Up North

[wooster]

Hi everyone. We have a week on the Broads planned for the week of 28th May ( this is half term week ) and we intend making the trip to the North. We haven't done this for around 10 years so are a bit rusty and looking for advice. We will be leaving from Brundall.

I notice the low tide at Yarmouth is about 8.43 am on the Sunday and so we intend to stay at Reedham the Saturday night and leave there about 7.45am. This should get us at Yarmouth around 30 mins after slack water ( ie 1.5 hours after low tide ) I reckon we should be at Acle around 11am all being well.

After that we're not sure. I was considering up to Stalham and mooring somewhere off Barton Broad. The name of the place escapes me. We might then potter around there before cruising up to Wroxham or Horning and maybe meandering down to Ranworth on the way back before returning to Brundall later in the week.

Do you have any suggestions as to places in addition to my suggestions above? Are the Northern broads likely to be very busy at this time of year? I had thought that despite it being half-term with it being early in the season and before fishing starts it might be quieter. As I say it's been about 10 years since I was last up there though so if I'm wrong let me know.

Any recommendations or advice gratefully received.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Wooster,

I would add staying overnight at Womak staithe and mud weighting on South Walsham Broad or Salhouse Broad.

Being as it is half-term it is bound to be busier.

Regards

Alan

[Matt]

Same week as us

 

we we also intend to cross to the North (from Brundall) on the Sunday.

However I think you have the low tide time for the Saturday. If you are crossing on the Sunday aim for about 11am for Yarmouth.

not sure where we will overnight on the Saturday but give us a wave if you see us!

Probably coming back South Friday PM.

[vanessan]

Womack is recommended. If you don't fancy mooring alongside others stern on, try Womack Dyke. It's a peaceful spot, a nice walk into the village and other walks from there as well. From Barton Broad you can get to Neatishead, or moor at Gay's Staithe and walk to the village. Paddy's Lane at Barton Turf has plenty of mooring too.

If the moorings are busy, being a Bank Holiday, mud-weighting on any of the Broads will be the answer and enjoyable too.

Enjoy!!

[wooster]

Good call re Womack, Alan and vanessan. I had forgotten all about it. I recall it being lovely indeed Alan, I will definitely get to South Walsham as well. Also recall that being extremely nice place to stay.

Hi Matt we will be on Lightning so maybe say hi to you at Reedham if you're there. Will keep a look out for you anyway. If I've made a mistake in the tide tables then so much the better. Gives me a bit of a kip on the Sunday morning

EDIT. Yes it looks like my reading of the tables were wrong. Just considering that if we don't need to leave so early we might stay at Loddon or somewhere else on Saturday night

Thanks folks.

[Broads01]

In my experience the North Broads are busy the May half term week but less so than in August. I've always put that down to it being in the fishing close season. There's no shortage of moorings if you avoid the pub hotspots though.

[Matt]

52 minutes ago, wooster said:

Good call re Womack, Alan and vanessan. I had forgotten all about it. I recall it being lovely indeed Alan, I will definitely get to South Walsham as well. Also recall that being extremely nice place to stay.

Hi Matt we will be on Lightning so maybe say hi to you at Reedham if you're there. Will keep a look out for you anyway. If I've made a mistake in the tide tables then so much the better. Gives me a bit of a kip on the Sunday morning

EDIT. Yes it looks like my reading of the tables were wrong. Just considering that if we don't need to leave so early we might stay at Loddon or somewhere else on Saturday night

Thanks folks.

Nice boat 

 

the tides are good for going North that week so rude not to!

 

We often find that Reedham gets full up on a bank holiday weekend so we will see how we go with regards to Saturday nights mooring.

 

[wooster]

38 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

In my experience the North Broads are busy the May half term week but less so than in August. I've always put that down to it being in the fishing close season. There's no shortage of moorings if you avoid the pub hotspots though.

Good to hear. Thank you

 

[wooster]

2 minutes ago, Matt said:

Nice boat 

 

the tides are good for going North that week so rude not to!

 

We often find that Reedham gets full up on a bank holiday weekend so we will see how we go with regards to Saturday nights mooring.

 

We see Thunder every now and again when we're up. Nice pair of boats .

Yes, we'll maybe meet up at some point in our travels

[trambo]

Lightning up North last week.

 

[wooster]

Obviously the helmsman or woman deferred to conditions and was cosy inside. Can't say I blame them at all  We were up on our another nice boat we have a share in last week and it was pretty chilly. 

[neilp1962]

We're on Grande Girl 1 from Summercraft that week, Funnily enough we're heading South and will cross Breydon LSW Sunday (10.42am) after a night at Acle Bridge or Stokesby. We might actually nip through an hour earlier as we're heading all the way to Beccles that day, I'm a bit nervy about being swept through Yarmouth on a fast ebb current though so maybe not. The bridges will be fine but I've come north through a fast current at Yarmouth and it wasn't pleasant. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

[BroadScot]

9 minutes ago, neilp1962 said:

We're on Grande Girl 1 from Summercraft that week, Funnily enough we're heading South and will cross Breydon LSW Sunday (10.42am) after a night at Acle Bridge or Stokesby. We might actually nip through an hour earlier as we're heading all the way to Beccles that day, I'm a bit nervy about being swept through Yarmouth on a fast ebb current though so maybe not. The bridges will be fine but I've come north through a fast current at Yarmouth and it wasn't pleasant. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

IMHO always best if you can go through at Slack Water, makes the trip far more pleasent.

Iain

[LondonRascal]

I'd say that the only moorings available now on Womack Dyke are the BA 24hr ones.  My favourite wild moorings, their nice grassy 'gardens' and walks along the flood defences have all been levelled with the recent works there.

There are red stakes at present which will be removed in time and then be another 'Fleet Dyke' with Reeds and Weeds.  I was very tempted when up on Belmore to go to Lathams and buy a big bag of grass seed, moor up temporarily and go spread a bunch so there is some grass there where used to be.  However doing so would likely fall foul of some environmental contamination rule where grass from one part of the country cannot be grown next to the Broads.

Seriously, Womack is a lovely place but will fill up rapidly at the staithe or BA moorings so being their early is a good bet – other options are the moorings are Thurne Dyke  

[wooster]

I recall coming from the North and finding the biggest problem was the flow of the Bure going past the Yacht station. Gave me the heeby-jeebies 

 

It's been a while since I did it, but I would be inclined to err on the side of arriving a little later when coming from the northerly direction. I'm sort of inclined to err a bit on the side of arriving a bit later when going the other way too, though it probably isn't as bad. I might be wrong of course.

[Matt]

6 hours ago, neilp1962 said:

We're on Grande Girl 1 from Summercraft that week, Funnily enough we're heading South and will cross Breydon LSW Sunday (10.42am) after a night at Acle Bridge or Stokesby. We might actually nip through an hour earlier as we're heading all the way to Beccles that day, I'm a bit nervy about being swept through Yarmouth on a fast ebb current though so maybe not. The bridges will be fine but I've come north through a fast current at Yarmouth and it wasn't pleasant. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Been there done that. Doing the speed limit in neutral!

cant have been that bad because we have done it twice.........

[John]

It's going to be busy up north as we are heading that way from the south aswell. 

[neilp1962]

Make sure you all give us a wave as you pass. I was worried about moorings down south, sounds like it will be empty

[Broadsword]

OK. Tin hat on but....

What I don't get is, if you want to go North, why hire South? You spend so much of your holiday getting back and forth, I don't really see the point. I have travelled South from North on occasions, but only when I had at least 10 days break, which means I can do it in a fairly leisurely way... 

I confess I don't like spending a large number of hours chugging...

So my advice (see OP) would be 'Want to go North? Hire there!!'

[Guest]

Danny, must disagree with you. For us, a holiday without crossing Breydon has always seemed to have something missing, part of the adventure. It's perfectly doable in a week if the tides are right, even if you're sailing - we've sailed (no engine other than through Yarmouth) all the way from Upton to past the WRC in a day. No chugging at all!

[BroadAmbition]

Have you not seen Robins video of a few years back?  going up the Bure from the yellow post into a full ebb tide - that was a slog, we love going across Breydon, always do it during our Lads week, obviously I do try to plan it so we make use of the tides, but sometimes daylight is the stronger factor (Having the hire boats with us - daylight restricts us) going against a full ebb is time consuming and really does one no favours with ones carbon footprint.  Going with it saves hugely on fuel but no room for error with bridge heights, so as many have said - slack water is the best  Min 6 through to Min 11

Griff

 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Broadsword said:

OK. Tin hat on but....

What I don't get is, if you want to go North, why hire South? You spend so much of your holiday getting back and forth, I don't really see the point. I have travelled South from North on occasions, but only when I had at least 10 days break, which means I can do it in a fairly leisurely way... 

I confess I don't like spending a large number of hours chugging...

So my advice (see OP) would be 'Want to go North? Hire there!!'

The OP is not hiring- they have a share on Lightening which is a syndicate boat.

[wooster]

43 minutes ago, Matt said:

The OP is not hiring- they have a share on Lightening which is a syndicate boat.

Quite so.

Also each to their own, Danny. Boating probably means different things to different people. I  I can see how crossing Breydon adds to the joy of it all.

 

The very first time I visited the Broads was on a hire boat in 1988 and I hired in Thorpe St Andrews, and went  to Geldeston Lock, Coltishall, Stalham, Hickling, South Walsham - along with just about everywhere in between. I loved every single minute of it. I did it all in a week. I probably wouldn't want to do that much travelling again because I'm an aged old geezer now, but I do still like a bit of journey every day.

[ranworthbreeze]

On 5/1/2016 at 8:00 PM, wooster said:

Obviously the helmsman or woman deferred to conditions and was cosy inside. Can't say I blame them at all  We were up on our another nice boat we have a share in last week and it was pretty chilly. 

Hi William,

You should have climbed into some thermals, when we are on the boat out of season, we take plenty of warm cloths and hats and gloves to combat the cold of the upper helm. You can of course use the lower helm and be warm but as always condensation on the windscreen is a problem.

Regards

Alan

 

[wooster]

I was relying on my own insulation which is substantial  

I  confess we did use the lower helm a bit when the elements got a bit more harsh, I'm not complaining though because the sun was out most of the time and the rain mostly stayed away. We had one particularly lovely afternoon at commissioners cut and went for a really nice walk along the banks. Then back on board for tea and cake. I'm feeling quite nostalgic now.