Springer’s Retreat On The Rivers

[Lulu]

Ahhh my favourite mooring.  

What about reproducing and enlarging one of your photos for the boat Kate?

[kpnut]

I do like the one I took this afternoon Sam, of the boat in the mooring. I’ll see what it looks like on my desktop screen when I get home. 

[kpnut]

And I have a nice one at Dilham too from last year, but it’s portrait and I need landscape. 

[kpnut]

Why is it that every time I’m moored somewhere that can show a good sunrise and the forecast looks promising, there’s always mist?

As an aside, I was very impressed that my solar panel was indicating still charging for a while after the sun had gone down last night. I suppose showing a charging light, and really doing anything effective are two different things. 

[SwanR]

I wasn’t expecting the mist this morning either Kate. Was expecting a fine sunny day from the forecast. So I went shopping in Norwich yesterday and saved my outdoor chores for today!

[kpnut]

6 minutes ago, SwanR said:

Was expecting a fine sunny day from the forecast

It’s on its way🤞

[kpnut]

Yep, the sun came out at some point on my journey along the Bure and then up the Ant. All very quiet on the river, but St Benets and Ludham Bridge moorings were fairly full. 
I’m not a great lover of an overnight stop at Gayes staithe, but like it during the day if it’s really sunny. Seeing as I had a couple of hours to kill before going back to my home mooring at Stalham, I thought I’d go there and just sit and enjoy the sunshine. As I approached along from the main Broad, the passing ranger called across to me that Neatishead moorings had just reopened after their refurb, so, being a nosey soul, that’s where I went instead. Two other cruisers plus two smaller motor yachts had beaten me to it. Word must get round quickly. 
Time came to move on back to Stalham. I’d missed Mouldy at Gayes staithe, I hadn’t spotted him when I went past up Lime Kiln Dyke. I waved on the return but no sign of life on board!

Lulu mentioned the dredger moored on the big bend before the turn to Stalham. It has now moved downstream a bit, and was moored in the thinnest section. I had to wait while another boat passed it coming towards me. I presume it just stays where it’s working till it’s done that bit and then creeps along a bit further. 
Cleaning jobs took precedence once safely moored up, ready for a visitor in the morning. Finlay snoozed in the car, and then we had a quick wander round the yard, saying hi to Neil again on my journey round. 
Springer’s Retreat will be returning to LBBY on Tuesday for her last bits and bobs to be finished off. Then I’m looking forward to the main boating season with plenty of ‘dry dog towel’ days!

[Mouldy]

47 minutes ago, kpnut said:

Time came to move on back to Stalham. I’d missed Mouldy at Gayes staithe, I hadn’t spotted him when I went past up Lime Kiln Dyke. I waved on the return but no sign of life on board!

Might have been on our way to The Fudge Lady, via The White Horse!    Sorry to have missed you though!  Good luck with the rest of the work at LBBY.

Were hoping to be back in the northern rivers on Norfolk Lady in July, before the start of school holidays and ensuing mayhem!

[kpnut]

31 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

Might have been on our way to The Fudge Lady, via The White Horse!  

From Gayes staithe, that is a diversion to the fudge lady!!

[kpnut]

Saturday 13th May

Back on board, collecting boat from LBBY in the afternoon. Very chuffed with the work done, even if I could do with a small mortgage to pay the bill 😂

Back to base with at least two and a half weeks stretching out in front of me. 
Sunday was a morning of tidying, cleaning etc, the main one to see to was cleaning and re proofing the canopies. I ran out of waterproofer just before finishing. Grrh. 
I spent a lovely afternoon driving to Womack staithe where as soon as I parked up I spotted Simon, Katie and Bramble sitting out on the grass. We had a nice chat before I set off down to Womack Dyke to find Sam, Graham and Desmond on Luna Aurora. What a wonderful sociable afternoon all round, with a good dog walk round the riverbank towards Potter Heigham. Desmond and Finlay got on well again. 
Mondays first job was driving to Catfield to buy a longer bow rope from Ropes Direct. My current one is just too short to use as a spring. I only have one bow rope, with the cleat in the middle by the mudweight. Then to Hoveton to get more waterproofer and a few bits and bobs from Roys. The traffic was horrendous due to 4 way traffic lights on the two mini roundabouts. It was backing up past the bridge in one direction and up past the Boulters industrial estate turnoff in the other. Luckily the road from Horning was fairly free so I diverted round by Norfolk Marine and up onto that road, getting to the lights a lot quicker. 
Then there were more traffic lights past the bigger roundabout up by the line of houses where the pavement was being upgraded a few months ago. 
The sun came out as I finished off the canopy waterproofing - good job ticked off. Garry and Oscar came across for a chat, Oscar going straight to the boot of the car to invite Finlay out to play. 
New flooring in the boat has been done, chuffed again by the result from Chris at Stalham Carpets. I now have what feels more like a mini house than a boat!!! I just wish I was more skilful to do these jobs myself, not only for the cost but for the pride of it too. 

And a visit to How Hill secret garden

along with a walk down the riverbank and a dog training session on the grass field by the car park, and another visit to Brundall just to see what was there have completed my trip so far. 
I spoke to a lad painting quay heading at Brooms. He said the new visitor moorings along the roadside by the Heron (?) pub would be marked in one colour and private moorings in another, one blue, one black but he wasn’t sure which was which. I had a quick wander around NYA to ogle the massive boats for sale. The most expensive I saw was £280,000!!

Tomorrow will be preparing for the meet at the weekend, getting the boat ready for my visitors, namely Helen, Graham, Harry, Seren and Pozzick. 
I’m so looking forward to this weekend and then continuing to be out and about on the boat after all this time waiting for her. Of course, bearing in mind the imminent arrival of grandchild no.1 any day now. 

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

Tomorrow will be preparing for the meet at the weekend, getting the boat ready for my visitors, namely Helen, Graham, Harry, Seren and Pozzick. 
I’m so looking forward to this weekend and then continuing to be out and about on the boat after all this time waiting for her. Of course, bearing in mind the imminent arrival of grandchild no.1 any day now. 

Looking forward to meeting up Kate. Just hope Pozzick respects your new carpet. The good news is that he hasn’t had a single ‘accident’ on this trip…not even when we passed the Postwick Viaduct. In fact, he’s been very content on board. 

Glad to see you managed a visit to the secret gardens. 

[kpnut]

I’ve kept the old vinyl so will lay that back down for the weekend. Then you can relax and not worry about him. 

[kpnut]

Friday 19th May

Getting ready for the meet. Washing sheets and changing the bed for Helen and Graham, refitting the old vinyl to protect the new flooring from 3 dogs, food shopping. 
Then the hour I’d been looking forward to arrived, with a car plus trailer full of 3 adults and 2 dogs arriving. 
Helen and family settled in, dogs were introduced to each other and the boat. And after a leisurely lunch we set off for Fleet Dyke. The dogs were very excited on setting off, but soon settled into the pattern of Pozzick chilling and Seren on look-out. Finlay just sleeping as always once underway.

By evening, the bend moorings at Fleet Dyke were about half full, so the season is still young. 
Going for a dog walk confirmed Finlay had an issue. He’d unusually wanted to go out early that morning. And when trying to ‘empty’ himself of undigested food (I’m trying to be polite here!) nothing doing except a few drops of liquid. 
This continued in the afternoon. I decided that part of the piece of wood I’d taken away from him on Thursday afternoon because he was chewing it, had been ingested and now he had a blockage. Hmm, see how it goes. 
 

Saturday 20th May

NBN Meet day had arrived. Graham and Harry had decorated the boat with bunting the previous afternoon so we were well qualified to join the CinC at Malthouse for 11am. We timed it just right, joining the flotilla as they left the moorings. The rest of the cruisers arrived halfway down the Dam and we must have made an impressive sight, 12 boats in all, wending our way past two yachts and a wherry. Last year I hadn’t dared join the CinC so was fairly nervous of a mistake, but Helen did the first half to cockshoot and then I took over, really enjoying the whole thing. Being in the middle, there was plenty of space on arrival at Salhouse so I didn’t have to squeeze in between two boats. 
I won’t relate stuff about the meet as it’s on another thread, apart from saying that Helen did a super job baking some buns and Nigel’s quiz had some superb questions. 
Many thanks to them, and to everyone else involved with organisation and leading the cruise. And thanks for having us. 

Finlay was still ‘poo-less’ but seemed very happy racing around all day, eating and drinking as normal. 
Overnight though, he woke me at 2am and I spent half an hour wandering the grass area with my torch, trying to keep up with him as I needed to inspect every ‘squatting venue’. Unsettled once back on board with what sounded like gulping, and at 3.30am he was sick. I couldn’t sleep from then on and at 5.30am when he whined to go out again, we went for a long walk for the next 2 hours. A rather surreal experience wandering around in jimjams, bedsocks and wellies. No luck for Finlay and I rang the emergency vet as soon as I thought was polite, at 6.30am. Considering he was bright and breezy in himself, she said ‘no need to panic, see how it goes’. 
My gut feeling was by Monday he’d be having surgery. 
 

After our goodbyes, we set off back to Stalham, witnessing an incident at Ludham Bridge when the boat in front seemed to having an issue with helm changeover from below to upper. It reversed into two boats moored on the private moorings opposite LBBY. We took photos and further to that I contacted the hireyard this morning and also passed the details to LBBY to pass on to the private owners. I was well pleased to get past this errant boat soon after the public moorings as it was all over the place and seemed totally oblivious of any other boats around it, including us. On passing, I noticed that rather than the one person we’d seen running between down and up a number of times, there were actually 4 people on board. 

A stop at Paddy’s Lane to drop Harry off to paddle board back to Stalham, and as the sun got stronger and hotter, we arrived back home to reverse the process of packing up. 

A final buffet lunch and Graham then collected me from dropping the car off at LBBY. I would certainly need it down there if I have to get to get to the vet in a hurry.
After saying our goodbyes, and Finlay trying out Seren’s bed in the car, the boat then had to be taken down to Ludham Bridge again for one more day of finishing off. The broken night caught up with me, it was a struggle getting down there but after a bit of a fright, I woke up, gave myself a good talking to and focused a bit more, spotting Griff and BA on the Ludham side moorings, tooting a ‘hello’ to him on my way past, I slotted into the space that had been left for me at the yard. 
A very early night with the worry about how the dog would get on. 

Monday 22nd May 

Completely relieved to announce that Finlay finally did something resembling a poo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent start. I’ve never been so happy to have to find a poo bin😂

And another later, so hopefully the worst is over. 🤞🤞

My apologies to those of a delicate disposition who didn’t want to know quite so much detail!

Tomorrow I will be moving the car back to Stalham, getting back down to the boat and going on my jolly way for a week or so. 
 

And I haven’t forgotten my daughter in amongst all this worry; she’s still intact, baby now overdue. 

 

[SwanR]

What a great write up Kate. Glad to hear that Finlay seems to be getting back to himself. Safe travels wherever this morning finds you. And very best wishes for your daughter’s imminent arrival. 

[YnysMon]

Thanks again Kate for making us so welcome. We were so relieved to hear that Findlay has finally been able to relieve himself! He's such a lovely dog. I'm sure that there aren't that many dogs that would be so unphased about his home being invaded by two other dogs, one rather large and one rather over excited.

Thanks for making it possible for us to attend the meet.

[kpnut]

My absolute pleasure Helen. Loved having you all. 

[kpnut]

Tuesday 23rd May

On my way at 4pm for over a week on the rivers. And the forecast is set fair so far. 
 

I had an interesting day of exploring. Grendel’s post yesterday of Castle staithe at Wroxham reminded me I had promised myself to find the access from the road, assuming it must be accessible, going by all the families etc who use Caen Meadow in the summer. 
I duly found the right road, (Castle street or Church lane will take you there). 
Parked up and walked down to the staithe which was blazed in beautiful sunshine and deserted. Finlay had a good run around in Caen meadow before we set off for a road walk. Up Church Lane, across the main road into the Avenue. Some big houses up there. I followed Staitheway Road down to the moorings opposite Barnes Brinkcraft. I’d always wondered how you got to them. I don’t know who owns the moorings as there were no signs. 
Back up to the Avenue, with a detour down another dead end road (Hartwell Rd) leading to Barton House Railway. 
And then along to the sailing club at Wroxham Broad. There’s a useful little slipway there, open to the public. Back to the Avenue again and s as long to Salhouse Road, following it round to the mini roundabout by Roys garage, along the main road and back down Castle Street to my car. It was a very relaxing walk although the Avenue was a surprisingly busy road. No idea why I didn’t take any photos. 
 

Although my best days are on the river, I do enjoy finding out about more of the area, so don’t really mind having to wait for my boat an extra day.
But now moored up following a stunning day weather-wise, I can feel relaxation mode kicking in. 

[kpnut]

For those either reading Water  Rail’s thread, or were at the meet or wondering if I’d actually get to the meet last weekend, I’ve just been told my granddaughter (baby no name) was born on Monday evening, a healthy (hefty) 8lb12oz and both mum and baby fine, mum already knackered😂

[Lulu]

Congratulations to you and the exhausted parents!   I just love being a grandma. Welcome to the club xxx

[SwanR]

Wonderful news. Congratulations to you and the family. 

[Mouldy]

58 minutes ago, kpnut said:

For those either reading Water  Rail’s thread, or were at the meet or wondering if I’d actually get to the meet last weekend, I’ve just been told my granddaughter (baby no name) was born on Monday evening, a healthy (hefty) 8lb12oz and both mum and baby fine, mum already knackered😂

Congratulations grandma/nanny* (*delete as appropriate).

[YnysMon]

1 hour ago, kpnut said:

For those either reading Water  Rail’s thread, or were at the meet or wondering if I’d actually get to the meet last weekend, I’ve just been told my granddaughter (baby no name) was born on Monday evening, a healthy (hefty) 8lb12oz and both mum and baby fine, mum already knackered😂

Spot on timing!

[kpnut]

12 minutes ago, YnysMon said:

Spot on timing!

Yep, very considerate!

1 hour ago, Mouldy said:

Congratulations grandma/nanny* (*delete as appropriate).

Nan for me, Mouldy. Not sure for Tony yet. When I said one of the possibilities over the phone, he said it sounded like Grumpy, which would be very apt😂

[ZimbiIV]

Nothing wrong with being grandpa grumps,

Although the 19 year old still saying it does wrankle a bit.

She still phones when needs something sorting so I suppose it is said affectionatly.

paul

[CambridgeCabby]

Congratulations Kate !!