Luna’s Log

[Lulu]

3 hours ago, Davydine said:

Some lovely pictures, looks like you had a lovely time.

We saw you on Friday morning, we were one of the stream of Richardsons boats heading up the Ant, We had just come through Ludham bridge.

Luna looked lovely, but I am biased because I have a soft spot for a Skipper!

Cheers,

David

Thank you David. Shame we didn’t realise we had passed a fellow forum member! Luna is a bit scruffy up close but doesn’t look too bad from a distance.  We have plans very soon to really get going and bringing her up to a better standard  outside and in. 

[addicted]

19 hours ago, NeilB said:

My dad never liked the A11 and always went via Royston, Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds, Diss.  I used to pop up for a couple of days and used the same route as there were some "fun" driving roads in the late 80's / early 90's.  One occasion there was a convoy of 3 cars at night exploring the err, higher sections of the speed limit, me in the middle, no idea who was in front.  When we reached Bury St Edmunds the car at the back lit up with blue lights so we stopped, he said that was fun lads but to reign it in for the rest of the trip!!!!!

That tale reminds me of a similar incident back in the 50s when there were a lot of roads that could be fun to drive. My  parents and friends used to head for their favolurite watering hole most Saturday nights which was a little country pub in a village called Womley West End in Herts. We lived in North London, Both my father and his friend were petrol heads and changed their cars frequently.  In those days the Gt. Cambridge Road had no speed limit and it was their routine to pitch their cars against each other on the way home in friendly rivalry. One night my father had just got the best of his friend's car when looking in his rear view mirror he said a rude word, having just remembered that a speed limit had been introduced  the previous week and too late, he saw the police car that was following close behind . He slowed down to the correct speed and continued until the police pulled alongside and signalled him to lower his window . When he did they called out to him "Welll don't stop now, let's see  what you've  got under that bonnet and sped off. Never one to refuse a challenge, so did dad and they continued to race each other until we got to the Bullsmoor roundabout which was probably the end of their duristriction and  giving a wave they turned off . This became a regular event when the police would lay in wait somewhere around Waltham Cross  and would  take on the winner of the race between my father and his friend. Happy days.

 

 

Carole

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Lulu said:

Thank you David. Shame we didn’t realise we had passed a fellow forum member! Luna is a bit scruffy up close but doesn’t look too bad from a distance.  We have plans very soon to really get going and bringing her up to a better standard  outside and in. 

I think you may be doing your boat a disservice Lulu, but I am sure we all look forward to seeing Luna when she has been brought "up to a better standard"

[Lulu]

8 hours ago, BroadsExplorer said:

I think you may be doing your boat a disservice Lulu, but I am sure we all look forward to seeing Luna when she has been brought "up to a better standard"

The screens and side panels all have to come off, completely stripped back and start again with the varnish and also the mast. We need to repaint her. We are debating what we want to do with the deck, whether we paint or lay down treadmaster. In the helm the plan is to remove a panel at a time, take it home, sand and revarnish. Think that will do for the time-being! 

[addicted]

Goodness Sam that's quite a schedule you've  got lined up. I know when you have a boat like yours ongoing maintenance goes with the territory. I'm beyond excited, today Hi-Jinks will be afloat if all goes to plan and we'll spend our first night on her tomorrow night before taking her to  her new mooring on Friday. Just hope it all goes to plan and no hiccups. Fingers crossed please.

 

Carole x

[Guest]

3 hours ago, addicted said:

I'm beyond excited, today Hi-Jinks will be afloat if all goes to plan and we'll spend our first night on her tomorrow night before taking her to  her new mooring on Friday. Just hope it all goes to plan and no hiccups. Fingers crossed please

All the very best wishes for your boat and I hope you have a great first night on her tomorrow. Will you be sharing a photo of her as I would love to see her, as I am sure would everyone else

[addicted]

Sadly I've never mastered the art of posting photos. Computers and I dont' have the best of relationships. 

Carole

[Lulu]

1 minute ago, addicted said:

Sadly I've never mastered the art of posting photos. Computers and I dont' have the best of relationships. 

Carole

If you send me a photo by text/whatsapp, I can post it for you if you would like me too. So excited for you! X

[addicted]

Thanks Sam when I get one on my phone I' ll send it to you.

Carole x

[Lulu]

I haven’t been keeping Luna’s Log up to date recently but just had an amazing nature day at Irstead. Watched the otter pootling about then suddenly just now a barn owl appeared, sat in a tree, then dived into the long grass and flew off. Of course this trip I didn’t bring my camera so excuse the grainy pics 

[YnysMon]

Wonderful! Irstead is magical.

[Ray]

Fantastic photo 👍

[SwanR]

Sounds like a lovely day despite the gloomy weather. 🤗

[Selsie]

Even I have to say, my Missus is a bit of a whizz with a camera (or iphone).

She has captured a lot of wonderful Broads memories for us.

[Ray]

16 minutes ago, Selsie said:

Even I have to say, my Missus is a bit of a whizz with a camera (or iphone).

She has captured a lot of wonderful Broads memories for us.

She has an eye for a great shot, it's always good to enjoy an update to Luna's Log 👍

[Lulu]

Jubilee Weekend

We had a great few days despite the rain. It was just lovely to get away from an awful lot of stress these last couple of weeks.  Some of you are aware of our trials and tribulations in trying to move to Norfolk and our planned move on the 6th June was replaced by a trip to the boat due to things going wrong with exchanging contracts at the last minute.  Can’t think of a better place to lick our wounds.

Friday night was spent in the marina, How Hill on Saturday and a very empty Fleet Dyke on Sunday , finishing up at our beloved Irstead on Monday. 

Selsie seemed to be the rescue person on duty. He mended someone’s engine (loose wire or something) and another time talked through a family who lost power leaving the mooring and were drifting out into the river. It was dual helm and he asked them where they had last helmed from. They realised it had been from the upper level and they hurriedly went up top and got power back.  So glad we have our simple arrangement on Luna!
 

Only a few photos as it was raining when we were cruising.  The last photo was from this morning before returning to the marina. Finally some blue sky and a lovely view from the galley while washing up. We really didnt want to come back this morning as it was a glorious cruise back in the warm sunshine (had to have the heating on yesterday evening!) but we have so often had our fair share of lovely weather so not complaining. The wildlife has been fantastic and even saw an otter crossing Barton this morning and 3 kingfishers near the marina. 

 

[addicted]

Well Sam you really hit the jackpot with your pics this time. The owl was fabulous. What a wonderful opportunity. Hope Luna has helped lower the stress level. x

 

Carole

Edited June 7, 2022 by addicted

[Lulu]

19 minutes ago, addicted said:

Well Sam you really hit the jackpot with your pics this time. The owl was fabulous. What a wonderful opportunity. Hope Luna has helped lower the stress level. x

 

Carole

Luna is our happy place that is for sure.  Hope you are having a great time on Hi Jinks x 

[kpnut]

Sorry to hear about the house move Sam. Your photos are wonderful. Maybe I’m too noisy, but I tend to miss the wildlife others seem to spot. I have seen an otter at Irstead before, have heard and recorded bitterns but never seen one. Today we did see two kingfishers sitting next to each other on the same branch, but no time to get the photo. 

[YnysMon]

10 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Today we did see two kingfishers sitting next to each other on the same branch, but no time to get the photo. 

Kingfishers are difficult to capture. Just when you think you’ve focused tge camera off they go!

6 hours ago, Lulu said:

our planned move on the 6th June was replaced by a trip to the boat due to things going wrong with exchanging contracts at the last minute.

Oh no! That’s awful! Hope things get sorted for you soon! 

We’ve only moved house a couple of times but I found it really stressful, especially when we bought our first house, having first rented. 

We were so looking forward to moving into our first (owned) home that we agreed to a 23rd December move. That went a bit pear shaped. We didn’t get the keys until late afternoon so spent the evening/ night moving our stuff in a hired van. Foolishly we thought as we’d only been married about 18 months we hadn’t accumulated much stuff, so could handle the move ourselves, and because we were so close to Christmas friends who would have helped couldn’t. We were wrong, it was very hard, and moving my very heavy piano nearly defeated us.

The house was a new build and earlier that day a gas engineer visited to certify that our new house could be connected to the mains…except he didn’t give us the certification…we had a leak. (Much later, in the New Year we discovered that a ‘helpful’ chippie had tried to secure a skirting board across the gap below the gas fire in the lounge by nailing it into the gas pipe. (!))

So we spent Christmas without any heating, apart from one electric radiator and an electric blanket that Graham went out to purchase on Christmas Eve. It was lucky we had an electric cooker, otherwise I would have had no way of preparing the turkey and ham and other Christmas fare that I’d bought. Looking back, I have no idea how we managed to do the move, do the food Christmas shop, and I had to work Christmas Eve. Wish I had as much energy now as I had in my 20s. I also managed to unpack enough kitchen stuff to cook the ham and stuff the turkey before turning into bed Christmas Eve (well, Christmas morning). 

It was a cold, cold Christmas, especially as it snowed Boxing Day, and it was so cold that the snow didn’t melt for almost a fortnight. Trust us to choose that Christmas to move house! It was certainly memorable though! 

[Lulu]

7 hours ago, kpnut said:

Sorry to hear about the house move Sam. Your photos are wonderful. Maybe I’m too noisy, but I tend to miss the wildlife others seem to spot. I have seen an otter at Irstead before, have heard and recorded bitterns but never seen one. Today we did see two kingfishers sitting next to each other on the same branch, but no time to get the photo. 

Ive heard bitterns booming at How Hill just before the season kicked off. Amazing sound.  I saw one years ago somewhere between Ranworth and the Ant mouth. Last weekend, at every spot we moored at, we could hear cuckoos

6 hours ago, YnysMon said:

We’ve only moved house a couple of times but I found it really stressful, especially when we bought our first house, having first rented. 

That definitely was a stressful time! Our last move didnt go well either. We got to 3pm, removals van outside our new house waiting for the keys to be told money hadnt been released somewhere along the chain, nothing could be done so we ended up in hotels, had to buy clothes and toiletries, dump the dogs at my parents and finally got moved the following Wednesday after having to pay for the removals a second time. The removals company were brilliant as we had left our medication on the truck and they unloaded a load of stuff to get to it. We got all our expenses back but what we learned was dont move on a Friday, pack a bag with essentials and dont move again. So what are we doing or trying to do 6 years on…..  I have moved a lot in my time (ex was in the military) and one move went through in 6 weeks from start to finish so it is possible to have fairly stress free experience! 

[kpnut]

5 minutes ago, Lulu said:

Ive heard bitterns booming at How Hill just before the season kicked off. Amazing sound.  I saw one years ago somewhere between Ranworth and the Ant mouth. Last weekend, at every spot we moored at, we could hear cuckoos

Tony moaned that when we moored at that mooring by Neaves mill a couple of nights before the meet, he started hearing the cuckoo when the other birds had settled for the night and it carried on through the night until 5.30 when the other birds woke up. I must admit I did also hear it a couple of times in the night. It must have been a bit mixed up. 
 

[Mouldy]

15 hours ago, Lulu said:

Some of you are aware of our trials and tribulations in trying to move to Norfolk and our planned move on the 6th June was replaced by a trip to the boat due to things going wrong with exchanging contracts at the last minute.  Can’t think of a better place to lick our wounds.

Also sorry to hear of your troubles with your move.  Our last one wasn’t easy, taking five months from agreeing to purchase through to completion.  Far too stressful and unless anything happens in the meantime, I’ve told the wife they can carry me out of this one feet first.  What a cheery thought! Hope it gets sorted out and you can get on with your move soon.

As for photos, a couple of years ago I bought a long zoom telephoto lens for my camera, complete with a matching 1.4x teleconverter.  What usually happens, when we’re on the boat, I’ll set one of my cameras up with the lens on and subsequently see nothing, not even a duck, but when I don’t bother, there’s marsh harriers, red kites, kingfishers, otters . . . . . . !  When we were on Moonlight Shadow last month, we saw a kingfisher so close to the boat, I could have taken a picture with my phone . . . . . . . .if only I had it near enough.  Not sure whether it’s called Murphy’s or Sod’s, but either way, I never seem to be in the right place at the right time!  Grrrrrr.

[grendel]

thats just like wildlife, - like the swallowtail butterfly that landed on my shoulder the other year, couldnt reach the camera without moving and disturbing it. (apparently they like red tee shirts and think you are a giant flower)

[addicted]

We were moving into a new build that was nowhere near ready when we sold  the bungalow we were moving out of so we decided to move onto the boat. Just as we'll we did because as the move finalised we were told by our solicitor that the funds from our sale had got held up somewhere along the line. Had we been moving to our new house we'd have been in a bit of a pickle.

 

Carole