Cruising back from Stalham to Horning under Ludham Bridge with an increasingly competent Debbie at the helm, first mooring up at Ranworth Broad and taking the Jolly over to the staithe for lunch at The Maltsters Arms and enjoying ice cram at the Post Office.
A nice walk around the common and then back to the boat and home. The news is all about Iraq indulging in brinkmanship with the U.S. and U.N. over inspection of government offices
The night went well and it was nearly 8.00am before we woke up and Diana went to make the morning drinks. It had not rained in the night as we feared and was looking quite bright this morning, but we got going as soon after breakfast as possible as we did not want to be caught in the rain whilst negotiating Ludham Bridge with the canopy down. Debbie took the helm for the trip down the River Ant and showed more skill and experience than the majority of cruiser hirers to make me feel that she is now quite safe to be left in charge of the boat whilst underway. We moored up at Ranworth Broad and took The Jolly over to the staithe for a shore visit. We took lunch at The Maltsters Arms and were very pleased with the Sunday Roast quality and prices and glad that we tried them for a change.
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They had become quite busy by the time we had eaten and so we went without pudding and walked up to the Post Office/Stores instead. Although the shop was supposed to be closed, the lady was behind the counter cashing up and so she let us in the back way and served us with some ice cream and we chatted for a while. Her farmer husband was harvesting today, and she also told us about a nice walk around the common and back to the staithe which we took for exercise and recreation immediately afterwards. Though muddy from being used also as a popular bridle path, we enjoyed the butterflies, plants and mature oak trees and the girls had fun too, running ahead and meeting us at the play-place.
Back to the Paxton Princess where I did some fishing with Della and we caught a half dozen roach between us with Della actually catching one of them herself as the first time she has caught one alone. Diana and Debbie were reading all this time and they carried this on for the rest of the day which I thought was a waste of nice weather. Back to Horning and, after stopping at the Horning riverside service station for a double pump-out, we cruised on and were safely moored up at Heronshaw in late afternoon. Met the lady owner of the Windmill Bungalow whilst at the service station and she told me that they had to have the windmill jacked up by Arthur Edmunds and a millwright to look at the mechanism recently.
She gave me the latest England vs Pakistan Test match score which had England on the verge of victory and of squaring the series with one match to play. I watched the end of the match on the Heronshaw TV when I got back and then, after tea, made up for it by mowing the lawn, clearing weeds from the other side and then retiring to the garage to apply another coat of varnish to the other side of the downstairs windows for the new boathouse. The news is all about Iraq indulging in brinkmanship with the U.S. and U.N. over inspection of government offices, but I suspect that they will back down at the last minute as usual and that this process will continue until the West loses interest.