Broads01

Hardly anything gets through Potter these days unfortunately, save for the aforementioned Martham Boats. Griff would probably know what Jewel's air draft is, 6 foot 9 maybe? If it was nearer 6 foot you might have a chance. Having said that, the last time I passed through was Bright Horizon in 2013 which needed about 6 foot 8 I think.

I was only 5 and I can't remember much except the colour of the grass. My first Broads visit was still 5 years away but I'm enjoying the stories and photos on this thread.

I love the design of the low level dual steers, having hired Soprano from Richardsons and loved it. They're low enough to fit under Wroxham and Beccles in the right conditions and yet you have that fantastic outside helm, brilliant.

Indeed Jean, if you're after a daytime visit as we were at the end of May then you can't beat arriving about 10am after a few overnight moorers have left. Of course most of us love Ranworth but I do accept, in the summer particularly, it can be a lottery as to whether you can moor or not so I'm prepared to accept defeat if necessary. Some folks though, seem obsessed that they have to moor there whatever it takes and nowhere else could possibly do.

Church Fen at Brundall?

Great question Ray, I'd like to know the answer as well.

Have a great week, Neil. My route to the Broads takes me along the A14 and then A11 but I don't know the Hogue Farm shop. Where exactly is it?

Lots of good advice. I like the swimming pool mooring which is short but tends to be empty in my experience. It's an easy walk to the town too and in April I climbed the church tower for the first time which was well worth the effort for the view. At Geldeston, as well as the Locks if you want a quiet spot the other Dyke to the right where it splits is lovely.

Peace and tranquility is never missing from the north Broads, even in the summer there's no shortage of peaceful places, so not missing at all.

I'm exactly the same, Howard. I get the week swapping thing but it's just not the same and the thought of being stuck with weeks I don't want fills me with dread. I think Southern Crusader has it right and I believe Ranworth Breeze has a rotation system which could be OK but both boats are too high for where I'd want to cruise.

Both Richardsons and the smaller yards have pros and cons. Pros to Richardsons are prices a country mile lower than everywhere else and general efficiency and good service (very efficient, if not personal). Cons are nobody remembers me even though I've hired from them for years and queuing at reception with the rest of the crowd. Smaller yards, like Freedom who I went with in April, are friendlier, much more personal and more likely to remember you. On the flip side you get less boat choice and you can pay more. Thanks to Richardsons loyalty scheme, pricing and service, I was loyal to them for 10 consecutive visits 2012-2017. That would have continued had it not been for the much documented change in policy towards solo hirers which pushed me to Freedom for my hire in April.

I agree the Richardsons scheme is brilliant and the best of any of the operators in my view. I'm on my third batch of six trips now, having a had one of my breaks last year for next to nothing.

Welcome Topcat and I hope you enjoy Swan Roamer as much as my wife and I did. Thanks, Grace, for your kind comments. BrianW has also hired and written about Swan Roamer this year and has it booked for a second visit I believe.

Thanks Howard & Vaughan, I don't feel so bad now. We actually really liked the toilet but I agree with Vaughan it did seem to use a lot of water for each flush.

Back home now after my first bow thruster-equipped hire and I found them really useful. They're an excellent back up tool in certain situations and really helpful when I'd hoped they would be. Most handy thing I found was for stern moorings where I found a little dab of thrust was the best way to straighten the boat to a 90 degree angle (as opposed to the rudder hard over, burst of forward throttle method I'm more used to).

I felt like a twit last night and this morning. Not long after we moored at Wayford, the warning light for the toilet holding tank came on. I made the big mistake of telling Mel it would be OK when we really should have upped sticks and set off for Richardsons. Of course during the night the toilet became unusable so I learned my lesson there. Hence we set off earlier than planned this morning to return the boat. My next mistake was to return the boat to the wrong quay, doh! We'd departed from Kingfisher on Tuesday and I thought you always returned the boat to the same place. Not so this time, the handover sheet saying 'return to Swan Quay', hence having just reversed in to Kingfisher I was despatched around the corner. When the boat was refuelled I got a nice surprise - we'd used a miserly 29 litres. We'd done plenty of cruising hours since Tuesday but a combination of knife-through-butter smooth modern diesel (I don't know what make) and careful throttle had an impact it seems. Our journey home was straight forward and so another Broads trip came to an end. I'm really pleased to say Mel enjoyed herself a lot, the quality of the boat making a big contribution to that. I'm back on 1st September for a week with my mum and daughter aboard Contessa. I do like to keep varying the boat styles, horses for courses and all that.

Some pics from today

We've had a really good last full day, cruising via Womack then all the way up the Ant to Dilham and finishing up at Wayford Bridge. We intended to top up with water whilst at Womack Staithe but ended up leaving that till later - the boat filling up when we arrived was still doing so when we left almost half an hour later and there was at least one guy who'd been waiting for the hose all that time. The water pressure must have been very poor. We opted to leave water guy still filling up and set off back down Womack and then at the main river turned right to head to the Ant. Fortunately the water hose at Ludham Bridge was available and we made a brief stop there with the intention of taking a longer stop at How Hill. No such luck - it was just after midday and there wasn't a single mooring space to be had. There were wild moorings available further up but we decided we wanted a short walk so we carried on to Paddy's Lane and stopped there. I thought of my dear late father who always used to ask me when I told him about cruising the Ant "Did you do the triangle around Barton Turf?". My dad was always one to spend many cruising hours exploring every length of waterway possible. We had some lunch and then walked around to the village staithe where wherry Hathor had made it after we passed them punting on Barton. We opted to head for Wayford Bridge for the night and booked a table at the Wayford Bridge Hotel. Before that though there was time for a chug to Dilham which I last did with my Dad 5 years ago. Since then I've been frustrated by Wayford Bridge a few times so it was great to pass through today and reach Dilham. It was a tight turn around manoeuvre at Dilham, especially with boats moored at the Staithe and then we reached our night spot at Wayford (above the bridge) . Its a nice change from either trying to squeeze in at Sutton or opt for the boatyard. We're one of 7 Richardsons boats here. We enjoyed our meal at the Hotel. They catered for gluten-free very well and the highlight for me was the cheesecake dessert. On leaving the hotel, it was raining for the first time this week, how lucky we've been.

We loved the food and drink at The Lion. I need gluten-free and the menu is clearly marked with the options I can have which always makes life easy. Beer is the only alcohol I can't normally have (lucky I like cider then) except where gluten-free beer is available. I really like gluten-free beer but if a pub has it at all it tends to be in small, over-priced bottles. The Lion, however, sells a very rare commodity, gluten-free beer on tap and two different varieties at that. I had Redwell Steam which was absolutely lovely and to eat I had Haddock, battered in the same beer and superb. The service we received was excellent too. Our only grumble with the pub was we didn't like the decor much. It may just be personal taste but we found it too dark and the lighting insufficient. Also we'd have like to have seen fewer dining tables and more relaxed chairs. We'll definitely go there again though.

A bit grey for photos today but I have a couple.

I know all forward steer boats are poor for rearward view, but this one takes the biscuit. From the helm seat you can see less than half of the rear door window. To see beyond our rear starboard corner I have to leave my seat and either lean out of the other side or step on to the fore deck and look back.

It's been grey and cool today but no rain and after the continuous deluge I received on my last visit I was very grateful for that. We set off back downstream and by the time we were passing the common just before 10 the boat crowd from yesterday and disappeared bar the single privateer remaining. It was as if they all couldn't wait to reach their next overnight destination. It was a relaxing cruise back to Wroxham where we pulled in at the old Porter and Haylett yard for water. The boat has a water gauge and hence we didn't refill the water tank yesterday because the gauge kept showing as full. However, I had a panic yesterday evening as following Mel taking a bath the gauge had gone straight to empty! Thankfully we didn't actually run out but I'll make sure we top up again tomorrow, whatever the gauge reading. We crossed over to the Hoveton moorings to do a bit of quick shopping and then pick up the pilot. Whilst we waited for the pilot, I spotted a hire boat coming through the bridge without using the pilot. Later, after the pilot had taken us through and he asked me to sign against our boat name on his list, I smiled inside when I saw on the list the name of the boat I'd seen earlier and next to it, in capitals, 'NO PILOT'. Gotcha! I hope they get a firm ticking off. We thought about mudweighting then at Wroxham Broad or Salhouse but I was concerned it was too windy, hence we stopped for some lunch and a break at Wroxham Island. I noticed how stable the boat is when we were moored there with a fairly constant stream of boats hacking past. We didn't rock around as much as I expected. Shortly after setting off again we passed Salhouse Spit at which point we were overtaken by a day boat close on our left. No sooner had they passed than the helmsman made a sudden turn to his right across our bows and forced me to engage reverse rapidly. He aborted his manoeuvre when he realised and I held my hands up in disbelief as he turned to face me. He just looked away and carried on. Grrr! Our destination for the night was Thurne, where I write this. Its busy but there are still gaps and we're looking forward to a meal at The Lion which I've read nothing but good things about since it's refit.

I forgot to say, yesterday, as we were sat outside in Wroxham, we witnessed two incidents with hire boats. Firstly, a boat rammed forwards at 90 degrees in to the quay at a fair rate. He might have got away with it, I'm not sure. Secondly, another helmsman managed to reverse into the day boats next to the Wroxham Hotel. The guy running the day boats beckoned for him to come in to moor, which he duely did and a lengthy conversation followed. Vaughan and Susie remarked how entertaining it had been during the week watching what people get up to.

Ah I didn't realise the flooring was a Richardsons change. It's very nice actually, a more luxurious look than the standard Richardsons holly and teak.

Thanks for the write up, David. I like your detailed writing style and your photos. As someone who's hired solo on several occasions but for very different reasons to yourself, I hope this hire has given you confidence for the future. You mentioned the trip lifted your spirits and that's great. I hope it also gave you some solace and helped you remember some good times past.