Week in Norfolk

[JawsOrca]

Hi All, 

 

Back home after a week on the broads.. Here's a little ships blog..

 

Day 1 (saturday 19th)

 

Arrived in the afternoon after aiming to get there for 9am but done the lowestoft road because mum said avoid the norwich bit.. but there was a festival in southwold so we should have stuck with the norwich road (or done the halesworth one). At the yard parked in the yare pub because eastwoods is a building site (sad to see), bumped the ocean 44 getting out (sorry again lol)..

 

Stopped at hardley windmill (opposite cantley) and was in awe, the volunteer guide was brilliant and got the sails turning and showed us around.. truly amazing to see one turning and working.. certainly well worth a look (well worth by far the £2 fee - We gave a donation - They also have car parking and a little canteen area.. go look!).

 

Headed slowly down the chet but shocked to see every mooring taken by a club event, although pacific cruisers were empty and requesting for an overnight mooring the owner said you can but unfortunately it's a £5 fee (he could have said £30 fee but we wouldn't miss loddon for anything!)... lovely overnight quite spot though better mooring there! Nice walk into the village and had a good look round.. followed by 3 course meal in The white horse (really really nice! One of the best restaurants on the broads).

 

Day ended by a pretty lightning storm.

 

Day 2.

 

Slow cruise up through yarmouth, Lovely weather, breydon smooth as glass as always ! Stopped at stacy arms for an icecream and some lemonade for the shandys.. the shops good there now although lots of tourist gifts. The goats said hello and were good at winding up those afraid of them! Potter ham for an afternoon wonder. Quick visit to QD stores (sorry lathams - Bring back lathams - it's got so crap now!). Quick walk round the boat sales.. we still like the freeman step up hulls oh well.. Thurne dyke for overnight .. showed off turning round with no space under engine whilst others struggle with overuse of bow thrusters!  Nice meal in the pub chatted to the landlord and they may have mooring for us next year (undecided though if its secure enough for us).

 

Day 3.

 

Grey overcast morning.. up at 8 and most hireboats already vanished (where do they go?!).. Southerly wind holding us to the bank though.. took some effort to unstick 4th attempt I made it though.. (jealous of those hireboat bow thrusters lol!).  Stopped at st bennets... looks good.. not been there for a few years and forgotten a lot about it also nice information boards up there now.. good walk around.. sun cleared so up the ant.. busy slow passage.. got a bit annoyed by a day boat refusing to over take a tacking boat.. eventually the hireboat infront of us barged through followed by us! Stopped at Gayes staithe for the first time and walked upto the board walk.. Long walk but nice walk. Upto neatishead for lunch but pub jammed with "water rats" band so settled for icecream in the little shop.  Onto stalham for supplies..the little public staithe was jammed.. mooncraft had "go away" boards so (sorry Clive) sneaked into Richardsons! Had a good look in the boat building sheads to how the real boys build boats and really captivating! The smell of resin reminded us of home.. could easily have gone in and picked up a roller and gave them a hand! Walk into the village.. pass tescos (I refuse to shop in Tescos in stalham and beccles.. hope they both burn down!).. so generally food in the little local shop (Big shout out to this little shop.. any visitors to stalham go here! It's non for profit and only sells local stuff - we found last years and make a beeline for it now!) Then meat from the butchers.. fresh bake on the boat pastry's from the shop next door. Left the yard followed the richardsons cruisers zig zagging their way at 2kts downstream (To be honest though we watched the induction whilst moored and it seems a lot better than we first received and the hire people were very polite coming out asking if I wanted to overtake .. telling them not to worry as i'm in no rush we slowly made our way to a "wild mooring" for a BBQ! Just before dusk I wanted to take a quick look at wayford bridge (its a place I'd like to put our boat).. Thankfully there was a spot beside the bridge.. Off to the pub for a pint (or 2.. 3...4).. Dessert menu looked too good so we had dessert.. forgot what it was but I think it was yummy! 

 

Day 4.

 

Woke up back on the boat so didn't get too drunk.. Again all hireboats vanished at 8am! Slow drive past Jons yard but didn't spot anyone (Some really lovely wooden boats in there though).. Slow drive down the ant (more zig zagging Richardson boats again all again very polite and doing a good job on that narrow river). Stopped at how hill for the pastry's brought at stalham.. lovely! Stopped again at Ludham bridge and had a walk round.. not much open though for some unknown reason and stocked up so no look in the little shop. Lunch stop in horning.. new inn welcoming to the boat as always (My parents live in there pretty much!).. Slow walk around NYA boat sales.. not much of interest though. Spent a few hours though.. Headed for Wroxham for a curry in our favourite curry house! Struggled for mooring but hotel wroxham good as usual and allowed us to short stay. Left wroxham at dusk for salhouse broad.. first time navigating northern rivers at dusk and truly magical it was (pictures not brilliant but gives some idea) (Note to readers.. This is my Parents own boat (I hate the word private) so we have Nav lights and therefore can navigate after dark.. hireboats can't - But I think they should as its brilliant!).. Arrived into salhouse just as the last bit of the light vanished.. Dropped mudweight.. lovely little spot just around the corner.

 

Day 5. 

 

Smugly reversed the boat from its mudweight spot onto the main stern on mooring for a walk around.. nice new boardwalk and BBQ areas looks smart there now! Unplanned day though but considered heading back up the ant.. Quick look in ranworth first though... seeing a queue of boats waiting to moor.. no chance.. Deciding its getting busy up here (boats everywhere!) and noticing the tides was good for yarmouth we decided to head south.. Tad early so done a few turns on the way down.. windy day though and wind meant breydon was a little bit more active (wouldnt say rough) but we turned around a few times "playing" dread to think what the proper conservative "Privates" thought! lol Was aiming for Beccles but did the maths and it wouldn't be possible that side of midnight! so stopped at Burgh castle but a bit too hot for the walk.. so back aboard and headed for Reedham.. ferry inn as its been a few years since we been in there.. Moored just infront of "Ranworth Breeze" but I don't think it was Alan and Tan aboard and didnt quite work out who was aboard .. Dinner was fish and chips. service was still slow although the waitress said the chef just walked out (Hope they got them back though .. food was good and we will probably be back!

 

Day 6.

 

Off to Beccles.. Poor tide planning and the tide wasn't being nice.. So beating through reedham (Testing Grahams fix! - All good Into Oulton broad and moored up with no problems.. Lunch in the wherry hotel (they didn't have Woodfordes wherry?!!) but nice lunch.. will be back.. Slow walk around the park and looked at some of the moorings there.. looked nice.. maybe.. Off again stopped at Waveney riverside complex.. every time we go there its doubles in size.. looks smart though.. ice cream in the shade.. Left for Beccles.. Made Dave helm and I sat on the front all the way... was nice.. he did ok.. kept between the banks and didn't hit anything! Nice walk around beccles and Dinner in the Waveney house hotel.. we like it and it was nice.. 

 

Day 7.

 

Back up the hill to beccles in the morning.. Market day so fresh bread and breakfast. Walk around lathams number 2 (QD stores) - Dave brought a spot light for Orca. breakfast by the river before heading off. We left beccles at about 11:30.. and the tide again wasn't being helpful. Made it somerleyton squeezed under the bridge.. could of inches spare (left our radio at home and it said 8.2) bit tight for comfort but all ok.. Moored up as I wanted to take a look at the marina there.. watched a couple of real "privates" trying to moor their "marina only" type boats up with the current.. bow thrusters and twin engines all being used to their extremes.. Walk over to the marina looks good.. maybe! then upto the little shop for an icecream. Headed off hit Reedham at what I think was full flow out so we had to stop.. BA mooring guy really cool though and agreed that we should head for the pub and come back later! Hour later after a few beers (shandys ...) the tide looked no better.. although a couple of sail boats where sailing up and if they can do it "sweet kingfisher" can... they soon overtook us though! Into Rockland to thankfully an empty mooring (the southern broads again where packed out!).. Showing off again though I turned the boat around on a dime with a few people watching! Off to the New inn there for dinner.. another brilliant meal and lots of beers! (the mooring and easy stumbling distance).

 

Day 8.

 

Two hireboats again vanished at it was only 7.30am.. Back to Brundall. Refuelled at Brooms and had a long look round and a chat to the guys there.. the hireboats are really lovely! We had a good look around NYA here and even went on some of the big brooms with the aim to swop our steel barge for a nice plastic boat.. thought provoking though.. (Orca first..) Getting late we headed south straight away lunch at pin mill though near ipswich.. last feeling of east anglia.. air con on though and home to a cat that still loves us and is snuggled up beside me... 

 

Couple of pictures attached.  I didn't take my camera as I normally get carried away..

 

Thanks for reading

[Gracie]

Yay, Jaws is back, a lovely read and the photos just brilliant thanks for posting. Just as a matter of interest did you do any nude cruising been a lot of talk about it on here, if so did you take any pics?

 

Glad you had a lovely time but need to get back to work on your boat, in need of updates lol

 

Hope you left your mums boat nice and clean and made good use of the bath

 

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Lol. Glad to be back.. Kinda lol.. wish we was still up there.. its hard to leave norfolk! 

 

Unfortunately no nude cruising after all that food and drink I think we both are a couple of stones heavier! Although it was certainly hot enough to get away with it lol!

 

The boats all good, I swept the floor and Graham again did do a brilliant job and fixed it.  I forgot how small the bath is though lol!

 

I think we will back over the boat tomorrow although it seems the yacht club have come up with a new excuse and want to move us.. can't wait to get it up to norfolk where it deserves to be!

[Broads01]

I enjoyed your tale Jaws, thanks for posting.

[Hockham Admiral]

Great Blog, Alan.... that Woodfordes looks a bit cloudy, eh? 

[JawsOrca]

I can't say I noticed John.. it didnt last long! lol

[SweetKingfisher1]

Yes Alan vey good write up of your week on Sweet Kingfisher. I am glad you did not put any maggots in the fridge this time. Why did you travel on the A12? You said you were going via G/Y, so why did you not go via A140 cut through to G/Y and when do you listen to me. 

 

I will check the boat out tomorrow (Friday) when I /we get to her. We will be heading to Norwich, as we have friends from work coming up for the day. Then cruise down river towards Brundall and not sure where lunch will be.

 

We will be back up in four weeks time for two weeks cruising the broads ( sorry to rub it in Alan ).

 

If anyone is up on the yare on saturday give us a wave.

 

Kind regards

 

Marina  

[Gracie]

Oops, I think you're getting a bit of a telling off there Alan lol

 

Have a lovely time on Friday Marina, hope the weather stays good for you

 

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Lol grace she loves me really...

 

Mother (she loves it even more when I call her mother lol)..

 

You know I don't do directions and I don't do road numbers..  I only know of the two norfolk roads as the "Eye" road (what's the Eye festival like?) and the lowestoft road (and that one I sometimes go towards folixstowe because the road number changes)!.. We always do the lowestoft road because its prettier.. and we wanted asda in yarmouth so it made sense to use that... although the latitude festival in southwold slowed us down.. we didnt do too bad though.

 

Have fun on the boat..as I say to dave.. keep it between the banks and don't hit the other boats!

[JawsOrca]

lol dave.. yup sorry i just posted all pictures I took on my phone.. The foot ones were for facebook as my friends where publishing "feet by the pool" picture from the usual tropical paradises .. so I did the same but with the broads in the background!... (They were genuine jealous when they noticed I had a better tan than they did! (Joys of the flybridge and 10 hour days!)

[BroadScot]

Glad you had a good holiday Alan, now get back to completeing that project of yours, then you can go to Norfolk any time you feel like it!

 

Iain.

[Gracie]

Quite right Iain, we haven't had an up date for a while,  hope you're not slacking Jaws, you really need to get the heads finished, I bet you haven't finished the head lining either. In need of my restoration fix so stop browsing the Forum and get to work

 

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Lol sorry guys I was busy filling and sanding the shower room tray smooth.. covered in fibreglass splinters as usual.. in fact today I did mention I can beep beep wait to get it in norfolk, We really have broken the back of it though and it should be downhill from now on! We have reserved my folks boats for august bank holiday though just in case we need a mini break!

[SweetKingfisher1]

Hello Grace, the weather man was very wrong and we had blue sky and hot sun. It was great sitting on top deck cruising the river Yare. We have not been down to Norwich by boat since last years holiday.

 

Dear Alan what happen to the log book for your week on the boat. We were looking forward to reading your input, what happen?

 

Regards

Marina  

[Gracie]

Hi Marina, glad you had a lovely time and the weather was good.

 

The reason I think that Alan didn't do the ships log is because he was too busy taking photos of feet and drinking beer lol

 

Grace

[JawsOrca]

Mum I second what Grace said!

 

I forgot the first day and then thought it was too late. We don't really stop though so it will be all log! (Plus I think you would have kittens if you saw how much night passages we did lol!).  Just print this off mum and put it in there