The Adventures of Orca

lampini · July 30, 2015

You might want to stop reading in a couple of days.. sadly the trip goes down hill very quickly and it won't be a good advertisment for the broads (Iain has the mod buttons at the ready!!). But I'm going to tell it as it happened.. but hasten to add, I've never experienced a trip as bad so this really is a rare occurrence... It should be nice and calm in September though although I understand both Steve and Debs and my parents are out at some point so you may want to keep a close look out

Nope - wanna hear it all - warts and all!

Anyhoo - we are well-hard, us..... We have boated through London on a SATURDAY NIGHT! Brushing the stoners off the lock-beams at Camden like dopey flies... one even gave me a hand..! So we're well-ard, us.........

NOT!!!!! :liar :arms: :eek:

ranworthbreeze · July 30, 2015

Nope - wanna hear it all - warts and all!

Anyhoo - we are well-hard, us..... We have boated through London on a SATURDAY NIGHT! Brushing the stoners off the lock-beams at Camden like dopey flies... one even gave me a hand..! So we're well-ard, us.........

NOT!!!!!

Hi Jane,

It sounds just like going through Manchester, by far the worst city we have been through, they even mention on the Nicholson guides not to risk stopping through Manchester let alone spending the night moored up.

Regards

Alan

lampini · July 30, 2015

Hi Jane,
It sounds just like going through Manchester, by far the worst city we have been through, they even mention on the Nicholson guides not to risk stopping through Manchester let alone spending the night moored up.
Regards
Alan

Alan, i have of late heard that the canal trip through Manchester is much improved of late - but i'd still avoid school hols and try to get through in the morning when the little darlings are still in the land of nod! Oh and have my patent "self-defense-is-no-offence" super-soaker with its potent mix of chilli and tobasco water in at the ready just in case!

(later to be swapped for tequila - but that's another story!) :wasted:

JawsOrca · July 30, 2015

Tuesday 14th July

Awoken by the usual morning chorus of the booming bittern, no sorry boom of engines... A peer out the window and at 7.30 all boats had departed leaving the little sailing boat and us. We did a quick toast breakfast as it was drizzle outside.. I must admit we felt a bit guilty resting in comfort whilst our sailor friends where sitting outside trying to cook and do the washing up.

Once finished I said good morning to the chaps and managed to have a quick look in their and yup it was just like a tent but it looked comfortable enough. It was getting on a bit and we wanted to grab that geocache and look in the shop. So off to the village. We grabbed daily provisions.. bread and milk etc and wandered back to the boat. Our friends were sailing off into the distance and once all checks completed we headed off to.

Today's idea was lunch in how hill then up to wayford. So we headed towards how hill. We saw our sailor friends just outside irstead struggling with no wind but they refused a tow saying they had all day we waved good bye and wished them well! We was quickly at how hill and moored up. Strangely these days were starting to wizz by so it was already lunch time! I brought some frozen pastries from sutton yesterday so fancied these. So oven on. Whilst waiting for the oven to warm up a huge hireboat decieded to moor in front of us.. I said to Dave "His turn!" (as in go and moor them up!) but I had to jump off too as they really had no idea and thier stern windows were almost rubbing on Orca's bow roller.. I said "Do you need me to move back?" but actually meant "You need to move forward". Their reply was "No, I know what I'm doing".. Clearly they didn't so I politly said "Ok I'll move back anyway and give you more space" again "No it's alright I don't need any help".. I moved Orca back to give them an extra 2 metres.. Bizarrely the used the stern rope tied to a post 2 meters forward and the boats stern was half in the river. So I kinda perhaps slightly authoritarian "Put that rope (the other stern rope) on this aft post it keeps the back in then" .. without comment he did what I said.. all good Dave said "That was fun".. Hmm time for a walk.

We like the little nature walk here it's a good length and there's some nice viewpoints. Into the little cottage we grabbed the tickets and I finally noticed a "How to pick mushroom book" which I've been looking for for ages as I'd like to know how to pick mushrooms. We tried looking around the cottage but a group of ten decided to do the same so there was no room for us all and they wasn't moving.. hohum..

The walk was nice, we spent a good hour and even dodged a bit of rain as the tree cover was so great. We grabbed a geocache on the way around too which was good! It was now getting late so we left and headed back up stream. We quickly made it up to wayford (Hunset mill is a mess now. Whoever did that to that poor house should be prosecuted!!!). I was alerted though to the shallow depth alarm going off (its set to 3 feet so thats about a foot and a bit under the outdrive) so took it slow. We quickly noticed our friends and pretty much spend the rest of the day nattering!!

Just before dusk we decided it was time to find a mooring! so we waved good bye, I decided to head upto the bridge and strangely there was plenty of spots so we quickly tied up. It was BBQ weather to (just) so the BBQ was lit and we had a nice BBQ.

Rain stopped play though but it was well into the night when it did.

JawsOrca · July 30, 2015

Wednesday 15th July

Awoken early but this time by the road traffic. I really need to find a nice quiet mooring! Today's plan was to put Jaws together (the dinghy) and go under the bridge. Sadly the weather had better ideas and it quickly rained so that idea was off!

Next plan was head down towards Wroxham and salhouse for some fishing. So engine on. We left the mooring mooring heading down stream.. It was a nice relaxing trip. I noticed a couple of geocaches in Barton and we've not stopped there before so decided to try that. Aproaching I wasn't quite sure what the moorings would be like but thankfully it was all empty. We moored on a nice little spot and headed up to the village. The Geocache was a nice easy one and asking a local resident if there was anything here.. pub? shop? she quickly advised there wasn't.. Oh well back to the boat. We headed back over the broad, Dave wanted to stop at Irstead again and grab another painted plant pot but sadly the moorings were all taken so no chance. How hill was very busy too and we had quickly joined the back of a slow moving convoy of boats going south.. but I wasn't in any rush.

Sadly though (Iain get ready!!) a certain boat wasn't quite feeling the same. I noticed over my shoulder the sound of a huge bow wave and noticed a boat overtaking the boat behind us. A few second later I looked back again and this rocketship was about a foot from our swimdeck.. I immediately gave 4 fingers (as in 4 mph.. sadly I don't have 4 middle fingers).. The helmsmen (if he can be called that) said something along the lines of "My GPS (whilst looking at the plain dashboard) shows I'm doing 2.5kts!" We replied with "Sorry mate mine GPS (clearly visible) is saying 3.5mph.. At which point the boat accelerated towards us causing me to turn quickly towards the bank. The rocketship didn't even adjust the helm which was a clear attempt to ram our stern! They overtook at about 8mph on a blind bend! Thankfully I managed to grab my phone and took some pictures. Once passed the boat then slowed down in an attempt to "pull us over" and the helmsmen (Again not what I really mean to describe them but don't want to give the mods extra work!!) stood on the aft of the boat using clearly threatening actions. At which point I turned Orca around to defuse the situation.. At which time I tried to contact the BA rangers on Channel 16 and another which I forgot!! but none was in range or wasn't listening

Ok I must admit here, I have NEVER experienced this on the broads before and we have had many broadland holidays. Thankfully these retards didn't follow us and we turned back a few moments later. We spotted the boat moored at LBBY. Now at this point I was shacken as was Dave so I said that's it we are going home! I'm not staying up here if theres "people" like this up here plus there was no way I would be at rest. Dave agreed so at the end of the Ant we turned left towards Yarmouth. I was able to quickly check the tides and noticed the tides were perfect for a breydon crossing although we would need to stop for 30 mins to waste time. At acle bridge there was space so Orca was moored up. Typically on mooring Orca lost reverse but Dave quickly identified that my need to turn the boat around quickly meant the cables had slipped so needed readjusting.. Thankfully all sorted and we was underway again.

Acle bridge was very busy and the tide was very strong so we was doing 6.5kts but to my surprise (or should that be no surprise) a rocket ship attempted to overtake at warp speed 10!! Noticing there was was no space they thankfully engaged a brain cell and reduced power (I wasn't in the mood to tell them differently. Course held.. their problem should anyone pull out!) once past the bridge though they quickly reapplied power and overtook (Surprisingly two elderly gentleman so should know better). It was of course sad to be heading south but I couldn't wait to get back to the marina. At stokesby we finally saw a Ranger and I flagged them down. They were reluctant to stop but soon noticed something was up and were quickly rafted alongside us. As we both drifted downstream (at speed!!) details were passed over. The ranger was brilliant though, he took a statement and I passed over the pictures taken. On my request he called Silverline and advised when the retards were dure to drop the boat off (Thankfully that saturday).. I'm not sure what else was said to silverline but he reported it to broads control and confirmed this boat was now on watch (I guess thus wanted!!) and "when" caught the book would be thrown at them.. Sadly even today I don't know what happened but I hope they was caught and educated in how to behave on the broads. He recommended that we talk to broadbeat and report it as threatening behaviour but we both decided to leave it as that (for now).

Breydon crossing was sadly calm!! and quiet so I powered Orca up and went under the central span of Breydon bridge at speed! We was quickly over and felt relaxed to be back "home" on the southern broads.. no rocketships anywhere in sight. Power reduced back down to 6mph. On the bends though peace was shattered again though a rocketship was spotted doing a good speed and quickly overtook.. Knowing the VHF range the rangers now used.. I called through to report them sadly no rangers in range. The familiar site of St olaves bridge was soon spotted although annoyingly it didn't leave much gap and annoyingly a hireboat left the mooring there just as we approached the bridge, with the tide behind me and still being in no mood to try to turn away, I sounded a long blast on the 160db air horn.. thankfully the message was received and plenty of space was given for Orca to slip under the bridge (Thumbs up and smiles all round too!).

The sanctuary of our mooring was quickly on the horizon and Orca was soon all tied up in a deserted marina.. and relax!!! We was hungry and I brought some pizza earlier in stalham so it was starters in the oven.. beer... starters consumed then although the sun quickly setting I said to dave lets go do some geocaches! As we walked up the lane it was really nice to spot a wild deer, I've only ever seen deer in norfolk and not this close.. really nice to see. One geocache was by the railway line and as we was looking (despite a rural spot) a local came down and said "Lovely night.. you must ever be train spotting or bird watching?" Both are pretty sad (No offence intended), Ok i thought time for a bit of honesty here "You wouldn't believe what we are actually doing".. His reply was lol "Have you found it then?" "erm no but its somewhere here".. "Do you want another hint he said" "Give me a few moments" Although noticing I was no where near.. he showed us where the geocache was hidden "Put it back when you signed it, have a good evening" he said with a smile on his face.. Although he didn't admit this was his.. it was pretty clear it was.. It was dark by the time we got back to the boat but it was nice to be somewhere safe and quiet after what is probably the worse day on the broads and will take some beating.

Obvious reasons no pictures today and I'm not naming and shaming the boat for obvious reasons.

As mentioned I wasn't sure to actually share this but talking to a few people I think it's best to share the real events.. Obviously it's not all rosy but again the broads are typically a very calm and safe place to be so don't be put off by this. I perhaps wish I did talk to the police and press charges as to ensure this doesn't happen again but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Please can I ask that we do not discuss these events on this thread. I'm still not in the mood to discuss (and trying to forget about it.. hopefully now I've wrote this I can forget about it) and won't enter into a debate and I ask the mod team to remove any such discussion. Mod's obviously understand if we want to censor this post for obvious reasons..(Although it maybe nice to keep bits of it)

SwanR · July 30, 2015

Alan I really enjoy reading your tales and looking at your photos. Thank you for sharing them.

ranworthbreeze · July 30, 2015

Hi Alan,

I would say that Silverline will not be too pleased with crew, they run a very good operation and take pride in the services they operate.

No doubt words will be exchanged assuming that crew are still on the boat.

Regards

Alan

BroadScot · July 30, 2015

Groundhog Day young Alan,

We had similar problems on the Ant this year, sadly I was not in a fit condition to do summat about them! In hindsight, perhaps I should have used that fire extinguisher on them! :naughty:

cheers Iain.

LadyPatricia · July 30, 2015

A pot of stinky old maggots and a good catapult would have made them change direction

Chin up mate, not everyone is an ar*e

cheers

Maxwellian · July 30, 2015

You seem to have had your fair share. Last year we hired from Maffetts for two weeks and planned to spend the first week up north. We came back from there two days earlier than planned due to the number of craft around and the fact that it was very windy. We got bumped several times when moored, not all hired craft either. When the wind gusts it can catch out the experienced as well.

This year we hope to have a trip above Potters for the first week and then back down south.

I am always getting over taken now a days.

Edited July 31, 2015 by BroadScot
The Maggets have flown away Ian ! :-)

Poggymale · July 31, 2015

Those old holiday catalogues are fab - just look at the prices.!! Am in one of them modelling - it was a hilarious day,. Loving all your tales - keep them coming & it's sunny here so hope you get chance to enjoy the boat this weekend!

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JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

Thanks guys.. Not happy to hear this wasn't an entirely rare occurance though. Although we will be installing a fitted VHF to give us more chance of getting a ranger to report any future problems and I certainly will report them, we don't need and want these types of idoits on the broads.

Alan. I'm not sure how much was said to silverline when he called (He shut the window lol), he said data protection but I suspect he did tell them what happened that may have been why he then put the watch on them to get the boat back to them. We have hired from silverline and they are one of the best though and their handovers were brilliant so shame they ended up with this level of clientèle.

Max. The wind started causing tons of problems for us, which I'll explain later but Orca does have a fare few scratches sadly and one dent will need a patch applied two guns Why don't you consider hiring with Marthams I think you could easily spend a week above potter and being based at marthams means you have to

PM. It was nice to flick through!... Some of the boats back then looked amazing! I think I first hired in 2000 so it was all plastic by then but wished I got the change to hire some of the timber ones (the last few times we hired though was with marthams so got a slight taste). Wasn't £200 back in the early 80's still alot of money though?

Hockham Admiral · July 31, 2015

It's difficult to believe how relaxed (relapsed!) you both were last weekend, Alan...... Ah, the resilience of youth! cheersbar

Poggymale · July 31, 2015

Agreed but old prices anywhere always makes me smile! Have a good day

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JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

It's difficult to believe how relaxed (relapsed!) you both were last weekend, Alan...... Ah, the resilience of youth!

We had another two days off the boat John Norwich and yarmouth by car cheers

LondonRascal · July 31, 2015

Sounds like you did have a bit of a nightmare with the speeding boat and their behavior but as we all know, this is a rare occurrence to ever have such happen and one persons actions should not be allowed to spoil the holiday of another’s.

Rather than use VHF it is best (in my opinion) to call Broads Control on their number 01603 756 056 – if you have to use VHF it is CH12.

I would prefer to use the telephone because then you can give, calmly and clearly more detail than perhaps over the radio. The most important things is boat name and registration number, time and location and description of what occurred. Taking a photo of the incident also can help, but you may worry that doing so will inflame a situation when you grab a camera.

In order to prevent any 'camera rage' this sort of incident raises the question again of ‘dash cameras’ since they would be running at all times and record what was going on complete with the audio.

I've been looking at so many different cameras, and real life videos this one: Amazon Link really excels at video and sound quality above many.

61cDLhDR6gL._SY355_.jpg

It has two micro SD card slots, and GPS logging (built in to the screen mount) so would capture location, speed, direction of travel all at the same time as video and audio.

You can wire it so it would come on and begin recording when the ignition was live and stop when was not so completely hands free ‘set and forget’. Video review of the camera is here.

I am looking forward to the next installment but thought I'd share the above as food for thought...

JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

cheers for this Robin.. Annoyingly I normally have the forward camera on for my videos but didn't really use it on this trip as the weather was so bad and it would have been a waste (Plus the north doesn't need as much "Marketing" as the south)

Thanks for the link though I am considering doing a rear camera which can be easily switched on should it be needed. Sadly too my phone had no signal so we couldn't contact BA control by phone, so the VHF was the last resort (And I'm not happy that no one replied but my handheld VHF is a cheap one). The ranger also advised closer to Yarmouth they monitor ch 16 (but again I tried that with no luck.. hopefully a fitted radio would give a better range). I think the situation was inflamed by use of the mobile so there's certainly lots to be said to silently record using the cameras.

I do hasten to add though I will only ever report people that are being this diabolical or are seriously speeding and I mean full throttle and these type of people do need words spoken as it's not only unsociable but speeding does seriously damage the ecosystem for everyone and everything.

Also Robin.. I think there's a gap for some basic video based training.. Things like "How to moor up", "How to tie mooring ropes", "How to moor stern on", "How to mudweight", "How to overtake", "How to deal with sailing boats", "How to pass through yarmouth".. etc etc I couldn't do it. but I think you would be brilliant and now you aren't quite hiring.. perhaps something for you?? Seriously I think lots of newbies would seriously benefit.. Please think about it cheers

lampini · July 31, 2015

Also Robin.. I think there's a gap for some basic video based training.. Things like "How to moor up", "How to tie mooring ropes", "How to moor stern on", "How to mudweight", "How to overtake", "How to deal with sailing boats", "How to pass through yarmouth".. etc etc I couldn't do it. but I think you would be brilliant and now you aren't quite hiring.. perhaps something for you?? Seriously I think lots of newbies would seriously benefit.. Please think about it

+1 for this idea - don't want to put too much pressure on you Robin, but this is a case of you being the "victim of your own success" here i'm afraid! You're a brilliant communicator and i've already learned loads from the bits and bobs on the videos..

If i were the Broads Authority i'd PAY you to do tutorial vids!

Camera looks pretty good btw....

lampini · July 31, 2015

Sorry you had this aggro Orca, has made me v glad we're down south after much of the summer mayhem is over... I always find this stuff quite upsetting, more so as i get older - prolly why we're getting out of London!

Went to go swimming the other day; it was closed due to "blood in the pool after a fight"!! :shocked

Is nowhere sacred?! IMHO these crazy speeders are entirely missing the point of the broads..... Relaxation!

LondonRascal · July 31, 2015

Video tutorials – this point has been raised in the past, and I backed away from such because any sort of tutorial I made would only be what I was doing, which may not be what you should actually do.

You know how it goes on this very Forum, someone say’s do this and another says no you want to do this and a third may come along and says actually the proper way of doing it this...It all gets very complicated!

However I will consider it again and see what I may be able to come up with in time...So watch this space.

JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

Sounds good Robin..!

I wouldn't worry what others would say.. as long as all you are explaining is the facts/basics then there's not much they can say .. and I'm sure you have more than enough experience to explain things as they should be explained. I think it would really benefit a lot of people so hoping you can do it and look forward to seeing the result cheers

JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

Thursday 17th July.

I slept really well and woke up gone 9, our boatyard is so quiet and there was no one else about! Sheer heaven! We wasn't too sure what to do today, we both wanted to get way from the boat and the broads for a bit, Dave hinted and going to hunstantion and going to the sea sanctuary there which is always nice to see. I didn't really mind so eventually we left and jumped in the car. We headed north up towards Stalham (Always annoying that it only takes a few moments to do a days journey by boat ey!!). It was quickly getting towards lunchtime so we headed towards Mundesley on the north norfolk coast. We found a nice pub here which is high on the cliffs overlooking the sea so we headed towards that for lunch.. They even had Wherry so I got an ale trail sticker.. Needless to say we took a walk down to the beach and found a geocache. Lunchtime was soon a distant thing so it was clear hunstantion wasn't going to happen. But we still decided to drive a bit further, the coast road here is quite pretty and goes through so quant little towns so it's quite a nice journey, We made it up to Blackney though and parked the car in the car parking.. taking a note of the tide times as apparently this car park ends up below the water during a high tide! Thankfully it was much later in the day so no worries. We had a little wander around and took some pictures (Sadly I left my big camera on the boat so just cameraphones) but it was nice, a bit busy though. Remembering we needed to get something for our neighbour who was looking after the cat we wondered around the gift shops.. we found a few things.

Back in the car, it was now late afternoon, I said to Dave though I wanted to stop at nearby Clay and have a wonder as its one of those quant little towns plus there was a few geocaches.. Dave didn't fancy a drink though (although I did) but we didn't, I think it was getting late and we wanted to do a bit of shopping before returning back to the boat.

We found a tesco on the way back south and stock up on the essentials.. (hic) cheers . Back to the boat just before 6.30 though and we booked a table for 7.30 at the nearby pub.

Back to the boat, the yard was still deserted (bliss!), it was a scrub up and change of clothes before back to the pub for dinner.. Dinner was as usual spot on although didn't taste as good as the time but still yummy! Back to the boat and still a quiet marina just as it got dark and we just chilled on the boat for a bit drinking and nattering.. We decided to go north tomorrow. It would be an early passage though as slack water was about 6.20am and it's 2 hours from our marina to the yellow post so it would be nice to do a bit of night cruising anyway. We set the alarms and checked the boat lighting is all working and set the alarm for 4am!

July 31, 2015

Alan, your tale is a really enjoyable read, even the bad bits!

Just realised we're moored two berths away from you. We're the one with the bowsprit that makes you so nervous :eek:

JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

Alan, your tale is a really enjoyable read, even the bad bits!

Just realised we're moored two berths away from you. We're the one with the bowsprit that makes you so nervous

Oh geez hello there!! Yes when I first saw your bowsprit I was very worried.. thankfully I've got the hang of mooring there now and we should both be ok!!! Once again a lovely boat you have there! It makes for some pretty pictures! Nice to meet you though and put a name to a face and a boat! (I'm the one who did indeed mention that your bowsprit that worries me!!)

Please if you can kindly keep the odd eye on the boat (Steve and debs on LadyPatricia are behind you too!) and naturally we will do the same for yourself!

cheers !

JawsOrca · July 31, 2015

Friday 18th July.

I woke up before the alarm and noticed it was rather light outside so worrying slighly that the alarm didn't go off I wondered to check it.. No it was 3.45am and light?! I've never seen 3.45am before but yes apparently it's hardly dark at this time of the year oh well. Dave woke up when the alarm went off and he was off straight away doing the engine checks. Engine and Nav lights on we departed the empty marina (thankfully not distrubing anyway). As usual the depth alarm went off a few times (dredging is coming next year apparently!) but the tide wasn't quite low so we have just about enough water. Turning onto the main river is was nice to see the tide flowing out quite well meaning that I wouldn't need any throttle and we could pretty much drift downstream and not disturbing anyone asleep on the moorings plus keeping our wash down to pretty much nothing.

Although I was a bit sad that I wasn't pitch black, it was still dark enough but it was a nice introduction to "night" passage with this boat. One of the best things with our boat is that we can do this, the rivers are even more magical at night, no one is about, driving through the mist feels very special indeed and the wildlife is already away. Before St olaves I saw an otter or a seal, telling Dave he wasn't happy although as usual he was messing about in the cabin, although he did see our first Bittern (either that or a brown heron) I think it was a Bittern. There was plenty of room again under St Olaves bridge. The mist was seen over the marshes but burgh castle quickly appeared through the mist. It was now getting close to dusk as the channels of markers appeared, I was a bit surprised to see another boat as it was bang on sunrise but I guess it's good passage planning at least. As we entered Breydon the sun started to rise and it looked very pretty certainly worth getting up early for.

We was soon over breydon and the tide coming out of the bure wasn't too great so we able to continue without the need to stop, Nav lights were now switched off and we continued up the bure without other boats in sight (The hireboat that we saw on Breydon was long gone infront of us.. we crossed Breydon slowly as it was very pretty).

It was mid morning by the time we arrived at St benedict's abby and the moorings were pretty quiet and it was a lovely clear morning, so we decided to stop and have a wonder. Considering the amount of times we have been here it's still nice to see and have a walk around. I noticed (yup you guessed it!) there was a geocache... but 1km away! But sod it we wanted a walk, we looked for a good 30 mins but couldn't find it, there was just too many stinging nettles and brambles and we couldn't see were others had been.. another retry in the winter.

Back to the boat, todays plan was to get up to salhouse and mudweight after a BBQ but I thought as it was early we will have a look at Ranworth and see if we can stop for lunch. As we approached Ranworth I was shocked to see plenty of empty spots right on the quay. Spotting the best/largest spot we headed in.. Annoyingly although a nice clear sunny day there was the usual crosswind which meant a stern on mooring was going to nearly impossible! The boat beside was a (I hate this word) privately owned boat and one we had seen before down south, the chap came out and came up with the best idea.. "Just more stern on and we will rope you round".. Good idea we did just that and the chap held our bowline until we was all sorted.. As usual we had a good long (probably about 30 mins!) chat and he's moored in Beccles.. He also mentioned though that next week is school holidays so it's going to be even worse than this week... "ARRRRGGHH!!" oh well we will spend a few days and go back south I said.

Eventually we wondered off, I spotted some geocaches by the church and knowing we've never been there, needed no excuse. We actually found the cache despite lots of "muggles" (Non geocachers), and thought we would try and climb the tower! The church was rather busy although we sneaked through and started the climb, after a few steps I started feeling a bit nervous (I'm really bad with heights!!) so I yelled "Coming up!!" .. yup no surprise the reply in an american accent "Oh goodness please go down, we've been trying to come down for 30 mins".. "Ok going down" I replied!! (I needed no further encouragement!) There was a coach spotted outside so it was quickly clear we wasn't going to get down... next time!! I spotted the sign for the boardwalk and we wondered off, as did most of the american tourist! so a quick walk round the floating centre spotting nothing to buy for once we wondered back to the staithe in relative peace! I was in need of refreshement and food so it was into the pub! Not a bad, I've been put off this one before but it's OK and certainly no reason to be put off again. It was a quick walk round the shop and a few more tea towels and cook books purchased..

Back on the boat, we apologised to the neighbouring boat saying we are leaving him, he seemed a bit surprised but I'm not one for sitting there all day. Another boat quickly took our spot though!

We headed upstream and quickly arrived in a busy Horning, I was a bit tired to stop off as it was a long day s we just drove through, the pubs were all busy with Day boats too. It was nice to see Horning on our own boat though. Salhouse was soon upon us and noticing plenty of moorings and the winds died down meaning we were able to do a stern on mooring without any problems.

It was still quite early, I think about 4pm, but clearly a long day. Surprising we wasn't feeling too exhausted though so we still had energy to play.. It was time to get Jaws out (The dinghy!!). Dave put Jaws together and thankfully the engine was all good.. (It's been left for sometime and we didn't have time to test it!) but yup it started well and idled. He went for a little wizz around. Just as he came back we saw a hireboat struggling to moor next to use and the lady on the stern shouted in a very well to do voice "I hope you are going to bloody help me with this" .. we clearly laughed and between the three of us we managed to shout instructions (Some of which ignored!) but we got them in. The chap at the helm jumpted off and shacked our hands thanking us for assistant. I natrually said "First day then" "Bloody no the women" said "4th day and still no idea".. I said "Do you want me to show you how to do this?" "I'd love that said the chap".. Off we went I did a circle and erm talking the chap through my manoeuvres and I erm moored up with no problem at all first time (I've not lost it then!!) It was a lovely Faircroft ambassador boat ..looked new. The helm was a bit far forward and it was a bit underpowered though so I could understand why he was struggling.. He shock my hand again and thanks and promised he understood.. Dave stayed ashore and chatted to his wife and she sad he's a lecturer hence welcomed my advice.. Dave also explained Orca's story.. Lovely couple though and really nice to chat to them.

We locked Orca up though and went for a wonder, yup there is a geocache but we couldn't find it.. more nettles (Winter one again!!) back to the boat is was BBQ time again! Our neighbours wished us a nice meal and mentioned they was heading off to the woodefordes pub.. some 25 min walk! (To much for me!)..

BBQ was lovely and we relaxed until eventually falling asleep quite late.. I wanted to mudweight but the wind built up and we couldn't be bothered basically!! But it was a really nice long day and nice to be back up north and feeling relaxed again!