Berney Arms Windmill
Berney Arms Windmill

A busy boating day setting off from Irstead Staithe and cruised on across Barton Broad and up to Stalham for a look around the town and then meeting the owner of Stalham Yacht Services who had brought it as ‘The Rolyat Princess’ round from Norfolk to the Great Ouse on its delivery and proving trips.

Then downstream the River Ant and Bure getting as far as Yarmouth eventually but there were no good moorings there and so we eventually crossed Breydon Water and moored at The Berney Arms. Saddam Hussein declares Kuwait as part of Iraq and Britain agrees to join multilateral force in the Gulf. 

Today was yet another fine day but, although still sunny, was cool enough to be quite nice. I was outside early, mopping the boat and then, after a deal of persuasion from me, Daniel helped me with the boat cover. This persistence was rewarded when we found that the "irons" had been fitted back to front all this time and the cover was actually a better design that we thought when fitted the right way round! We set off from Irstead Staithe and cruised on across Barton Broad and up to Stalham. We tied up at the Staithe and walked into the centre of the village to do some shopping, travelling the length of the High Street before we bought our items on the way back. I stopped off for a haircut at a small upstairs barbers’ shop near to the health-food shop and was amazed to get a very good and quick haircut for only £1.50, a third of the going rate back home. I tipped him the 50p change on the strength of his service.

We had lunch at our normal cottage restaurant in Stalham and were accosted by the village eccentric who chatted with us in friendly fashion at the table and told us of his missed schooling "having had poultry to look after". This was triggered by him seeing Della doing her paperwork at the table as she waited for her food. Back to the boat, when I moved across the dyke and arranged for toilet holding tank pump-outs from Stalham Yacht Services. An efficient young technician left his sanding job to come and make a very good job of this task whilst his boss (the owner of SYS) came over and chatted to us about the boat. He knew it well as "Rolyat Princess" and had helped Barnes Brinkcraft bring it round from Norfolk to the Great Ouse on its delivery and proving trips. He asked whether we still had that very poor compass in the bridge and I confirmed that we did! We took off downstream the River Ant and then down the Bure getting as far as Yarmouth eventually but there were no good moorings there as the Yacht Stations were all full and our twin dinghies made the task of double mooring at the Town Hall Quay rather daunting.

We turned across Breydon Water and I went below to have a ham salad for tea whilst Daniel tended the helm, Daniel was bullied by the tall trip ship, "The Golden Galleon" that came up behind him as Breydon Bridge opened for her and found the Paxton Princess between her and the bridge. I had to break off and sort the situation out before I could resume my tea but the ship's crew were not happy with him. By now wondering where to moor, we first tried Burgh Castle but the moorings were full there as well and so we went across to The Berney Arms, where the landlord moved his speedboat along a bit so that we could get our boat in at the moorings at about the third attempt (the mooring rope coming off of the cleat!). After adjusting our ropes, we went in to have a drink and chat to the landlord. He did not immediately recognise us as the purchasers last year of his old speedboat last year but then warmed to the situation and we exchanged anecdotes.

I then played Daniel at one of the video games and managed to fluke a win, much to his chagrin, before it was time for us to leave. We left Daniel in the boat and Diana and I took a walk along the embankment to see the work that the RSPB are doing to the nearby buildings, now that they have taken over the adjacent marshes as a nature reserve. The moorings were very busy with holidaymakers as we watched the other half of the late-night surrogacy film on TV before we settled down for the night. Our overnight stay at The Berney Arms was all right, even though the Spring High and Low Waters occurred during the night. The banks are quite low and the freeboard such that the moorings are not recommended by many of the guide books, but that particular tidal range was the smaller of the two that day and we got away with it in accordance with my prior reading of the Almanac tide tables. The only problem was that I was unsettled thinking about the moorings and coping with a warm and humid atmosphere. Saddam Hussein declares Kuwait as part of Iraq and Britain agrees to join multilateral force in the Gulf.