We left Great Yarmouth Marina, went under the Yarmouth bridges early in the morning, crossed Breydon Water and moored up at the Berney Arms, where we bought Daniel a speedboat from the licensee, on condition he buckles down to his schoolwork when we get back. After lunch at the pub, we set off upstream and arrived at St Olave’s, where we visited St Mary’s Priory with its neighbouring restaurant that supported a menagerie which entertained the girls.
I woke at 6:30am in Great Yarmouth Marina with the rain still falling and so I wondered what to do as I drank my morning tea. A check of the Hamilton’s tide tables showed that we were okay to go under the Yarmouth Bridges until 7:30am and so we made a quick start and set off at 7am. The weather had cleared up and we needed to drop the windscreens and slide back the canopy and so we were glad the sun was shining as we crossed Breydon Water. I opened The Lady up to reach about 8kn, but Daniel was put off a speeding exercise by the wind on his canopy.
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Soon we reached The Berney Arms Inn, where we moored up and looked at the speedboat that Daniel had seen before. The price was removed, and it was back in the water. Di and I had a long chat and agreed that, if it was still for sale, we will get it provided Daniel buckled down to his schoolwork once we got home. We had to wait to do a deal with Robert Mc(something), the licensee of the Berney Arms (who owned the boat). It was previously marked at £700, he first wanted £650 but then agreed to sell for £500, which both Daniel and I thought was good value. We were allowed to take it for a ride across Breydon water, which we did, and it seemed to do some 30 miles an hour with two of us and its 50 hp engine. It started first time on each of three occasions. It comes with the trailer as well which is useful. I firstly felt that the whole idea was most un-suitable, but it was the price to pay such that Daniel would get on with his schoolwork.
We had lunch at the pub made some phone calls and then set off upstream of the day boat and sports boat in tow and the dinghy on the davits! We arrived at St Olaves’s at 3pm but, after the local taxi was found to be on-call, we resigned ourselves to not going anywhere you tonight and instead we had some of the home-made ice cream from the local post office (delicious!) We also went to see the St Mary’s Priory remains which were even more impressive than when we last saw them. The neighbouring restaurant also had deer, geese, turkeys and sheep in its grounds (for self-sufficiency in supplies) which the girls enjoyed seeing.
To The Lady for tea and then I read the paper as Diana had an early night, Debbie played the keyboard and Daniel played with the engine of his new speedboat. Unfortunately, it now refused to start after being tilted during the journey which depressed him and confirmed my view concerning outsized outboard motors. The wind got up tonight and the rain came again and there was no chance to hear the news today