Carried Away By A Moonlight Shadow...

[Tempest]

Love reading your blog and great pictures also

Feels like things are slowly returning to some semblance of normality

Looking forward to the rest of your tale, including a tip on leaving the mooring...

[YnysMon]

Bank Holiday Monday, 3rd May

With the weather forecast being for strong winds from late afternoon and overnight, we were wondering where would be our best option for tonight’s mooring. Should we play safe and return south or look for somewhere sheltered up north? We had scuttled back down south last September, due to strong winds being forecast. This time we wanted to spend more time on the northern rivers, so we decided to head for Neatishead.

The river at Acle had seemed pretty busy yesterday, so we did wonder if we would be able to find a mooring available on the Ant. There were…lots.

I had another early morning, waking just before dawn and getting up around 6 again. Graham, got up around 7 and we set off shortly after, after filling with water at Pedro’s basin. We saw quite a few Herbie Woods boats, all going in the direction of the Thurne, but other than that the rivers were quiet.

Passing St Benet's.

We had no problems getting under Ludham Bridge with our roof up (just over 8’ on the marker board) and there weren’t that many boats moored up just beyond the bridge nor at How Hill, and at least half of the wild moorings on the Ant were free, including Johnny Crowe’s staithe.

Irstead Staithe was also unoccupied, so we stopped there instead of continuing to Neatishead. It’s a mooring that is slightly exposed to the East, but the strong winds we were expecting were Westerlies, or South-Westerlies, so we thought it would be ideal.

Pity the church was closed. In normal times it is kept open and is well worth a visit as it has a lot of interesting features inside.

There is also this stall with painted pots for sale near the stathe. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cash, otherwise I would have been tempted.

As we had started off so early, it was still before 10am by the time we settled on our mooring for the day. Graham read whilst I went off for a walk to the Barton Broad Board Walk. It was lovely to come across spring primroses and bluebells on the way.

I went by myself as dogs are not allowed on the Board Walk, so I was a bit miffed to find a family with a dog with them when I got to the viewing platform. They made up for it as they were throwing some food for the birds, so I was able to get some shots of a some geese and gulls that were swooping down for the food.

When I got back to the boat I made us a brunch (sausage, bacon, black pud, mushrooms, tomato, scrambled egg). After eating that we set off for a walk together, this time passing the entrance to the Board Walk and having a nosy down the lane to Gaye’s Staithe (only five boats there, so plenty of room for more) and Neatishead Staithe (room there for just a couple of boats). We carried on to the village. I popped into the shop to get some cookies for Graham and into The White Horse to request a takeaway menu. We then walked back to Irstead by a different route, along a footpath that branches off the lane between the two staithes, which took us over the brow of the hill to a lane with cottages (marked on the OS map as Workhouse Common). From there we took the lanes running back to Irstead. We’d had some light rain during the walk but luckily got back to the boat shortly before a heavy squall.

I was pleased to meet another forum member. ‘Rumpunch’ took the trouble to come over to the staithe to say hello. That was really nice of him.

There was quite a lot of traffic on the river until well past 5pm. I thought everyone would have hunkered down by then as the forecast was for +40mph gusts from 4pm onward. I couldn’t help wondering where they were all going, and what the conditions were like at Ludham Bridge (I don’t suppose it’s easy trying to get under that in a strong westerly).

We had intended phoning The White Horse for a takeaway delivery this evening, but felt rather overloaded after our heavy brunch, so we just had a light meal of pasta with pesto sauce this evening.

We listened to the radio this evening, before having another early night.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 4th May

Another early wake-up for me. Plenty of electric left on the post, but it hadn’t felt that cold last night. After a gleam of sunshine first thing, the wind picked up again and the rain set in.

We left Irstead around 8am, making our way across a rather choppy Barton Broad. Seren didn’t like the slap of the waves against the hull one bit. The plan was to try to get into Neatishead Staithe, preferably on an electric point, but we first took a cruise up river as far as Richardson’s and then across to Sutton Staithe. It was a fairly tight turn at Sutton. There was one space near an electric post there, but it looked a very tight fit and it seems to be fairly close to a busy road, from what we could see.

Barton Broad.

Sutton Broad.

So, it wasn’t until 10 or so by the time we got to Neatishead. There were a couple of boats moored either side of the entrance, and three near the head of the dyke, but plenty of room for us. Later most of them left.

We thought it would be good to move the boat to the mouth of the dyke, and took the opportunity to turn her on the ropes, but when we tried reconnecting to the electric we didn’t have any power for some reason. The post had credit on it, and none of our trip switches on board had tripped. We pulled the boat back closer to the post and tried reconnecting again without the extension cable. Still no power.

We phoned Brooms, and the engineer talked us few pressing some test buttons, still no luck. I suggested we could return south to the yard tomorrow to have the cable looked at, but they couldn’t promise that they would have an engineer available to look at it, as only one engineer would be working on site tomorrow. Before calling Brooms I had phoned our syndicate management agency (BCBM) and whilst I had been on the phone with Brooms they had contacted our local agent. He had been trying to call me in the meantime and, when I did speak to him, was really helpful. He arranged for an engineer from Horning Marine to call at the staithe. It turned out that some of the wiring near the shore cable plug had become damaged (from extended use no doubt), so the engineer cut away the end of the cable that was damaged and re-wired it. So, we had electric again.

We had been intending to have a takeaway delivery from The White Horse for lunch, but yet again we put that off, just in case it arrived at the same time as the engineer. We had bacon butties instead.

Mid-afternoon, after the engineer’s visit, we went for a walk. I had read that dogs weren’t allowed in the Alderfen Broad Nature Reserve, so part way through our walk Graham and I split up to take different routes.

I went toward the Broad, and he continued on toward Irstead Street. When I got to Alderfen, I found that there was just one nature trail that was restricted (marked in purple on the map).

We could have walked along the other (yellow) footpath with Seren.

The footpaths around the fen were quite muddy (not surprising after all that rain) but at least it wasn’t deep mud – not like the very deep peaty mud you get in several other national parks. Highlight of the walk was hearing my first cuckoo for several years. Not heard one since we last visited the Broads in May 2017.

I must say that the signs for public rights of way are a bit hit-and-miss in Norfolk. It’s lucky that I had my OS map with me as the signs for several footpaths were missing. Thanks to the map I didn’t get lost, and luckily met up with Graham again by happenstance, as we were both making our way back from Workhouse Common to the Staithe. It was very changeable still, and although we started off our walk in bright sunshine, we did have a brief hail shower part way through.

We finally had our takeaway from The White Horse this evening, delivered to the Staithe (between them, The White Horse and The Lion at Thurne have quite a good range for delivery). We shared a BBQ box for one and a goats cheese pizza. Yum.

Neatishead is a pleasant, quiet mooring. It would have been even quieter if one of the boats moored near us hadn’t run their engine so much. It wasn't a problem for us, as they only ran their engines during the day, not the restricted times, and the engine wasn't particularly loud. I guess we were just puzzled, as it was by far the newest boat there and (I checked on the Yard’s website) advertised as having 240v. They also had some solar panels. Maybe they were having problems with their elecrric connections like us! The only other snag about Neatishead was the poor condition of the paths running along the quay heading. We brought a lot of dirt into the aft well on our feet. Seren wasn’t keen either, though she liked the walks. Every now and again a shot would sound-out from bird-scarer contraptions in nearby fields, and she would go and cower in the galley or the passage leading to the forward cabins. Despite these minor downsides, we really like Neatishead. It will be lovely to be able to actually visit the pub properly again.

We listened to the radio again this evening, having discovered the BBC Sounds channel.

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 5th May

It was beautifully sunny first thing this morning. We were the first of the boats in the dyke to set off the morning, just after 8am. We needed to get a bit of a shifty on as we were aiming south again and didn’t want to hurry our way down the Ant.

Traversing Barton Broad (somewhat flatter than yesterday)...

Making our way down the Ant. This looks like a convoy, but it was a very small one.

I would have like to have stopped at How Hill, as the Secret Gardens are at their best this time of the year, with beautiful rhododendrons and azaleas, but it was not to be. The river Ant was pretty quiet on the whole. As on the way up, we found only a few boats moored on the wild moorings, How Hill and Ludham Bridge.

Once we had passed under the bridge (just over 8’ again) I phoned the Yacht Station. They advised that we should be okay going under the bridges if we went through at low water, but to lower our roof if we went through on the slack (an hour later). They also advised that, although low water would be a quarter of an hour later than forecast in printed tide tables, it wouldn’t be as late as my Aweigh App said it would (35 minutes later than the forecast).

Thurne Mouth.

Seren getting bored on the slog down the lower Bure.

In the event we went through about half an hour after the time we'd been advised low water would be. Graham had lowered the roof as we passed Marina Quays as a precaution, but we would have been fine with it up (just about). We had just over 8’ according to the first marker board.

As we passed under the second bridge (Vauxhall bridge), I noticed a Mystic Horizon moored up on our port side just below the bridge. Guess he either missed his opportunity to get under at low water or was just too tall even then. The river levels were definitely higher than usual.

Breydon was mostly fairly calm, but there were was one section that was more choppy for some reason, enough to send spray up on the windscreen.

We headed up the Waveney thinking that we’d make for Beccles. However, it was after 2pm by the time we passed under St Olaves bridge, so we thought we would most likely arrive at Beccles after the Station Master had gone home (assuming he goes home at 4pm?), so that would be us without electric tonight (they have their own style electric cards at Beccles, which you purchase from the Yacht Station). Our aim this evening was to find a mooring with electric, water and a food shop nearby, so we spun the boat around just below the abandoned railway bridge upstream of Herringfleet and made our way up (down?) the New Cut.

As is often the case, we had a bit of a dither. Should we go to Brundall or Loddon? We thought we’d try Loddon even though it was late afternoon by now, after all the moorings on the northern broads had been quieter than we had anticipated, and anyway, we would still have time to get to Brundall if Loddon Staithe was full.

The staithe was full, so we had another chug back down the Chet, despite there being lots of room at Pye’s Mill.

Travelling back up the Yare.

It was quite nice to stay on our home mooring overnight. Very quiet apart from the trains, and we were partly sheltered from them by the shed on our starboard side.

Graham popped to one of the Brundall Co-ops, we filled up with water and we were happily plugged into free electric (not really 'free' but included in our mooring fee).

I made a pasta carbonara this evening. After that we listened to a repeat of an old (1970s?) dramatisation of a Dorothy J Sayers crime novel, The Nine Tailors, on the radio, before watching the Great British Sewing Bee.

[YnysMon]

Thursday 6th May

We weren’t sure where to go today. We needed to be back at Brundall by lunchtime tomorrow, so as to have time to get refuelled, pumped out and clean the boat before heading home early evening. (Graham didn’t want to miss two weeks of Seren’s agility classes.)

We set off early’ish again, around 8am, to take advantage of the incoming tide upriver toward Norwich. This time we just took off straight from our mooring without faffing about pirouetting in the basin. At least that had taught me that we had more room to manoeuvre out of our spot than I had initially thought. Graham helped the boat foward with the stern rope whilst I used the bow thruster to get into a good position for the off.

We thought that Whitlingham would be a good option for taking Seren for a walk, then perhaps cruise downriver again once the tide had turned…perhaps to Bramerton.

I was quite amused passing under Postwick Viaduct to find we were travelling more quickly than the traffic on the bridge (not so amused on Friday when we got stuck in said traffic on our way home).

Not long before we got to Whitlingham the rain set in. That moderately heavy, persistent rain that looks like it will continue all day. We just plugged into the 'leccy point, hunkered down and put our electric heaters on. There were some hardy rowers about to keep Seren alert.

Some humans did a bit of rubbernecking too.

A brunch was had. I’d used up all our bacon the other day for the bacon butties, but luckily had brought a tin of spam along for emergencies. (Actually, I quite like spam. Did you know it’s very popular in Hawaii…goodness knows why.) So, we had spam with fried potatoes, mushrooms, black pud, beans and scrambled egg.

After lunch the rain stopped and the sun came out. We went for a walk around the Broad. Although we’ve stopped at Whitlingham a few times, it’s the first time we’ve walked all the way around.

I hadn’t realised that there were some ruins there of Trowse Newton Hall, what must have formerly been quite an important building in medieval times, occupied by the Prior of Norwich. Apparently it was visited by Edward III, who arrived there by river from Norwich.

We settled down on board again, Seren mostly occupied in watching the rowers that were still out on the river.

For this evening’s meal we had a Co-op Antipasti Meat Selection with salad and crusty bread.

We went for an evening walk, this time anti-clockwise around the lake.

At least, we both walked in that direction about half way around, then Graham discovered that he’d dropped his dog whistle, so I backtracked to find that as he continued anticlockwise (as the path ahead was better for letting dogs off the lead). Luckily, the whistle is red, so it was  easy to spot. We were lucky not to get rained on. There seemed to be quite a thunderstorm going on just north of us.

Back on the boat, we caught the next instalment of The Nine Tailors on the radio, before turning in to bed for another early night.

[YnysMon]

Friday 7th May

Last day. (As always, sob!)

We set off fairly early again, and had breakfast whilst chugging along (I’ve got quite good at juggling toast and helming). The river was very quiet, the main interest being the antics of some swans and passing a family of geese. 

We didn’t go far, just to Bramerton Common.

Once moored up we took Seren for a walk along the Wherryman’s Way circular route that runs between Bramerton and Surlingham Ferry.

The route passes Surlingham church and, amazingly, it was open!

The font looked medieval.

It’s a shame we got to the Ferry Inn before they open (at 11), as I would have been very tempted to stop off for a refreshing drink. However, it only being 10.25, we continued on our loop back to Bramerton.

The route back took us past this (how quaint...I mean the name)...

These were on the marshes - water buffalo, or are they highland coos?

The last stretch back to Bramerton.

Back on board we cast off again and made our way to Brundall. We had slightly bad timing approaching the fuel quay, as a sailey under power just pipped us, and it seemed to take them a while to get someone from Brooms to serve them, so I did quite a bit of mooching about on the river until it was our turn, trying not to get in the way of other passing craft (not that there was much).

The guy manning the fuel quay was very friendly, as are all Brooms’ staff, but the wind was taken out of our proverbial sails rather at the news that Brooms would no longer exchange our gas cannisters. They said our management agency should have been informed by email (they hadn’t been) and suggested we try the Blofield Farm Shop up the road.

Afterward, Graham duly went to Blofield Farm Shop, to no avail. There’s a national shortage of gas cannisters apparently.

We enquired about how the day boats project was going (I mentioned in an earlier post that we’d been told that moving MS to a new mooring had been prompted by plans for Brooms to operate day boats from the key heading that MS used to be on). Apparently, the plans had changed and the day boats would now be in a different location. Some of our syndicate members had been pleased about the change of mooring, but I admit that I loved the old mooring. It was great to sit in the aft well with a cold drink on a sunny evening watching passing river traffic. Very relaxing. I guess the new mooring is more sheltered, though we've yet to be there when it's windy. You never know, the buildings might cause a tunnel effect.

Anyway, we needed to get on with cleaning the boat, so it was a case of mooring up in our new slot and knuckling down. We don’t mind at all doing the cleaning ourselves, it’s an opportunity to check things out in more detail. I think the general cleanliness of the boat is much better now than when we first joined the syndicate, when there was a weekly valet provided. It’s still possible to book at valet, but I think the overall standard has improved as several of our owners do the cleaning themselves.

(By the way Neil, Graham was very impressed with how clean the exterior of the boat was. That new mop is really good too.)

It was early evening by the time we got on our way. Once on the A47 we hit the delays caused by the traffic works south of Norwich. We crawled very slowly across the Postwick Viaduct. Once past the traffic works the journey wasn’t too bad though.

So. we are back home again. Our sons have done a good job of looking after their Grandad whilst we’ve been away. And the kitchen didn’t look like a bomb had hit it.

Roll on the end of June though. We are (hopefully) next on board from 26th June.

[SwanR]

What a fantastic holiday tale. So much detail and beautiful photos. I must go back over it to get a note of some of the detail about places and walks and moorings we’ve not been to. Yes we did have heavy rain and a thunderstorm one evening. Love Sewing Bee. And BBC Sounds is often playing in the background on my laptop when I’m working. Some great programmes and podcasts available. 

[NeilB]

Glad the new mop is working well, I’m sure the shaft on the old one was made from a rubber tree as it flopped all over the place!

 

[Mouldy]

23 hours ago, YnysMon said:

 . . . . . . Fellow forum member and MS syndicate member Tempest had difficulty getting hold of electric cards on his first trip on MS, so we now like to keep up our stocks of ‘leccy cards. . . . . . . . .

Don’t forget that you can get electric cards from the Broads Authority.

[Lulu]

Lovely write up and photos Helen.  Its got me even more eager to get back to the boat for our week soon 

[SwanR]

I forgot to say … you mentioned the road near Sutton Staithe. Yes it can be busy. That’s the A149. An interesting road in terms of the Broads. It comes from Great Yarmouth, passes Potter Heigham, Sutton, Richardson’s and Stalham, goes over Wayford Bridge, then turns off towards the coast. But if you carry straight on it becomes a different number which brings you into Hoveton and on down past Roy’s, over the bridge and into Wroxham. 

[CambridgeCabby]

Wonderful tale and pics , if only our border collies would enjoy being afloat 

[YnysMon]

5 minutes ago, CambridgeCabby said:

if only our border collies would enjoy being afloat 

We do feel for you. It’s always a bit nerve wracking introducing a new dog to the Broads. We feel we are very lucky that Seren is generally very happy to be on board. She is a fairly nervous dog in temperament, but we think it helped that she was pretty young when we first took her on a boat. We are even luckier that she has no desire to swim! She is so fascinated by anything that moves, other boats, birds, especially canoes and rowing boats/skiffs, though it’s taken several years trying to teach her not to bark at everything. 

[CambridgeCabby]

Our two aren’t nervous at all they just despise travelling by car and won’t settle at all , they’re 9 and 12 now and too old to change their minds 

[YnysMon]

Maybe it’s a case of can’t teach an old dog(s) new tricks? We do envy you owning your own boat. Very happy with having bought into the MS syndicate though, as owning a boat would be a step too far for us financially. We all have our ups and downs.

[Tempest]

Another terrific write-up Helen

Love the pictures, love the stories and gives an insight into some of the locations we have not visited before which is really helpful

For example we have never moored at Whitlingham before and definitely would like to give it a try as I am sure our Newfies will love the park

I know it wasnt in this blog, but we have actually never moored at Commissioner's Cut before either and plan to try this location in the future

It tended to look a bit unwelcoming previously, but I believe it may be a little better now

Anyway, thanks again and take care

[YnysMon]

29 minutes ago, Tempest said:

It tended to look a bit unwelcoming previously, but I believe it may be a little better now

Thanks Warren.

We have overnighted at the Commissioner's Cut on a couple of occasions (2017 and last summer), and it's been fine, even on occasions when there are some people camping nearby. The Rushcutter's pub is just a short walk from there, as well as the Merchants of Spice takeaway.

We've also stopped there several times for a just few hours, for Seren to have a walk, especially out of season when we sometimes stay in Brooms overnight but like to go somewhere each day.

Our other favourite places to moor for dog walks on the Yare are Langley Dyke, Cantley, Hardley Drainage Mill Pontoon, Hardley Cross and Polkey's Mill. By car, Caister-on-Sea and Winterton-on-Sea. 

[YnysMon]

I've started looking forward to our next trip at the end of June, and have recalled that I found Herbert Woods website very helpful for information on good walks. Hope you find this useful Warren. 

https://www.herbertwoods.co.uk/norfolk-broads/walking/

 

[YnysMon]

Moonlight Shadow Trip 7 – June-July 2021

Day 1 – Saturday 26th June

Whilst I was writing up this account, we were moored at Polkey’s Mill BA moorings in peace and quiet. Apart from the occasional bird and trickle from the tide, absolute silence. Lovely!

We had set off from MK this morning just after 9am. Packing the car had proved a bit of a challenge for Graham, a bit like a ‘quart in a pint pot’ given there were four of us and the dog this time. It would be Graham’s Dad’s and our youngest son Alec’s first trip on MS. We had to leave the portable BBQ behind (just as well as we probably wouldn’t have used it anyway due to the weather). We had a good journey until we hit the roadworks on the A47, which delayed us somewhat, but we were plenty early enough for our 2pm pick-up time. Whilst we sat in the queue, I phone Acle Bridge Inn to book a table.

We had a good meal at Acle. Alec and I had their pie of the day – chicken and leek, which were stuffed with very large chunks of chicken. The portion was far too large for me though.

After lunch, we went to the Sainsbury’s in Thorpe St Andrew to do the main food shop (everyone except the driver ended up with bags of food on their laps) and then went on to Brundall and the boat.

The area where MS is now moored backs on to the main hire-boat reception area and it was rammed with cars. We temporarily parked as near as we could to MS to unload all our stuff before mooring the car to the parking near the Brooms entrance. Dad and Alec getting to know the boat.

Finally got on our way just before 3.30pm. Having started off overcast, the day had turned out quite pleasant and warm with sunny spells. We didn’t take the roof down though, as it was fairly breezy. Once we left Brundall Alec took the helm.

I was impressed that he managed to get the knack of steering the boat without going in to typical beginner zig-zag mode. He obviously listened to what I said about there being a delay in the boat responding to the helm. Later, after we’d passed the Beauchamp Arms, Dad took the helm for a while. His eyesight isn’t good at present (awaiting a referral for serious cataracts) so either Graham or I stayed beside him whilst he was helming, especially since the sight in his right eye is particularly bad, so he was tending to veer toward the wrong side of the river. Dad has been an experienced boatman all his life (including coxing the first rib lifeboat that was stationed in Trearddur Bay), but this is the first really slow boat he’s handled.

We considered mooring at Hardley Drainage Mill pontoon mooring, as half of it was unoccupied, and I pirouetted in the middle of the river whilst we had a dither whether to moor there or continue to Polkey’s Mill. Obviously, the latter won out. We would have an early start in the morning to catch the tide through Yarmouth.

Alec took the helm again and took us safely and cautiously past Reedham Ferry. However, as we held station waiting for the ferry to cross, we were taken aback to see a private boat pass in front of it. Luckily, they managed to do that without incident, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone do that.

On the whole the river seemed very quiet. There were plenty of moorings available at Hardley Cross. Reedham was pretty busy though. Once we arrived at Polkey’s Mill there were a couple of sailies already moored there, but plenty enough room left for us.

After our rather heavy lunch, I didn’t want to make the meal I’d planned this evening. Also, Dad likes to eat earlier in the evening than we do, so I made him a ‘Parsley Box’ meal. They deliver ready meals that can be stored without a fridge or freezer, so we had sent away for a trial pack last week. Although I’ve not been that impressed with the look of the meals when cooked, nor the portion size, Dad seems to think they are quite tasty, and they will certainly come in handy this week. The other downside is that you have to decant the food into a different container if you want to heat it up in the oven instead of the microwave. (I didn’t want to spoil the peace and quiet of Polkey’s Mill for our fellow boaters by running the engine.)

A little while later, the rest of us had pasta with a sauce made from tomatoes, onion and lardons. I had used a huge onion and two tins of tomatoes, so there was plenty of sauce left over another meal.

Alec and I took Seren out for a run around 9pm, then we all settled down for the night. Whilst we were out I took some photos of the flocks of birds milling around the sky. Not as impressive as the photos Grendel took last week, but the light was pretty dim. 

Alec decided to sleep on the sofa in the lounge rather than the bunkroom, with Seren settled in her bed on the floor beside him.

I was soooo relaxed.

[YnysMon]

Day 2 – Sunday 27th June

Well, I wasn’t so relaxed during the night and didn’t sleep that well. Even after low water the flow was still going out to sea (makes sense, given slack water at Yarmouth is later than low water) though the actual tide was rising quite fast, so there was a fair amount of creaking to be heard the forward end of the boat (Graham and I were in the forward cabin), then when the tide turned again in the night following high tide there was a fair amount of bow slap, I think mainly due to the strength of the tide, as there wasn’t much wind. I also woke at three in the morning at the noise of a heavy downpour hammering on the roof.

I woke Graham at 5.45 and we got the boat ready for the off, following the two yachties that had cast off just before us. We followed them all the way to Yarmouth and didn’t pass them until after Stracey Arms. The weather was a bit gloomy, with unbroken cloud, but it wasn’t cold and it kept mostly dry. There was a nice chop on Breydon, but not too much.

Alec being on the helm gave me the opportunity to look around and do a bit of bird watching on our way up the Bure.

The plan was to head up the Ant and do some more food shopping in Stalham, as we had decided against our original plan of going to Wroxham and Roys. We thought we'd have a short stop at Acle on the way, so that Alec could visit the Dunes Café (he said he fancied getting some sausage rolls), but as we approached Stokesby I remembered that there was now a small shop and deli at the Ferry Inn, so we stopped there instead. Alec got his sausage rolls (two types, ordinary and with chorizo) and I bought some home-made Cornish-type pasties to have later for our lunch.

Dad took the helm again after Acle and then Alec took the helm past St Benet’s and for first few bends of the Ant.

The river from Thurne Mouth onward was pretty manic, and the Ant very busy, so I took the helm as we approached the moorings before Ludham Bridge in case mayhem ensued. Just as well, as the largish hire-boat directly in front of me had not made any preparations for the bridge. They had a fairly high air-draft as it was and hadn’t put any screens down, but they also had several bicycles on their roof, a few pot plants (!?) and an inflatable dinghy. They stopped in the middle of the river right on the bend by the boatyard to take the bicycles down. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me to hold station, except that the boat behind me seemed determined to get as close to my stern as possible, and there were several boats behind him, seemingly with the same intention. Luckily the boat causing all the mayhem did get under the bridge. I’m not sure what would have happened if they couldn’t.

We had another ‘interesting’ spell behind a wherry just before How Hill, and it was a while before I and the boat in front of me could get past safely.

After that it calmed down (thank goodness). There was a sailing race in progress on Barton Broad, but as there’s so much room for everyone on that Broad that was no problem. We continued upriver to Richardson’s and bagged the last space on the new ‘free’ moorings that they’ve created near the entrance to the boatyard. I like the surface they've intalled on the quay heading - very non-slip. 

I'm sure that Malcolm (Mouldy) will be pleased to see that Moonlight Shadow has her pennant again, as he had replaced the old faded one. Graham had spiced a new halyard (or whatever-you-call-it) to replace the one that had perished over the winter.

Dad seemed to be enjoying himself.

After we’d had our Stokesby pasties for lunch, Alec and I walked to Tesco’s to buy the things I’d forgotten yesterday/had been planning to buy tomorrow had we gone to Wroxham. We passed by the staithe, which was empty apart from one yacht. However, the only free straight ’ish bit of quay-heading was occupied by an angler and the rest was a bit too curved for a boat of Moonlight Shadow’s length, so I was glad we hadn’t attempted to get down to the staithe.

We had a peaceful afternoon, mostly spend reading, before I put a chicken in the oven to roast. This was the first time I’d attempted to do a roast dinner on board. We enjoyed the chicken with new potatoes and steamed veg (it’s good that MS has one of those collapsible steamers).

After dinner we played some rounds of dominoes. Alec had exploding kittens with him, but his Grandad has got to the stage in life where anything new throws him rather, so we stuck to games that Dad’s familiar with. After that, we settled down to another early night shortly before sunset.

[YnysMon]

Day 3 – Monday 28th June

I had a good night’s sleep and didn’t wake until almost 7, so it was almost 8am before we set off this morning.

Alec was keen to have more practise at helming, so he took us off the mooring and turned around near the entrance to one of Richardson’s quays. We turned down past Paddy’s Lane in search of water, but the staithe moorings at Barton Turf were occupied. Instead, we made our way to Gaye’s Staithe, but only stopped there long enough to fill up.

Crossing Barton Broad.

When we started off, there had been an almost unbroken convoy of Richardson’s boats heading upriver. Once they had passed the river was much quieter than it had been yesterday.

There were very few boats at How Hill, so plenty of room for Alec to practise his first mooring.

Dad got off the boat with us at How Hill, but only wanted to walk as far as the garden bench in Toad Cottage. We are a bit concerned that he’s not wanting to walk any distance, as he’s convinced himself that he will have no problem walking to the local shop when he returns to his home (which is down a very steep hill). Alec and I continued on to visit the secret gardens. It’s a shame we didn’t managed to visit them when we were on MS in early May, as the display of rhododendrons and azaleas was now just about over, with only one shrub still blooming.

We noticed the café was open, but didn’t check it out. Before leaving How Hill we admired this family of swans.

Alec had decided today would be the day that he would make brunch for us, which he wanted to prepare whilst underway (for the novelty?), so I helmed the rest of the way down the Ant. It was blissfully quiet at Ludham Bridge compared to yesterday. Comparing today with yesterday, I was musing that Monday would probably be a much better day for a newbie to the Broads to start their holiday, to avoid having their first experience of helming the boat during the madness that is Saturday and Sunday (at least on the northern broads).

Alec cooked the brunch (spam and sweetcorn fritters) in batches, so once Graham had consumed his at the ‘first sitting’ he took the helm so I could eat mine. Very nice brunch it was too.

We continued on our way down the Bure and turned up the Thurne, going as far as Potter Heigham, where we struck lucky and grabbed a space on the Repps moorings as another boat was departing.

A visit to Latham’s was in order (or even La-Tharms), the main priority being to get some swan and duck food. The Stalham swans had been given wholemeal bread yesterday evening (Alec having read somewhere that white bread is not nutritious enough for swans). I also got some reasonably priced cantuccini for Graham which he loves having with his coffee as a special holiday treat whilst on the Broads (I had failed to find any in my Sainsbury’s shop). After our visit to Latham’s, we had a bit of a job getting Dad back on board as the tide had risen. We made our way back downriver.

When we had passed Womack Dyke earlier, I could see that there was a boat on the wild mooring that’s between the dyke entrance and the BA moorings, so it was a nice surprise now that we turned up the dyke to find the mooring had been vacated. After we had secured the boat, we took a look around us and got hailed by forum member Tim, who was on a Pacific Cruisers boat (I forget which). Thanks for saying hello Tim!

Womack Dyke.

Alec and I went in search of the bakery on Horsefen Lane. It’s in someone’s house and is just marked by a board outside advertising what delights they have on offer just at that moment. Several other forum members have been impressed with what they’ve bought there, so we thought it was about time we tried the bakery out, having passed it several times last year when we hired Lucent.

On our way to the bakery, we popped in to Hunter’s Yard to buy a 2022 calendar. We weren’t able to book with them this year, so the least we can do is try to support them. We had a chat with Vikki, the Yard Manager. I asked how they were doing for bookings, and Vikki said they were busy, but with far more short break bookings than normal (which of course mean more work). Given the comparison between how busy it was yesterday on the rivers compared to today, I wondered if that might be a trend for other yards too?

The bakery accepts cash or card. Today’s offerings were a white bloomer, Portuguese custard tarts, Basque Burnt Cheesecake, another cake which I can’t remember and milk choc cookies. We got the bread (still warm from the oven – the lady said she bakes two batches of bread each day), Portuguese tarts and a couple of cookies.

Back on board we all just chilled. I took a book with me and sat on the back of the boat with a glass of wine. It was sheltered from the breeze and very pleasant. The weather was pretty similar to yesterday, gloomy but dry and not cold, but not particularly warm either.

We had chicken salad this evening (remains from yesterday’s roast) and Seren had a treat of chicken skin and jelly with her dinner. We had our salad with the white bloomer. It’s the best bread I’ve tasted for a long-long time. Expensive (£4) but definitely worth it. It was a good-sized loaf too; we had half of the loaf left over for tomorrow. The Portuguese tarts made a delightful dessert. 

We had been having difficulty with the TV. It kept switching itself off after a few seconds on a channel, so Graham attempted to re-tune it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough signal where we were moored. He did manage to retune it successfully the following day though, so the TV is fine now.

Before settling down for the night, Graham, Alec and I took Seren for a walk along the path that runs beside the Bure. We saw a lot of wildlife, including a reed warbler and a couple of large birds that we had never seen before. I've checked out and think they were cranes.

I've no idea what this next one is. Sorry for the poor quality photo, but I'm hoping someone can tell me what it is.

It was another early night as we were planning to make our way back south tomorrow. Before turning in, we checked that there was slack on the ropes and that the boat wasn’t tight against the river bank, bearing in mind our experience when we hired one of NBD’s Fair Regent’s, when the boat got stuck on the shelving bank as the tide went down. (We did free the boat before the tide dropped further, and it was a valuable lesson.)

[Mouldy]

I’m no twitcher, but I think it’s an oystercatcher.

[YnysMon]

Thanks Malcolm. I'm pretty hopeless at bird ident. I thought this one (below) was an oytercatcher (seen just north of Marina Quays), but got that wrong! Wonder what it is?

 

[Mouldy]

28 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

Thanks Malcolm. I'm pretty hopeless at bird ident. I thought this one (below) was an oytercatcher (seen just north of Marina Quays), but got that wrong! Wonder what it is?

 

Could be a curlew.  Not guaranteed, mind! 😁
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/wading-birds/curlew

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/wading-birds/oystercatcher

 

 

[YnysMon]

Day 4 - Tuesday 29th June

We woke at dawn this morning at the sound of Dad using the loo pump and then the water pump. Lucky that we weren’t moored next to anyone! Dad is finding it difficult remembering how to operate the loo. His short-term memory is pretty bad nowadays. We are just hoping he doesn’t do the same tomorrow morning when we are moored at Beccles. We tried dozing off again, but the pumps were in use again not long after, so we got up before 6 and were on our way by 6.30. Just as well really, as we were able to take our time to get to Yarmouth and take it really slowly as we passed moored boats.

I reversed out of our mooring and discovered I had enough steering power to reverse all the way out of Womack Dyke. Okay, it’s not that far, as the dyke entrance is in sight of the mooring, but it has given me a lot more confidence in knowing how the boat reacts in reverse. The first few times on MS I kept forgetting which way to turn the wheel when reversing, as I’ve always found it counterintuitive.

Alec helmed just about the whole journey.

We moored up briefly at Stracey Arms, so that Seren could have one last loo break before the long journey down to Beccles. We got overtaken by just one boat on the way down the Bure. As they passed, I spotted they had one of their aft ropes training in the water behind them. Luckily, I managed to hail them. After that Alec speeded up slightly as we had only been going along at about 5mph.

Did some more bird spotting as we made our way down the Bure. Saw my first ever grebe carrying its chick.

I have no idea why Graham brought so many hats with him! It's not like we had a lot of packing space. This lot isn't even the full collection.

 

There was almost 9’ under the first two Yarmouth bridges and we found that the tide had turned on the approach to Breydon Water. Ideal! Alec handed the helm to me just after the Breydon road bridge as he wanted to go and sit on the roof (not the sliding portion!!) with the binoculars to do some bird watching. He took back the helm as we turned up the Waveney.

The Waveney was (of course) delightfully quiet.

When we got there, we turned down Oulton Dyke and had a pootle around the Broad before heading back to the Waveney and continuing upstream. As we turned the bend to Oulton Dyke we passed Evening Shadow. This is our 7th trip on MS, and it’s the first time we’ve passed our ‘sister ship’ Evening Shadow.

It started to rain as we left Oulton Broad and that continued about half the rest of our journey.

This is a new piece of kit that has appeared on MS since we were last on her. Very handy! Thanks to our fellow syndicate members who thought of it.

Graham made us some sandwiches for lunch, which we ate en route.

There was plenty of room in the Yacht Station when we got to Beccles just after 3pm. We couldn’t plug into the electric as Graham had forgotten to bring the shore power adaptor that’s currently being used on the connection in Brooms and the Harbour Master couldn’t lend us one because of Covid (huh!). It didn’t really matter as we didn’t need to use the heating or microwave.

Alec filled up the water tank and then he and I walked up to the town centre. Alec suggested we have a look around the church (did you know Nelsons parents were married there?).

After that we had a brief look around the town before walking back down the hill to visit the Lidl store. Alec had volunteered to cook our dinner this evening, so wanted some veggies suitable for roasting in the oven with sausages. Very nice it was too. We ate the dish with slices of the Ludham bread, which was still fresh.

Before Alec cooked the dinner we all relaxed. Most of us were reading, but Alec must have felt so tired he fell asleep, despite being perched up on the helm seat leaning against the window. Not the most comfortable spot!

After dinner Alec fed the swans

then we played dominoes again before turning in for another early night. After a gloomy, cloudy day, the sky had cleared, so we stayed awake long enough to appreciate the sunset.