Norfolk Lady Tales

[Mouldy]

5 hours ago, Broads01 said:

Yep and I always ask the question, why don't the big discounters just charge less in the first place? It doesn't make sense to me to set prices so high it puts people off and the operator is put on the back foot and has to discount.

I think much of the discounting is to maintain some turnover.  If you remember that the toll on a 45ft hire boat works out at £100 per week over a 20 week season, they just need to get boats out.  The trouble is if there is no profit, there will be nothing to reinvest in the fleet.  The maintenance and cleaning costs at turnaround have to be covered too, as well as the cost of any repairs that are necessary.

One of Clive’s new craft was quite badly damaged recently, requiring quite significant repairs.  There needs to be profit to cover such eventualities.

There is obviously a fine balance between profit and turnover that has to be negotiated here and one assumes that they know what they’re doing.

[Broads01]

3 hours ago, Mouldy said:

One of Clive’s new craft was quite badly damaged recently, requiring quite significant repairs.  There needs to be profit to cover such eventualities.

Clive's prices are competitive hence I've booked with him for the first time for next year. Of course, I appreciate it's a low margin business.

 

3 hours ago, Mouldy said:

one assumes that they know what they’re doing.

I can't agree with that Malcom, I don't think we can assume anything in respect of some operators.

[Mouldy]

10 hours ago, Broads01 said:

I can't agree with that Malcom, I don't think we can assume anything in respect of some operators.

What we don’t know is the financial position of these businesses.  Some have invested huge sums in new craft and may have loans to service to pay for them.  Others have a fleet of older craft, with less capital investment involved.

Each business will have their own margins, but if they don’t make a profit, we may not expect to see them there in the future.  It’s the same for land based businesses around The Broads and the reason that so many pubs (not just around Norfolk, but nationally) are closing their doors.

We can only hope that the economy improves and folk have more money to spend, but I can’t see that happening for some time.

[Mouldy]

We arrived back home last night from another weekend on Norfolk Lady.  Deb finished work around 15:00 on Friday afternoon.  I’d already loaded the car, so it wasn’t long before we were on our way.  I had to stop at Brian Wards for a new bottle of diesel additive, having just run out at the end of our holiday, but managed to escape without additional purchases.  Bloody place is like Lathams - temptation everywhere. 🤦🏼‍♂️

We were soon at the boat and had transferred our bags onboard.  I had a quick chat with Paul, before we cast off and headed down Hobrough’s Dyke.  The weather was humid - overcast, but quite warm.  I thought that after a week of reasonably good weather, Bramerton would be full, so turned left and headed in the general direction of Reedham.

Reports of more antisocial behaviour at Loddon had put us off going there, so the options were Langley Dyke, Cantley or Hardley Mill.  I checked the Langley website to find that there was plenty of space, so booked a mooring and headed for there.  When we arrived, there was only one other boat moored on the available moorings.  We tied up at the spot we booked and enjoyed a quiet evening.

We had some marinated chicken for dinner, with salad and sweet potato wedges and watched the Olympics until it was time for bed.

I was woken by Harley at about 04:15 on Saturday morning and eventually gave up on the idea of more sleep.  I pulled some clothes on and sat in the saloon until the sun started to rise, then went out with the drone to see if it was worth taking a few shots.  As it turned out, although not spectacular, I was quite pleased with the resulting shots.

 

We had a quiet day, not really wanting to do too much.  I took advantage of the cooler, cloudy conditions and waxed the superstructure of NL again.  We would have had cheeseburgers for lunch, if Deb had remembered to pack the cheese slices, so made do with plain beef burgers.  At least she’d remembered the buns! 😉

We were undecided about whether to find somewhere else to spend the night, but decided to stay put, so I booked a second night on the website and we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Dinner was salad again, with rice and pork steaks.  Again, we just whiled away the evening , watching the Olympics, until it was time for bed.  We retired hoping that Harley would allow us to have uninterrupted sleep.

It didn’t happen.  Deb made the bed up in the saloon, so I could maybe get a little peace overnight.  The double on NL is across the forward cabin and I sleep on the outside, so am the one to get disturbed when Harley starts pawing.  Harley was restless overnight and when she couldn’t wake Deb, woke me instead.  Neither of us slept well.  I gave up, got dressed and went out with the drone again - a little later than the previous morning, but still captured a few reasonable shots.

It was noticeably cooler than the previous day and the forecast was for another cloudy one.  We were in no real hurry to get back to the yard, but cast off around 09:30, heading back to Brundall.  On the way, we had a WhatsApp from Jean and Mike, asking if we fancied meeting up at The White Horse, Neatishead for a meal, which seemed a good idea.  We got back to the yard, tidied up, loaded the car and drove to the pub for lunch.

As usual, the food was excellent and we wandered along to the Staithe after, where they’d moored, for coffee and a chat.  It was probably around 17:00 when we left and headed for home.  It had been a good weekend, dog related issues aside, but we’ll deal with them.  She’s been a wonderful companion for over eleven years and we’ll do whatever we can for her, for as long as possible.

All being well, it’ll be another weekend afloat next week, as we have the dubious pleasure the following weekend of looking after our son’s stupid dog for a week!  I can’t wait. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[kpnut]

Sounds a perfect weekend apart from the early mornings. It was certainly noticeably cooler yesterday morning, after a misty Saturday night, with condensation on the windows yesterday morning for the first time recently, but it’s warmed up again this morning. Plenty of midges caught in my pet spiders’ webs this morning. 

[Troyboy]

Lovely photos again Malcolm. 

You mentioned anti social behaviour at Loddon. What has been happening I've missed this news. 

[Mouldy]

12 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

Lovely photos again Malcolm. 

Thank you! 
 

 

13 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

You mentioned anti social behaviour at Loddon. What has been happening I've missed this news. 

General loutish, drunken behaviour around the basin in the village and at Pyes Mill.  We were moored at Pyes Mill last summer and witnessed two males, a female and a very aggressive looking dog arrive at about 07:00.  They had what we used to describe as a ‘ghetto blaster’ and played very loud thrash metal music(?) for about an hour, smoking and drinking until the two males stood up and jumped on the side of a moored boat (an old Freeman) to rock it for maybe 30 seconds before picking up their radio and staggering off.

Personally, I don’t need that.  I’d rather not go there.  Sadly, although the issues are known about locally, there seems to little effort made to remedy them.  It’s a shame, as it’s a good spot.  We’ve spent many pleasant days there in the past, but the moorings at Pyes Mill are falling into disrepair and whilst they are leased to the BA, from what I understand the maintenance is down to the landowner (the council), who have other things to spend their money on.

[Mouldy]

26 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Sounds a perfect weekend apart from the early mornings. It was certainly noticeably cooler yesterday morning, after a misty Saturday night, with condensation on the windows yesterday morning for the first time recently, but it’s warmed up again this morning. Plenty of midges caught in my pet spiders’ webs this morning. 

Certainly were plenty of flying things about.  I was bitten more over one weekend than over our entire two week holiday.

[YnysMon]

I’m sorry to about Harley Malcolm. It’s always difficult when our pets get to the stage when they are having health problems. Our first motor cruise hire on the Broads coincided with our last month that we had with our previous dog Marvin, so the memory of that cruise is tinged with sadness. 

[Mouldy]

10 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

I’m sorry to about Harley Malcolm. It’s always difficult when our pets get to the stage when they are having health problems. Our first motor cruise hire on the Broads coincided with our last month that we had with our previous dog Marvin, so the memory of that cruise is tinged with sadness. 

Thanks Helen.  We’ve got her on Metacam and YuMove for her arthritis and Nutramind for the dementia.  She still enjoys her walks, although not as far as they used to be, she still lumbers after pigeons who dare to land in our garden and is eating well.  She just doesn’t seem to settle at night.

[DAVIDH]

The drone shots at dawn are spectacular Malcolm. Purely anecdotal, but I overnighted at Loddon Quay a couple of weeks ago...a Tuesday... and found no evidence of antisocial behaviour.

 

[Mouldy]

46 minutes ago, DAVIDH said:

The drone shots at dawn are spectacular Malcolm.

Thanks David

47 minutes ago, DAVIDH said:

 Purely anecdotal, but I overnighted at Loddon Quay a couple of weeks ago...a Tuesday... and found no evidence of antisocial behaviour.

To be fair, we overnighted there in May and had a quiet night, but there are quite a few posts on FB, speaking of issues.  Some may be related to better, warmer weather, when there is more temptation to be outside.  As I mentioned earlier, we do prefer to moor at Pyes Mill, but a lot of the moorings are now taped off, so I do feel less inclined to head down there.

[Troyboy]

Thanks Malcolm.

We moored in Loddon basin in May. There was a number of young teenagers being loud and messing about in the car park toilets but nothing to shout about. I'm with you, I can't stand inconsiderate people of any kind. Peace and quiet is my motto on the Norfolk Broads. 

[grendel]

I usually moor up at chedgrave if I find a space there, occasionally you get gangs of teenagers jumping in and swimming, but thats just kids being kids.

[Broads01]

Absolutely stunning drone shots yet again, Malcom, thank you.