Late September Getaway

[Chickpea]

Having had very little time off work since the beginning of the year, I was really looking forward to our 10 nights in Norfolk. We had a week on Broom Captain starting 25 September, then three nights in self-catering accommodation at the Waveney River Centre.

It was going to be a slightly different holiday for us as I’m trying to socially distance as much a possible due to a health condition, so we weren’t expecting to eat out lots like we normally do. We don’t travel light under normal circumstances, so our car was positively groaning with all the usual paraphernalia, and more than enough food in case the weather wasn’t nice enough to eat outside at pubs and cafes.

The first couple of days weren’t the best but after that we had a lovely time. I’m going to do quite a detailed write up so I have some memories to see me through a socially-distanced winter. Not sure how long it’ll take to get this up as I’m back at work full time now.

Friday 25 September

We arrived in Brundall at lunchtime and because we weren’t due to take over the boat until 2.30pm so we decided to have lunch at the East Hills Café on the covered terrace. As you all know, the weather was pretty awful and it was a bit cold sitting outside but the food was good. We also saw that the café did breakfasts so made a note of that for later in the week (more on that later).

We’d received some quite detailed instructions from Broom about the boat takeover involving signing into the Wifi then getting text message instructions but none of this worked, so having announced or arrival at reception we were told to wait in our car (as it was pouring) for someone to come and do the handover. We waited for almost an hour for someone to come and get us, then I waited some more while my partner did the handover as only one person can do this due to the Covid restrictions. Completely understand this but I did get a bit bored and cold waiting in the car for so long.

Then it was time to unload the car in the pouring rain. This took ages due to the aforementioned piles of stuff we had brought. No problem finding a home for everything though as there was tonnes of storage space on the boat. By the time we’d unpacked (and moved the car to an area of the yard that was less likely to flood!) it was getting on a bit and as the weather was truly appalling, with 50+ mile an hour winds forecast, we decided to stay in the boatyard that night.

Apparently a few of Broom’s boats were stuck the wrong side of Breydon water so they were not sure how they were going to manage the Saturday handover without all the boats they needed.

The guys at the yard kindly moved us into a corner and secured all our ropes for us and we settled down for the night in our nice cosy boat, getting buffeted by the wind and watching the water levels continue to rise. Not the best start to a holiday!

[SwanR]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your tale as and when you get time to post it. :)

[YnysMon]

Wow, not the best start to your holiday. We were hunkered down that day on our syndicate boat which is moored at Brooms and we couldn’t help wondering how people starting their weekly hires were doing, given the horrible weather. We had decided not to go anywhere ourselves that Friday, so I think your decision to stay in the yard that day was very sensible.
Looking forward to the rest of your write up...don’t worry about taking time to post it, we all know that work gets in the way! Detailed is good!

[snunn]

We too were on our syndicate boat also moored at Brooms that week and agreed with Helen staying put was the best option.

we hired a Broom captain 2 years ago and really liked the boat.

[Chickpea]

Saturday 26 September

The rough plan for the week was to go to Beccles then slowly work our way back to Brundall. The weather was still pretty horrible but less windy, so we decided we didn’t want to spend a day sitting around in the boatyard and we set off towards Beccles. Rather unusually for a Broads boat (in my experience anyway), Broom Captain has big windscreen wipers that actually work, and a good heating vent pointed right at the windscreen, so visibility was good despite the rain.

I’d rather stupidly forgotten about the Reedham Ferry and it took me a bit by surprise when I spotted it up ahead. I tried to slow down but the strong tide took us past (sideways!) before the ferry had quite reached the bank. The ferry operator quite rightly showed his annoyance. Quite a stressful moment, but we didn’t hit anything, so no harm done (apart to my nerves!) and lesson learned to take more care on the way back.

A quick stop at the Somerleyton moorings for lunch. It was our first go at mooring the boat and we had no trouble at all – what a relief! Then onto the next obstacle – the swing bridge.

With a usual 8’6” clearance at high water this ordinarily wouldn’t be much of a problem for Broom Captain so I hadn’t really researched what to do if you needed the bridge to open, aside from seeing that there would be a sign with a countdown to the next opening. Obviously due to the weather the water levels were very high, and there was less than 8 foot clearance according to the marker. There was no sign with any information – so what to do? The map we had said to sound three blasts of the horn, so we tried that, and the electronic sign magically came to life! 20 minutes to the next opening – fine, we’ll potter back and forth until then.

On to Beccles yacht station with no more issues. Some nice views of cormorants and marsh harriers, and very few other boats about so quite a nice relaxing cruise despite the weather. We got fish and chips takeaway from the Cod House and debated whether the building was brown, grey or purple while waiting outside for our order to be ready.

We were woken up in the night by the boat knocking against the quay heading. The water had risen a fair bit higher than the bank, so the rear fender wasn’t helping. After having a look and deciding we couldn’t do much about it, apart from hope the mudweight would stop us from drifting onto the bank,  we went back to bed and it actually wasn’t too bad after that as the wind must have died down.

[SwanR]

This is why I like forward steer cruisers, no worries about some of the bridges when the river levels are high. But I’m still tempted by the Broom Captains. 

[Chickpea]

28 minutes ago, SwanR said:

This is why I like forward steer cruisers, no worries about some of the bridges when the river levels are high. But I’m still tempted by the Broom Captains. 

It was a really lovely boat. I'll do a review when I get the chance. 

[Chickpea]

Sunday 27 September

Water levels were still very high in the morning so we sloshed around in our wellies to top up with water and go pay our mooring fees. We were moored between another Broom Captain and a Broom Skipper and we commiserated with each other for being on holiday in such awful weather, and with the guy who hadn’t brought his wellies, but congratulated ourselves for having such nice warm and dry boats.

A shorter cruise with Oulton Broad as our destination today, with plans to check out North Cove nature reserve on the way. We decided we didn’t like the look of the moorings when we got there though as the water was over-topping the bank, and there were loads of fishermen who were presumably using the moorings because all the fishing platforms were under water. So, it was back to Worlingham Staithe which was a lovely peaceful place to stop. Tried to go for a quick walk but the wind and horizontal rain was a bit too much for me, so it was a very quick stretch of the legs before setting off again.  We saw several kingfishers which were too fast to photograph, and also some kestrels which always impress me with their hovering skills.

We managed to squeeze into a pontoon mooring at Oulton Broad Yacht station, assisted by a nice chap who had a lovely privately-owned Broom. The inner moorings, which are normally stern-on, were all side-on due to the weather which meant there wasn’t as much room as usual, but the couple of boats who arrived after us managed to find space with a bit of shuffling from others.

Lunch was quiche as we had salad we needed to use up, which wasn’t the most appropriate food for the weather! Then off for a wander round the park. The weather had brightened up a bit and the wind calmed down enough to sit out on the back of the boat with a beer when we returned. Dinner was takeaway from Magic Wok. We ordered online and it was just a short walk to go and collect it.

It turned out to be a lovely evening and we had our first uninterrupted night’s sleep of the holiday which helped with finally starting to relax and unwind.

[Chickpea]

Going to try to post a couple of pictures - not sure if I'm doing this right...

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

9 hours ago, snunn said:

We too were on our syndicate boat also moored at Brooms that week and agreed with Helen staying put was the best option.

we hired a Broom captain 2 years ago and really liked the boat.

And we're on your syndicate boat now, it's raining again☔. 

[SwanR]

Amazing photos. Hard to believe that you can still manage to moor up when everything is underwater like that.

[snunn]

Neil

if it’s any consolation it hardly stopped raining since we have been back in Cornwall

hope you are enjoying Lightning despite the weather
 

will you be joining the AGM on Saturday?

Susan

[YnysMon]

Impressive photos of Beccles. I will definitely not forget my wellies on future Broads weeks!

[grendel]

It was a lot lower at Beccles yesterday.

[Chickpea]

18 hours ago, SwanR said:

Amazing photos. Hard to believe that you can still manage to moor up when everything is underwater like that.

The water levels seemed fine when we arrived, it only got bad after dark. Had we known it was going to be like that I think we would have tried for a pontoon mooring somewhere. There were quite a few hire boats at the yacht station and I think it was a bit of a suprise to many.

[Chickpea]

Monday 28 September

I wanted to go to Burgh Castle today and the original plan had been to go via St Olaves. We were worried about the water levels so set off as early as possible so we could go past the bridges not long after low water. Unsurprisingly I guess given experiences so far, that plan didn’t work. There was still less than 8 feet of clearance when we got to Somerleyton swing bridge. The sign on the bridge was working this time and teased us by saying the bridge would open in 4 minutes… 3 minutes… 2 minutes… 25 minutes! Finally got through and headed to Burgh Castle via the New Cut.

Lots of Marsh Harriers, Little Egrets, Curlew and a Kingfisher fishing from a post near the Berney Arms – still didn’t manage to get a photo! A quick diversion onto Breydon Water as we’d not been on it before. A couple of people were running along the footpath at the side – rather them than me!

The Fisherman’s Inn moorings were full so we stopped at the free moorings a bit further along, careful to leave enough slack in the rope for the falling tide. Had a lovely walk up to the castle and back. It was only drizzling at that point which was a welcome relief after all the heavy rain. Then back to Berney Arms to stop for a lunch of sausage sandwiches. Nice peaceful spot to stop, apart from the blizzard of crane flies which we were ejecting from the boat for the rest of the day.

The plan was to stop at Loddon overnight and as we reached the Chet the sun finally came out and we had a beautiful cruise. More kingfishers (still no photos!) Went past a man in a kayak who told us we had “a very civilised wash”.

Stopped at Pyes Mill and had all the windows and doors open making the most of the evening sun. Dinner of pizza and a bottle of red wine – lovely.

The peaceful evening was spoiled a little by a boat running its engine for ages. When this finally stopped a load of teenagers turned up in their cars for a party in the picnic area, presumably taking advantage of the first nice weather for ages. We were starting to think we had made a bad choice in our mooring, but they didn’t make much noise in the end and it was another lovely quiet night.

[Chickpea]

[YnysMon]

Lovely! Doesn’t it make you feel good when a kayaker or similar vessel thanks you for your civilised wash.

Very much enjoying this tale. Thanks.

[johnash]

Thank you for the really interesting account of your rather wet trip so far. But glad you got some decent weather at Pyes Mill (a mooring I can't remember). And some great photos too. Certainly does look wet! When I was asking about what to bring from Spain for our planned trip next Spring, someone said they'd never felt the need for wellies I'm not listening to them! I still have my short boating wellies from our last trip in 1997! I think they may be a bit too stiff to wear now.

[YnysMon]

Short boating wellies might not be up to the job either! The water might be lapping over the top of them! Seriously though, the Broads aren’t that inundated with water normally. Seems to coincide with strong winds, especially northerlies or easterlies, so watch the long range weather forecast. You’ll probably be fine.

[SwanR]

1 hour ago, johnash said:

But glad you got some decent weather at Pyes Mill (a mooring I can't remember)

Hi John,

Pyes Mill is the stretch of moorings on the Chet just before you reach Loddon. It’s very popular and somewhere that we stopped at when out on the southern rivers. I dare say you’ll find a few changes when you come back. 

[Broads01]

8 hours ago, Chickpea said:

When this finally stopped a load of teenagers turned up in their cars for a party in the picnic area,

Pyes Mill is a lovely mooring but I tend to prefer the downstream end because of where the car park is. I'm enjoying your tale so far. 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

23 hours ago, snunn said:

Neil

if it’s any consolation it hardly stopped raining since we have been back in Cornwall

hope you are enjoying Lightning despite the weather
 

will you be joining the AGM on Saturday?

Susan

Hi Sue, 

Yes, we plan to, providing the internet signal is OK. Having a great cruise, though rain on and off every day, not too bad though. 

Lightning was spotless when we came aboard, and Dave said they left her as they found her, so many thanks for taking care of our lovely boat. 

In fairness, the only time in 6 years we've heard of any complaints was when somebody used one of the outside cleaning services. 

[Chickpea]

Tuesday 29 September

And it was raining again! Never mind, on with the waterproofs and off for a muddy walk into Loddon via the church. Then we walked into Chedgrave to check out the White Horse as a lunch option for later. Picked up some bits and pieces from Canell’s farm shop and headed back to the boat and moved it up to the staithe.

Topped up with water then headed back to the White Horse. They were very friendly and seemed to have good Covid measures in place. Had a lovely lunch sitting outside on their covered terrace while watching the rain continue to pour down.

We weren’t sure where our destination was going to be that evening, maybe Hardley Mill or Langley Dyke. But once we were underway, I looked at the weather forecast and saw the wind was due to drop right down so I suggested we try to make Surlingham/Bargate Broad to have a go at mudweighting.

This turned out to be a great decision. We had the broad to ourselves and it was so peaceful sitting in the rear cockpit watching the herons, cormorants and grebes go about their business. Just as it was getting a bit too dark, and we were thinking about moving inside, an otter swam by and that just made the evening.

[YnysMon]

Oh wow. You are making me so envious. We would love to mudweight overnight on Bargate, but having the dog with us almost rules that out. I’m just waiting for us to get an allocation on our syndicate boat near mid-summer so we can take the dog for a walk from our Brooms mooring late evening and then sneak into Bargate before sunset.