Norfolk Lady Tales

[Karizma]

We travelled from Beccles to Reedham today with the canopy down all the way - had early dinner (16.30) in the Lord Nelson and then headed back 'Beccles bound' in the dark stopping at Somerlyton for the night to get shore power.

What a lovey day on the southern rivers !

[Broads01]

Beautiful pair of photos, Malcom. They make me want to be there. 

[Mouldy]

Another misty start to the day.  The forecast is for sunny periods to develop later, probably after we’ve left the boat.  We’re treating ourselves to a pub lunch today, instead of our customary stop at the Golden Arches at the Thickthorn roundabout.

We’ll be back on the rivers next weekend, but on Moonlight Shadow (we’ve snagged a free weekend extra to our annual allocation) with our son, daughter in law and grandchildren (God, help me!).  We thought after recent events, they’d enjoy a short break away and a meal out on Saturday night.  Looking forward to that already!

[YnysMon]

Have a great time on MS next weekend. Hope the weather is decent for you.

[Mouldy]

It’s been a long time, but we’re back on Norfolk Lady for the weekend.  Over the winter, she’s been out of the water for a few jobs to be done, including fresh anti foul, new sound deadening material fitted to the engine  hatch (the old stuff was hanging off), hull polish and wax, a few gel repairs, a new prop and fitting a new macerating loo.  Paul (Swancraft) carried out all of the work and needless to say, all has been completed to his high standards.  Sitting on ‘the throne’ this morning was a particular pleasure, without the pump handle digging into my left thigh!

We had fish and chips from the chippy in Brundall last night.  Boy, have their prices gone up since last time.  It was even more expensive than at our local chippy at home.  We might try The White Heron next time.

We were in no real rush to get away from the marina this morning, so after we’d chatted to Ray, headed out of Hobrough’s Dyke and down The Yare, mooring at Hardley Mill.  Pontoon moorings and electric posts - ideal for the weather, which is cold, breezy and with frequent showers.

Despite the weather, it’s good to be back and hopefully on a more regular basis again!

[OldBerkshireBoy]

You sound like you are flushed with success! 

[Mouldy]

3 hours ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

You sound like you are flushed with success! 

No, not necessarily - that’s what follows a period of constipation! 

[Broads01]

Mmm, too much information!

[Mouldy]

Didn’t take long for the first mate to assume her place on her customary seat, relegating the wife to the galley!  Not the best quality photo from my iPad, but you get the idea!

[Lulu]

How’s the weather down south? We’ve just cruised from Acle to Stalham in rain and some sleet.  

[Mouldy]

3 minutes ago, Lulu said:

How’s the weather down south? We’ve just cruised from Acle to Stalham in rain and some sleet.  

Few spots of rain in the breeze, overcast and cold.

[Ray]

14 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Few spots of rain in the breeze, overcast and cold.

See... I told you it would improve 😂

[Mouldy]

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 1)

I’m fairly certain that Norfolk Lady has been feeling a little neglected of late.  Previous years had seen us up to the boat every other weekend, with the exception of the lockdowns obviously.  A combination of uninspiring weather and a need to clear what seems like a never ending amount of ‘stuff’ from my mum’s house, that’s currently in storage and costing too much a month, had caused us to not be infrequent visitors over the winter.  However, we’d agreed that we’d head up for the Easter weekend, so we loaded up the car on Thursday afternoon and set off for Brundall.

We hastily transferred our belongings from car to boat and by 17:00, we’re ready to go.  With over two hours before the sun went down, we set off and arrived at Langley Dyke to find the moorings empty.  With the boat safely tied up, and our dinner in the oven to warm up (a shepherd’s pie that I’d made earlier), we settled down at the start of our weekend away.

The weather at home was fairly grim when we woke in the morning, but the rain stopped early in the afternoon and it was a pleasant, if slightly chilly evening.  We had our meal and settled down to watch TV with a glass or two of wine, before heading to bed around 22:00.

 

[SwanR]

You always manage to take such stunning photos. Love them. 

[Mouldy]

29 minutes ago, SwanR said:

You always manage to take such stunning photos. Love them. 

Thanks Jean. To be honest, I’ve not taken many this trip.  The weather hasn’t been very inspiring, but we have a week on Moonlight Shadow very soon and I’ll try harder then!

[DAVIDH]

Yes, love the last one Malcolm

[SwanR]

It was certainly a better day today. We were at Rockland St Mary and it was beautiful. Hope the rest of your trip goes ok. 

[kpnut]

Those last two photos are just wonderful. 
Enjoy your trip. The sorting of your mum’s stuff can wait for you to recuperate a bit. 

[YnysMon]

I know what you mean about the pressure of sorting your Mum’s stuff out. The last time we put stuff in storage was when we had the extension built around 2000. It cost us quite a lot per month even then!

We do have almost half our house in storage at the moment, but at least that’s being paid for by our house insurance. 

[Mouldy]

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 2)

I woke fairly early and at about six, ventured out of bed to turn the heating on, before returning to my pit.  With the boat warmed up a bit, I felt brave enough to get up and pull some clothes on.  With no electric hook up, I didn’t want to run the engine to heat water for showering, so whilst Deb took the dog for a quick walk to the river end of the dyke and back, I set about clearing the windows of condensation.  It really is the worst part of boating in cooler temperatures.

With the wife and hound safely back on board, I started the engine and we set off, with Beccles the intended destination.  I was keen to get to Somerleyton and negotiate the bridge, hopeful that we could get through without the hassle of waiting for it to open.

We were punching the rising current through as far as Reedham, made easier since the fitting of our new prop with a bigger pitch.  As we turned down the New Cut, the current was in our favour and helped to push us along without any increase in engine revs.  There were a few boats on the move by now and we passed a few heading towards Reedham as we progressed along the cut, surely the most boring stretch of The Broads to cruise.  The weather was fairly bright - sunny periods with broken cloud, but warm, it wasn’t.  There was a cool bite in the breeze.

We were quickly at the St Olaves end and continued towards Somerleyton, where it soon became apparent that the clearance was tight, especially as we were being carried by the incoming current.  We turned and moored, before I found the telephone number for the bridge on the BA website, not having a VHF radio.  It wasn’t long before the bridge opened and we carried on with our journey.

As we neared Beccles, there were an increasing number of boats heading in the opposite direction, but I could well imagine it was nothing compared to the northern rivers.  We turned into the yacht station to see that all of the vacant spaces on the side with electric had reserved signs visible, so we moored on the opposite side about halfway along.  The current was still rising and our bathing platform was level with the quay heading, making it easy to get on and off the boat.

It was lunchtime, so we had sausages in rolls before heading up into the town.  We didn’t really need anything, but wanted a walk after our cruise.  A few shops were shut, including the needlework shop that the wife likes to visit. . . . . . . . . . . . Phew!  I wanted a scrubbing brush and found one in QD, before getting a couple of cakes in Greggs and some sweets from the nearby sweet shop.  We had a quick mooch round before returning to the boat.

The aft cockpit was suffering from winter neglect, as was the bathing platform and  stern rubbing strake, so I spent a while with my newly acquired scrubbing brush and a bucket of Flash, scrubbing and cleaning.  After about an hour, I was satisfied with my efforts and sat down with a hard earned cuppa.

I had a lengthy chat with the skipper of the hireboat that had moored nearby.  Frequent visitors, it was their first trip to the southern rivers.  I shared a few pointers of places to visit.

Being Good Friday, it was fish for dinner . . . . . . . .but from the chippy.  I walked into town to The Beccles Chip Shop on Smallgate.  It was very good, all freshly cooked.  The length of the queue outside should have given an indication of that, but be warned if you go and I recommend you do, the large cod was truly massive!

Back on board, we enjoyed our fish and chips.  We watched TV for a while before heading for bed at the end of an enjoyable, if slightly cool day.

Not many photos, sadly.  I should have captured more of the sunset, which was glorious, but my dinner took priority!

[Mouldy]

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 3)

We had a peaceful night, surprisingly so given how close the moorings are to the road.  It had been another chilly one, so I got out of bed just long enough to flick the heating on, before returning for a lie in whilst the boat warmed up.  I guess it was about 07:00 when we got up.  Dressed, I set about the condensation whilst the wife took Harley for a walk.  Sadly, arthritis has affected our poor dog and she’s no longer capable of long walks, so a wander around the green behind the moorings was enough for her.

We topped up with water before setting off and had a gentle chug down The Waveney.  We passed about six or seven ‘gin palaces’ heading towards Beccles, which I suspected might have been the craft the spaces had been reserved for at the yacht station the previous afternoon.  Deb went for a shower whilst we were on the move and we moored for a while at North Cove so I could shower too.  It’s probably my favourite mooring on the river and for a while, we had it to ourselves, but were joined by a hire boat from Barnes a bit later.

I’d intended to moor at Oulton Broad overnight, so we set off again and turned down Oulton Dyke.  As we approached the Tea Garden moorings, I could see that there was only one boat moored there.  I was tempted to join Neil at Peto’s Marsh, but was well aware that he was with his children and would probably prefer to spend quality time with them than to talk to us, so we turned into the current and moored on the Tea Garden pontoons.

We had a quiet afternoon watching the comings and goings on the dyke, Deb did some cross stitch and I read.  I also had to clean up the foredeck of Norfolk Lady, where a large dollop of Norfolk silt had been deposited with the mudweight when I pulled it up at Beccles.

It had been cool and cloudy all day, but as with the previous day, brightened up in the evening.  Dinner was some Southern Fried chicken pieces, with sweetcorn and potato slices.  A couple of glasses of wine helped it down and we had a quiet evening in front of the TV, catching up with something on the iPlayer, before retiring as usual around 22:00.

 

[NeilB]

54 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 3)

We had a peaceful night, surprisingly so given how close the moorings are to the road.  It had been another chilly one, so I got out of bed just long enough to flick the heating on, before returning for a lie in whilst the boat warmed up.

I’ve just added a 7 day timer to the Eberspacher, the Webasto already had one.  Cost £175 but saves me the cold run to the back of the boat and back!

[addicted]

13 hours ago, NeilB said:

I’ve just added a 7 day timer to the Eberspacher, the Webasto already had one.  Cost £175 but saves me the cold run to the back of the boat and back!

When we bought a Fairline Mirage back in 1995 it already had a Webasto timer so we got used to that particular little luxury over the  years and have had a timer installed on all our boats ever since. the one we had on our last boat, which was neither Eberspacher or Webasto, required a university degree to work it out but I  managed in the end, although  I always had to refer to the instrtuctions  to make any aleration. The one we have just had installed is Eberspacher and a bit simpler thank goodness. Although by far the best and simplest was the original Webasto  which was practically idiot proof requiring one glance at the instructions only.

 

Carole

[Smoggy]

I have a gsm relay box fitted with a payg sim so can just call the heating and have it run for an hour when ordering the last beer which works well, with an eber there's only one wire that needs tapping into to turn it on, 12v to the yellow wire between controller and unit and on it comes, cut the power and it does a proper cooldown cycle as usual.

Don't let on it's that easy though as they'll feel the need to cut the prices...

[Mouldy]

Easter Weekend 2023 (Part 4)

So it was another chilly night and I had to get the heating on before returning to bed whilst things warmed up a bit again.  I think it must be my age - I’m feeling the cold a bit more these days.  The morning essentially followed the pattern of the previous two days - I worked on clearing the condensation with the help of a Karcher window vacuum and leather, whilst the wife took Harley for a walk.  When she returned, we got ready to set off.  I wanted to get to Somerleyton before the tide rose too much and we had to wait for the bridge to open again.

For a welcome change, the weather looked far more promising.  I grabbed a quick photo of Rambling Rosie, moored at Peto’s Marsh, looking very shiny in the morning sunshine before we cast off and headed back up Oulton Dyke.  We were punching the incoming current, but making good headway.  The river level looked lower that when we were travelling in the opposite direction a couple of days earlier and there was more than 10ft 6 ins clearance indicated when we arrived at the bridge, allowing us to slip through easily.

We continued along the New Cut and through Reedham, which looked quite busy with moored craft and past The Ferry Inn, which didn’t.  It seems a shame that a pub that used to be so popular and busy, looks a little dilapidated and so quiet these days.  Maybe it’ll pick up as we get more into the season.

Moving with the rising tide, we were soon at Hardley Cross moorings, where I wanted to stop, shower and then cook brunch.  It had been a long time since I’d prepared a ‘proper’ breakfast on board, but it wasn’t long before we were tucking into bacon, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes and scrambled eggs.  We were both quite hungry, it was past eleven o’clock and it went down a treat.  A couple more boats had moored in the meantime, one of the owners used to moor at Swancraft, but had sold his old boat and bought something larger, forcing him to moor elsewhere in Brundall.  I had a chat with him and his family for a while before we cast off again, heading for our overnight destination.

Easter Sunday was also the wife’s birthday - not just any birthday, but a significant one.  We were going to celebrate her becoming a sexagenarian with a meal at The Ferry House.  Still being helped by the rising tide, we made good progress, arriving at the pub mid afternoon.  On the way, I’d spotted a hawk flying, so I grabbed a few shots with my long telephoto lens.  The bird was a bit too far away to be honest, but I’ve added a couple below.

Despite having booked a mooring, I couldn’t see our boat name displayed on a board and there wasn’t a lot of vacant spaces, but I found a spot to moor stern on and managed to execute the manoeuvre without making an idiot of myself.  It was sunny, but quite chilly and I was surprised by the number of people sitting in the beer garden eating and drinking.

I went into the pub to buy a couple of drinks, which we had back on the boat whilst we waited for our table booking.  When it was time, we made the short walk and went in.  It was busy, just as it used to be pre Covid, which I was pleased to see.  We found our table, I went to the bar for drinks and we’d soon chosen from the menu.  Our starters arrived quickly, which we both enjoyed, but neither of us were prepared for the size of the steak that appeared for mains.  I honestly thought I’d been cast on that program ‘Man V Food.’

It was good, though, but I couldn’t manage the chips, which was a pity as for once they were proper crisp, chunky ones.  We had to pass on dessert - we were both full.  I paid the bill and we walked up the lane, far enough for Harley to do what she needed to before returning to the boat.  As usual, we watched TV for a while before retiring to bed around 22:00.

For the wife, her birthday had been quiet, but enjoyable nonetheless.