Carried Away By A Moonlight Shadow...

[grendel]

2 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Yay! We'll be back on the Broads next week! Dave (JanetAnne) sent me a PM a few weeks ago to ask if we might be interested in taking a woodie that he's recently acquired (Tabitha Rose) from Beccles up to Oulton Broad next Thursday so that she can participate in the woodies 'cruise in company' from Oulton Broad to Beccles on Friday - a prequel to the Beccles Wooden Boat Show on Saturday. I've been wanting to visit the boat show for ages, so it will be lovely to be part of it, even in a small way.

I'm glad that Graham and I have got that Covid thing out of the way before next week's event!

it will be good to see you Helen, I will be on Water Rail from the wednesday (not sure if i will make it all the way to Stracey arms for the BBQ), i think Dave is running out of people to man his boats (he doesnt have too many boats, just not enough people).

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, ExSurveyor said:

Are there many boats expected this year ?

 Sorry, I don’t have any details. 

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

i think Dave is running out of people to man his boats (he doesnt have too many boats, just not enough people).

Well, we were very happy to be invited. Looking forward to meeting you and lots of other forumites at long last.

We are arriving on Wednesday too. Hopefully that will give us an opportunity to take Tabitha Rose out for a short cruise from her mooring at Beccles to get the feel of her before we go up to Oulton Broad to meet the rest of the fleet on Thursday.

[BrundallNavy]

43 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

 Sorry, I don’t have any details. 

Possibly 29. 

[YnysMon]

What are the river levels like after all these showers?

I only ask because we have a glimmer of hope that Dave may have worked magic with Water Rail. I mentioned at the end of our last trip on MS that we hoped to be on Water Rail from Monday 12th. After Grendel’s ‘event’ (see his Water Rail thread) that seemed a forlorn Hope. However, the brilliant Dave has reported he managed to gets parts for the engine and got her running again. Testing has followed and we are crossing our fingers that all is well.

[kpnut]

River Ant this pm was ‘as normal’ if that really means much. The depth at Irstead Shoals was bang in the middle of the ‘normal range’ and Ludham Bridge was 8’, going through about 2 hours after high tide. 
If I get to PH tomorrow, I’ll take a photo of the board for the bridge for you.  I’m not thinking of being able to go through though. 

 

[kpnut]

Wroxham bridge showed 6’7” at 12.30 on a rising tide. HW about 2pm I think. 
Based on that, I don’t think the recent rain has made levels rise particularly. Lovely sunny day today. 

[YnysMon]

Looks like we are on our way to Water Rail tomorrow.

I normally go completely overboard on preparations, lists, cruising plans etc., and Graham normally does lots of early packing, but we have left everything until last minute. No lists…nothing. We thought it would be chancing our luck to start packing earlier, given the uncertainty about the engine. So, we’ll probably leave half the stuff we need at home.

Eldest son Harry has unexpectedly been told he’s got next week off work (IKEA do that if you haven’t used up leave) so he’s coming with us for the first week. We thought we’d have loads of room in the car, but since the last trip on Moonlight Shadow he’s bought a paddle board and that’s coming too. (My fault for booking that taster paddle board session at Geldeston.)

As we have 12 days on board (if all goes well), rather than Harry trying to get home on public transport on the (new) bank holiday, we are thinking of driving back home to MK next Sunday evening and not returning to Water Rail until Monday. Not only will that help Harry, but it just felt wrong to miss watching the Queen’s funeral on telly. 

[Smoggy]

I hope you've packed a spare conrod and gasket set.

Enjoy!

It seems due to an unexpected bank holiday and finding out friends are campervanning in belton next weekend we are aiming for burgh castle moorings next saturday, hey ho what could pissibly go wrong.

[YnysMon]

3 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I hope you've packed a spare conrod and gasket set.

We wouldn’t know what to do with them even if we had them. 

[kpnut]

Pleased to hear you’ll get your trip on Water Rail after all. 

[grendel]

glad to hear Dave has performed this miracle.

[YnysMon]

Well we have got here. Loaded the boat at Oulton Broad Yacht Station. Hopefully we'll be on our way soon. I'm still dithering where to go though.

[YnysMon]

I'm switching to my 'live' thread again for the rest of the trip. 

[YnysMon]

As we are due to be back on Moonlight Shadow on 30th December I asked the family if it would be good to take some decorations with us. Harry came home from his shift in IKEA today with some LED battery powered lights that have a nautical theme…well sort of…sea shell and star fish shaped lights. 

[YnysMon]

Moonlight Shadow - Trip 12.

December 2022 - January 2023

Originally we had been due to be on board the first week of February, but with our change of marina we had to change our annual Winter Maintenance fortnight as Horning Pleasurecraft couldn't accommodate us the first fortnight of January. We, and another family who had the first two weeks of February were asked if we would mind changing our weeks. Fine with us - followed on nicely from the Christmas closure week at work. The people who had the week after us decided that they wouldn't take up their week and, as no one else claimed it, we have been lucky enough to have a fortnight on board. I've had three weeks off work - wonderful (only I won't want to go back).

This trip was also notable as being the first trip that we've had Pozzick with us. We were wondering how he would get on, given the last time he was on the rivers must have been traumatic!

Friday 30th December

We were fairly casual about getting ready this morning. We had done some packing, but had quite a lot more to do, so it was well after 11am by the time we set off, waving goodbye to Alec. Harry had been able to get leave from work for the first week of our trip. Alec had originally planned to come too but had an invitation to spend New Year’s Day with his school friends. Alec will join us for the second week.

This is our first trip with Pozzick, who we rescued in September whilst on Water Rail (if you don't know about Pozzick, see my Pozzick and Seren thread in the Broadscot Lounge section). As we’ll have two dogs in the car (and Pozzick is rather large!) we purchased a trailer off eBay earlier in the month. Even so, we only just about fitted everything in. It’s a good thing Alec wasn’t with us!

We were lucky that the promised rain didn’t really get going, so were able to pack the car and trailer without worrying about everything getting wet.

The traffic was fairly heavy, but we didn’t have any delays until the A11 roadworks near Wymondham. Before that we stopped off for lunch at La Hogue Farm Shop. That was pretty busy too, with a queue for getting allocated to a table. I had a hummus platter served with pitta bread and salad, as I struggle with large lunches nowadays.

Due to the delay on the A11, we didn’t get to Horning until around 4pm, so the light was failing as we unpacked the car and the trailer. The canopy lights weren’t working, which didn’t help matters (Graham later got them working by giggling the wire and rewired it properly the next day in the daylight) and, as I described in my ‘Live’ blog, we had a bit of a disaster when I turned on the water pump. A sound of gushing water could be heard and by the time we found out where it was coming from the cupboard under the sink was awash. The water filter had completely sheared off, presumably having got frozen up when we had the recent cold snap. It took me ages to soak up the water with a cloth and bucket. A bailer might have been a good idea.

By the time I’d done that Graham and Harry had pretty much unpacked the trailer, so Harry and I went off to Thorpe Sainsbury’s to get our food shop. Normally I would go to Lidl and Roy’s, but I thought that I had a large amount of Nectar points – that’s another thing that went wrong today. Apparently, my Nectar card is linked to Graham’s, so the points I thought I had got used up last week when we did our Christmas shop. Oh well…the phrase ’never look a gift horse in the mouth’ comes to mind.

Given I then had to unpack our food when we got back to the boat, it was around 9pm by the time we had anything to eat, and then it was just a portion of pasta with pesto sauce, as I was just too exhausted to sort anything else out.

Still, we are very cosy on board with our radiators, and being without running water isn’t that different to being on a Hunter’s Yard boat. At least we had the presence of mind to buy some sanitising wet wipes in Sainsbury’s to compensate for not being able to wash our hands. Luckily, we had brought a water carrier with us (filled with water) as we weren’t sure if there would be sufficient water on board. We had been informed that the water at Horning Pleasurecraft would be turned off whilst the Yard was shut for Christmas from the 19th December to when they reopened on the 3rd January.

At home Pozzick has recently been sleeping in our room, as we never did get him to settle in his crate. As Harry was taking the aft cabin, where there’s more floor space, we thought Pozzick would be better off there…no he wasn’t. He just whined and was not happy at all. We relented and tried him in the saloon along with Seren and we left the door to our forward cabin open. They were both fine and settled well together.

 

 

[YnysMon]

Saturday 31st December

The priority today was to try to sort out our water problems. The first thing Graham did was to remove the piping that led to the water filter. We weren’t particularly early getting out this morning. I had been messaging to and fro with members of the forum who had offered to help. Jean offered the use of various tools that we might need, Sam said her husband could advise on plumbing matters and Mark thought he might have a cap for the water pipes, though we were sure if it would be the right size and had also offered to lend us a water carrier. In the off chance that Mark might turn up with the water carrier Graham and I took turns to go out. First, I went to Ludham butchers to get some bacon and sausages, then Graham went to Roy’s DIY to find a cap for the pipe.

When he got back, he tried out the nearest water tap to us, even though we’d had an email from Horning Pleasurecraft to say the water would be turned off until staff returned to the Yard on the 3rd. It was on – what a boon! (Maybe they’d had a re-think due to the forecast of milder weather.) The cap that Graham had purchased took no time to fit and held tight with no drips. What a relief, we had running water again!

By this time it was late morning, so we had some lunch - sweetcorn fritters and Ludham bacon (vegan ‘bacon’ for Graham). By the time we’d had lunch the weather had really turned very wet. The plan was to go to first Potter Heigham to visit (by car) Latham’s for some bits and pieces that I’d forgotten in yesterday’s shop and then Acle to give the dogs a run. By the time we got out of Latham’s and were setting off for Acle the rain had become torrential, so the poor dogs had to settle for a very short walk.

Back at the boat we hunkered down for the evening. We had an early’ish dinner: Thai Red Curry made with red onion, red bell pepper, aubergine and some vegan ‘chicken’ chunks, served with sticky rice. I used the whole jar of curry paste, and it ended up quite hot, though not unbearably so.

After that we watched the first part of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, as it’s been years since we last watched the trilogy, and we are big Lord of the Rings fans.

Graham was dropping off, so went to bed earlier than Harry and I. We stayed up until just after midnight. Some fireworks started up after 11, but in the distance, not half as loud as in Milton Keynes. The bangs still freaked out Seren though, and she went to lie in the kitchen, which seems to be her ‘refuge’. We tried to cuddle her and take her onto our laps, but she wouldn’t stay with us. When we took the dogs out shortly after midnight we could hear church bells in the distance, which was lovely, much better than fireworks. I wondered if it might be from Ranworth church.

 

[YnysMon]

Sunday 1st January 2023

Happy New Year!

Pozzick came through to wake us up just before 7.30 this morning. Even so I’d had a lot more sleep than the previous night, despite staying up for the New Year. I always sleep poorly the first night we are on the boat.

Once we had taken the dogs out, we relaxed and didn’t really do much until around 9am. As the Yard had been closed when the boat had last been occupied and we knew that the people last on board had left in a hurry due to an emergency at home, we did an engine check before setting off.

It was getting on for 10 by the time we set off. Naturally the river was quiet. We had a lovely cruise down the Bure, turned off down Fleet Dyke, had a gentle pootle around the outer South Walsham Broad and then moored up on the Fleet Dyke moorings so that we could take the dogs for a walk. There were several dab chicks and moorhens near the entrance to the Broad.

We only walked along the riverbank as far as the junction with Bure and back, but the dogs had plenty of exercise running to and fro. The path was fairly slippery with mud, but not deep mud. There were quite a lot of other people out, enjoying New Year’s Day walks. Pozzick barked at the first few people that he met. Given his tail was wagging like mad, he probably wanted them to play with him. I'd be disconcerted at a huge dog barking at me though, so we decided to watch out and put him on a lead before we met people coming the other way.

A section of the moorings on 'the bend' were fenced off, with works to repair the quay heading clearly in progress.

Back at the boat.

Although it was around midday by the time we got back to the boat, instead of having lunch we set off for Acle, wanting to be sure to get a spot near an electric post. How ridiculous that that! There were only a couple of saileys moored up on the BA Free moorings when we got to Acle just after 2pm.

We had a light lunch of bread rolls, vegan Philadelphia cream cheese (a new discovery) and smoked salmon for me and Harry and brie for Graham, plus some olives.

After that we didn’t do very much for the rest of the afternoon. I fed a couple of swans and an almost grown-up cygnet. One of the swans kept snapping at the cygnet. Is that normal behaviour? I wondered if they were trying to encourage it to ‘leave home’ or whether it was an orphan cygnet that had tried to adopt new parents. A couple of ducks also turned up. It’s a relief to see wildfowl after all the stories about bird flu. We had also seen two couples of swans in our walk alongside Fleet Dyke and quite a few dab chicks and moorhens when we cruised up and down Fleet Dyke.

Harry took our empty beer and wine bottles to the bottle bank located in the Acle Bridge Inn car park, and later visited the pub later afternoon for a cheeky half-pint. He spotted some display cases with archaeological finds in them, mostly roman coins. Is the pub owner or one of their staff a detectorist? Harry found it interesting anyway.

Dinner this evening was pasta with a sauce of mushrooms in a vegan cream sauce, served with garlic bread. After dinner we watched part 2 of the first Lord of the Rings films, then to bed.

[YnysMon]

By the way, here are our nautical themed lights.

[YnysMon]

Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd January

We were rudely awoken just after 7 this morning by something suddenly nudging the boat, setting the dogs off barking. Graham got up and looked out fore and aft, looking for out for nav lights (it was still fairly dark) but couldn’t see any. When Graham took the dogs out we noticed the sailey that had been moored behind us last night was no longer there, so we are hazarding a guess they might have been the culprit.

Harry went back to sleep and Graham and I had some tea.

We didn’t sort ourselves out and get on our way until just after 9, setting off upstream, intended destination up the river Ant. It was turning out to be a beautiful day.

Pozzick is slightly more chilled out than Seren whilst we are cruising.

The sun came out before we reached Thurne Mouth and stayed out for most of the day.

We took the precaution of taking our canopy and screen down before Ludham Bridge as the advance marker showed 7½‘, but the sills were just about visible when we got to the bridge, so we might have been okay (according to Grendel’s measurements of the bridge).

I'm so glad that we have this small demister, which works off the 12v. 

We moored for a while at the southern end of the How Hill moorings, just long enough for the dogs to get some exercise. As we were setting off again, Kate on Springer’s Retreat passed us. We both tried to hold station long enough to have a brief conversation. Kate warned us that there were lots of fishermen at Neatishead.

The journey up the Ant was lovely (as always). We didn’t see one liveaboard, so I wonder if the very cold weather before Christmas had been an issue for them? We saw a lot more dabchicks – far more than I’ve seen on any of our previous winter trips. Does anyone know where they go to in the Summer? I’ve only seen them during deepest winter. We also saw several swans, flocks of birds near Upton and a kingfisher in Limekiln Dyke (leading to Neatishead) I was relieved to see so many wildfowl, having heard so much about bird flu.

Our initial plan for today had been to go up to Stalham Staithe in order to visit Tesco’s but, although I’d been compiling a shopping list, there wasn’t anything really urgent that we needed, so we decided to just check out whether we could get water at Gaye’s Staithe.

Taken at Gaye's Staithe. The sailing club pontoon was moored opposite.

Once we’d filled with water, we went on to Neatishead getting there around midday. Quite a short cruising day for us. There were quite a few anglers at Neatishead, but they were fairly evenly spaced out with reasonable boat sized gaps between them, so no problems mooring. I found many of the fishermen very friendly on this trip, very ready to exchange a friendly greeting. We turned the boat on her ropes before securing our lines.

We had a brunch. Ludham sausage and bacon for Harry and I, with black pud, tomatoes and egg. Graham had vegan sausage and bacon with wilted spinach and egg. I served up Graham’s plate first and then stupidly forgot to put the remainder of the spinach on the plates for Harry and I. DOH!

After lunch Harry put the twinkly lights we had brought with us (but not used yet as we had mislaid some batteries) on the pull-pit rail and the other lights we had used on New Year’s eve on the push-pit rail, neatly colour coded so the reddish-pink starfish ones were on the port side and the bluey-green sea shell ones were on the starboard. After Harry had done that he went off to The White Horse in search of whisky-cask cider.

Apart from Graham taking the dogs out again, we didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon. The two boats that had arrived lunchtime departed, leaving just us and one other boat. As the sun started to go down the anglers gradually drifted away. Harry returned from the White Horse, having enjoyed a pint and a half of beer rather than cider. He commented how attentive the service was, with the barman having noticed when he finished his first pint.

We didn’t want a huge meal this evening. I prepared some mashed spuds and we had those with slices of gammon (remains of a gammon I cooked last week) for Harry and I and the remains of a vegan gammon joint for Graham (who knew such things existed). Graham isn’t normally keep on ‘pretend meat’, but it’s a lot easier for me to buy something like that than prepare a vegetarian meal from scratch each time the rest of us want to eat meat.

We watched Part 1 of ‘The Two Towers’ (second film of The Lord of the Rings trilogy) this evening and settled down for bed at a more reasonable time than yesterday (naturally!). It felt much colder this evening and ice was forming on the roof.

[Andrewcook]

Helen & Graham Seren Pozzic that post was good reading and the Pictures of the Two Dogs were fantastic plus that Heron. At least your Two weeks were good as for Pozzic going in drink by accident and getting off the Boat still at least you all had a chill-out Boating Holiday.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 3rd January

We didn’t get up until after 8. 

We set off around 9 this morning. It was much milder than yesterday evening and it had rained during the night.

Pozzick has settled well on the boat. He knows how to make himself comfortable.

Crossing Barton Broad.

On the Ant.

As we pootled gently down the Ant we got the odd gleam of sunshine, but a threatening rain cloud appeared as we approached Ludham Bridge. We took our canopy down but left our screen up, and had plenty of headroom under the bridge. The odd spot of rain came down as Graham and Harry put the canopy back up…just in the nick of time as we then had a heavy shower.

I had been exchanging messages with Kate (kpnut) and we had agreed to meet up at St Benet’s this morning, so that our dogs could have a run around. We got to St Benet’s just after 10.30, and Kate arrived only 5-10 minutes later after the shower had passed over. Good timing!

Springer's Retreat coming into St Benet's.

 

We had a lovely, though fairly short, walk at St Benet’s before saying farewell and going our separate ways.

Shortly after we left the St Benet's moorings we spotted a deer swimming across the river. It made land mid-way between the moorings and Ant Mouth. Harry did manage to get a photo, but unfortunately I can't post that here as he hasn't yet shared his photos with me.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I hate the thought of mooring up in strong winds, and the wind was forecast to strengthen this afternoon. We had decided to return to our home base today, and I didn’t want to be trying to manoeuvre the boat in the HPC basin in a strong crosswind. In fact, I think we got there just before the wind really started to pick up.

I prepared us a lunch of quesadillas (cheese and a salsa of red onion, red chilli, red pepper and tomatoes sandwiched between two tortillas which are toasted in a pan), then after lunch we went to do a ‘top-up’ food shop in Roy’s.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening, continuing to watch The Lord of the Rings after a dinner of sausages and mash. We are very cosy on board.

The wind had really picked up as forecast and it was fairly noisy. We had a good night’s sleep despite the wind though.

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 4th January

It was getting on for 8am this morning before the dogs came through to tell us their own way that it was high time for us to wake up. We weren’t planning to do any cruising today. The wind was still pretty strong this morning. We set off just after 10am in the direction of Cromer, but first took the road that leads toward Sheringham, where we found the ideal woodland for a doggy walk. The rather strangely named Pretty Corner Woods, adjoined to Sheringham Woods were delightful, but we had to take care not to lose our way as they were fairly extensive.

We then back tracked to Cromer, left the dogs in the car and went in search of a café for lunch. I had in mind Browne’s of Bond Street, but it was closed. We ended up in Hatter’s Tea Rooms, which was very pleasant. They have an excellent selection of teas and the Hatter’s Harebit with house chutney that Harry had looked particularly good. I had a hummus, tomato and avocado sandwich and Graham and a brie and cranberry panini. 

These kids looked like they were having fun.

After that we had a look around the church. It seemed to be a particularly welcoming church. You can take your dog to a service if you wish. They had a warm area where people were welcome to stay and at the rear of the church there were tables and chairs. I noticed one couple came in with a fish and chip takeaway and ate it at one of the tables. Very welcoming!

After that we went down to the beach to the east of the pier. Most things were closed, including the RNLI museum. I’d like to visit again when there are more things open.

This hotel was closed for refurbishment. It looked like the stained glass inserted in the windows are of local scenes.

The seafront.

I wonder how the owner of this tractor manages. The seat was completely rusted through.

We left around 3am to return to the boat. As we drove back, I phoned The King’s Head Ludham to book a table for the evening carvery. We went there for 6am and it was fairly quiet. A good selection of meat (I had lamb and beef) and a nut roast was available for Graham. Harry opted for the lamb shank off their specials board and enjoyed it very much. Although it was okay, we didn't enjoy the carvery quite as much as the meal we had in the summer. I suppose it's to be expected that the carvery isn't quite as fresh during the quieter months, it looked like some of the veg had been sitting in their water baths a while. 

Given we had booked for so early, we were fairly early getting back to the boat.

[YnysMon]

Thursday 5th January

The first priority this morning was to get a couple of pump-outs as both loos were looking very full, and we managed to get an early slot at Boulter’s. We also refuelled whilst we were there, not that we had used much fuel but we thought it would be a good idea to know how much we used each week, rather than just for the whole fortnight.

After leaving Boulter’s we cruised upriver as far as Salhouse. Whilst we were cruising it started raining - outrage, the weather forecast had indicated a low percentage chance of rain.

As we were passing the Ferry Inn we noticed some workmen busy putting in new quay heading. Looks like the new bit is a lot higher than the quay heading used to be.

It eased up a bit when we got to Salhouse and didn’t start up again until after the dogs had a run. Seren had to be put on a lead again as she wouldn’t come away from the swans, and then Pozzick had to be put on a lead as he ducked under a barbed wire fence to eat something in the adjoining field, possibly cow or horse poo. It was obviously tastier than the treats I was offering him!

As we were making our way back downriver, intending to go to Ranworth, I visited the forward heads and noticed there was still a plug of toilet tissue in the loo, so we had another trip to Boulter’s for another go at the pump-out. The tank was definitely empty, so they ended up feeding the sucker pipe (or whatever-you-call -it) through the window and sucking it out from the loo instead of the tank. Shortly after re-joining the river to go to Ranworth, Graham noticed that the cap for the waste tank and Boulter’s key for it were on the boat just in front of the windscreen. Rather than go up the dyke to Boulter’s for a third time (I always feel a bit nervous trying to get into their basin), we instead went onto our home mooring in HPC and Graham walked the key around to Boulter’s from there.

After all that faffing about, and not having had lunch yet, despite the time getting on for 2pm, we decided not to bother going to Ranworth. Harry made us some Eggs Benedict, using the last of the Christmas smoked salmon. Graham just had egg on toasted muffin.

Then we didn’t do very much for the rest of the day apart from watch the first part of the final Lord of the Rings Trilogy – the Return of the King. We also had a very easy and light dinner of pasta, given lunch had been so late.

 

 

[YnysMon]

Friday 6th January

Harry had to get back to MK today as he was due to return to work tomorrow, so he and Graham went off in the car around 9am.

I set out for a walk just before 10, making my way along Lower Street to the Staithe initially.

I then went to the Post Office, where I bought a card and small present for my cousin, plus a padded envelope to send them off in. They had a selection of second-hand books about Arthur Ransome, including new copies of Coot Club and The Big Six. Seeing me browse them, the lady in the shop asked if I was interested in Arthur Ransome. She was very knowledgeable and we had quite a chat.

After leaving the Post Office, I walked up the hill to the junction with Upper Street, took a footpath that led to Long Lane and turned left. This took me behind Bewilderwood and eventually I came across another path that skirted the eastern edge of the Park and brought me back to the A1062 Horning Road.

The 'back entrance' for Bewilderwood.

The footpath that skirts the southern end of the park.

Turning back 'home'. 

It was around 12.30pm by the time I got back to the boat. I relaxed for a bit before making myself a lunch of smashed avocado on toast with a poached egg and tomato. After that I did yesterday’s washing up and ran the Shark around the floors to pick up the dog hair. The rest of the afternoon was spent not doing very much. I poured myself a G&T, read a bit, did some jigsaw on my iPad and so on.

Graham and Alec arrived back late afternoon, after sunset. The wind started to get up this evening, and it was fairly blustery during the night.