Late September On Benmore 2

[vanessan]

That is appalling service for a client from Barnes, not a good advert for them at all. I hadn’t realised Barnes do allow you to take their boats through, just as well otherwise you could have been stuck there for a couple of days! Well done. 

[Broads01]

Friday 27th September

Our last full day. We made the most of a bright morning as we continued upstream, back through Horning and initially as far as St Benets. This is a particularly good dog exercising spot, especially if you have a dog like Rollie who knows his own mind as to whether he feels like coming back to you when he's off the lead. In spite of Rollie's interest in some fishermen sat the other side of the fence he'd wandered towards, I caught up with him and moved him on under sufferance. With or without dog at St Benets I always enjoy walking across to the Cross on the mound because you get a great vista of the surrounding rivers, including Womack and Thurne in the distance. We returned to the boat and continued back to the Thurne. I like stopping at Womack Island but with availability rare there we were pleasantly surprised to see it empty. Despite sunshine all morning a rain deluge arrived seemingly from nowhere not long after we'd stopped. By the time we set off after some food however the sun was shining again. We chugged up to Womack Staithe and made use of an empty space by the water hose. The water tap there is possibly the slowest anywhere on the Broads but we were away soon enough and retraced our path back to a last night destination. We wanted to eat out and it was a toss up between Horning Ferry of there was space to moor or otherwise continue to Wroxham. I'm an avid follower of "Admiral" Russell Thomson's videos and coincentally he was also hiring from Barnes this week. Having been corresponding with him I knew he'd be at Horning somewhere and I was delighted to see his boat at the Ferry Inn and still a single mooring space remaining. Russell and I had never met face to face, save for waving in passing on Breydon a year ago but this time when I knocked on his window he was pleased to come and shake my hand and chat. Unfortunately our meal in the Ferry was poor. We opted for the carvery but wished we hadn't - it wasn't hot enough and the potatoes were very hard having clearly sat out too long. We complained and at least they dealt with that well and offered us free drinks. After eating we joined Russell for a drink and enjoyed talking all things boating and more besides. 

[SwanR]

Interesting! We took Sonnet out May 2017, probably before Barnes stopped using the pilot. Had a similar experience of them not wanting to take us through when we took over the boat. We had checked the bridge clearance and thought there was no problem but they were concerned that the river levels might rise and we might not get back the next day. Possibly correct, possibly over cautious. We’ve still not got under Wroxham Bridge!

[SwanR]

Enjoyed reading about your week! We have also waved to Russell in the past and I spotted our boat on one of his videos. I’m sure you’ll be interested to see his Adventure when he eventually catches himself up. Did you cross to the Dark Side with him?! Lol!

[Broads01]

Saturday 28th September

It was an early start and a sunny, if cold cruise back to Wroxham. I remember from my hire in May how frantic the boatyard seemed on changeover day and it was even more so this time. We were beckoned to moor along the river front at which point the staff rapidly turned the boat around, refuelled, pumped out and then moved us away around the back of the holiday flats. The boatyard has limited refuelling points and we were told they were expecting 45 boats back and 30 going back out. The holiday flats mooring meant I couldn't drive the car right to the boat but we managed OK. We used £65 worth of fuel which I thought was pretty reasonable given the mileage we'd covered. 

Overall we had a fabulous week and we were really pleased. When hiring for a week I tend to go south for part of the time but staying north this time and covering shorter distances was a welcome and relaxing change. The weather was a mixed bag but probably more dry than wet overall. I really liked Benmore 2 overall - I'll do a review in the hire boat section. I'll post some photos, probably later today. 

 

[Seagypsy]

Just enjoyed reading through your holiday postings, as I said earlier we have booked Coway Bridge which has a bow thruster for May next year. Thought you might like to see Bentley our 12yr old version of Rollie

[Broads01]

6 hours ago, Seagypsy said:

Just enjoyed reading through your holiday postings, as I said earlier we have booked Coway Bridge which has a bow thruster for May next year. Thought you might like to see Bentley our 12yr old version of Rollie

Cheers for that. Bentley and Rollie look quite alike. Here's Rollie enjoying St Benets. 

[vanessan]

7 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

Cheers for that. Bentley and Rollie look quite alike. Here's Rollie enjoying St Benets. 

Lovely smile on his face! 

[Broads01]

Some images from the week. 

[Cal]

On 29/09/2019 at 12:10, SwanR said:

Interesting! We took Sonnet out May 2017, probably before Barnes stopped using the pilot. Had a similar experience of them not wanting to take us through when we took over the boat. We had checked the bridge clearance and thought there was no problem but they were concerned that the river levels might rise and we might not get back the next day. Possibly correct, possibly over cautious. We’ve still not got under Wroxham Bridge!

We have hired Joy several times from Barnes in the past which is the same hull as Sonnet. We took it through the bridge at Wroxham on our own each time.

Can't imagine Sonnet being any taller!

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

On 29/09/2019 at 15:12, Seagypsy said:

Just enjoyed reading through your holiday postings, as I said earlier we have booked Coway Bridge which has a bow thruster for May next year. Thought you might like to see Bentley our 12yr old version of Rollie

We had the privilage of having Bentley aboard Lightning a couple of weeks ago. Lovely little chap, and he had a good exploration of Lightning, he gave her the thumbs up. Well, claws anyway.