The Week That Was , The Report

[Bob48]

if it's ok i'd like to share with you all the Adventure we had from the 20th  to the 27th of May this year .

it all started just before 6 am on the 20th with a cuppa at home before the usual headless chicken act that starts most of our days , then called the taxi for the short hop to the railway station , , ( 07.36 ) train on time off to Norwich via Ely . got to Norwich  , a walk up to Castle meadow to catch the x11 to Stalham , this was running a few minutes late but we were on holiday so it didn't matter too much. got into Stalham around 10.40. first stop is the Cherry blossom cafe for a much needed cuppa and a sausage roll , this is a great cafe the staff are very friendly it is exceptionly clean and the tea is fantastic .tea was drunk off to Richardsons boatyard to get the boat ( by this time the excitement is at fever pitch ) get to reception and look out of the window and our boat CrownGem 4 is moored up right out side the door ! , we are told that she'd be ready about 1pm so we have about an hour to wait , no problem a wander aroud some of the new boats is a good way to use an hour , we had a look around " Commodore " it's like the Enterprise on board every techy gadget you can think of . ( rabbiting on sorry )

so we get the keys , life jackets , a couple of extra pillows , and we are out of there first stop Ludham bridge , great day for a gentle cruise down the Ant ,and across Barton Broad, pass through Irstead  where the icehouse is having a new thatch put on , get to Ludham bridge wind blew us into the moorings here . later we went to the Dog at Ludham bridge , really friendly here very dog friendly too , great food as always ,they have had a face lift recently , redecorated ,still it hasn;t changed the atmosphere.

day 2 starts with me not being able to get the boat to start , i felt a prize lemon after the engineer from Richardsons came out , turns out i hadn't pushed the key "in " before twisting it . so our trip to Coltishall was postponed and we headed for Womack water instead , along the Bure we came across a rather smart saily  with a gentleman waving at us from aboard turns out that it was Broadsword and his lady , got into Womack relatively easily , then things started to happen that were really frightening a lady fell from the back of a " princess " class cruiser , one of the big ones with the flying bridge out of Acle , 2 problems first , no life jacket second it was reversing into a mooring , thankfully there ws a group of firemen/paramedics on the boat next to them and she didn't suffer any injuries apart from being frightened out of her wits and being cold and wet . her husband was as white as the driven snow , he hadn't realised she had slipped off the back , just shows life jackets are there to be worn.

Sunday, day 3 .left the moorings and headed for St Benets for a visit then up to Salhouse for an overnight stay so we can get to Coltishall tomorrow , interesting times were had here the moorings have been renewed here , and the stupidity of people will never cease to amaxe me , the was a lad maybe 8 possibly 9 years old in the broad swimming with his i believe brother in a dingy with an outboard on doing " doughnuts " around him ,  ridiculous really but there you are , walked to the " Bell"  for something to eat only to find out that they don't serve food in the evening ,bacon and egg sarnies for tea .

Monday off to Coltishall  we had a great trip up to Wroxham and with the eyes of the world ( namely the Barnes Brinkcraft webcam ) watching and people on the bridge and both sides of the river i pulled into the pilots mooring like an consumate professional ( with a huge sigh of relief i can tell you ) pilot took us through and we moored up for a wander around Hoveton and Roy's store . supplies onboard ( mostly wine ) and off to Coltishall the river Bure is beautiful upstream of Wroxham bridge but is getting rather overgrown in places , i wouldn't want to take a large boat up there , lots of bits of tree sticking out of the water to starboard , be cautious !we moored up outside the Rising sun recently re-opened after being closed or so i'm led to believe, fantastic fish and chips , here but the other meals that we saw brought out looked similarly huge helpings and very reasonably priced too.over nighted here very peaceful even though there is a road running parallel to he river .

Tuesday up and back to Wroxham it's a fantastic trip back the wind has picked up rather a lot and helped us off he moorings , got to Wroxham , went back to Roys for proper shopping , Baked crab on board tonight, through the bridge and off to Ranworth, more interesting times , the wind almost blew us down Ranworth dam , mooring up was scary to say the least , but we got in  and dropped the mudweight to stop us being blown all over the place, baked crab for tea , now i did make a video of myself doing this but i am a bit loathed to post it on Youtube ,i have seen what people have posted and have decided against it , sorry .

Wednesday, wet and wild day , really just a short hop to Horning marshes at Ludham bridge , , now while Crown Gem is a great boat and is very well behaved in the water her window wiper is shall we say not so good at it's job , you can't have it all can you . met some great people here  this evening  we were very kindly invited onto there boat ( Brinks rhapsody 2 "  they had an african grey parrot , i thought my sides were going to split talk about a naughty bird .i digress we had a great evening with his owners , and drank more than a little.

Thursday relatively late start dur to last evening woke up to a fine morning , and sadly had to head back to Stalham , came across Broadswrod again , said hell across the river , beautiful slow run back had the engine just ticking over hardly any other boats about , got back to richardsons about 2pm , there is good reason for this , on fridays  Richardsons boatyard can become extremely busy , and if you go back Thursday you can enjoy a chinese meal from the Fortune house takeaway , we had a set meal for two comprising of , special fried rice, chicken and mushrooms , beef and green peppers in black bean sauce and sweet nd sour chicken balls and 2 spring rolls for £13.20 and there would have been enough to feed 4 ! 

Friday up early to clean down the boat we had packed the evening before, bit of a cuppa then the yard crew start doing pump outs and refuelling , we had £100 of diesel on board when we left last Friday , when we got back to the yard we still had £70.40 worth , " life should be lived at 4 miles per hour " so less the £12 for the bridge pilot  we had £58 which paid for our lunch at the comleat angler in Norwich before getting the train home .

 i hope this isn't to " ratttly " we had a fantastic time in our favourite place , and cannot wait until October when we come back for a 4day cruise on Tobago 3 .

 if you have been thanks for reading

[Wildfuzz]

Brilliant dialogue.

[Bob48]

here she is Crown Gem 4, and us once we were moored up

[Bob48]

5 minutes ago, Wildfuzz said:

Brilliant dialogue.

thankyou .

 

[deebee29]

Enjoyed this Bob

pleased you had a great time, can't wait for the end of September when we are back

[Bob48]

1 minute ago, deebee29 said:

Enjoyed this Bob

pleased you had a great time, can't wait for the end of September when we are back

we are there 4-7 October . may see you about , my NBN poster will be in the Port side front window give us a wave if you see us .

[deebee29]

Unfortunately we'll just miss you Bob, we come home on the first of October

shame 

[Bob48]

5 minutes ago, deebee29 said:

Unfortunately we'll just miss you Bob, we come home on the first of October

shame 

we'll be back next May for another 7 days , we booked it the moment we got back lol i believe the term is " passionate about the broads " see you on the water

[deebee29]

We do the same, April & September for us.... I'm sure our paths will cross one day 

[Bob48]

Just now, deebee29 said:

We do the same, April & September for us.... I'm sure our paths will cross one day 

i certainly hope so .

 

[Broadsword]

7 hours ago, Bob48 said:

came across Broadswrod again , said hell across the river

'hell'?  It wasn't that bad seeing me again Bob, was it?? 

[Broadsword]

Really glad you had such a good time... Crown Gem looks a nice boat out on the water... love that stern cockpit!

[lincan]

Hello All,

 Sounds like a nice lazy holiday, as it should be! Just one point, didn't someone put on here a couple of weeks ago that Richo's are now paying for the Wroxham pilot? There was a board outside, l think, saying something about you pay and they reimburse you when you get back if you use him. 

[SwanR]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Good tip about the Chinese takeaway as we do tend to spend the last night in the boatyard and will be hiring from Richardson's on a Friday start in a few weeks time.

[BroadScot]

26 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Good tip about the Chinese takeaway as we do tend to spend the last night in the boatyard and will be hiring from Richardson's on a Friday start in a few weeks time.

We have used that take away in the past and found it tasty and great value for money. Also, the Oasis Indian resteraunt is worth trying in Stalham.

Iain

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Nice enjoyable read Bob. Glad you had a good time, and surprising how many peeps actually travel to the Broads by train. Those large aft cockpits can be very useful, especially if you have all the settees made up as beds, as they give a lot more living space. Anyway, glad all went well, and you`re coming back soon.

[Bob48]

11 hours ago, lincan said:

Hello All,

 Sounds like a nice lazy holiday, as it should be! Just one point, didn't someone put on here a couple of weeks ago that Richo's are now paying for the Wroxham pilot? There was a board outside, l think, saying something about you pay and they reimburse you when you get back if you use him. 

do not be mislead , here are the facts straight from Richardsons , if you use the bridge pilot you have to sign a form to say that you have been through the bridge , you pay nothing to the pilot . when you get back to Richardsons they deduct the £12 return journey price from whatever remains of your fuel deposit ,if you have used most or all of it (fuel) you pay Richardsons either the balance or the total amount respectively .

[Bob48]

14 hours ago, Broadsword said:

'hell'?  It wasn't that bad seeing me again Bob, was it?? 

it's my sausage fingers sorry Broadsword or maybe too much wine , i'm not sure , my spelling in that report was appalling , sorry .

[lincan]

Hello Bob48,

Thanks for making that clear. Thought it was funny there'd not been any further comments about it. Perhaps l'd read that item with my glasses on back to front! 

[Broads01]

I enjoyed your tale Bob, thanks for sharing. I hired Crown Gem 3 a few years ago and I liked it mostly, especially in good weather with that cockpit. When it rained though I didn't get on with the canopy at all - I found I couldn't see anything to the side and it felt like being in a dark tent. I'd prefer the type of canopy with removable sides. How did you get on with it?

[Bob48]

On 05/06/2016 at 9:16 PM, Broads01 said:

I enjoyed your tale Bob, thanks for sharing. I hired Crown Gem 3 a few years ago and I liked it mostly, especially in good weather with that cockpit. When it rained though I didn't get on with the canopy at all - I found I couldn't see anything to the side and it felt like being in a dark tent. I'd prefer the type of canopy with removable sides. How did you get on with it?

Richardsons have put a new canopy on CG4 it has side " windows " if you will (clear panels) and it has a new "zip -up " rear screen which is much easier to use that the older version with the "twist " type fasteners , getting the canopy up and down is a bit of a handful and would be a proper pain if you were single helming , but the wife and i have got it down to a fine art now , the rear deck on this particular boat is as you say fantastic in the sunny weather , we had our canopy down five out of the seven days ,only because firstly we didn't take it down before we left Stalham on the Friday and on the Wednesday it was light rain all day. otherwise great times were had , even if it was a bit " breezy " on the Tuesday . 

[Broads01]

Thanks Bob, I'll hopefully get a look at that when I'm next in Stalham. As I recall the Broadland Saturns have a two piece canopy which always struck me as more manageable although I haven't yet hired one to try it. I enjoyed Broadland Wave which is priced the same - no canopy to mess with but not so open helm and doesn't go under the bridges.

[Broads01]

Hi again Bob. I think this video has you in it a few minutes in! It's definitely Crown Gem 4 passing through Horning and its dated May 2016. See what you think https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ASH-cuMgGI

[Drewby]

On 2 June 2016 at 11:09 AM, Bob48 said:

if it's ok i'd like to share with you all the Adventure we had from the 20th  to the 27th of May this year .

it all started just before 6 am on the 20th with a cuppa at home before the usual headless chicken act that starts most of our days , then called the taxi for the short hop to the railway station , , ( 07.36 ) train on time off to Norwich via Ely . got to Norwich  , a walk up to Castle meadow to catch the x11 to Stalham , this was running a few minutes late but we were on holiday so it didn't matter too much. got into Stalham around 10.40. first stop is the Cherry blossom cafe for a much needed cuppa and a sausage roll , this is a great cafe the staff are very friendly it is exceptionly clean and the tea is fantastic .tea was drunk off to Richardsons boatyard to get the boat ( by this time the excitement is at fever pitch ) get to reception and look out of the window and our boat CrownGem 4 is moored up right out side the door ! , we are told that she'd be ready about 1pm so we have about an hour to wait , no problem a wander aroud some of the new boats is a good way to use an hour , we had a look around " Commodore " it's like the Enterprise on board every techy gadget you can think of . ( rabbiting on sorry )

so we get the keys , life jackets , a couple of extra pillows , and we are out of there first stop Ludham bridge , great day for a gentle cruise down the Ant ,and across Barton Broad, pass through Irstead  where the icehouse is having a new thatch put on , get to Ludham bridge wind blew us into the moorings here . later we went to the Dog at Ludham bridge , really friendly here very dog friendly too , great food as always ,they have had a face lift recently , redecorated ,still it hasn;t changed the atmosphere.

day 2 starts with me not being able to get the boat to start , i felt a prize lemon after the engineer from Richardsons came out , turns out i hadn't pushed the key "in " before twisting it . so our trip to Coltishall was postponed and we headed for Womack water instead , along the Bure we came across a rather smart saily  with a gentleman waving at us from aboard turns out that it was Broadsword and his lady , got into Womack relatively easily , then things started to happen that were really frightening a lady fell from the back of a " princess " class cruiser , one of the big ones with the flying bridge out of Acle , 2 problems first , no life jacket second it was reversing into a mooring , thankfully there ws a group of firemen/paramedics on the boat next to them and she didn't suffer any injuries apart from being frightened out of her wits and being cold and wet . her husband was as white as the driven snow , he hadn't realised she had slipped off the back , just shows life jackets are there to be worn.

Sunday, day 3 .left the moorings and headed for St Benets for a visit then up to Salhouse for an overnight stay so we can get to Coltishall tomorrow , interesting times were had here the moorings have been renewed here , and the stupidity of people will never cease to amaxe me , the was a lad maybe 8 possibly 9 years old in the broad swimming with his i believe brother in a dingy with an outboard on doing " doughnuts " around him ,  ridiculous really but there you are , walked to the " Bell"  for something to eat only to find out that they don't serve food in the evening ,bacon and egg sarnies for tea .

Monday off to Coltishall  we had a great trip up to Wroxham and with the eyes of the world ( namely the Barnes Brinkcraft webcam ) watching and people on the bridge and both sides of the river i pulled into the pilots mooring like an consumate professional ( with a huge sigh of relief i can tell you ) pilot took us through and we moored up for a wander around Hoveton and Roy's store . supplies onboard ( mostly wine ) and off to Coltishall the river Bure is beautiful upstream of Wroxham bridge but is getting rather overgrown in places , i wouldn't want to take a large boat up there , lots of bits of tree sticking out of the water to starboard , be cautious !we moored up outside the Rising sun recently re-opened after being closed or so i'm led to believe, fantastic fish and chips , here but the other meals that we saw brought out looked similarly huge helpings and very reasonably priced too.over nighted here very peaceful even though there is a road running parallel to he river .

Tuesday up and back to Wroxham it's a fantastic trip back the wind has picked up rather a lot and helped us off he moorings , got to Wroxham , went back to Roys for proper shopping , Baked crab on board tonight, through the bridge and off to Ranworth, more interesting times , the wind almost blew us down Ranworth dam , mooring up was scary to say the least , but we got in  and dropped the mudweight to stop us being blown all over the place, baked crab for tea , now i did make a video of myself doing this but i am a bit loathed to post it on Youtube ,i have seen what people have posted and have decided against it , sorry .

Wednesday, wet and wild day , really just a short hop to Horning marshes at Ludham bridge , , now while Crown Gem is a great boat and is very well behaved in the water her window wiper is shall we say not so good at it's job , you can't have it all can you . met some great people here  this evening  we were very kindly invited onto there boat ( Brinks rhapsody 2 "  they had an african grey parrot , i thought my sides were going to split talk about a naughty bird .i digress we had a great evening with his owners , and drank more than a little.

Thursday relatively late start dur to last evening woke up to a fine morning , and sadly had to head back to Stalham , came across Broadswrod again , said hell across the river , beautiful slow run back had the engine just ticking over hardly any other boats about , got back to richardsons about 2pm , there is good reason for this , on fridays  Richardsons boatyard can become extremely busy , and if you go back Thursday you can enjoy a chinese meal from the Fortune house takeaway , we had a set meal for two comprising of , special fried rice, chicken and mushrooms , beef and green peppers in black bean sauce and sweet nd sour chicken balls and 2 spring rolls for £13.20 and there would have been enough to feed 4 ! 

Friday up early to clean down the boat we had packed the evening before, bit of a cuppa then the yard crew start doing pump outs and refuelling , we had £100 of diesel on board when we left last Friday , when we got back to the yard we still had £70.40 worth , " life should be lived at 4 miles per hour " so less the £12 for the bridge pilot  we had £58 which paid for our lunch at the comleat angler in Norwich before getting the train home .

 i hope this isn't to " ratttly " we had a fantastic time in our favourite place , and cannot wait until October when we come back for a 4day cruise on Tobago 3 .

 if you have been thanks for reading

Sounds like you really enjoyed your holiday 

Andy