory of which was dodging hot falling debris from expired fireworks. In later teens, I can remember us having boat parties there (I suspect the boats were probably supplied by Duncan Prophet's sons) which you probably wouldn't have wanted to be moored near!

As well as the info on Polkey's Mill, note the "vintage" poster which Dr.P loves - which actually shows a modern train and illustrates/mentions every aspect of Broadland except boating. If you look at the artist's other works, one of them makes a feature of the invasive Chinese Water Deer I presume the image shows what JP imagines the future of Broadland looks like. I think in reality he might be in for a nasty surprise.

The station house is definitely beyond my means. Prices in Coltishall are pretty eye watering in general these days. After coming off Tunstead Road onto White Lion Road, there's a row of terraced houses on the right. If you look at the upper storey, the one around the middle of the terrace has the name White Lion Cottages and a lion figurine in the wall. They were built on the site of the former White Lion pub, which was demolished at the end of the 19th century. One of the landlords was a Samuel Press, who I presume was probably an ancestor of C&G Press, who built boats in Belaugh before moving to Wroxham. I suspect the family may well get a mention in Nigel Royall's family story in the "Water mills and marshes" book you're reading. Everything around Broadland always seems to interconnect!

Oil quality has improved since my days, and boats tend to be less solidly booked out from what I've seen - but, historically, one change a year was generally too little. We also had predominantly BMC 1.5s, which can suffer crank failures, so need regular changes. Modern Nannis are probably more robust in general. During turnaround, we'd shift one boat at a time to a dedicated quay heading where we'd wash down the entire exterior, pump out, top up diesel and water, etc. Quite often, the boat would get an oil change mid-season and it would get done in the same time it took to do the other tasks. The interval was based on engine hours, so largely dictated by how far hirers went. The cost of a change was pretty inconsequential compared to the losses you'd suffer if you had a major breakdown. Personally, I'd change twice a year. Once at the start of the season, so you have fresh oil for the majority of your running - and again at the end, so you're not leaving contaminants in the oil over winter (particularly sulphur, which can combine with water to make sulphuric acid). If the cost is an issue, only change the filter at the end of season and use a cheaper oil over winter, as you'll probably do very little running on it. That may be overkill, but I tend to look after my possessions and get longer than average service out of them.

In my experience, it's either Bee-luh (where the luh is similar to the way you'd first teach a child to say the letter L) or, Bee-law. The former is the more common Norfolk accent version, the latter the posher variant. I've heard all sorts of odd variations, including Bee-Lee, which I've no idea how you'd get from the spelling.

I love reading your updates when you're in areas that I know very well like this. As you walk from the Belaugh road down to Hoveton, there are very few houses. I grew up going to school with kids from at least 3 of them (although one in particular has been redeveloped). I've spent countless hours walking up and down that road. What's really interesting is that you often seem to highlight either routes I'd never taken or, as in this case, which have appeared in the time since. The Bure above Wroxham is very much my spiritual home. I nearly commented the other day when you posted Coltishall Church. My first boss, who I had immense respect for (related to Sir Malcolm Bradbury, who I got to meet once) was laid to rest there. I used to join a mate on his paper round around Belaugh on occasion. We also used to bike down to Coltishall common quite often when I lived in Tunstead. I'm still desperately trying to move back to the area but without much success so far, so it's great to get drip fed images of the area.

Transom mounting the outlet generally means a longer exhaust run, which tends to dampen high frequency noise, giving a deeper overall exhaust note. For a private boat, I'd always go down that route, as it sounds nicer. The opposite applied with some of the Connoisseur fleet in particular, where they had v.short exhausts and a fairly harsh exhaust note, which always sounded like it was being thrashed, even under relatively low load (further exacerbated by hydraulic drive). For a hire boat, if you're single crewing a lot, or if you're running a larger engine under light load, I could see the merit of doing as you say and mounting the outlet close to the helm, so you can always hear the water. I've always had slight reservations about flow sensors as, to my mind, they're going to be working in harsh conditions, so probably more hassle than they're worth. I have also heard it said that they tend not to be great at detecting reduced flow soon enough.

If you're comparing a new car with a new boat, that's sound logic. With boats though, and especially older ones, the level of fault detection and warning is generally much lower. A substantial percentage of private boats are 20+ years old and instruments can be pretty rudimentary. With a private vessel, where you're going to be looking at a bill probably in the order of £10k or so to replace a single diesel engine, I think it makes sense to at least check oil fairly regularly. Checking water is coming from the exhaust ought to be a routine check as you untie.

I'm very pro-farming, but it's very sad to see and possibly the clearest example I've seen of the harm we're doing. It really surprised me as downstream sections are, in general, clearer than they used to be. There is actually something more akin to a real chalk stream nearby, where we used to catch (and release) native crayfish by placing jam jars in the stream. I daren't go and look at that, as I suspect it's fared even worse, if not from farming, then from signal crayfish.

The two bridges are actually both called Mayton Bridge. The old one is supposed to be the original course of the river. It was always a very popular spot for canoeing, swimming and fishing. We used to visit pretty regularly when I was young and the river was like a chalk stream - crystal clear, fairly fast flowing and just a little weed on a gravel bottom. I stopped off there last year and was dismayed to see the state of the water these days.

They obviously know what they're doing. I was friends with Matthew in primary school, back when his parents owned the Petersfield House Hotel in Horning, so he obviously has a lifetime of experience within the industry. It's just a shame that commercial success these days requires cramming the place with people to such a degree that it degrades the overall experience.

There's a sample and Sunday lunch menu for The Stag available on the Salhouse Hall Cottages website here. Bure River Cottage looks well worth a visit. I might have to give it a try some time - which will probably feel a bit odd, as I still remember shopping there back when it was a supermarket. The only criticism I've heard with The Lodge is that they're now cramming a lot more people in than they used to, so it tends to be noisier than in the past.

It's an awful example. What exactly are they trying to achieve? I can't see any reason for it, other than to try and make pricing less obvious (which would be an offence under The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008). It's not like it makes it any more visually appealing.

I've just done a quick bit of calculation and reckon BA already need to charge for something like 7 moorings a day at £10 a time, just to cover the cost of the person staffing the mooring (not taking into account things like NI or pension costs if it's a permanent staffer). If you add that into the equation, I suspect it'd be quite a long period of time before Reedham started generating any actual revenue.

Be careful about upping power in reverse too much if it's a screw on threaded prop. They're usually threaded so that forward thrust keeps the prop screwed on tightly. In reverse, it's possible for the torque to unscrew the prop - usually accompanied by a loud screaming noise and not going anywhere. Something I learnt the hard way in the past

I think they're all upstream of Stretham Old Engine now. If you look at Google Street View, the 2011 image shows just a couple of cruisers and a single narrowboat. When I was there recently, the place was heaving with dozens of boats and masses of junk and rubbish. Not been down the Cam lately, but have heard it's fairly similar. It's one of the main reasons I think BA need to be very aware of what's coming with liveaboards as ever increasing numbers of people fall below the first rung of the housing ladder.

I often wonder how well ceramic coating works on GRP these days. Having used ceramic products on cars, where it gives several years of protection, it seems an ideal solution for boats. Only downside is the cost, but possibly more easily justifiable with a newer boat in good condition.

Out of interest, why the dislike? It's strange it ended up where it is in the middle of nowhere, and not closer to either Earith or Needingworth. It's unfortunate, as the road from Overcote is so poor these days, you need a proper 4x4 to get road access making it impractical to stick volunteers there to help.

The delay is currently rather long. EA have closed it "until further notice". Rumour locally is that it might be mid-June before it re-opens. There's some fairly serious discontent amongst RGO boaters. There's this issue, serious silting at Brandon, Denver and Salter's Lode and prolonged high water levels and SSAs have meant lots of people unable to get boats where they need them for moorings, maintenance, etc. EA are saying they'll action what they can "within the scope of our available budget", whilst there are quite a few boaters saying they'll withhold tolls until the situation improves, so it's all very similar to the situation on the Broads.

Good to see you getting out properly at long last. Boat's looking good too. Heading upstream was definitely the better option. I was down by the Pike & Eel yesterday and it's hard to tell where the river starts and ends. There's extensive flooding well outside the main channels still. Brownshill Staunch is also out of action until mid-June from what I've heard. You should start seeing volunteers helping out with locks imminently - but you'll have to figure Hemingford out for yourself, as EA don't cover that one.

Whilst camping in the South of France once, my best mate (more than a little hung over) stuck his head under a standpipe and turned the tap on to quench his thirst. What he'd failed to realise was that the local population of frogs were drawn in by the cool damp conditions and the smaller ones could climb into the pipe. Judging by his reaction, frogs legs for breakfast didn't appeal. Ever since then, I've always made a point of running a hose for a bit before use

It's interesting that you're extrapolating bridge clearance from a river level sensor. I've wondered for a while now why Project Troll don't do this to provide coverage of Ludham and Wroxham bridges.