Saturday 19 June
Sunday 20 June
Monday 21 June
Tuesday 22 June
Wednesday 23 June
Thursday 24 June
Friday 25 June
Reedham to Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth to Stokesby
Stokesby to Thurne Mouth
Thurne Mouth to Wroxham Broad
Wroxham Broad to Wroxham
Wroxham to Thurne Mouth
Thurne Mouth to Potter Heigham
returns to top of this page
The plan was to pass through Great Yarmouth so that we could visit the Northern section of the Broads, and this must be done at low water when the currents are at a minimum and also to give us the bridge clearances needed. The window of opportunity today was either around 5.00am or 6.00pm so we opted for 6.00pm ! With a day to kill for a two hour journey we decided to head down the Yare to Berney Arms and then up the Waveney to St Olaves for lunch.
Before this we needed to get a toilet tank pump-out. We checked beforehand that Castle Craft at St Olaves could do this for us by phone. When we were in sight of their place two chaps came running out, took the mooring lines and were ever so helpful. We got some useful tips off Duncan about mooring at Orford on the River Ore (after we leave the Broads) who asked us to remember him to the harbour master there, who he described in great detail down to what he would be wearing when we saw him! With this done we moored up for lunch. We also visited the ruins of St Olaves Priory, founded in memory Olaf king of Norway in 1216.
We then headed back to Berney Arms to cook dinner on the griddle. We had been dodging showers all day, and our luck held for the cook-out as well as the trip down Breydon Water and through Great Yarmouth. The actual passage through Great Yarmouth was rather uneventful. The river-side area is rather dull and industrial and not very pretty at all. We decided to stop on the outskirts where we could have a country view.
No sooner had we tied up at Yarmouth Marina, which is on the river Bure, than a squall blew up and it threatened rain again. Anyway we are finished for the day – all that remains is to check the ropes are set correctly for the tidal height range expected over night, and to finish any open wine bottles!.
Berney Arms Mill on the River Yare
John, Pat and Maureen
Breydon Water
The automatic submersible bilge pump had decided last night, after many years of faithful service, to retire. Unfortunately it didn’t give any notice. It became apparent that the poor thing was pumping away but not getting rid of the bilge water. Hence the need to tighten the stern gland as mentioned above to avoid adding more water to the bilges. But I also had to extract the pump from its watery, greasy, dirty, little sump in another inaccessible dark hole at the bottom of the boat. This involves removing and replacing some very small screws, nuts and lots of washers that for physiological reasons you can either look at, or touch, but not both at the same time. A replacement pump has been located at Wroxham, which we will be visiting in a few days time.
Today we indulged ourselves with a full English breakfast cooked by yours truly on the portable griddle. The wind was so strong it blew the flame out twice and everything too a long time to cook. The finished result was pretty good though.
We then set off for Stracey Arms to have a look at the drainage mill built in 1883 by Robert Barnes of Great Yarmouth. For 70p payable at the nearby shop you can go inside and climb up to the top to view the working parts. The brick tower is built on piles driven 40ft into the ground with a pitch pine platform on top. There was also a good view over the landscape.
We then headed on to Stokesby where we are now moored, just downstream of the Ferry Arms. The hire boats are now rafted up, such are the attractions of this hostelry.
An article in yesterday’s Guardian referred to a reader’s e-mail saying that ”… in an attempt to crack down on incompetent and stupid drivers, the government has introduced a new road safety scheme. Any driver with an IQ of under 90 will be obliged to warn other drivers by flying a flag. This will consist of a red cross on a white background. Further flags will be obligatory for drivers with exceptionally low intelligence” It seems that this has already been introduced on the Norfolk Broads (see picture).
And finally, from readership response it seems that yesterdays offering gave the impression that we managed to empty our toilet tanks by telephone. We would like to point out that this technology has not yet been introduced on the Broads. Here the traditional shovel and bucket method has been recently been superseded by a length of plastic pipe and lots of suction. However we understand that NASA are developing a radio version which may be rolled out into the marine market later next century!
Maintenance engineer fiddling with stern gland
View from the top of Stracey Arms Mill
Is St George the patron saint of boating?
This bridge defines the ruling gauge for Broads hire boats which fit through it quite snugly. The bridge is also not square on to the river and so it is quite a challenge for the helmsman. Hire boats are required to use the services of a bridge pilot. This bridge is far too small for Starry Night so we had to turn round here, but first of all we moored up to sample the delights of the area and to inspect the bridge.
The river bank here is lined on both sides with wooden summer houses, some with their own little boat dykes for mooring (pronounced “boot dyke”). Just near to where we were moored a chap was repainting one of these “houses” and he regaled us for a good twenty minutes with tales of “glorified sheds” as he put it. He was in the business of looking after them. Apparently five years ago you could buy one of these “sheds” for £400 because the ground leases had only two or three years to run. Then the leases were all renewed for 99 years and the prices went up to £60,000 plus for your basic model.
They are all quite close to the water level and in the winter they are jacked up so the floors are above the top of the flood embankments. The idea is that the river flood-waters flow over the embankments into the low land areas and presumably don’t rise to the level of the summer houses.
Potter Heigham (at least the area round the bridge) was a big disappointment. It was devoid of trees and there was a large uninteresting expanse of ground populated by various commercial establishments. There was what looked like a low quality burger bar, a fish and chip shop that smelled of burnt oil, a boat hire centre with dozens more boats to be let loose on the Broads, and a convenience store/gift shop. Perhaps the actual village was nicer, but it seemed a shame that the lovely old bridge had been desecrated by its modern surroundings.
We shall be returning to PH for a foray up the Thurne in our dinghy as there are some very pretty parts beyond.
After lunch we retreated back to some moorings just where the Thurne joins the Bure, near a village called Thurne. Its quite quiet here – no pubs in the immediate vicinity. It has rained a lot this afternoon and and there is a severe weather warning for Norfolk for this evening.
Thurne Dyke wind pump
Summer houses at Potter Heigham
Mouth of River Thurne
Potter Heigham medieval bridge
Yesterday evening was a perfect one for the longest day. It was reasonably warm, and the sky was mainly clear. We watched a barn owl flying around the fields next to where we were moored for well over thirty minutes, as it lazily flapped around a course which it repeated several times, stopping of at various perches on the way. (Today we saw two barn owls in broad daylight at different places – apparently they hunt in daylight when they have young to feed). At about 10.00pm a mist started to roll in down the Yare from both directions and gradually enveloped our mooring (see picture). By 11.00pm the mist had vanished.
This morning we set off for Wroxham via Horning. Both have many river side cottages, some of them quite large and much more “up market” than Potter Heigham. Our aim had been to moor in Wroxham to get provisions. Most of the moorings are after the bridge, which is too low for us. And there were none before the bridge that were vacant. It was very congested with boats. Cavalcades of hire boats parading up and down looking for somewhere to stop. We had to turn round without mooring up, and decided to spend the rest of the day at Wroxham Broad. Here we found a nice deep mooring on an island between the broad and the river.
This has been the busiest part of the Broads so far and it seems very overcrowded compared to the Thames. And here almost every boat is a hire boat, with private boats a distinct minority. And there are numerous hire boat bases with even more boats waiting in the wings for high season. The Thames seems very serene in comparison.
This afternoon we explored Wroxham Broad’s ins and outs in the dinghy, and Mike couldn’t resist the temptation of the local ice cream vendor.
Tomorrow first thing we will be dropping off Pat and John in Wroxham so that they can catch a train back to Reedham to retrieve their car. If we can find somewhere to leave the boat we will stock up.
Last night's evening mist at Thurne Mouth
Intrepid explorers ready to set off
Yes please!
It poured with rain all night, heavily at times, creating a fine din on our steel superstructure. By morning there was a glimmer of hope with the odd bit of blue sky, but mostly it was threatening clouds. Some monitoring of the hire boat traffic in and out of Wroxham as it passed us by, gave us the impression that the net flow was out. So we left our mooring at 9.15 in high hopes of finding a mooring in town for the business of the day.
Our luck held. There were several good spots available, and we plumped for a mooring at Brinkscraft boatyard where we could also get water and a pump-out, as well as hook onto mains power to give the batteries some serious charging. All this dawdling along at 4mph for just a couple of hours per day does nothing for battery capacity.
The station was easy to find and took us ten minutes brisk walk. It was at the end of Station Road! The train to Norwich was just a few minutes late and very crowded: we bade farewell to Pat and John.
Next was shopping. There is a whole collection of separate quite large and good shops called Roy's - department store, supermarket, DIY, clothes and toys. They are all owned by the same family. The supermarket was excellent - good quality stuff. By the time we emerged it was chucking it down again and has for most of the day. It took two separate visits during the course of the day to get everything we needed, as we had to carry everything back to the boat.
Norfolk Marine is also just round the corner - a first class chandlery. Here we got everything needed to repair the bilge pump. I had discovered that the bilge pump float switch was also rather iffy and that I may have been maligning the pump. However prudence won the day and we now have a new pump and float switch installed.
We have been bumped again by another hire boat - "Clear Gem I" from Richardson's boat yard: they didn't even stop - probably couldn't! Slight scrape mark on the hull paint, which should polish out. But there is no point in following up with the yard, as they are apparently self-insured and don't collect security deposits anymore. I don't want a big argument over a trivial thing, but it does annoy me. In five years of boating on the Thames, we have only ever been bumped by one boat to the extent of leaving marks on ours. That was in a lock. Here on the Broads we have had three bumps in eight days from badly driven hire boats.
We have decided to stay put in Wroxham for the night as the combination of strong wind and heavy showers is just too horrible to contemplate - and we are in no hurry.
Draining overnight rain from the dinghy
Farewells at Wroxham station
The new pump and float switch
The wind and showers have persisted through he night and the overnight Met forecast for the coastal waters was Gale Force 8 to Severe Gale Force 9 for the next 12 hours. We are now back at Thurne Mouth where we stayed a few days ago and it is still blowing hard, though now there are large patches of blue sky in amongst the grey and the rain.
We set off from Wroxham at about 10.00 and headed back to Horning and down the Bure retracing our steps. The strong winds made for difficult handling, particularly in the sections where the speed limit was just 4mph, the wind behind or across us, and the stream with us too. We paused at Horning on a mooring at an island opposite the village centre when we thought someone was about to leave one of the few moorings accessible to the facilities. But this was a false alarm and so we headed on.
Just before Ant Mouth (where the River Ant joins the Bure) there is a dyke leading to Malthouse Broad and Ranworth. We headed in there to have a look and it was just what you would expect for a Norfolk Broad – very pretty. But there were no moorings at Ranworth Village other than stern-to moorings, which we cannot do in our boat. If it had been less windy we might have anchored in the Broad and used the dinghy to get ashore – perhaps next week.
Finally we got to Thurne Mouth and decided enough was enough – it was just too much hassle steering the boat in the wind and trying to avoid collisions with hire boats. So we pulled into the mooring and tied up with double the number of lines we normally use. We have been here since lunch-time.
We have been amazed at how the hire boats just keep on trucking in all conditions – during a particularly bad spell of wind (weather, not gastric!) I counted over 30 passing hire boats in 30 minutes – and not one privateer amongst them. Perhaps this is because most of them are stuck inside a metal/glass fibre box with windows and have no idea what conditions are like outside.
The majority of the hire boats are driven from the inside, at a helm position right at the front. This seems to encourage their crew to try to drive them like cars. They have this nasty habit of passing us at our moorings quite close by on a parallel heading may be ten feet off, or even less. Having decided to turn away from us, they swing the wheel over in the fond belief that the boat will follow. They seem quite oblivious that when the front end goes in the desired direction, the back goes the opposite way.
So the inevitable result is that we keep getting close encounters as the rear ends of hire boats swing in our direction. This accounted for the scrape we had yesterday. And we have had a number of boats swing under our bows and miss us by inches. If either of us sees one of these potential situations we now shout “…Incoming….”!
I also have the emergency fog horn assembled and ready to go, just in case it comes in handy!
Dressed for March cruising weather
Traffic congestion on Malthouse Broad - Colregs don't seem to apply!
Armed and ready for action - see text
What a difference a day makes! We’ve had sunshine and blue sky today and it felt so good after two whole days of battering winds and rain.
We headed round to Potter Heigham as planned and moored up almost exactly where we had stopped earlier in the week. As we were passing the outposts of the Potter Heigham summer houses alongside the river, the local lawn cutting man was busily loading his mower onto a small motor boat as he went on his round of the summer house lawns. No road access to most of them.
We lowered the dinghy into the water (remembering to drain out the remaining rain-water and to put the bung back in!) and put on board the provisions for our trip up to Hickling Broad. We took our petrol container with us too, as we expected to use more than the capacity of the outboards own tank. Lunch was also packed, together with puncture repair kit and pump, spares and tools for the engine, a small anchor and various items of clothing to cater for a wide range of possible weather conditions. Most of these things were kept in waterproof sacks.
We set off at 11.00 and passed through PH and under the bridge. There was a strong stream running under the arch and we had to gun the engine to get through. Immediately before us a bridge pilot took a hire boat under with just inches to spare.
The first stretch of the river after the bridge was lined by more wooden summer houses, moorings for private boats (all quite small) and then Martham boat yard which is a hire base for some lovely old style varnished wood hire cruisers. We stopped here to top up the portable petrol container.
Then we turned up Candle Dyke, and passed through Heigham Sound and Deep Dyke and finally entered Hickling Broad. This was about four miles from where we had left Starry Night.
Hickling Broad runs NW to SE and the wind was blowing from the NW and the water was choppy. We got quite wet very quickly and decided that it would be sensible to turn round and retreat. So we headed back to Deep Dyke and stopped here to have the first installment of our lunch. Pressing on we turned up Meadow Dyke and headed for the Eastern end of Horsey Mere where there is a very picturesque mooring and a National Trust Windpump. At this point we were just one mile from the Norfolk Coast.
Horsey Mere and the dyke leading to it are very pretty and everything you would expect the Broads to be. For the whole trip we had the dykes and broads almost to ourselves, apart from the occasional sailing boat, a Canadian canoe, and several smaller traditional motor boats. Not one modern hire boat apart from the one we followed under PH bridge. We finished our lunch at Horsey Windpump and then headed back to base camp arriving around 3.30pm.
It had been a lovely day and was a perfect Broads experience.
The mower man on his rounds
Bridge pilot at work - it did go through!
Deep Dyke
Horsey Windpump
Copyright © 2004-2009 Mike Hawkridge