I had it in my mind that our holiday would start on a Saturday but I must have mis-heard and so the fun would commence on the Monday.

It’s inevitable to go over the same photographs and observations as previous years with things not changing that much however much has changed. Sadly the Broads Authority have been unsuccessful in negotiating leases or agreeing responsibility for maintaining many Southern ‘Free’ moorings. The Pyes Mill (Picnic site) moorings are largely closed off due to unstable quay headings, Rockland Staithe has reverted to the local Parish and may or may not remain available to moor. It will almost certainly be charged for if it does remain accessible, much like Langley Dyke which was lost a couple of seasons ago. It should be noted that new moorings have been acquired at Aldeby Hall (2-4 boats) and Hardley Mill (6 boats). Hardley Mill is on quite an exposed reach however. It does feel as if the quality of ‘Free’ BA moorings is on a rapid decline and it is resulting in me changing how I go boating, but more on that later.

We arrived mid morning with the intention of heading south to cross Breydon Water having calculated slack water and attempted to work out the passage time from Ranworth to the confluence of the Bure and Yare at Gt Yarmouth. I now generally consider the ideal Breydon Water crossing time to be roughly 2 hours after low water at Gorleston (Gt Yarmouth on most tide tables, not to be confused with Yarmouth Yacht Station).

The biggest challenge was to estimate passage time. Hiving used a website which estimates this for you, I’ve always got it wrong generally arriving too early. Based on that experience I guessed my passage time to Breydon at 3½ hours. Looking back at my GPS tracking app, that estimate was spot on.

With a crossing time starting around 19:00, we were going to moor up around dusk at best so my fingers were crossed to find mooring space at either Burgh Castle or at a stretch, Somerleyton with an outside chance of finding a gap at St Olaves. We passed Burgh Castle moorings but I didn’t like the look of them as it had pretty coarse piling which would have swallowed our little fenders and also a fair tidal range. Instead we pushed on and had the good fortune to find a very small gap at St Olaves (The mooring with the mini windmill) which we squeezed into for the night.

A new addition to our southern broads cruising gear is a fender board, a hardwood plank with ropes set through holes at either end and as long as would fit in the recess behind our back seat. The idea is that the plank bridges the gap between pilings on a mooring without the fenders disappearing in the gaps. It worked really well on almost all moorings on our southern trip although I did jury rig some small fenders to the board just in case. This board is also particularly useful on moorings where the gunwale of the boat might get caught under the quay cappings such as those found at Beccles Yacht Station

Despite having a ‘dirty bottom’ our timing taking account of the tides meant we only consumed around 10l of petrol.

We had an easy chilli dinner prepared on our new cooker and turned in.

We departed from St Olaves fairly early in order to make the most of low water bridge clearance and a flood tide to push us up toward Beccles.

There was a surprising amount of reed and general weed in the river and in a lapse of concentration, we had the minor displeasure of ploughing through a clump and wrapping it around our prop just beyond Somerleyton. A little burst of astern quickly cleared it but we did start to pay more attention.

Bacon rolls were made and consumed as we pushed through to Beccles for a shopping pit stop. On arrival at Beccles, the moorings just before the new bridge were all taken so we decided to pull up temporarily at the dis-masting area, leaving me aboard ready to move the boat at a moments notice with the crew making a charge for Morrisons. It turns out that Beccles Yacht Station allow you to moor for up to 2 hour free of charge, but we didn’t know that at the time.

We left, fully provisioned, around lunchtime but did make a cheeky stop (or at least thought at the time it was cheeky) at the Yacht Station to top up on water. It was then onwards under the Beccles Old Bridge with screen down and then onwards through one of the most attractive stretches of the Broads to the Geldeston Lock mooring.

We arrived in good time, surprisingly to plenty of space. There was of course a fair bit of bustle from kayakers and paddleboards along with the shouts and screams of kids tombstoning off the footbridge across the river. By mid evening all had settled and we started to build camp for our evening BBQ, still slightly smitten by our posh Cobb BBQ.

One minor bucket list item I have wanted to check off was to get as far up the Waveney as I could get beyond the Geldeston Lock foot bridge. Last year I had my ancient Avon Redcrest inflatable dinghy patched and updated with new valves. The dinghy was military reconnaissance surplus from over 30 years ago and served as a tender for my first sailing yacht, a Westerly GK24. The dinghy has had an eclectic life finding a use as a paddling pool for my daughter and as a rather superb sofa at an outdoor cinema in Woodbridge a few years ago. Now being returned to service as a boat I paddled with my now teenage daughter beyond the bridge to Ellingham Mill beyond which we would have had to get past a weir and what looked like water that could only be paddled by a rigid kayak. The paddle was just over two miles each way and probably three given how reluctant the dinghy was to track in a straight line under oar. It would have been amazing fishing but a very worthwhile mini-adventure.

I had intended to hunker down to a proper fishing session for a large Chubb but didn’t manage to motivate myself for a sunrise start.

With Geldeston being a 24 hour mooring, we had to move on with fishing still firmly on our minds. There are some fairly rugged visitor moorings just around the corner from Geldeston Lock opposite a camp site. We took a look and although they were overgrown but workable moorings, the river was narrow and didn’t feel ‘fishy’.

We then decided to try something new; a spot of wild mooring. This didn’t work out, as a lovely wild mooring I had spied on the way in was now occupied so a new plan was hatched to use two mud weights to anchor just out of the channel in a beautiful little spot shaded by trees. With one mudweight at the bow and one at the stern we avoided scratching up the boat and having to lunge for branches to tie up to. It worked very well despite boats charging up and down the channel at great speed, not expecting anyone to be there. The fishing was fun, catching a rather large bream.

Mooring like this promises to be a more frequent activity given the scarcity of attractive and available moorings and something we’ll definitely try more often on the northern rivers

The day started with bacon rolls and a tidy-up, weighing anchors for provisioning at Beccles, this time including fuel and laundry along with the usual provisioning.

We took the opportunity to stock up on fishing bait (maggots and worms) along with hooks on the walk to Tesco’s but were enticed into a little ice cream shop on the way back to the Yacht Station. The ice cream wasn’t the best but it was very welcome on what was a very hot day.

Returning to the boat, we topped off with water and left in the hope of finding the mooring at Worlingham clear. Just the downstream side of the Beccles New Bridge I could smell a chemically burning and on opening the engine compartment I was welcomed to a cloud of melting alternator belt fumes. I immediately cut the engine to let the smoke clear and then made the assessment that the alternator was having to work extremely hard to re-charge our LiFePO4 domestic battery having been ‘off grid’ for a few days. In fact re-starting and backing off the revs a little seemed to contain the issue and we proceeded cautiously downstream.

The mooring at Worlingham was unusually clear and the crew set up for an afternoon’s fishing while I ran up the engine on the mooring to re-charge the battery. This seemed to take forever and I was wishing the charging would go faster not wishing to destroy the peace of what would have been a charmed evening.

By the time we were charged, it was too late to get my own rod out and instead got busy with the evening meal.

Thinking the alternator and charging situation was solved and stocked with bait, today was going to be the big fishing day. We set up an awning, bait table and chairs and tucked in at the end of the mooring to fish. Yes, the sign on the mooring said no fishing between certain dates but as we’d hardly seen any other boats out on the water and none on the mooring, we took our chances ready to be turfed off if needed.

I fact we were golden for most of the day having ground baited and got into a lovely rhythm of both large and small catches, ledgering (using a weight on the bottom rather than a float) in order to hold against the relatively fast tide.

Come early afternoon we were planning on turning the fishing camp into a cooking one. We were just about to set up the BBQ when four battered and beaten boats hove into view the boats were rafted in pairs with clearly only one boat in each pair being capable of providing thrust. It was time to clear the quay and I assisted in taking lines to pull one of the pair of rafted boats onto the mooring and making them fast. One of the boats apparently had a bent propshaft and the other was overheating severely. At this point I witnessed what I can only refer to as a Norfolk stereotype. Over seven people emerged from to one pair of boats, four of which were children. Then came three rottweiler dogs and a coarse haired Jack Russel. The kids had no reserve and were into what we had on the table like an American guest heading for a fridge.

By the time the dust had settled we were truly overwhelmed, surrounded by a shantytown of boat wreckage. The people were lovely, it has to be said but equally there was no surprise when we chose to make a calm but decisive exit from the mooring.

We doubled back aiming to find a mooring at one of the new and rarely acquired BA mooring at Aldeby. We shoehorned ourselves between two large boats on to the newly re-furbished quay. It’s actually a lovely mooring with lush grass and a perfect spot to finally decamp and set up the BBQ. The boat owners either side of us were very pleasant and conversational and we shared much maritime common ground with both of them.

Having settled down for the evening I set to working out the tides to avoid a really hard slog to get up the river Yare, particularly through Reedham. By my calculation it meant a really early start given that I also wated to return to Beccles for water as we promised to be away from a hosepipe for a few days.

Departing at the ungodly hour of 6:30, we slipped moorings for a water top-up at Beccles with the aim of a long cruise up to Bramerton Common.

The weather had turned becoming quite grey and windy but far from miserable. A little way past the fork in the river you would normally take for Oulton heading north, I noticed that the charge from our alternator was becoming relatively weak at around 14A with the charge warning light supporting this with a dim glow. I had tightened the alternator drive belt to a tension that gave me a recommended deflection of 6mm-10mm thinking the smoking belt was owing to the belt being a bit slack. Then just before St Olaves, all our alternator power went. At this point I asked the helm to plant the boat into the reeds while I hastily deployed a mud weight given that the tide was running well.

With the engine off I tried dis and re-connecting the ill-fitting Chinese alternator plug to see if that helped but then the starter motor failed to engage with the flywheel when the key was turned. It probably wasn’t directly connected with the alternator but for a moment we were dead in the water with a mudweight dragging and boats coming the other way being blissfully unaware we had no control.

A deep breath, count to three and turn of the key saw the engine spring to life but still with no charge. At this point I worked out that we could get past Reedham via the New Cut and catch a flooding tide up the Yare towards Brundall. Being loosely in the marine trade and with Brundall having the best connections and marine engineering resources on the Broads, it was worth trying to get there hoping the remaining battery power alone would be sufficient to get us there.

En route I started making calls and trying to source a new alternator on the assumption the regulator had died. With it being a Saturday, there was a slim chance I could get a cab or train in to Norwich to pick one up off the shelf. Of course I had no chance !

Always good for a bit of local advice, I posted on Facebook to the Freeman Boat Owners Group whether anyone had any ideas where in Norwich I could pick up an alternator and following many useful suggestions, a fine Freeman owner by the name of Chris Sainsbury messaged to say he had a brand new spare alternator and was happy to pick it up from his boat in Coltishall and drop it off with me at Brundall. It was an incredibly generous gesture which I gladly took him up on. We managed to arrange several days mooring at the Ting Dene Brundall Bay Marina, something I’d have never considered due to the expense but given the risk of our holiday being crippled by technical issues for the second year in a row, I threw caution to the wind and we went in.

It was undoubtedly a relief to get tied up but also quite a surprise. Pulling into Brundall Bay Marina was like a different world lined with boats which on the whole are cruising sea boats and not what you would think of as a Broads Cruiser. The pontoons are articulated to float with the tide, much like a coastal marina with power and water to every boat (certainly where we were moored). The marina was very smart with the impressive (by Broads Standards) main office located behind secured gates which also offers showers and laundry facilities. On checking in, you are provided with a fob which grants access to the facilities.

At the time of writing, the charge was £20 per night, a charge until recently I would have avoided but with almost all pubs charging at their moorings and many formerly free BA moorings now being charged for, we seem to be entering a new age of being charged for every last inch.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised and genuinely enjoyed the facilities. Berthholders were exceptionally welcoming, perhaps because our faces fitted coming from a background of coastal sailing.

With a replacement alternator very kindly dropped off to us, I set to fitting it and hit an immediate snag. The replacement alternator had a higher output than the previous one and thus had a larger body diameter than the old one. This meant that it didn’t clear the exhaust manifold of the engine and I would have to use a longer drive belt… which of course I didn’t have and wouldn’t be able to get until the Monday. At this point we decided to relax and look at our food options, deciding to book a table at the ‘White Heron’ Pub which sits next to Brooms and near the railway crossing. This being a sports bar was unlikely to be my thing but it was our best option. As we approached, a DJ was thrashing out trance tunes to an audience of one and having my own DJ career as a not too distant memory, I could feel my cringe reflexes tighten. Fortunately we arrived when he played his final tune and we entered the establishment.

The restaurant and bar were actually buzzing in a nice way and no sign of a big screen. The menu had a nice selection and interestingly, all items were £15 ranging from burgers to chilli prawns. The waiting staff were enthusiastic and really helpful. This was turning out to be an unexpected surprise and whilst the food wasn’t exceptional, it was very good. I would highly recommend upgrading your two scoops of ice cream to a sundae (if they still do it when you go) – very tasty treat !

It was then back to the boat for what was likely to be an enforced relaxing Sunday.

With trade supplies and specialist shops being shut on a Sunday, there was really nothing to do but relax but then we generally fail to do that. The crew decided to take the train from Brundall into Norwich to buy some postcards and gifts for relatives while I decided to give the boat a wash down and polish; something of a treat given a floating jetty. The rain just about held off but did make final polishing harder work than it needed to be. Supplied with the essentials to make a risotto from the local Co-op,  it was an evening in.

Back to business to get ‘Lady’ back in commission, I attempted to get hold of a longer alternator drive belt from Peachment’s an French Marine. Whilst both were very helpful, neither had the right length. It was now looking like a train and cab ride into Norwich to find a well-stocked auto shop but I was tipped off by one of the French Marine engineers about a company called Panks which were highly likely to be able to supply and also had a delivery van running a circuit around the Broads three times a day.

This was music to my ears and by lunchtime I had a suitable belt delivered to the marina office. A short while later and I had fitted it. Still a close call in length, we’d cracked it and could now top up with a full battery charge, water and shopping to head for our initially intended destination of Bramerton Common.

On the way, it dawned on me that we could duck in to Norwich on the way and temporarily grab hold of the quayside near the white foot bridge (Novi Sad Friendship Bridge) and grab a couple of jerry cans of fuel at the Morrisons petrol station only five minutes away. This should be enough to get us home and more.

On the way back to Bramerton, noticing there being enough clearance to get under both Thorpe Bridges, I decided to head through Thorpe St Andrew in the knowledge we would most likely get caught up in weed. I’m so please we did as it’s a lovely interesting and pretty stretch of water. Yes, we did snag a little weed but nothing that couldn’t be shaken off with a blast of reverse. The Rushcutter’s Pub at the eastern end looks worth a visit – perhaps one for next time.

It was then a gentle potter back downstream to Bramerton where we pulled up, fished (although it’s against the rules) and BBQ’d our evening meal.

A unique couple and their boxer pulled up to moor and make their dinner on a small Shetland launch with a tiny cuddy. The food smelled great but the broad Scottish owner made a point of bellowing at his dog “GET DOWAN!!!, SHUT UP, SIT DOWAN!!” – He calmed down after a while. When him and his lass left the mooring at dusk, they gently buzzed away with candles in the cuddy and was actually quite touching… …until the engine died and he yelled “FUCKIN’ OUTBOARDS !!’ to an otherwise serene scene.

Later on, a classic Norfolk family slanging match ensued on a bathtub further down the moorings. Not sure how many this time, but at a guess at least six participants.

Canopy closed and another bedtime counting mozzie bites around my ankles.

We had to get back home on the Wednesday, so we could either make for Reedham and pull up there for the night to then get home in one long passage on the Wednesday morning, or have a leisurely start to cross Breydon Water and make for a pub stop and overnighter at either Stokesby, Upton Dyke or Acle Bridge.

We went for the latter option and with all systems working, departed Bramerton aiming to cross Breydon at slack water. As is mostly the case, my calculation for tidal times was correct, my passage time not so much and having been catapulted through Reedham much faster than I’d have liked, we ended up an hour early at Gt Yarmouth, punching the tide past the Yacht Station.

Passing the Yacht Station, I had either the pleasure or displeasure (depending on which side of the fence you stand) of seeing the Chief Executive of the Broads Authority, John Packman standing on board the ‘Spirit of Breydon’. He waved, so being of a polite disposition, I waved back with a semi-smile. He is on his way out after all.

The tide was pretty hard going and without anywhere to stop legitimately before Stokesby, we reluctantly burned excessive fuel and pushed through.

I have wanted to try out the Ferry Inn at Stokesby for a while – It always looks welcoming near sunset on a summers day. The mooring was £10 overnight with a warden making his way around the boats after 17:00. It doesn’t seem to make any odds if you’re moored in front of the pub or the moorings immediately downstream. These moorings do seem to attract large boats so we were happy to slot in a small space between boats that appeared settled for the night. Big boats helmed by incompetent people on moorings like this do make me nervous, so the safest bet is to be between boats which aren’t about to arrive or leave.

We visited the pub and although it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. The staff really would rather be somewhere else and a smile would probably give them a hernia. You have to order at the bar and pay as you go. This is probably a reflection of people just leaving on a boat without paying but it felt a bit off. You have to collect your own cutlery and condiments. I have a particular loathing for sauce sachets. The menus on the tables, printed on normal paper were rather dog-eared and just gave the impression of not caring that much. It’s a small detail but the replacement LED lightbulbs were cool white, so the atmosphere wasn’t warm or cosy.

Food was fine but uninspired, the usual 50 shades of brown crispy things but it was more expensive than you’d think as you pay each time you order anything at the bar. In this respect it probably wasn’t good value for money.

Stokesby is quaint, with some nice twee buildings but it’s essentially some cottages around a village green.

As it was our final day and we were up north, it seems to have become to have a final meal on the boat before heading home. This generally means a trip to a supermarket for food and that’s often all the excuse needed to run up to Hoveton and grab some ingredients from Roy’s. We’ll sometimes also use the opportunity for laundry but not today.

The new canopy being able to drop by 20cm without taking everything down is working very well provided there’s 2m on the tide boards. We had 2m and good clearance although I still ducked.

The crew to ‘Lady’ to her home berth while I had a nap.

Interestingly, we made a point of adhering to the speed limits between Wroham and Ranworth using a GPS speedometer. EVERY single boat headed in the same direction as us then proceeded to overtake. We were at the speed limit and the slowest on the river!

That was it for our summer cruise. Next Stop the Salhouse 2025 Freeman meet.