All Aboard Fair Prince 2

[SwanR]

Day 1 Tuesday 13th October

 

Bags packed, ready to go, we left home around 10am and even with a short stop at Goodies Farm Shop on the A140 we were in Wroxham just after midday. Mind you we took a very strange route to get there and I remain convinced there must be a better way. Our satnav doesn’t give us much warning of when to turn off sometimes and having missed one turning she recalculated the route and sent us up some narrow single track country lanes between the A47 and the turning almost opposite Roy’s Garage which was where we came out.

Anyhow, we thought we would head straight for the boatyard and to our immense delight Fair Prince 2 was ready and waiting for us. Car unloaded and a few essentials unpacked, handover complete, we headed out onto the now very familiar River Bure by the bridge. I was at the helm and just hoping that no-one was watching the webcam. I love watching it when I’m at home but knowing it is there makes me a little nervous whenever I’m within its sights myself!

 

The weather was grey and dull but that couldn’t dampen our spirits at finally being back out on the water for a short break. Cold, windy, rainy …. the occasional brighter spell. That is the only weather report you need as it didn’t change much day to day. Not to worry … we were just happy to be there and really the Norfolk Broads has a charm of its own no matter what the English weather wants to do. I had remarked to someone that as long as it wasn’t thick fog we would be fine … I got my wish then.

 

Where we stop for our first night always depends partly on what time we get away from the yard. With less daylight hours but having left around 1.15pm we had plenty of cruising time. So we continued past Wroxham Broad, Salhouse Broad and on into Horning. The staithe was full of course - this was the first place we might have considered had it been free as we were hoping to get moored where we could hook up to an electric post if possible. Ferry Marina had room but we opted to continue on past Cockshoot Dyke and head for Ranworth. If the staithe was full there was always the Island. But we needn’t have worried. A boat turned in ahead of us and after a couple of attempts took the last space on the front of the staithe but we got in fine down the side, with a little help from our neighbours to ensure my first mooring was achieved without incident. There was enough money left on the electric post not to need to use one of the cards we had purchased and so there we were. Engine off, kettle on and time for that first cup of coffee that always tastes wonderful when moored up on a boat.

 

We went across to the Maltsters for dinner later - scampi and chips which I would recommend. Good food with friendly service at a reasonable price. When we left it was a quick run back across to the boat as it was now pouring with rain and a tad on the breezy side. Back on board, heating on, we had a few games of cards before turning in for an early night soon after 9pm.

[SwanR]

Day 2 Wednesday 14th October

 

Having slept relatively well in the confines of a smaller bed than one is used to at home, we got up and enjoyed our first breakfast on board. Hot buttered toast and coffee. Fair Prince has a nice little eating area with the galley in the bow of the boat where other yards have used this as a second bedroom. That’s one of the features that makes this a lovely boat for two people.

 

Leaving Ranworth we headed down the Bure and a little way up the Thurne. We could see there were works going on down Womack Dyke and hadn’t intended to visit this time anyway knowing that the moorings in the dyke itself are closed off at the moment. We cruised a little further up the Thurne before turning round, back to the Bure and then on towards Acle. I can’t remember if we had the roof slid back or not as with the weather we would slide it open for a while, especially when mooring, then pull it back over if we got a bit chilly. 

 

Now this day saw two ticks on my my list of places I wanted to get to. On previous trips we have stopped short of Acle and turned back as we have no intention of crossing Breydon. But this time I wanted to get down to Stokesby. We had hoped we might moor down there but when we arrived around midday there was already a boat by the electric post and not really room for us to come in alongside and make use of it as well. There was plenty of room outside the pub but we decided to spin round and head back - I was just very happy that we had finally made it that far down the Bure as it had become something of a joke between hubby and I that I always wanted to turn back before Acle bridge.

 

There was plenty of room at Acle but we didn’t really want to be on the main river by the road so opted to continue back up to another of the places I was determined to get to on this trip - South Walsham. We had only been down Fleet Dyke on one previous occasion but there was no room at any of the moorings that time. As expected we didn’t have that problem this time round. We cruised down to the Broad, turned round and moored up fairly close to the entrance at the first moorings. And there we stayed. Heavy showers was the order of the afternoon and we enjoyed watching a few other boats come down and moor, watching the wildlife and the water, and just being quiet and relaxing.

 

Later we had some lovely late afternoon sunshine and went out for a walk although the rain was never far away. A quiet evening on board followed and this is a mooring I would like to go back to next year if we get the chance.

[SwanR]

Day 3 Thursday 15th October

 

Setting off soon before 9am we took a trip back around South Walsham Broad before heading back up the dyke. I knew the Lads Week gathering was out and about somewhere and sure enough, there they were, moored up fishing, further back up towards the Bure from where we had been. We have taken some video using one of these action cams on the front of the boat as an experiment and have footage to prove they were there!

 

Onwards then along the Bure we saw an otter in the river just past the turning for the Ant. I am always excited by the wildlife we see. We needed to get water so thought we would turn in towards Ranworth again and see if there was anywhere to moor on the staithe. Sure enough there was a space between two other boats on the front and this time I performed my best mooring of the trip - shame they didn’t all go as well as that but it’s a good feeling when you get it right in a tight spot. Mind you the ones that didn’t go so well tended to be when I had so much room that I didn’t have anything to get my bearings from!

 

Anyway, having moored up we decided to stop for a while. Did a few bits and pieces, filled up with water and then went over to the Maltsters again to have another round of scampi and chips for lunch. We weren’t intending to be near a pub that evening so it was a chance to have a meal without attempting to cook on the boat. With other boats circling by the time we left, someone was straight into our spot on the staithe as we headed back out of the Broad and onto the Bure. Our destination was Salhouse and it proved to be a lovely cruise back through Horning. There were no sailing boats in sight, not many boats moving at all, and this is what I do like about going out of the main season, you have the rivers much more to yourself. We know it won’t be like that when we go back in June next year.

 

I had hoped to moor on the spit at Salhouse for a change but the bow rope proved to be too short to moor safely alongside with the large rectangular posts on that stretch. We gave it a go but with the rain now coming down we decided to head for the Broad instead. There was plenty of room to moor, too much room as it turned out. Hopeless. I wanted to be on the end but didn’t judge when to turn quite right and had to do quite a bit of backwards and forwards to get anything like straight and stern on to the bank!! Mind you, the wind had got up a bit and I did see other people getting blown around a bit as well.

We didn’t bother to go for a walk at all, choosing instead to spend a few quiet hours on board, cosy and warm with the heating on. We were rewarded with a wonderful early evening sight as daylight started to fade. There were lots of terns or gulls of some sort flying around all over the place. They landed in the trees then they all came back onto the water. And while they were gathering in large numbers so were the geese that performed a magnificent flying display in formation overhead.

[SwanR]

Day 4 Friday 16th October

 

So it was our last day on the boat already. The time flies by. Unfortunately it was also the worst day for the weather really. It was raining still when we got up and despite the local radio talking about showers drying up we had this constant rain and drizzle that rendered the one small windscreen wiper fairly ineffective. Although we had been up quite early we stayed put until about 9.45am - we watched other boats getting on the move but without being able to slide the roof back we didn’t have good visibility so waited a while for it to ease off a bit.

 

Finally underway we had decided to enjoy cruising back down through Horning to Ranworth. We knew we would be going back over the same ground by choosing to moor at Salhouse the night before but this stretch of the Bure was looking so lovely with autumn colours starting to appear on the trees, and not that many boats around, that we were enjoying being there. Our intention was to just moor at Ranworth Island to have lunch before cruising back down to Wroxham as we like to spend the last night in the boatyard. However when we got to Ranworth there was plenty of room on the staithe and so we headed back down there. The wind had really got up and I wondered whether I would have found it easier to moor down the side. Having almost got the boat into position on the front I misunderstood the directions my hubby was giving me and thought I needed to go round again! Oh dear! I was almost in, just needed to go back a couple of feet and then hubby could have got off and got one rope secured! There was a very nice man in his own boat just along from where I was mooring and he helped to fend us off so I didn’t bump them as the wind was by now playing havoc with my sense of how to get this boat to go where I wanted it to!! We live and learn.

 

After having some lunch and watching a few boats coming and going we made the decision to get underway and enjoyed our last cruise for this trip back to Wroxham. It really was lovely - I was wearing several layers of clothes as I was determined to have the roof back for the last stretch no matter how chilly and breezy it was. I knew there was another forum member taking over the other Fair Prince this afternoon and as predicted we passed somewhere near Salhouse and gave them a wave. 

 

Passing back past Barnes’ yard it seemed somewhat chaotic - we held back to let one of their boats get away and then someone kindly held back from the other direction to let us through a bit further down. Friday afternoon on the river. Turning into the boatyard for Faircraft Loynes we couldn’t see any obvious spaces to slot in despite them having boards out keeping that end of the yard for their own boats. But we realised that they had three boats that didn’t go out until quite late in the day, well after we had arrived so maybe they weren’t expecting us yet even though it was almost 4pm by this time. I had a go at manoeuvring carefully between their boats and was almost getting into a space when someone came out from the yard, hopped on board from another boat and took us safely over to where he wanted us to be. That was fine with me.

 

We watched the other boats having their trial runs before heading out to pick up a takeaway to have with a bottle of wine on board and enjoy a relaxing evening.

[deebee29]

Hi Jean

Theres always something really special about that first day and night back on the Broads whatever the weather.

looking forward to reading how your trip went

[SwanR]

Day 5 Saturday 17th October

 

I know it’s not everyone’s choice but we like to spend the final night in the boatyard so we can have a more relaxed start to our day. We can sleep in before getting up for breakfast, finishing our packing, loading the car and being ready to leave in good time without any kind of rush or being at the mercy of the weather without the luxury to wait for later to get back to the boatyard.

 

Fair Prince is a lovely boat. Very quiet going along and really easy to steer …. apart from mooring in the wind. It has got bow thrusters but as I have found out on this and on other boats, they don’t always help when the wind gets up. We had noticed that the revs didn’t get that high most of the time and sure enough, we had only used somewhere between £35 and £40 on fuel so that was a nice refund on our fuel deposit … which paid for the little treats we picked up at Goodies on the way back.

 

We do already have Swan Reflection booked for next June. That is going to be an adventure given the change of ownership of the fleet and that we haven’t hired from Richardson’s before. So as we’ll be going out of Stalham, that was one reason that we didn’t venture up the Ant this time and stuck mostly to the Bure.

 

As I mentioned, we experimented with a little camera on the front of the boat so once I’ve had time to figure out how to use that footage to put something together, I’m sure there will be a video to follow. In the meantime here’s a few photos. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deebee29]

Love the photo of the rainbow Jean.

sounds like you had another great time.

[riyadhcrew]

Hi Jean,

Lovely write up. Glad you both enjoyed it. Roll on next year eh. 

[Broads01]

Thanks for the write up Jean, I enjoyed your tale.

[SwanR]

Ok so I'm going to try to post in the videos that I have uploaded on YouTube and see if it works. Haven't done this since the forum software was upgraded so not too sure on the process but here goes. 

The first one was taken with a little action cam on the bow of the boat so the quality isn't as good as other films but the second one was filmed by hubby on his SLR camera and then edited by me - this one came out better.

Took me ages to decide what music to put with them!

[SwanR]

[Gracie]

Couldn't sleep, just sat watching this over a hot drink, the whole thing, the write up, the photos and now the film clips, absolutely beautiful,  beats the telly any day of the week.

Thanks for posting Jean 

Grace

[Bound2Please]

Ok so I'm going to try to post in the videos that I have uploaded on YouTube and see if it works. Haven't done this since the forum software was upgraded so not too sure on the process but here goes. 

The first one was taken with a little action cam on the bow of the boat so the quality isn't as good as other films but the second one was filmed by hubby on his SLR camera and then edited by me - this one came out better.

Took me ages to decide what music to put with them!

The Simon and Garfunkle instrumental brought memories of the 60's as Paul Simon Lived for a couple of years in my home town (Brentwood) round the corner from me. Useless bit of info He wrote homeward bound on crewe station after a gig waiting to get back to Kathy in Brentwood... He was a regular in the Brentwood folk clubs at the time....

Charlie

[SwanR]

Grace thank you so much for your kind comments. I had a lot of fun putting the videos together and I'm glad you enjoyed them. 

Charlie my hubby is a Brentwood boy as well, and likes Simon and Garfunkel, so I shall have to pass that snippet of information on to him.

[Bound2Please]

Charlie my hubby is a Brentwood boy as well, and likes Simon and Garfunkel, so I shall have to pass that snippet of information on to him.

Yes He lived in Crescent road down by the station....

[BryanW]

Hi Jean

 

Great write up but, the first video (action cam) loads and plays fine but the second one just sits there loading and never goes to play, any ideas?  By the way this is on a computer not a tablet.

 

What action cam are you using?  We have thought about it for next year but I was afraid that it would be too wide angle.

Edited October 24, 2015 by BryanW

[SwanR]

Hi Bryan,

I had the same problem with the second video this morning when playing it on YouTube - yes, I was watching my own video.  I refreshed the page and it played fine. I tried to post just the url for you to go to away from the forum but it just inserts the video again - too clever for it's own good this technology lark sometimes. Hopefully if you give it another go it will work.

As for the action cam, I have no idea what it was. We picked it up from Maplin's electronics site a couple of years ago for about £60. It was going to be a Christmas present for our son to use on his helmet when he's riding his bike but someone else also bought him one so we kept hold of it. It's only an HD 720p which might be why the quality hasn't come out as well as the second video which is 1080p from hubby's SLR camera.

I have enjoyed playing around with the footage we took so I'm thinking of either upgrading my own camera or buying a camcorder. But so many cameras and smartphones can take video footage now that I'm not sure whether camcorders are becoming outdated. Quite apart from the fact that it's one more thing to pack and carry around, and one more thing to take the charger for!

 

[BryanW]

Hi Jean

Managed to get the video to run last night.

As far as camcorders vs DSLRs are concerned I would recommend a dedicated video camera because if you feel you need to zoom in/out whilst filming a camcorder has a powered zoom whilst a DSLR doesn't so it is much smoother.  Just bear in mind that unless you are using a tripod any zoom over about 10X is pretty useless due to camera shake being magnified and no image stabilisation system will steady it.

[BryanW]

Yes, I had forgotten the Olympus 12-50mm even though I have one, I don't use the powered zoom much which is why I forgot it.  As far as chargers are concerned all of my camera/camcorder ones use a 'figure of eight' mains lead so I only carry one of those, it's surprising how much space a mains lead takes up.

[GeoffandWendy]

Thank you for sharing Jean, both the write up and videos were a joy to read and watch. Brought memories back, of our holiday last April.