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Swanning Around in Norfolk


Naughty Cal

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28 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

I've certainly clambered but never in a professional capacity,  trees like this are not exactly common.

I've been called worse :)

Which tree, the one in post 1of the boats internal diagram is a lavatree.

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14 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Which tree, the one in post 1of the boats internal diagram is a lavatree.

I have heard of Witch hazel, and a hazel tree.It turns out there is also a witch tree, which I didn't know about.They are found in Minnesota, whitch also has a Norfolk,dunno if it has swanns though.

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Edited by rusty69
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26 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Also a Wych Elm tree. There's a hamlet near ere called High Wych named after the big tree there. The rising sun is opposite from which I often gaze upon it.

I've only read Macbeth.I think that has witches innit.

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This morning we had a steady run down to Great Yarmouth so that Sydney could let off some steam on the beach.

After a long walk around town we headed back to the boat. Our intention had been to head back upstream to Stokesby for another evening in the Ferry but a last minute change of plan saw us heading across Breydon and to the Reedham Ferry instead. We will have a meal in here tonight and then head to Stokesby tomorrow instead.

 

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8 hours ago, LEO said:

YO!,

 

Welcome back, good to catch up and the pics. are good. Bought a motor home yet?, hope new house panning out well. Sidney looks good.

The new house is everything we had hoped it would be thanks we are loving it.

 

Not got the motorhome yet. We are selling Cal first, which isn't going as quickly as we would like. Not got it on brokerage yet! Hopefully it will be fully on the market in the next few weeks. 

 

We know what motorhome we want, a Benimar Mileo 202. Just need to sell the boat to free up some finds to buy it. The intention is to buy a new one and keep it long term.

 

Sydney is enjoying life at the minute. Think he has missed being in the water. He is loving the flybridge on this boat.

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15 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

It looks pretty busy in your last photos even for rainy October. We have been thinking of possibly buying a broads cruiser now that we have sold our barge in France and like the idea of no locks as we are both getting a bit decrepit. Richardson’s have some ex hire boats for sale but after your problems not sure how good their maintenance is. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

To be fair the Richardson's ex hire boats are priced accordingly and are very cheap compared to others when they are sold off. Dont let our experience this time put you off.

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Not very often we have a bad pub review but!

 

As for the food at Reedham Ferry. Well where to start?

 

The pub is shut on a Monday and Tuesday. We got there 4pm Wednesday to find it doesn't open until 6pm.

 

The menu is very limited to say the least. We both struggled to find anything we wanted to eat. In the end we were saved by a group of locals at the next table who were offered steaks (not on the menu!) Liam had a steak and I had the beef cheek. 

 

The food was nice but it was expensive for what it was and the beer was atrocious. A shame as we have in the past always enjoyed a stop here. We probably wont bother next time!

 

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We are heading back across Breydon today and up to probably Stokesby for some good pub grub!

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11 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

To be fair the Richardson's ex hire boats are priced accordingly and are very cheap compared to others when they are sold off. Dont let our experience this time put you off.

As NC said, they are priced accordingly and are cheap for the area they are in.

 

We moored at Richardson's for 7 years and are familiar with their tradesmen and most of them are that proper tradesmen.  Their work is to a very high standard but they have a big-big fleet.  The sheds are full of overhauls all winter.  You would be amazed at what customers do to and on boats.  (Tony Brookes is excepted from this comment he knows all about hirers)

 

If you look at a boat make a list of issues and tell them and they will fix it before sale.  I doubt you could beat the prie down but rectification is their bred and butter.

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And pictures from today. Acle back to Stalham. We had hoped to get moored on Stalham Staithe but that 24 hour mooring is full of the same scrap boats that were there last Saturday when we picked the boat up. So it is a night in the boat yard tonight and a take out curry from Oasis later.

 

We have been into town for a few beers in The White Swan then back to the boat. Watching a turn around day is fascinating. They have a great team here at the yard. 

 

We also had  wander around the museum of the Broads which is a great dog friendly attraction. 

 

We have had a great great last day despite the weather.

 

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Bridge clearance at Ludham was interesting again. Gauge said 7'6" boat is min 7'9" we edged under with about 6 inch clearance with half a tank of fuel and half a tank of water.

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On 02/10/2019 at 13:47, doratheexplorer said:

I'd swap.  There's every chance you could get stuck on the wrong side of the bridge anyway.  Also, the best bits of the Broads are the other side of Potter Heigham bridge IMO.

Except there are now very few boats that can get under the Potter bridge at any time. I do prefer the southern broads to the northern. More water and less crowded. Not personally a fan of the Broads however. Very limited cruising area but ok for a week now and again and it does have a certain magic in autumn/winter.

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We have just handed the boat back to the yard and had a very swift and efficient hand over.

 

We surprisingly got £40 of our fuel deposit back which we had not expected given how much the engine and heating have been running this week.

 

Time to head to Wells next the Sea now for some fish and chips. 

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On 10/10/2019 at 07:45, Naughty Cal said:

Not very often we have a bad pub review but!

 

As for the food at Reedham Ferry. Well where to start?

Make sure you leave them a review on their Facebook page/TripAdvisor,etc, very visible to the public and they might fix things.......

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Despite the grey day Sydney loved his morning on the beach and then it was time to head back for fish and chips at midday. And no visit to Wells is complete without a visit to the butchers to stock up the freezer 

 

We are almost home now. Just a quick supermarket stop for provisions.

 

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1 minute ago, Naughty Cal said:

And no visit to Wells is complete without a visit to the butchers to stock up the freezer 

 

You didn't happen to notice if my sailing dinghy was still on the sea wall did you? I think it may have got washed out to sea on last weeks high tides.

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So onto the review of Swan Ranger. 

 

First things first she is a lovely boat. Very warm and dry and in many ways ideal for winter boating with the lack of drafty sliding canopies but in other ways not so ideal with the very limited visibility from the lower helm. In fact driving from below really cant be recommended although we did on rainy days and managed well enough.

 

She handles very well, in fact easily the best Broads boat we have hired on that score and the prop is well matched to the hull and engine. Slightly under propped perhaps but that is for the best with a hire boat.

 

There were just the two of us onboard, and little Sydney so we had loads of room onboard. We used the bow cabin to sleep which had ample room and storage and stayed nice and warm and dry. 

 

The galley is a bit tight but perfectly manageable. Sunday lunch was tackled and successful. 

 

The saloon was comfortable and offered good views out and again stayed warm thanks to the radiator heating. This is the first boat we have hired with radiator heating and we were impressed with it. While it is slower to react than blown air it heats the space well and keeps its heat well after the unit is turned off. 

 

The aft cabin we used as storage was spacious with a large double berth and en suite with bath and shower.

 

By far the best feature was the upper deck which offered far reaching views of the Broads not seen from the lower boats. It is cold up there in October but well worth getting wrapped up warm for.

 

I have struggled slightly with getting on and off when moored side on this week but that is not a fault of the boat, the water levels have been higher than usual and the side decks were no higher than any of the other broads boats. Although stern on mooring made getting on and off much easier. The stern is well designed for that.

 

Overall this has definitely been our favourite boat we have hired so far and despite a few small problems at the beginning of the week we had a great time and will certainly hire Swan Ranger again some time soon.

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