Holiday Tales

[Happy]

Now feeling too old for actual 'real boating' anymore we were looking to hire a houseboat on the Broads.  Fortunately a member posted

something on here in January mentionig Simpsons boatyard at Stalham Staithe.  I 'phoned them and booked a week from 8 April on Maud.

That was the good news!  On the way from Folkestone in Kent we stopped off at Stanstead Services.  Comming out the traffic was so busy

that it took us 30 minutes to re-join the M11.  As soon as we rejoined the main traffic the car came up with 'low coolant' - back to hard shoulder.

The AA sent a recovery truck to get us off the motorway within an hour.  He took us to a services about 15 miles away and an AA man came to look at the car.

Whilst he poured water into the header tank it was pooring out from somewhere that could not be seen.  He asked us whether we wanted to be relayed back

to Kent or on to Norfolk.  We were on holiday so decided on Norfolk.  After two hours and now dark the recovery truck arrived and we arrived at the boatyard at

22.15.  Fortunately we had a key to gain entry and the accomadation was warm and clean.

The following morning (Saturday) I spent hours trying to arrange a repair but all the places I found were shut until Monday!  Sequal to this was that the car was

relayed to a Jaguar specialist about 20 miles away on Tuesday for repair and we got it back on Thursday afternoon.  I had never been to Stalham before but the Swan became our 'local'

Great food and drinks.  All the staff loverly.

Anyway:  the house boat and yard were brilliant.  Did a lot more walking than usual and will certainly be booking again.  With hopefully no breakdowns next time.

[andyg]

Richardsons spent a lot of money refurbishing them house boats a few years back when they were running the yard. They looked quite smart when finished. They also introduced a couple of rc45s into the fleet of hire boats. Not quite sure what happened there. Glad you enjoyed yourself. 

[Happy]

19 hours ago, andyg said:

Richardsons spent a lot of money refurbishing them house boats a few years back when they were running the yard. They looked quite smart when finished. They also introduced a couple of rc45s into the fleet of hire boats. Not quite sure what happened there. Glad you enjoyed yourself. 

No actual hire boats now just cottages and 5 house boats which as you say are still in good  condition.  They also have

quite a fleet of day and picnic boats, again all in great condition.  A nice very friendly yard.

 

[andyg]

1 hour ago, Happy said:

No actual hire boats now just cottages and 5 house boats which as you say are still in good  condition.  They also have

quite a fleet of day and picnic boats, again all in great condition.  A nice very friendly yard.

 

The moonfleet boats always looked very presentable. 

[Tempest]

13 hours ago, andyg said:

The moonfleet boats always looked very presentable

When we hired Moonfleet was our number 1 choice as the service and the way they presented their boats was unbeatable in our opinion