FlyingFortress

Never met Candie but I do remember Dusty.

Wonder what hit it 😳 The skeleton works hide sheet piling below the surface that can be lethal to ships as when they hit something they then roll towards it ripping through the hull like a knife through butter. Never experienced it myself but one of my company ships was very badly damaged there a good while back. Thank heavens all watertight doors below deck were closed 😥

Now that's a Fox Red Labrador

We still had Barley our big Ginger one when BA was commissioned

No you are quite correct. We lost Treacle this year and she was 14 so she must have been about 2 in your pic . She always was just a little un

Nice pic 👍👍👍 Yes that's how I remember it with my little horror being the last one standing. Gosh she looks really skinny there. I suppose she was around 9 months. But then Maisie was not much older.

Now that was a night and a half . We had spent NYE at Horning but we had a great night in The Maltsers with that big roaring fire going the next night. It was the next morning that was most magical for us. Frozen Broad, snow covered green, bright sunlight and horrendous hangovers. 4 big dogs just chasing round and around the green 2 labs and 2 retrievers plus one little Yorkie as we stood around nursing coffees and waiting for someone to make a move. Thankfully it was the HW boat that did the ice breaking across Malthouse. I must admit I was quite greatful for your ice breaking efforts up Stalham dyke and ours ended up in the wet shed as well as we could not make it back to our mooring. Must be 15 or more years ago as our dogs were just pups then.

Just attach it to your ensign post. How much harm can it do???

But the traffic lights will be in place by the weekend 🤔

Blimey Hope you get better soon 👍

Nice in Nantes but a bit of a b####r in Beighton

I do remember them but I can't recall them being there for a while now. I think it was before 2000 when the last one went up to Cantley. So now the residents of the villages leading up to Cantley have to put up with multiple large tankers driving through their villages evey day. As opposed to one river tanker a month. Progress eh?

If, like my father, you had two of your hire boats crushed and sunk while on pub moorings on the Yare in those days, you would not have thought it quite so funny. The nature of the journeys made by these ships meant that they always came either upstream or downstream with the tide under them. So if a 1000 ton collier approached a bend too fast, its stern would simply wipe off any boats which were moored on the bend. Not funny at all if you have seen it happen. Holidaymakers were actually terrified and rightly so. At Thorpe, the bank outside the eastern bridge is made up with steel campshedding and reinforced concrete. It looks like a nice mooring these days but it was built to stop the coasters undermining the railway embankment when they ploughed head first into the bank by going far too fast on the bend. When a coaster (one of many) hit Reedham swing bridge in the 60s, they closed the bridge again afterwards and the railway lines had been forced out of true by 4 inches. They were very badly handled - whether or not they had a pilot - and were actually a dangerous menace to the navigation. Maybe they should have used a boathook 😁

Another tale that comes to mind. To get where they were going they had to be at very light draft and therefore props and rudders were only partially submerged making them very difficult to manoeuvre. One approached a bend with boats moored on the outside and they thought they were in danger of not making the bend and crushing the boats. They sounded their horn and used the PA to warn the occupants and one man in his PJ,'s came out and armed himself with a mop to fend off 😳 At least it wasn't a boathook 😁

Although it was before my time offshore there were tales of Offshore Supply Vessels being laid up somewhere on The Broads. They had great fun using their PA system to ask passing holiday boats either " Anyone seen an Oil Rig?" or "Which way is the North Sea?"

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but the last coasters to run were the likes of The Blackheath that took fuel to Cantley. The Blackheath got stuck in the ice at Reedham in the late 90's and caused a bit of embarrassment for the Captain. Nothing to do with his navigational skills 🤔

Ormesby?

Is this guess the location? If so first pic Fisherman's at Burgh Castle and second Kings Head/Armes Ludham.

As Griff will attest he is a proper thief. But he does look like butter wouldn't melt doesn't he. He may be a hooligan but he is our hooligan 😁😳😁

Very brave thing to say and I applaud both you and Vaughan for addressing the Elephant in the room. 👍🫣👍

All I found at Gays when trying to snag my phone was half a dozen rusty tools to open water filler caps.😳

Thanks Tim. I will give that a try.👍

Hi Tim. Thanks for the Holiday Take 👍 Could I just ask what is that footpath app that you were using? I thought I knew most of the footpaths around The Broads but that one at Neatishead is a new one on me. I have always found Neatishead to be a bit difficult for walking the dog off the lead when I have moored there and I do like to visit Neatishead both the main Staithe and Gays. Ta

Otherwise known as Wobbly Coffee or Electric Tea 🍺

If anyone fancies a dredge at Gays Staithe they will find my mobile phone I dropped in the water earlier this year 😐 But better than that there is the best part of £100 in the case 🫣