Carried Away By A Moonlight Shadow...

[YnysMon]

Bank Holiday Monday - 8th May

The dogs woke us really early this morning, just after 5. Possibly the rather loud dawn chorus had set them off (bittern still going strong and a cuckoo joining in for good measure). After a bit of persuasion, they did settle for a while longer. I couldn’t get back to sleep though, so I got up, closed the cabin door so that Graham could get some more sleep, opened the curtains on one side and the rear blinds to let the rising sun in, and settled down with a dog either side of me to pet some dogs. Quality time!

Shortly after sunrise.

Graham got up around 6.30, so we quickly did our engine checks and got on our way down the Ant as we thought we’d try to get to Wroxham around low tide (10.30’ish). Apart from a few Richardson’s boats heading upriver (presumably to hand their boats over) the Ant was pretty quiet. We saw a kingfisher on the way down to How Hill, where we stopped off for a short while for the dogs to have a good run.

Setting off again, Graham made us some breakfast (just tea and a jam sourdough buttie for me). It was a beautifully sunny morning, lovely and warm with a bit of a breeze, just right really, and very warm for early May. Passing Ferry Marina, it was noticeable how much of their fleet was in and on the moorings opposite. No wonder I’m starting to think it’s very quiet on the rivers.

Pozzick and Seren were enjoying the trip.

We did pass a few cruisers on the way up to Wroxham, and of course we were passed by several day boats, but not to the summer madness swarm of day boats.

Even Horning Staithe was mostly empty.

I phoned the pilot when we reached the outskirts of Wroxham and he said we should be fine getting under with the clearance we needed, and he would be waiting for us at the staithe. Unfortunately, when we got there, he broke the bad news that the pilot service is no longer serving private boats. He thought I’d have plenty of clearance to take the boat through myself but having discussed the experience of taking MS through previous with the rest of the Management Team, we have come to a collective decision that it’s not worth the risk to encourage members to take the boat through ourselves. Last time I found going upriver fairly straightforward but coming back through distinctly dodgy.

So we found ourselves cruising back downriver without a clue where to go. We thought we’d just stop at the first free (i.e. no fee) mooring that we came across.

Has anyone else noticed how cheeky the ducks are just south of Horning? We usually pick up a passenger somewhere near the Church Staithe or the water works.

When we got to Cockshoot Dyke we found there was space, but it always seems a bit pointless mooring there, given HPC just literally just around the corner.

We continued on to St Benet’s where we found a handy MS size gap. It was getting on for 12.30 by now, so we had a sandwich lunch and then took the dogs for a run around the grounds of St Benet’s. Pozzick doesn't have much stamina and flops down now and then, but Seren had to be put on a lead as she wanted to paddle on the muddy shore.

After that we returned to the boat and read for a bit. Pozzick snoozed whilst Seren watched the passing boats, several of which went past far too fast and/or too close. (Not the chap in the piccie below, I hasten to add!)

By late afternoon we were getting a bit fed up of being tossed about. We realised the river traffic would die down, but the breeze seemed to be strengthening and we were starting to anticipate having a fair amount of bow slap overnight. We made a sudden decision to leave and find somewhere more sheltered, ideally down Fleet Dyke. When we got to the moorings on the bend, we found plenty of room with only two boats moored there, one at either end, and it certainly proved to be more sheltered.

We took the dogs out to have some more exercise and, once back on the boat heard the boom of another bittern and then a cuckoo. Although we heard a few cuckoo's when we were on the Broads last May, it's years since I've heard so many cuckoos, and it's only our second day of cruising!

This evening we had an aubergine and red pepper biriyani. Very quick to make as I’d pre-cooked the rice earlier. It was just a case of frying the veg, adding some curry paste and the rice and chopped coriander leaves and mixing the whole lot up. I bunged in the half tin of lentils that I had left over from yesterday too, just to use them up.

We retired very early this evening. I think we were asleep by about 9.30.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 9th May

Not surprisingly, after our early night yesterday, we were both up by 6am this morning. We got on our way by 7am. It was a pretty miserable morning. It had been raining quite a lot during the night and was still drizzling.

We were thinking of aiming for Womack today. However, as that wouldn’t be enough of a cruise, we decided we would first head downriver to Stokesby to see if the shop there still had the Rollo Rocky Road that we so enjoyed last year (they didn’t, but they did have a Malteser version).

Graham and the dogs having some quality time whilst we were underway.

It was getting on for 9 by the time we got to Stokesby. According to the ‘Aweigh’ App the tide should have just turned, but it was still flowing out quite strongly. We moored just downstream from the pub and a couple of friendly guys on a nearby Brooms Explorer gave us a hand with our ropes. Graham took the dogs out and went to check whether the shop was open. It was (and had been open since 8am, which is earlier than the opening hours listed on the pub website). Also the pub was serving breakfast from 9am. Suddenly I felt very hungry, despite having had a light (bread and jam) breakfast whist we were underway.

We and the dogs were made welcome in the pub. I had the Traditional English Breakfast and Graham had Eggs Florentine with large mugs of tea. Both went down a treat. We then took it in turns to visit the shop. I got some chocolates and a slice of rocky road, Graham bought a slice of coffee and walnut cake and also bought some bunting. A bit late for the coronation, but should come in handy for the NBN meet.

It was getting on for 11’ish by the time we got on our way again. We first made our way to Potter Heigham.

The moorings there were fairly busy, but we managed to find one decent sized slot about halfway along the Repps Bank moorings.

Graham went off to Latham’s in search of a brush, as we thought the water line on MS’s hull looked like it could do with a bit of a scrub and Graham thought the deck brush that we had on board was too soft to be up to the job. When he returned to the boat he told me that he’d seen a brush with rubber bristles, so when I had my turn in Latham’s I bought that, along with some swan food, a fresh loaf from the bakery and a few other bits and pieces. Whilst I was in Latham’s Graham took the dogs for a walk.

We debated whether to stay in Potter H or go, as originally planned, to Womack. The latter won out and we cast off again. By this time the sun was making an appearance and it got really warm on board. We kept the canopy up though, as there were a lot of dark clouds around. When we got to Womack we checked out The Island, but there were already three other boats moored there, so we returned to the Womack Dyke BA moorings, as there had only been a couple of other boats moored there. Within the next hour or so that filled up though.

The dogs had another short walk, curtailed by a brief shower, after which the sun reappeared again.

As we were still fairly full after our breakfast, we didn’t really want any lunch. However, we had a ready-to-bake Cherry Bakewell Pudding in the fridge that I’d brought from home, plus a tub of dairy-free custard, so I heated those up and we had pudding instead of lunch.

Whilst we were eating that a thunderstorm started up. The thunder was mostly in the distance, but the rain was pretty heavy initially. When it lightened up a bit I walked up to the village to Throwers for a few items that I wasn't able to get in Latham’s.

We had a very quiet evening, not even watching telly. Supper was just bread and brie for Graham and bread and charcouterie for me, accompanied by pickles and salad.

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 10th May

We didn’t wake so early this morning, but still managed to get on our way shortly after 7am. The plan was to go to How Hill so that the dogs could have a run off the lead. Although dogs have to be kept on a lead in the How Hill grounds, the paths that run north and south from the moorings are good for dog walking.

Before the dogs had their walk I visited the secret gardens. There were some beautiful azaleas and rhododendrons out, but several whose buds hadn’t yet opened, so I was guessing that the gardens would be even more spectacular next week or the following week. The bluebells in the wood above the gardens were spectacular too.

When I got back to the boat we had coffee and cake, splitting the coffee and walnut cake that Graham had bought in Stokesby between us (which was ample, their portions are very generous).

We then took the path that leads north from the moorings, following it until it joined the lane that leads to Johnny Crowe’s Staithe, at which point we turned around as the lane looked very wet and muddy and retraced our steps.

Seren kept stopping to eat sticky weed.

Leaving How Hill we continued upstream, the original plan being to seek a mooring at Neatishead. However, on reflection, we thought we’d take advantage of the mild weather and seek either a wild mooring or one without electric. During the winter months we prioritise getting shore power, so we’ll see plenty of Neatishead in the off-season. We figured we needed water though, as we hadn’t filled up since Sunday morning, so we made our way across Barton Broad to Barton Turf Staithe. Although you can’t moor up there any longer for a day or overnight mooring, you can moor up briefly to fill with water. The hose there has a good wide bore, so filling up takes no time. We also took the opportunity to get rid of our rubbish and glass bottles, as there are a couple of large rubbish bins and a bottle bank behind the staithe.

We had spotted that there was plenty of space on the Paddy’s Lane moorings so rather than go back down the Ant in search of a wild mooring, we decided to bagsy the mooring right at the end, furthest away from the staithe, the same mooring that we had moored at earlier in the week.

It’s a lovely, sheltered mooring; quite the sun trap. We soon had to lower the front and rear screens again and bring the canopy back up to keep ourselves and the dogs cool enough.

I made a frittata with some left-over new potatoes, spring onions and courgette. After lunch we whiled away the afternoon reading and doing crossword puzzles. I fed some geese. There were three families of geese with chicks roughly the same age. Two families with three chicks each and one pair that had six chicks.

Early evening a very dark cloud slowly advanced toward us from the west, with rumbles of thunder. We ended up having an extended thunderstorm and it rained most of the evening. Fortunately, it stopped in time for us to take the dogs out before settling for the night.

 

[YnysMon]

Thursday 11th May

As Graham was planning to travel to MK on Friday morning, our aim today was to make our way back to our home mooring in Horning. We didn’t set off particularly early and our initial destination was How Hill. When we got there, we first had coffee and cake (Norfolk shortbread from Latham’s) then we took the dogs out for a walk along the path that leads toward Ludham Bridge, not that we went that far.

We then made our way back to the boat and set off down the Ant and up the Bure to Horning. As we were approaching the Bure, we could see dark clouds massing in the distance to the south and west and the occasional flash of lightning. The clouds were coming in our direction but, luckily, we managed to get moored up in HPC shortly before the rain started.

We had some sandwiches for lunch (coronation egg again, but this time without chopped coriander in it) then went in the car to the Thorpe Sainsbury’s to do our food shop for the second week.

I made a visit to the marina office to ask about the Wi-Fi, as they have recently upgraded the Marina Wifi. They had emailed details of the new Wi-Fi to our admin mailbox, but I couldn’t connect for some reason. Turns out I’d left the final character of the password off.

It was early evening by the time we got back to the boat and Graham went for a shower whilst I thought about what to cook for our dinner. In the event I didn’t cook anything, we had bread and cheese/charcouterie with salad and pickles.

[Broads01]

You've been hard at work writing today, Helen, thank you. Re Wroxham Bridge, are you saying MS is effectively banned from passing through now?

[YnysMon]

29 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

You've been hard at work writing today, Helen, thank you. Re Wroxham Bridge, are you saying MS is effectively banned from passing through now?

We aren’t sure. It used to be the case that our management company had an agreement with NBD pilot to take syndicate boats through. We need to reach out to NBD to check what the current position is. I’m 

[YnysMon]

Friday 12th May

I drove in to Ludham early this morning to visit the butchers. I could have been earlier though; I hadn’t realised they open at 8am rather than 9.

Once I got back to HPC Graham set off for MK, taking the dogs with him.

It was a very rainy morning, so I just hunkered down and used the Wi-Fi to do a bit of catching up with email, YouTube and so on. Malcolm (our syndicate Chair) had messaged to say that he’d received the signed paperwork for the sale of a syndicate share and the payment had been received, so I emailed our new owner and sent him the Boat Manual and a guide to the marina. We are really pleased that the share was sold very quickly, without being advertised, as we were recently asked to put a name on our waiting list. It was also sold at a price that is relatively comparable to shares that have sold in other syndicates. Probably a reflection of the installation of a new engine, the move to HPC and the other improvements that we've made to the boat. 

For lunch I fried a boarwurst sausage that I bought in the butcher’s. I served it with fried potatoes, fried mushrooms and fried egg. My eyes were too big for my belly though, and I couldn’t quite finish that lot off.

As the rain had stopped by now, I decided to risk a walk. As described in the ‘Live’ thread I walked as far as Ludham Bridge. Turning right out of the marina, I took the path that leads up toward the Primary School (one of those paths similar to the ones in Ranworth and Ludham village that are on the other side of a hedge from the road).

At the School I branched right along Church Road.

I had a look around the church.

Obviously they have a big connection with St Benet's.

After that I took a path from the corner of the church car park that led in the direction of Upper Street (Horning).

This went along the side of a field and came out at a junction of lanes where I found a very colourful pheasant.

Crossing the lane I carried on in the same direction down a rough and rather water-logged track.

This followed the ridge to the north of the river Bure, so there were occasional glimpses of boats as well as a view of St Helen's Ranworth across the valley. 

Eventually the track joined a lane at Hall Form Cottages, with the entrance to Horning Hall visible at the end of the lane. At the junction of the track and lane there were a couple of (empty) dog kennels. The other one was called 'Chez Fido'. 

I turned left and followed the lane in the other direction, passing some sheep in the fields between the lane and the river...

then turned right when it joined the Hoveton to Ludham road (A1062).

When I got to Ludham Bridge I checked out whether Kate's boat was still outside LBB - yes it was (it's the orange bathtub).

I spent some time watching boats pass under the bridge – there weren’t many. I checked out whether I could get past the piling works on the Horning Marshes bank – no I couldn’t. I then visited Ludham Bridge Stores. The new bakery next door (Dollie's Bakery) wasn’t open, and it didn’t have any signage to indicate when they would be open either, which wasn’t very helpful.

Having got myself a ‘Mr Whippy’ ice cream I made my way back along the road, hopping onto the bank when cars came toward me. It’s not a pleasant road to walk along, given there’s no pavement, but I managed. There were a few stretches where there wasn’t a grass back, just unrelenting hedge, and these tended to be on blind bends (how helpful), so in those instances I crossed the road to walk the ‘wrong’ side so that I could see around the bend. Once I got to Upper Street I found this sign: that's easy to read isn't it!

I branched left down Church Road which joins School Road and followed that back to the marina. Altogether I was out for just over two hours.

It felt quite chilly when I got back to the boat, so I put on the small radiator that we have on board. I just made myself a sandwich for supper, having had such a generous lunch.

It was after 9pm by the time Graham got back with Harry, as Harry hadn’t finished work until 4pm and then wanted to go home to finish packing.

[YnysMon]

Saturday 13th May

An early ‘ish start this morning as we wanted to catch the late morning tide through Gt Yarmouth.

Actually, we started off too early (around 8’ish) and had to stop off at Stokesby for a while.

The line of disturbed water where an old ford may have been is clearly visible in this photo.

Harry went into the shop but didn’t get anything (shock horror!). I walked up to the church.

The church at Stokesby is quite simple and charming inside with some lovely old pews at the back with carvings.

They have a serious problem though. The tower is trying to detach itself from the church. They have a tower fundraiser going. Good luck to them! Old churches take a lot of looking after.

Fire and brimstone!

We successfully raised funds to repair our copper roof a few years back and are currently trying to fundraise to build some loos and a heritage centre in our church yard (our church is one of the few buildings remaining designed by the famous Robert Hooke, one of the others is 'The Monument' in the City of London).

We got on our way again...

and, by taking it easy, managed to reach the Yacht Station around about slack water. There were only four boats moored up there. Breydon Water was very quiet too, one boat overtook us (we were still going fairly slowly) and only a couple of boats passed going the other way.

We went up the Waveney. The initial hurdle was getting past some tacking yachts near Goodchild’s. Harry mostly stuck on our side of the river, and they just tacked fore and aft of us, except when one yacht indicated that he should move out into the river and pass behind them as they tacked.

We hadn’t made any firm plans where to moor. North Cove and Worlingham were full, but we found we had 7’ under the Old Bridge at Beccles, despite it being a couple of hours after low tide, so we continued upstream rather than stop at the Yacht Station and eventually moored in Geldeston Dyke just in front of Kingfisher (lovely boat).

Graham started off prepping some of the wood trim for re-varnishing.

Dinner this evening was pasta with a cashew nut pesto. The sauce was made from cashew nuts blitzed in a smoothie maker with an avocado, lemon juice, nutritious yeast (to give a slightly cheesy flavour) basil leaves and seasoning. I wasn’t sure about using my smoothie blender when not on shore power, so Harry checked our battery monitors whilst I put the blender on: it hardly drew any power.

We were all tired after our long cruising day and had an early night, so we didn’t get a change to say Hi to Kingfisher’s crew this evening.

[YnysMon]

Sunday 14th May

There wasn’t much point in getting an early start this morning, as low tide at Beccles wasn’t until mid-afternoon.

Seren made herself comfortable (that's comfortable?)

We had a chat with Robin on Kingfisher (we have serious hydraulically powered canopy envy) and admired his re-modelled transom (see Robin’s Golden Light 5 blog under the Restoration Projects thread). Kingfisher set off before us, as they had a cunning plan to moor up at the Lido in Beccles to wait for the tide.

We had a late morning fry-up before starting off just before noon, as we figured we’d probably be able to get under the bridge a couple of hours before low tide. When we got to Beccles we had just over 7’, so no problems getting under the bridge.

We moored up at the Yacht Station for a while. Pozzick and Seren enjoying the sun at the Yacht Station...

I went off to Lidl whilst Graham got rid of our rubbish, refilled with water, sent Harry off for ice-creams. So when I got back I found that Harry hadn’t yet gone to the office to get a paddleboard licence. That was soon got and we were on our way again with the falling tide still helping our progress.

Plans for today and tomorrow were very vague. We knew we wanted to visit Norwich during the day on Tuesday (having found out last year that visiting on a Monday is useless, with so many places being closed on Mondays), so we had today and tomorrow to gradually make our way to Norwich.

Worlingham Staithe was unoccupied, so we quickly span the boat around and grabbed a spot. Just in time really, as another boat came in to moor shortly after we’d tied up. It was fairly early afternoon still, but having a relaxing day was a nice contrast to yesterday’s long cruise. The sun had properly come out at last so Harry and I sat in the sun with a G&T or two whilst taking in the view and watching Graham sand down more woodwork. It’s so relaxing watching other people work and watching the river roll past.

We lit the oven and the Cobb around 5pm. Harry and I had Ludham butchers’ burgers and minted lamb chops whilst Graham had a plant burger. We had these with oven-baked wedges seasoned with paprika and a home-made coleslaw.

An even earlier night tonight. I’m sure I was asleep by 9pm.

[YnysMon]

Monday 15th May

The penance for going to sleep so early the previous evening is a very early wake up the following morning. I woke before 4, but couldn’t complain, having had well over 6 hours sleep. Did a bit of jigsaw’ing to while away the time. A cuckoo went absolutely demented just after 4 and sang almost non-stop for at least half an hour. At 5, a white car drew up on the bank and its occupant chatted to someone for quite a while (presumably on his phone). He left about half an hour later. How mysterious.

We got up about 7am and by 8 I was getting ‘itchy feet’ (well itchy helming or whatever) so we set off. We were against the tide initially, but that slacked off as we headed downstream.

Once we got to the end of the New Cut we were against the tide again. It didn’t really matter as we weren’t in any particular hurry. Seren did not like it when other boats went passed and caused bow slap. Whenever that happened she got onto Harry's lap.

Harry spotted a deer in someone's garden just below Reedham Bridge.

Going up the Yare.

We had debated whether to go to Loddon, but ended up continuing up the Yare as far as Rockland St Mary, arriving there around 1pm. There was only one other boat when we got there.

Harry said he fancied a pint in the pub, so we all went there to have lunch. Very good it was too. We all had ciabatta’s, which were very reasonably priced at just under £8. Graham had grilled halloumi, Harry had bacon and brie and I had the best option: their ‘home-made fish finger' ciabatta. It was more like a battered mini fish fillet than a fish finger but all the better for it. They all came with really well-cooked fries, side salad and a small dish of home-made red-cabbage coleslaw. Excellent!

After that, Graham and Harry took the dogs for a walk whilst I washed the Cobb and did some vacuuming. I also went around to say hello to the crew of Chameleon when they arrived.

As is usual for us, we didn’t do much for the rest of the day. Three other boats turned up, which still left space for a couple of other boats that weren’t taken. We had cheese/rollmops/trout pate with sourdough bread, salad and pickles for supper and had another early night.

[YnysMon]

Tuesday 16th May

We set off from Rockland at 7.30 this morning, heading on our way to Norwich.

Approaching Postwick (AKA Pozzick).

Pozzick's bank (where we and some kayakers rescued him from last year).

There's now a café and Thorpe Foot Ferry before the bend to the Commissioner's Cut. Roughly where the Freedom Boats yard used to be. It didn't look like the café is open yet - probably too early in the season. 

We took things easy and arrived in Norwich just after 10am.

After going to pay for a daytime mooring and filling with water, Graham settled down to do some more coats of varnish on the wood trim that he’d been working on the past couple of days whilst Harry and I went off to wander around Norwich and do some shopping.

We walked along the riverbank as far as Magdalene Bridge where I turned right up Magdalene Street to visit my one of my favourite fabric shops (East Anglian Fashion Fabrics) whilst Harry made his way up Elm Hill to visit a games store (board games) and, next door to that, a second-hand bookshop. Once I’d made my fabric purchases, some 1/2 price red linen and viscose blend fabric for summer trousers plus a 1/2 metre each of three different shades of ribbing fabric for the cuffs and neckbands of PJs and sweatshirts, I went in search of Harry.

Elm Hill...

From Elm Hill we made our way gradually to the Market. Before we had a wander around there I spotted a Hotters Shoe Shop (the one in MK has closed unfortunately) and got myself a pair of casual shoes in their sale. Harry spotted a cheese stall in the Market and got small amount of three different types of cheese. So that’s us having the same type of supper tonight as yesterday, but with a bigger selection of cheese.

One more shop stop before lunch, a visit to Waterstones. Graham had asked if I could get the paperback of the latest Richard Osman ‘Thursday Murder Club Mystery’ (‘The Bullet that Missed’). I was also in search for a book for Kate, as a thank you for putting us up for the NBN meet. Last year I bought a book for a friend about nature written by someone who lives in Claxton (next village to Rockland St Mary) and my friend had very much enjoyed it, despite never having visited Norfolk, so I thought it might be a good bet for Kate.

After completing our shopping, we made our way to Shiki, the Japanese Restaurant in Tombland. As described on my ‘Live’ thread we both had 'bento boxes' accompanied by miso soup. Suffice to say we very much enjoyed our meal.

My meal: sushi for starters and for main pork in an onion and ginger sauce.

Harry's meal: sashimi for starters with breaded pork with a teriyaki sauce.

By the time we got back to the boat Graham’s varnishing was drying off nicely. Graham went off to Morrison’s leaving us with strict instructions to watch that the dogs didn’t get too near his woodwork. Whilst he was away, Harry started to get himself and his SUP ready for some paddleboarding. Luckily Graham returned before he was ready to set off. Naturally he went up river, under Bishop’s Bridge.

Harry doesn't normally wear a bright pink coat (). He borrowed my waterproof as the wind was still fairly 'fresh'.

Once Harry had returned, deflated, packed up his paddleboard and re-secured it in it’s bag on our bow, we got on our way. It was about 4.30 by now, and we had a very pleasant cruise just as far as Bramerton Common, where there was plenty of space near the electric points.

Yet another cheese platter this evening, served with the rest of the sourdough and some freshly cooked rolls (the ones you buy part-baked). Harry had also bought some Apple and Apricot Chutney in the market cheese stall.

Bramerton is another place with cheeky ducks.

[YnysMon]

Wednesday 17th May

We left Bramerton shortly before 8am this morning and had a very quiet cruise as far as Chet Mouth. I still can’t get over how quiet the southern rivers are. There were only five boats at Bramerton (including us), a couple outside the Ferry Inn and a couple at Brundall Gardens.

Given we were aiming for a late afternoon transition through Gt Yarmouth, we stopped off mid-morning at Hardley Cross moorings. Graham and Harry took the dogs out for a run whilst I started to prepare a fry-up.

Sausages and bacon from Ludham, veggie sausages for Graham, fried potatoes, mushrooms, tomato, fried eggs.

The dogs had another run after we’d had our brunch and we started off again just before 2pm. I had overestimated the time it would take yet again though, and forgotten that I should add on at least half an hour after slack at Yarmouth if we didn’t want to be slogging up the Bure against the last of the falling tide, so we ended up mooring at Berney Arms for about 3/4 of an hour.

Even then we had to take things easy across Breydon.

We ended going through Yarmouth at around 4.45 (slack having been at 4.15’ish).

Although we didn’t have the tide against us, it wasn’t pushing us much either, so it took a while. It was getting on a bit by the time we got to Acle. Sam (Luna) had messaged earlier in the day to say they were at the mouth of Upton Dyke, and that there was room for one boat behind them. Unfortunately, by the time we had passed through Yarmouth another boat had taken that slot, so we didn’t get to meet up with Sam, Graham and Desmond after all. We did beep as we were approaching Upton Dyke and managed to exchange waves. Sam later messaged to comment how huge Pozzick is! Yes he is!

It was soon obvious that it was a lot busier up north this week than last and all the free moorings between Acle and Horning, other than wild moorings, were taken. Graham had been feeling chilly this evening, so he said he would prefer to return to our home mooring rather than have a wild mooring.

We got back shortly before sunset and I made the easiest supper possible: pasta with pesto.

[YnysMon]

Thursday 18th May

We had originally planned to have a final short cruise this morning before starting to pack and clean the boat, maybe to St Benet’s for a dog walk. However, we decided instead to get our pump out and re-fuel done at Boulter's early this morning, return to the Marina and then take the dogs to Caister-on-Sea.

The dogs get a bit excited in Boulter's.

Seren contemplating 'So how are you going to get out of here Mum'?

Moonlight Shadow safely tucked up again on her mooring, we made our way by car to Caister.

 

After our beach walk we popped into the Caister Tesco’s so that I could buy the ingredients for the meal I was planning for Saturday, when we would be on Kate’s boat (kpnut). Kate had offered to put us up for the weekend so that we could attend the NBN meet. We also stopped at Ludham butcher’s so that I could get a couple of burgers and kebabs for tonight (I had a vegan burger left over from the previous BBQ).

When we got back to the boat it was too hot to close the windows for Graham to start cleaning the exterior of the boat, so he waited until after 5 to start doing that. Harry left it until well after 5 to go out paddle-boarding too.

He didn’t return until after 7, so it was getting a bit late (for us) by the time I started cooking the BBQ. We had that with potato salad and a few salad leaves.

[SwanR]

Wow! Epic write up. I don’t know how you manage to capture so much detail. Lovely photos as well. A real treat to read. 🤗

[YnysMon]

2 hours ago, SwanR said:

Wow! Epic write up. I don’t know how you manage to capture so much detail. Lovely photos as well. A real treat to read. 🤗

Thanks Jean. I’m sometimes unsure if there’s too much boring detail, to be honest.

Anyway, the tale isn’t done yet. I still have the weekend (NBN meet) to account for. 

[kpnut]

4 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Last year I bought a book for a friend about nature written by someone who lives in Claxton (next village to Rockland St Mary) and my friend had very much enjoyed it, despite never having visited Norfolk, so I thought it might be a good bet for Kate.

And I’m very much looking forward to reading it. Many thanks. ❤️

[YnysMon]

Friday 19th May

A busy morning packing and cleaning as we wanted to meet up with Kate by lunchtime. We just about made it, despite chatting to our ‘starboard neighbour’ for a while (first time we’ve met). It was getting on for 12.30 by the time we left HPC, then we needed a stop-off at Hoveton to offload a lot of recycling before continuing on to Stalham, where Kate’s boat is moored.

We had a warm welcome from Kate and loaded all the stuff we thought we would need for the weekend onto her boat, including Harry’s paddle board, which fitted handily into the bow well. We had a light ‘grazing’ lunch (bread cheese, salad and other bits and pieces) before setting off downriver. The plan was to see if we could get a mooring down Fleet Dyke and then join the cruise in company from Ranworth to Salhouse late morning tomorrow.

There was plenty of room on the moorings on the bend of Fleet Dyke. Shortly after arriving we went for a walk with the dogs. By the way, we were very impressed that, on the whole, the dogs were fine together. Our two spent most of their time in the well or, in Seren’s case, standing right at the bow of the boat. Seren chanced it a bit by stealing Findlay’s toy once of twice (the cheek of it!). Other than the toy stealing, Findlay didn't seem phased at all about the invasion of his floating home. 

Kate made us a lovely creamy asparagus and pea pasta dish this evening which we had with some red wine.

We had a lovely sunset and turned in for the night.

Harry was on the sofa bed, sharing the saloon with our two dogs. Kate allocated Graham and I the middle cabin with an ensuite (newly installed sink and shower and repositioned loo – very smart, whilst Kate had the aft cabin and shared that space with Findlay. I’m amazed how much space there is on Kate’s relatively small boat. Whoever designed the interior obviously made the most of the available space. Kate’s boat has been at Ludham Bridge Boatyard for the past few months getting various jobs done, including that new ensuite and a new kitchen. There is an incredible amount of kitchen storage on the boat too. Kate even had baking equipment!

[YnysMon]

Saturday 20th May

We had a fairly leisurely time this morning before setting off for Ranworth. Kate and Graham took the dogs for a run. I got a bit nervous for this goose family that started feeding on the bank near the boat, in case the dogs suddenly returned, but all was well.

Setting off toward Ranworth...

 

More by luck than good measure we managed to turn up at almost the perfect time. As we approached Ranworth Staithe we saw Broadland Grebe and Broad Ambition set off from the staithe, so we tucked ourselves into their wake. We were wondering where the rest of the boats were until we were part way down Ranworth Dam when we came across a whole stream of NBN enthusiasts coming in the opposite direction. Ruby (being a Woodie) tucked in behind Broad Ambition and the rest turned around to follow us. Broad Ambition was on an alternative mission this weekend, but dropped off Bikertov at Salhouse.

It wasn’t the easiest cruise in company as we first had to negotiate some tacking yachts and then had to get past a wherry (not sure which one). Actually, we had to pass the wherry twice, once before we detoured down Ranworth Dam and again during the C in C just before Cockshoot. It was plain sailing after that though.

We also passed Moonlight Shadow, on her way down south.

Once we were at Salhouse we went to say hello to fellow forumites. By the time we’d done a fair amount of chatting it was a relatively late, so we just had a light lunch (another ‘grazing type meal). There were several other dogs mingling nicely off the lead, but Graham kept our two on the lead until late afternoon. Last time we were in Salhouse Pozzick went off into a ‘private’ field to feast on something unsavoury (probably cow pats).

There was a quiz planned for 4pm, so before that started I made some sultana buns. It’s ages since I made sponge cake the old fashioned way, without a mixer (nowadays I just bung all the ingredients together in my mixer and whizz together), so it was a blast from the past to do it by hand, stage by stage, with just a wooden spoon to beat up the mixture. Kate’s oven was a bit temperamental, as gas ovens often are. She advised not putting them on the top shelf, in case they burned, but they took longer on the bottom shelf than expected. I kept adding 5 minutes to the timer on my phone and dipped out of the quiz every so often to check my cakes. It was looking touch-and-go for a while, as they didn’t seem to be rising, but they did rise in the end. Phew!

Kate had made some cookies the day before, so were able to offer both cookies and cake to the company shortly after our quiz. By the way Nigel, some of those quiz questions were really fiendish!

We had a vegetarian BBQ this evening, cooking lots of veggies on the Cobb – aubergines, onion, peppers, courgette and asparagus, which we had with herby couscous, houmous and olives.

The weather today was brilliant. The perfect day!

By the way, I love the way that Kate has put the Broads map on the wall of her saloon, not far from the helm seat. Brilliant idea!

An extra photo from the evening - just to show how easy going Pozzick is!

[YnysMon]

Sunday 21st May

Kate needed to get a pump-out today, and then transport both her car and boat to Ludham Bridge Boatyard for a few extra jobs to be completed, so after saying farewell to our fellow forumites, we set off back to Stalham.

It was fairly gloomy to start with, though fairly mild, but the sun started to come out as we made out way up the Ant.

Pozzick having a bit of a cuddle.

We moored up temporarily at Paddy’s Lane and waited whilst Harry pumped up his paddle board.

Whilst this was going on Pozzick settled himself very comfortably on Kate’s port gunnel.

By the time we were ready to set off Harry was well on his way and by the time we turned up the Ant again there was another Rico’s bathtub in front of us. We could see Harry ahead, but he seemed to be outstripping the boat ahead of us. Maybe the boat ahead was being extra cautious as a paddleboarder was in front of this – in which case thanks for being so considerate to my son!

We finally got past Harry just beyond the junction for Dilham, taking quite a few photos/video as we passed.

 

Kate headed for Kingfisher Quay to get her pump-out and once we were moored up, I walked across to the basin where Kate has her mooring to help Harry out when he arrived on his paddleboard.

Once he was safely ashore, I went back to Kingfisher Quay to check out how Kate was doing and arrived just in time for the journey back to her mooring. Having stood on the back of her boat whilst she negotiated herself back into her mooring, I shall now stop moaning that we haven’t that much manoeuvring space for moonlight Shadow in HPC. We have loads in comparison!

We packed out car whilst Kate prepared another lovely ‘grazing’ lunch, so by the time we’d had lunch Graham followed Kate’s car to Ludham Bridge and then gave Kate a lift back to Richardson’s. Once they were back we got ready for our journey home.

It’s been a wonderful fortnight and the extra weekend with Kate and the NBN crowd was just the ‘icing on the cake’. Thanks Kate!

[YnysMon]

Some brilliant news. Having been told on the 8th May by the Wroxham Bridge pilot that they could no longer take private boats through, once home I contacted NBD (on behalf of the Syndicate) to ask whether they would consider allowing the Syndicate to use their services. Yes they will! Isn't that good! I had a reply from James Knight confirming it.

I think (depending on river levels) we might be spending some time above Coltishall when we have our next allocation from 30th June. Only three weeks and a bit (23 sleeps) to go!

[kpnut]

That is good news indeed Helen. 
When I saw your thread come up in recent posts, I wondered if you’d somehow managed to slip in another week on the boat. 
June 30th will come round soon enough. 

[YnysMon]

50 minutes ago, kpnut said:

That is good news indeed Helen. 
When I saw your thread come up in recent posts, I wondered if you’d somehow managed to slip in another week on the boat. 
June 30th will come round soon enough. 

We were allocated the first week of the Autumn quarter, at the end of August, but we did a swap with a family that had school age grandchildren.

I love visiting the Broads at the beginning of July. It reminds me of the first few years’ hires we did. The days are so long! We’ll have a long gap after July though. Can’t complain, we’ve done very well so far this year. 

[YnysMon]

I've also posted this in the Syndicate Owners Area thread. Just in case people don't bother reading that, it's repeated here:

A share in the Moonlight Shadow Syndicate has come up for sale. If you are interested please contact the syndicate admin mailbox: admin@moonlightshadow.net.

Moonlight Shadow is a self-managed syndicate, the boat being based at Horning Pleasurecraft. The current membership is committed to upgrading the boat in a financially sustainable way (i.e. since becoming self-managed, upgrades have been achieved within our contingency budget without having to ask members to make additional contributions over the monthly fee). We had a new engine in January 2022 and the saloon upholstery was replaced earlier this year. A new prop is on order and should be delivered and fitted sometime this summer. Priorities on upgrades get reviewed annually at our autumn AGM.

Our turnaround day is Friday, the boat being vacated by 2pm at the latest and available to the next owner from 5pm onward. 

[YnysMon]

Alec has decided to accompany his APs (Aged Parents) on our next trip (1st week of July) and, as Harry has offered him the use of his paddleboard, I've just phoned the BA to book a short toll for the said board. £9.50 for the week. I may even try out the paddleboarding lark out myself...depending on the weather. If it turns cold, perhaps not!

[YnysMon]

Having got back from the boat on Friday, I would normally have written up most of my ‘long winded’ tale with photos by now. I haven’t even sorted out my photos yet and although I have next week off too, somehow I doubt that I’ll manage to get much of the tale posted this week.

We have family coming down next weekend as it’s our Ruby Anniversary  (40 years) on Sunday 16th. Graham and I are renewing our vows during the Sunday morning service at church. Church is putting on their annual after-service breakfast, which just happens to coincide with our celebration. We’ve booked an afternoon tea at The Woburn Coffee House for late afternoon. It’s not your average afternoon tea, not just sandwiches, scone and cakes anyway. Somehow I think I may need a doggy bag at the end of the meal.