Carried Away By A Moonlight Shadow...

[SwanR]

Continues to be a very interesting account of your recent time on MS, Helen. Sounds like Graham made good time to MK and back. 

We have become a little more cautious again recently about where we go. Life has lost much of its spontaneity right now with having to plan and book to do things. 

[Broads01]

Enjoying your write up as always, Helen. I have to admit, I couldn't cope with not cruising for so long, it would drive me nuts and I'd much rather cast off and brave the weather. Perhaps I'm more like Seren! I've heard collies need a lot of stimulating, is that right? 

[YnysMon]

We used to feel the same when we were hiring. Had to make the most of every day and explore as much as possible. We have surprised ourselves at the change in attitude, to be honest. Not something we had anticipated.

[vanessan]

35 minutes ago, Tempest said:

The dog walks are the biggest draw for us, as we tend to look for places which we can go and stroll with our boy and girl which isnt too tasking, but can get them some good exercise.

I think you’d certainly like Whitlingham and Commissioner’s Cut then. CC has walks across the marshes while Whitlingham is more ‘footpath’ but extremely pleasant walking. (It is very popular though with runners and dog walkers.) 

[NeilB]

We’re enjoying this blog, especially as it’s our 1st week at half term.  Is that oil heater kept on MS or is it your own?  We were looking at buying a couple of 600w ones for when on shore power.

[YnysMon]

50 minutes ago, NeilB said:

Is that oil heater kept on MS or is it your own?  We were looking at buying a couple of 600w ones for when on shore power.

It's our own. We first bought one for our last few hires. Actually, it's the second one that we bought. The first one was a cheap brand and only lasted us the first holiday, so we got a refund and bought a better brand. Still wasn't expensive though. We also have a fan heater from Aldi that we bought last winter when there was a problem with the heating on MS during one of our weeks. Normally, the dimplex radiator keeps us warm enough on its own though.

[YnysMon]

Monday 28th

Lovely to have Harry with us.

We didn’t get up quite so early this morning (after our late night yesterday), but we intending hanging around for the engineer to visit anyway. He had promised to check out whether Brooms had a spare inverter and, if they had, that he would come to measure up to see if it would fit, which he did. Once he had measured up he thought that it would. He suggested he could get it fitted the following morning, if we could be back at Brooms mid-morning.

So we decided that today we should have a ‘there and back’ type day, and return to Brooms overnight. It was a bit miserable and drizzly, but with hardly any wind, so a huge improvement on the past few days. It was lovely to get on the river again. We made our way up toward Norwich, thinking of stopping at Whitlingham for Seren to have a run.

Seren loves watching other craft on the river.

When we got to Whitlingham there were a couple of boats already moored but it looked like there was space for us. As I came into moor I could see that the jet-ski (or whatever it is) that had been moored up there for ages had sunk and the front end of it was just visible under the water. I might have got past it safely, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, we decided to take the roof down, as the drizzle had almost dried up, and go up to Norwich, as Harry said he fancied re-visiting the Cathedral. There was just over 8’ on the gauge for Trowse railway bridge, so we should have just about have been able to get through with the roof up. Less stressful with the roof down though!

Approaching Norwich.

There was just one other boat at Norwich Yacht Station, and they had passed us whilst we were messing about trying to moor at Whitlingham.

I made us a brunch-lunch. Whilst I was doing this, Seren made it clear that she fed up that we hadn't yet taken her for a walk. 

After our meal Harry and I went up to the Cathedral, leaving Graham to take Seren for a walk.

I’ve been to Norwich Cathedral several times and thought I wouldn’t find much to interest that I hadn’t seen before. I was wrong! As we went around the cloisters, we noticed some carved bosses on the ceiling. There must have been 100s of them, and all unique. You could spend hours there looing at them, though if you did you’d probably have a permanent crick in your neck.

I took us a while to work out how to get into the Cathedral, as there was a one way system which didn’t start at the cloisters. Once we did find our way to the entrance, there was a welcoming person wearing a mask who helpfully explained the arrangements, which I thought had been very well thought-out.. All visitors were asked to wear masks. We first visited the shop, and I bought some presents for a friend whose birthday is coming up in the autumn.

Our visit to the Cathedral felt quite strange, different to previous visits anyway. The chairs had been cleared from the majority of the nave, with a few rows of chairs before the nave altar separated off by a barrier. You couldn’t enter the choir or chancel areas, but just view them from the sides. If you wanted to light a candle you were welcome to do so, but advised to sanitise your hands afterwards, and there was sanitiser available.

By the time we got back to the boat, moved the boat to fill with water, and got on our way again it was around 4pm. We took the journey back to Brundall quite slowly, and had a detour through Surlingham (Bargate) Broad before making our way to our mooring. It's the first time I've been through and not seen any other boats mudweighted there. This family of swans started following us.

It was after 6pm by the time we were moored up for the night.

This heron took station on the quay heading opposite ours.

We had chilli with rice this evening, before having an early night again.

Seren seemed tired out for some reason.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hello Helen,

When we were last on the boat in early August we went through Surlingham Broad a couple of time but there was little space to mud weight, it was packed so we just passed through. We can get under that railway bridge at certain tides with everything down and have moored overnight up by the electric posts at the far end of the yacht station like yourself.

I have taken family and friends around the Cathedral a number of times I guess the guided tours have been cancelled or social distancing in masks is enforced. We missed  seeing the helter-skelter when it was in the Cathedral and I guess the Dinosaur that was going to be exhibited later this year has been cancelled.

Regards

Alan   

[NeilB]

58 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

It's our own. We first bought one for our last few hires. Actually, it's the second one that we bought. The first one was a cheap brand and only lasted us the first holiday, so we got a refund and bought a better brand. Still wasn't expensive though. We also have a fan heater from Aldi that we bought last winter when there was a problem with the heating on MS during one of our weeks. Normally, the dimplex radiator keeps us warm enough on its own though.

Thanks Helen.  I've already purchased a roof box the size of a small moon to accommodate everything ! 

[YnysMon]

Good move. Graham and I have decided to try to review our packing list for next time. We seem to bring more stuff with us each time!

[YnysMon]

28 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

I guess the Dinosaur that was going to be exhibited later this year has been cancelled.

They did seem to have some dinosaur event going on. I just didn't pay much attention I'm afraid.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 29th

I woke before 6am again this morning.

The night had been fairly mild but it was pretty gloomy. By 8am I decided to go off to Sainsbury’s to top-up on supplies. When I got back Graham made me some tea and toast and after that I phoned our management company BCBM to try to find out whether we should hang around for the engineer to install the inverter or go on our way. The delay in installing was due to BCBM needing to get authorisation from our syndicate chair for the additional expense of installing a new inverter.

Given that we only had a few days left, and we'd had so many days already in Brundall, we decided that we should get on our way. The Yare is still seemed very quiet, with very few boats from northern broads, so we were confident of finding places with shore power for the remaining days. Just before we set off I had a call to say that the authorisation was through, but we decided to get on our way as it was already getting on for late morning. At least there was a prospect now of the inverter being installed for our fellow syndicate members.

First we moved over to Brooms fuel quay, to have a fuel top-up…just in case. Graham managed to drop the fuel cap in the water though (at last…he can’t pull my leg for throwing Lullaby’s kettle lid over board any longer!), so that entailed a quick trip to Boulters for a replacement. They only had a cap for the water tank (marked 'W' for water), so Graham swapped the water cap over to the diesel and put the new cap in place on the water inlet. Just in case it caused confusion. 

Once we got on our way Harry took the helm again. Shortly after leaving Brundall we passed Lightening. Unfortunately, I was in the forward cabin at the time, so wasn’t there to wave. Harry waved though. It wasn’t a particularly nice morning to be helming. Visibility was poor due to the persistent drizzle.

Luckily, Harry only passed one other craft (Mystic Horizon) on the Chet, and that was on one of the wider stretches. Shortly after the upper Hardley Flood in/outfall there was a ranger's boat moored up against a barge. The BA were busy clearing fallen trees after the high winds earlier in the week.

I initially moored one space away from the road end of Loddon staithe. However, we found the electric point that end was out of action, so I moved to a another space near the middle. All good stern mooring practice. As I mentioned further up this thread, despite having been told on a few occasions that you can’t steer in reverse, I’m finding that it is possible on Moonlight Shadow . It just took me while to get my head around having to turn the wheel the opposite direction to the direction you want the stern to go. I kept forgetting and having to think it out again. Luckily, there were about three spaces on the staithe available to choose from. I couldn't help noticing how quiet it was this week, compared to last.

The rain really set in after we’d moored up, so Seren had to wait a while before she had a walk.

I made us a seafood salad for lunch. Harry and I shared a dressed crab and we each had a piece of smoked trout.

We whiled away the rest of the afternoon and evening not doing very much at all.

We’d had lunch really late, so didn’t want much this evening, so we just had pasta with pesto. Watched Bake-off before settling for the night.

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 30th

Graham and I got up at 6.30 this morning as we wanted an early start again, partly because the forecast was for a fine morning and then rain later, but also to take advantage of incoming tide all the way up the Waveney to Beccles. This worked out fine for us, as we were on the New Cut before 9am.

It was pretty gloomy again to start, but at least it was dry.

The Chet was very peaceful. An owl flew over the river just before our bow shortly after we passed Pye’s Mill. Harry got up as we were nearing Chet Mouth and took over the helm before we went through Reedham.

Reedham Ferry.

High tide wasn’t due until after 11am and, taking even that into account, the tide seemed quite high again. Only 10’ or so under Reedham bridge.

We had passed one boat just before Reedham, but after that there was nothing on the river, nor the New Cut.

I like this cross between a sleeping bag/poncho that Harry's bought himself.

As we left the New Cut and approached Herringfleet the sun started to come out.

Given the less than normal air-draft under Reedham Bridge, we took the precaution of taking the roof down before going through Somerlayton bridge. There was just over 8’ clearance, but it would have been a bit tight, and the tide was running pretty fast. They were also flying two flags, which I took to mean the bridge wouldn't open. (?) I was looking in vain for a height marker that’s visible before you get too close to the bridge.

Half way between Somerlayton and Oulton Dyke we passed our first boat on the Waveney. It was Turquoise Emblem, which was the first motor cruiser that we hired, back in 2016.

By now, the morning was beautifully sunny, so we kept the roof down for a while. After passing Waveney River Centre we started seeing more boats coming down river. This was obviously the post-breakfast exodus from Beccles.

We stopped at North Cove for a short while, to let Seren have a run around...

...then we continued on our way up to Beccles...

...passing this paddle boarder on the way.

We arrived in Beccles late morning. We didn’t bother booking a spot, as the rivers continue to be very quiet, and there was plenty of space on both sides of the Yacht Station. We picked a spot with easy access to both electric point and water hose.

Graham and Harry went off to Beccles town centre, as Graham wanted to find a hardware shop. The extendable lead that he’d bought for the 12v connection to our demister was overheating, so he wanted to replace the plug on it. They weren’t that long, but when he got back Graham said he also wanted to pop to Lidl, so off he went again. He was a lot longer than planned, having ended up going to Tesco’s. It didn’t really matter. Lunch was a bit later than normal, but was worth waiting for. I tried something new (for me), having watched a YouTube ‘The Narrowboat Chef’ video on how to make Quesadillas. I placed a tortilla in a lightly oiled fry pan, and topped one half of it with some grated cheese (I used vegan ‘cheese’), then chunks of spicy cooked chicken (I used ’Firecracker’ chicken from Sainsbury’s), then some salsa made with ¼ red onion chopped, ¼ red pepper diced, 1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped (grown on the allotment) and a couple of chopped de-seeded tomatoes, plus seasoning. That was topped off with some more cheese. The other half of the tortilla was then folded over and the whole thing flipped onto its other side to brown. I served it cut in half. Yum. Think I’ll make that one again.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazily.

We had thought of getting an Indian takeaway this evening, but decided to opt for a supermarket version instead. Harry and I went off to Tesco, walking up Ravensmere. Someone in one of the houses along that stretch as a sense of humour.

We later wished we hadn’t got a Tesco Indian. If we want a supermarket Indian take-away we usually get it from Waitrose (although we do our weekly shop in Sainsbury’s/Aldi). Waitrose Indian is a bit more expensive than Tesco’s, but the difference in quality is enormous. The Tesco stuff was just a meagre few chunks of chicken/lamb in lots of sauce (and no veg). The so-called Lamb Rogan Josh just tasted of tomato sauce. It was really disappointing.

[vanessan]

2 hours ago, YnysMon said:

As I came into moor I could see that the jet-ski (or whatever it is) that had been moored up there for ages had sunk and the front end of it was just visible under the water.

I believe that belongs to one of the liveaboards. His boat is usually moored on the opposite side of the river and he uses the jet-ski (?) to get ashore - probably for work, I don’t know. If his boat is on the 24 hour moorings, the jet-ski is opposite. Very sad if he has lost the means to transfer himself backwards and forwards. 
Lovely pictures Helen, what camera do you use?

[SwanR]

This continues to be a great write-up with some very atmospheric photos of those misty grey mornings. I always find it interesting that the bridges into Norwich aren't mentioned on the list of those where you need to be careful. Not sure why as your tale clearly shows that it's somewhere else that you might not always get under on a fly bridge cruiser.

[Broads01]

Next time I'm on the south Broads I must make the effort to get up early for the tide when I can benefit. I've spent too many hours cruising on the south slogging against the tide when I didn't need to do so. I love the photo of the paddle boarder with her dog 🐕. 

[YnysMon]

22 minutes ago, vanessan said:

Lovely pictures Helen, what camera do you use?

Ooh, that’s a difficult one to answer. I took some with my Canon EO5 100D, but mostly I used my smaller pocket camera Canon SK720 HS. It has a 40x optical zoom, which is why I chose it. I’ve had both for several years and am thinking my pocket camera needs upgrading and I’d love to get some different lenses for the SLR. Some of the photos were taken by Harry on his Google (pixel 2?) mobile phone and one or two on my Motorola mobile. I spent ages today trying to sort my collected photos into some sort of order by putting date and time in the file names. I must be mad...should stick to one camera!

[YnysMon]

9 minutes ago, SwanR said:

I always find it interesting that the bridges into Norwich aren't mentioned on the list of those where you need to be careful. Not sure why as your tale clearly shows that it's somewhere else that you might not always get under on a fly bridge cruiser.

At least with approaching Norwich you only need to worry about the first bridge, as that’s the lowest. Once through that you can relax. Also, getting to Norwich around high tide wasn’t the most sensible thing we could have done.

[grendel]

when i download from my canons i set it to file them in date order when it downloads, then its simple when i come to upload them, i know the date they were taken.

[YnysMon]

Mine do that, it’s just that I like them to be sorted by the time of day too.

[Guest Jayfire]

3 hours ago, YnysMon said:

At least with approaching Norwich you only need to worry about the first bridge, as that’s the lowest. Once through that you can relax. Also, getting to Norwich around high tide wasn’t the most sensible thing we could have done.

You should do what I do Helen, leave sensible locked in a box somewhere you've forgotten. Makes everything so much more fun 

[YnysMon]

Haven’t you worked out yet that’s precisely what I do a lot of the time! LOL! I usually start each day trying to be Mrs Sensible but not quite achieving that ambition.

[Guest Jayfire]

2 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

Haven’t you worked out yet that’s precisely what I do a lot of the time! LOL! I usually start each day trying to be Mrs Sensible but not quite achieving that ambition.

Oh I dunno my lovely, you’ve always seemed sensible to me.....then again, I suppose that's not a sign of anything 

[YnysMon]

Thursday 1st October

We had a relaxing morning, getting up at leisure and having breakfast before setting out for a walk with Seren.

As we skirted the Yacht Station, aiming for the path up the river bank, we came across Dave (JanetAnne). Nice to see him again.

Our walk started out a bit drizzly, but the rain didn’t last long. We did the circular walk along the river bank and then back across Carlton Marshes.

Harry looked a bit hunch-backed wearing his poncho over his back-pack. 

We came across several trees that had fallen across the path. No doubt due to the strong winds last weekend. Graham vainly tried pulling one off the path. It wouldn't budge.

We took a short-cut back to the Yacht Station by crossing the A146. This was closed as some repair work was being done one the bridge across the river. (By the way, that meant last night had been particularly peaceful at the Yacht Station.) The Yacht Station was almost empty by the time we got back.

Once we got back on the boat we had to put Seren in her ’bag’ as she was a bit muddy. As we passed Dave a second time, he commented that it looked like she’d had a good time. Her ‘bag’ is a big towel with a zip.

Graham went to top-up with water, in case we stopped somewhere this evening without that facility. Whilst he was doing that, I had a call from Brooms to ask whether we were likely to be back tomorrow so that the engineer could access the boat to install a new inverter. They were estimating the installation would take about 5 hours, as it required new wiring. I agreed that we would aim to be off the boat by lunchtime tomorrow.

So, we set our course for Brundall again. Although we didn’t have any sun most of the afternoon, it was a pleasant journey.

Seren was a bit put out. 'Oi! That's my seat!'

Again, the river looked fairly high and we approached Somerlayton carefully, Harry poised with binoculars to try to get some advanced warning of the air-draft. We needn’t have worried though, the bridge started to open as we approached, so I didn’t have to spin around to moor at the pontoon to drop our roof. The gauge was showing 8’, which is the minimum we need, so I would have been a bit worried about taking her through with roof up.

Harry helmed the rest of the journey. Mostly very quiet.

This heron was very obliging as we travelled up the New Cut. He kept flying off as we approached and landing a short way ahead.

He did evenutally see sense and flew off in the other direction.

The tide was really ripping through Reedham and we had to put some extra revs on to make headway.

By the time we were passing Hardley Drainage Mill we were getting a bit fed up of punching against the tide, so we decided to stop there for the night and then head off for Brundall at first light.

As previously reported, we had a beautiful double rainbow early evening.

This evening we had two steaks split between the three of us, with baked mushrooms, tomatoes, roasted sprouts and courgette and new potatoes.

 

[YnysMon]

Friday 2nd October

Given I had promised the Brooms engineer that we would be off the boat by lunchtime today, we set off from Hardley pontoon just as it was dawning. A lovely dawn it was too.

Graham started packing, whilst I was on the helm. However, by the time we were approaching Langley Dyke Harry had got up and was able to take the helm for the rest of the journey, so that I could do some packing/start cleaning too.

Once we got to Brundall we just moored up and continued with sorting out the boat. Brooms always prioritise their hire boats for pump outs/refuel on turnover days, so we knew that we wouldn’t be able to go to their fuel quay until mid-morning. Graham started by cleaning the exterior, having bought some silicone gloves with bristles on them. They did help, but weren’t as effective as he’d hoped. He ended up using a brush instead. I concentrated on cleaning the interior kitchen and heads and Harry helped out with the vacuuming, taking his time and doing a thorough job of it.

Around about mid-morning we went to the fuel quay for our pump-out and re-fuel. Harry took some photos of me reversing MS off our mooring and making our way toward the fuel quay.

The forward heads had lasted us the full fortnight without needing to be pumped out. However, once Harry had joined us and was using the rear-cabin heads, we tried to ensure that we all used that loo during the day. Graham offered to turn the boat on the ropes, so that the Brooms attendant could access the rear-heads outlet from the quay side. The guy commented ‘that’s what I like…helpful customers’. He said that their health and safety had been tightened up considerably recently. Partly because a couple of Brooms guys had fallen in, and partly because of the recent accidents that we’ve all heard about.

We completed our cleaning operations as planned by lunchtime. Had a quick chat to the engineer to confirm we were leaving and got on our way.

We hadn’t thought ahead about what we would do for lunch, but took a spur of the moment decision to go to the Acle Bridge Inn again. I phoned ahead to book a table as we drove along. We enjoyed our meal, all of us opting for the ribs off their daily specials’ menu. The rest of the menu is a bit more restricted than it was pre-Covid times.

After lunch we drove to Caister-on-Sea for Seren to have some exercise before settling off for home.

Seren got me all tangled up.

Having been losing balls all week, Seren actually found one today.

There was a guy with a kite buggy on the beach, taking advantage of the brisk wind.

We had a good journey back from Caister to MK, arriving early evening.

Although our plans were messed up by the high winds last weekend, having Harry join us for the second week was a boon. It was great having a fortnight too, so missing cruising for a few days didn't feel as much of a hit as it would have done if we'd only had one week.

We've recently had our allocations sent through for next year. When I first saw the allocation we'd drawn I wasn't too happy. We had one of the first weeks for the summer allocation in early May, which clashed with a cottage holiday booking that we had to defer from May this year (luckily a kind fellow syndicate member offered to swap that for a week in June). We had the last autumn week at the end of October and second winter week in November. Whilst we would have preferred a week earlier in the autumn, this has worked out rather well as we were able to swap the October week for the following one, giving us another allocation where we have a full fortnight on the boat. 

Our next week on Moonlight Shadow isn't until the first week of February. Seems ages away!