Monaco 1 - 12th To 23rd July 2021

[KevinB]

Over the last few years I’ve enjoyed reading the holidays tales and seeing the pics on here, after taking the plunge and joining I thought I’d share our latest holiday as I’d taken plenty pics ( just the 930 🙈😂 ) promise I won’t post them all 😂 I will probably write too much and ramble on a bit 😂 but I’ll try and upload it all over the next week or so.

We originally had Richardsons new build 38 Sedan “Wayfarer” booked for July 2020, but after the covid crisis hit and the build was stopped we transferred the holiday to Monaco 1 and the way things were looking with the ongoing covid pandemic we decided to give it a miss in 2020 and moved the booking to 2021.

The last few years we have  always booked 11 nights , Monday to the following Friday, a week isn’t quite long enough and a fortnight with travel time etc is a bit too long away from my work this time of year, we live in a small fishing village just south of Aberdeen , the journey to Stalham is 560 miles so we tend to book into a premier inn on the journey down (so we gain an extra night) and are not totally zombiefied after driving all night to get at the yard at pick up time as we have done in the past, I drive back home in one go , but always prefer to stop for a night going to the boat now.

Sunday 11th July

I was up at 4am to land my catch in the morning , I’m a fulltime shellfish fisherman and my catch is collected by vivier lorry weekly for export to Spain , normally Sunday afternoons but I had arranged for the lorry to come earlier this week to let me away at a reasonable time. 
I was finished by 9.30 and moved my boat to its mooring and gave her a good clean then tied her up for 2 weeks rest.

We eventually set off at 11.30, later than I had planned but it always seems to be the way! Roads were good, just stopped once at Stirling services then down the M74, across the A66 the join the A1, we arrived at the Turnpike Premier inn at Pontefract just before 6pm, 332 miles and 5 hours 45 mins driving time. We had stayed here a few times now and found it very handy as it’s just off the A1 and a petrol station just round the corner. We are in the restaurant there but it wasn’t that great and they seemed to have staffing issues , (as seemed to be the case at a lot of restaurants during our holiday this year)  service was poor but maybe just due to covid , but we waited a long time for our meal and seemed to have been forgotten about after as we had to hunt down someone to get our bill , not sure if we would stay there again, hopefully it was just down to covid creating staffing problems. There happened to be some football match on that night..euro final 🤷‍♂️ so it was quite noisy until we’ll after midnight.

Monday 12th July

We booked breakfast for 7.30 and it was ok but the same service as the previous night, once served nobody came back again to ask if you wanted more tea etc as it was table service only, despite the promised refills ,it was fine though and we were ready and on the road again by 9am, sat nav set for Wroxham as kids (5 and 7) had been promised we would stop at Roy’s toys first so they could spend some of their holiday money 😂 and we decided to get our food shopping while we were there rather than stop again in Stalham.

Traffic was a lot heavier than the day before and a few hold ups and roadworks caused us to be at a standstill heading towards Norwich ..we went the way the sat nav wanted ..not the way I had intended or went previous years 🙈 never mind, we parked in Roy’s car park at 2 pm, another 220 miles and 5 hours of driving, it was light rain but warm, rain soon stopped and it brightened up, thankfully that was the last rain we would see the entire hoilday.

A visit to Roy’s toys made 2 kids very happy and a visit to Roy’s supermarket made my wife happy 🤣 The customary walk to the bridge for a look at the boats and get a few pics kept me happy 😂

Food shopping bought, we set off for Stalham and arrived at Richardsons yards at 3.45pm, I had given 2pm as my arrival time but it wasn’t a problem , the staff were very efficient and well organised and came to the car and we were on Kingfisher quay alongside Monaco by 4pm.

The handover was very thorough and as is Richardsons new policy a short test drive was needed, but after explaining my job and how many times I’d been previously as short trip to the end of the quay and back again was all that was needed. Monaco handled extremely well and with the bow and stern thrusters could be manoeuvre into any space, internally she was very well presented and clean.

Car unloaded and parked, we set off down the Ant around 5.15pm, no plan of where we were heading but I was hopeful we would find a mooring somewhere, I was thinking of Mudweighing in Barton Broad but pushed on down the river. As expected most moorings were full, How Hill had a lot of “git gaps” 🙊 would have fitted in another 3 or 4 boats at least but nobody seemed keen to move despite me stopping mid river and looking a while , we pushed on further down the Ant, we found a perfect mooring, another Richardsons boat was moored at the other end but we had a nice spot all to ourselves. 
Louise cooked tea aboard and packed the clothes and shopping away , I sat outside a while and took in the peace and quite, a few boats still passed as it was getting dark, I did wonder where they would end up getting a mooring as next stop was Ludham bridge.

I had no idea where we were heading in the morning but I got the maps out and had a look, I knew where we would be going during the next 11 days but not in which order 😂

Boat cleaned up

 

Arrived at Pontefract

Roy’s Toys!First sight of the river at Wroxham Unloading at Stalham, coincidentally Monaco was moored beside Ultimate Gem 1, a boat I had been on around 34 years ago aged 10. She has just been sold to private owners.And we are off!Moored for the first night…bliss 

[SwanR]

Enjoying seeing your photos and reading where you went. Wow what a journey just to get here. 

[KevinB]

7 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Enjoying seeing your photos and reading where you went. Wow what a journey just to get here. 

Thanks , it’s definitely worth the drive though , reminds me I forgot to add a pic 😂Car parked up at Richardsons, 560 miles and 11 hours drive 

[Lulu]

Looking forward to the next instalment and great to see a photo of your daily commute boat! 

[750XL]

Good read and great photos! Both boats look lovely 

[KevinB]

4 minutes ago, Lulu said:

Looking forward to the next instalment and great to see a photo of your daily commute boat! 

Thanks, yeah she’s a bit different to a broads cruiser, she does 28 knots, 4mph takes a bit of getting used to for the first few days 🤣

[MauriceMynah]

Sorry Kevin, but this has to be said.

Your pictures clearly shws you to be blocking an emergency ladder even though there is space ahead of you to move up into. This really is a big no-no. 

Those ladders are there to assist anybody who falls in the river and should never be blocked. Apart from that, a fine write-up

[floydraser]

3 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

Sorry Kevin, but this has to be said.

Your pictures clearly shws you to be blocking an emergency ladder even though there is space ahead of you to move up into. This really is a big no-no. 

Those ladders are there to assist anybody who falls in the river and should never be blocked. Apart from that, a fine write-up

That's interesting, I wouldn't have known that. Are they clearly marked from the river side?

[vanessan]

I’m struggling to work out exactly where the boat is moored unless it’s at one of the drainage mills. Perhaps KevinB could clarify?

27 minutes ago, floydraser said:

That's interesting, I wouldn't have known that. Are they clearly marked from the river side?

All the emergency ladders on BA 24 hour moorings are very clearly marked, if not on the quay heading itself either side of the ladder then on the ladder itself. This particular place however doesn’t appear to be a formal mooring. 

[YnysMon]

Great write up and lovely pics. 

Good point about the emergency ladder, as not everyone is aware about it. As Vanessa has pointed out not all of them are clearly marked. 

[grendel]

I believe there are a couple of spaces and quay heading at one of the drainage mills between How Hill and ludham, I have often seen boats moored up there, theres room for about 2 or 3 boats.

[addicted]

Really enjoyed reading this acount. Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Carole

[vanessan]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

I believe there are a couple of spaces and quay heading at one of the drainage mills between How Hill and ludham, I have often seen boats moored up there, theres room for about 2 or 3 boats.

That’s the one I was thinking it might be. (Neave’s drainage mill according to my OS map.) Doubt if there would be any keep clear signs on that ladder. 

[KevinB]

11 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

Sorry Kevin, but this has to be said.

Your pictures clearly shws you to be blocking an emergency ladder even though there is space ahead of you to move up into. This really is a big no-no. 

Those ladders are there to assist anybody who falls in the river and should never be blocked. Apart from that, a fine write-up

I’m aware of the need to leave safety ladders clear and would never knowingly block one, has there been any signage I would not have moored there. I always check for no mooring/keep clear/ private signs and I’m very respectful of them.

This however was not an official mooring , there was no signage whatsoever, I did stop and look before mooring as I expected to see a no mooring sign somewhere but there wasn’t, no mooring posts or cleats so I used the rhond anchors.

It’s clearly a very popular spot given how trodden the grass was , you can’t see easy from the pic but there wasn’t any room at the front, it’s an outfall and the quay head veers in there , it was either stop here or try my luck further down at Ludham bridge I choose to stop here and would do so again unless told not to.

8 hours ago, floydraser said:

That's interesting, I wouldn't have known that. Are they clearly marked from the river side?

This one had no markings or signage at all.

As has been said , all official BA ones do, most yacht station ladders also have the hand rails painted in bright orange paint now

7 hours ago, grendel said:

I believe there are a couple of spaces and quay heading at one of the drainage mills between How Hill and ludham, I have often seen boats moored up there, theres room for about 2 or 3 boats.

Yes that’s the spot,  about 15/20 mins upstream of Ludham bridge, always normally boats moored there when I pass as it seems a popular fishing spot. Brick built pump house and a quay heading at either side

[floydraser]

7 minutes ago, KevinB said:

This one had no markings or signage at all.

In that case I would have done exactly as you did, whether or not space was available elsewhere. At my age I would gladly use anything that helps getting on and off the boat safely.

[KevinB]

14 minutes ago, floydraser said:

In that case I would have done exactly as you did, whether or not space was available elsewhere. At my age I would gladly use anything that helps getting on and off the boat safely.

It was a nice spot, apart from that water flowing out of the outfall during the night waking me up 🤣

[Tractorted]

Loved the write up & the photos but one question is the A74 route quicker?from Perthshire we tend to use the A1 & stop overnight somewhere, depending on other commitments it’s been Berwick , Newcastle or Newarkish. The last trip had two overnights as we went in search of vintage plough parts which allowed us the morning to visit the horning butcher for treacle bacon with no mooring issues & arrive at the boatyard without frantic calls asking when we would arrive

Looking forward to the next instalment

[KevinB]

22 minutes ago, Tractorted said:

Loved the write up & the photos but one question is the A74 route quicker?from Perthshire we tend to use the A1 & stop overnight somewhere, depending on other commitments it’s been Berwick , Newcastle or Newarkish. The last trip had two overnights as we went in search of vintage plough parts which allowed us the morning to visit the horning butcher for treacle bacon with no mooring issues & arrive at the boatyard without frantic calls asking when we would arrive

Looking forward to the next instalment

Thanks , I’m not 100% sure if it’s quicker or not to be honest 😂 

That’s the way google maps and the car sat nav gives as the quickest route so I just go with that 😂

We always went right down the A1 when I was young with my parents and siblings,  we used to set off at midnight and Dad used to drive down , but I couldn’t do that, just floors you the next day.

Leaving a day earlier and stopping on the way down is definitely our preferred option now, we took a plane from Aberdeen to Norwich 4 years ago, that just took an hour, then a quick taxi to NBD yard at Wroxham , but that was a one off extravagance! 😂

[KevinB]

Tuesday 13th July

After a decent nights sleep , we were up feeling refreshed after the previous 2 days driving, me and Ava had breakfast sitting on the seat at the rear of the boat. There had already been a few boats pass at first light, I’m quite a light sleeper and heard them pass, best time of the day on the river I always think.

We sat and ate breakfast and watched a few boats head downriver past us and contemplated where to head today. We did think of heading straight to Great Yarmouth but also wanted to visit Potter Heigham and Wroxham, should we do this now or at the end of the holiday 🤔 I expected Wroxham might be a bit quieter today due to most boats from NBD and BB heading south , so decision made, have a run up to Potter Heigham and the compulsory Lathams visit, then up to Wroxham and spend the night , probably in NBD ‘s yard. The previous 3 years hires had been from NBD and as we are always keen to get going we always seem to only briefly spend time there at the start and end of our holiday it would be nice to spend longer there for a change.

I went and looked out the inflatable kayak I brought with us and blew it up on the grass bank before securing it on the rear roof.

I had been bought the kayak by my parents from Norfolk marine in Wroxham 30 years ago! It had been in my parents attic for at least 20 years without being looked at, I looked it out last month and checked it over and had the kids in it in the harbour here, it was still in perfect condition after all these years, I purchased another paddle off Amazon that came in 2 parts so it would fit in the car. I’m really glad we took it with us as it got a lot of use during the holiday, every night apart from Yarmouth. Kayaks and paddle boards have certainly grown in popularity since the previous time I was on the broads! 

We set off for Potter Heigham around 9am , at a leisurely pace, passing through Ludham bridge around 20 minutes later, few boats in front of us but we passed through without waiting and no boats were waiting to come through the other side, soon we were out the Ant and heading down the Bure. We arrived at HW’s yard at Potter Heigham at 10.45am. The outer marina moorings were pretty busy as were the grassy bits at other side, there was plenty space in the main marina, so I moored up at the top, out of the way of a few HW’s own boats, I asked a guy from the yard if it was ok to moor there for a couple of hours and he said it was fine, I always like to ask yards if it’s ok to moor rather than be asked to move a short time later.

A short walk around the yard and up to the bridge before the first ice cream of the holiday 😂 we sat on the benches at the other side of the bridge and ate them , never saw any boats go through.

Then it was a trip to Lathams for a few things we needed and a few things we didn’t realise we needed! 😂 Great shop that stocks everything but I really wish they would fit new flooring 🙈 

Back to the boat then we set off for Wroxham around 12.30pm , it was still a bit overcast but warm enough for the canopy to be down the whole time, I don’t like steering with the canopy up ( on any boat) but visibility wasn’t too bad on Monaco at all, except the wiper motor seemed to get in the way a bit.

River was fairly busy with traffic in both ways but not as bad as I had expected given every yard was reported to be fully booked. We passed the Albion heading the other way looking brilliant as always , arrived in Wroxham just before 3.30pm , a few boats going about but not that busy. We passed BB yard and noticed most of the outer jetty was free ,  I went up towards the bridge with the intention of going into NBD’s yard but could see a lot of boats moored there already , I’m never a fan of stern on mooring overnight with boats tightly either side and the road there can be quite noisy. So I decided to turn around and head to the mooring at BB yard , bow and stern thrusters span her around easily and we came along side the “webcam jetty” 😂  a BB worker was doing a boat handover so I waited until he was finished and went and asked him if it was ok to moor there for the night, he said of course no problem, strange thing was a few moments later a HW boat stopped and shouted over if they couldn’t moor in front of me and the same lad said no, the space was empty the entire time we were there.

Once tied up we relaxed on the boat a while before we later had a walk into town and stood on the bridge a while 😂 before heading to Roy’s for a look around. We then went to Grey’s for fish and chips and took it back to the boat , very nice it was too.

Later on I got the kayak down and took both kids in turn for a paddle up the river under the bridge, there was an alarming amount of swans trying to intimidate us but they were fine 😂 We never met another boat and the river was very quite and still, something I don’t normally experience in Wroxham. We then sat with the canopy back until it was dark, a very enjoyable end to our first full day.

Ludham bridgeHerbert Woods yardNew skipper!Hard work being in charge!Moored at Barnes Brinkcraft Bridge viewKayak timeWebcam view 😂

 

[SwanR]

Sounds like a great day. I grabbed a webcam shot of us moored up at BB some years ago at the end of a holiday. You certainly have to be careful what you’re doing when you know the world could be watching!😂 

Looks a comfortable boat with a nice helm setup. 

[YnysMon]

Another great account. Lovely to see the kids wearing life jackets. 

[KevinB]

9 hours ago, SwanR said:

Sounds like a great day. I grabbed a webcam shot of us moored up at BB some years ago at the end of a holiday. You certainly have to be careful what you’re doing when you know the world could be watching!😂 

Looks a comfortable boat with a nice helm setup. 

Yes I’ve taken screen shots of us coming and going to NBD in the past 🙈🤣

It is a very comfortable boat, with a good helm seat but I found myself standing while underway a lot of the time , the angle of the wheel to seat hight was just a bit awkward I found, maybe just me but the top of the screen got in my vision a bit, had the screen down a few days when it was very hot for a bit of a draft and visibility was much better 

[KevinB]

9 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Another great account. Lovely to see the kids wearing life jackets. 

The life jackets provided by Richardson’s fitted very well and they didn’t mind wearing them at all 

[KevinB]

Wednesday 14th July

After a quiet night, the geese had an early start which woke me up before 5am, surprising amount of noise they can make , makes a change from the usual seagulls at home! It was a slightly overcast day but warm enough so the canopy was half opened while having breakfast.

The decision was made to head to Gt Yarmouth and stay for 2 nights, mainly for the kids as by the time we get there they wouldn’t get a full day so 2 days it was.

We set off at 8.15am after I had topped up the water and met quite a few boats going in both directions, we had a good run down the Bure although going against the tide we made good progress. On the way we discussed trying to get tickets for the hippodrome circus show as we had tried in previous years but they had always sold out so Louise decided to phone and try and secure tickets , luckily they had availability for Thursday night at 7.30pm , the kids were very excited as we had seen clips online , I was also looking forward to a visit as in all the 40+ years I had been to Yarmouth we had never once attended a show at the hippodrome.

As we came into Yarmouth I noticed the Marina quays tower had been demolished since our last visit, it had been badly vandalised and was a bit of an eyesore but was still sad to see it gone as it’s been a landmark coming into Yarmouth since my childhood, I had read about the plans for the site and hopefully it can be developed at some point. 
We arrived at the yacht station at 12.30pm, we were greeted by the 2 attendants as I slowed down to look for a mooring, it was quite busy but I could see a few spaces but none quite big enough , but the attendants shouted over that there was more space further down so soon we were tied up and quite close to a hose which was handy.

After paying for 2 nights and then lunch on the boat ,we set off for a walk to the seafront , soon we were walking down Regent road with its familiar sights and sounds, Yarmouth doesn’t seem to change , yes it’s a bit tacky but it does have a nostalgic appeal. The “puppet man” and Charlie Chaplin statue were both still in their usual spots and the “good times” music shop still playing out loud music 😂We headed over to the Britannia Pier , Ava wanted a hair braid as she does every year, then we were dragged into “joy land” by the kids 😂 several rides and a lighter wallet later we walked over to the land train stop as we could see it was waiting for more passengers, we decided to get aboard and got a trip to Wellington pier. On the way I was really surprised to see the Marina centre was gone! The site was a hive of activity and the all new Marina centre was taking shape. The kids were disappointed to learn they wouldn’t be visiting the pool here this year after all! I have a lot of fond memories of the Marina centre from my childhood and recall seeing many live acts on stage here at nights after being at the pool then walking back along the seafront in the dark. It had become a bit neglected looking on our last visit 2 years ago , it’s a bold move by the council and I look forward to seeing the end result. The big investment in the new market is good to see too, the construction was well underway and looks to be a big improvement on the existing market.

After an ice cream and a look around a few of the touristy shops we had a slow walk back along the front , it’s surprisingly quick how the crowds disappear later in the day, the walk back up Regent road was very quiet compared to earlier in the day, shops all seemed to shut quite early too. We had a look at the big wheel and decided a trip on that was in order tomorrow but definitely not on the sling shot ride beside it!

We arrived back at the boat at 6.15pm to the usual Noble house Chinese takeaway flyer lying on the deck at the back door 😂 Louise made tea on the boat and we relaxed on the boat the rest of the night, quite a few boats still passing in both directions , the river height being considerably lower than earlier. The Showers onboard Monaco were quite good, the water still being very hot from the good run that day , although I always seemed to get a cold shower after everyone else had had theirs  🤔 😂

 

 

Leaving BB webcam shot 🙈New skipper

Just a small one for me 🤣

 

 

[YnysMon]

Thanks again for the latest tale.