Off on Paxton Princess for a few days cruising along to Ranworth Staithe and walking to view the Broads from the top of Ranworth Church tower
Off on Paxton Princess for a few days cruising along to Ranworth Staithe and walking to view the Broads from the top of Ranworth Church tower

After full preparation, eventually off on Paxton Princess for a few days cruising along to Ranworth Staithe and walking to view the Broads from the top of Ranworth Church tower which was truly remarkable.

Back to The Maltsters for a drink before we put the boat to bed and Sam in his box for the night.

The plan was for us was to use the next few days to try out a trip on the boat and certainly the weather did not let us down.

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It was another sweltering hot day with temperatures in the 90's according to the news and there was no better place to be than on a boat. But first we had to prepare the boat and pack all our things and, after such a long time, this came very hard indeed as we were out of practice.

The number of things that we could not do without was daunting in the extreme but eventually we were just about ready to go. Rather than having to rush to a stopping point, we opted to take The Jolley across to Horning Tea Shoppe and have lunch with Sam at heel under the shade of the outside umbrellas.

He had a long run earlier but had disgraced himself by chasing a hare across a field of set-aside and he almost caught it too. At least it exercised him well enough. We eventually left after lunch and cruised along to Ranworth Staithe where I performed a remarkable feat of helmsmanship by slotting The Paxton Princess alongside the quay after threading it between several boats using my twin engines.

We could only sit in the shade for a while as the heat was so unbearable but then Diana and I took Sam up the hill to see the view of the Broads from the top of Ranworth Church tower which was truly remarkable. Our reward was some tea and Passion Cake from the visitor's centre as Sam sat outside in the sun.

Once back, we prepared the sailing dinghy and, whilst Debbie took this across Ranworth Broad, Della and I took Sam in The Jolley and moored up over the other side to do some fishing. A successful exercise at it gave Diana a quiet time away from all three of us and the dog.

Then another walk with Sam and Di ending up at The Maltsters for a drink before we put the boat to bed and Sam in his box for the night. He had been very unsettled all day, but this seemed to make him tired enough to want to settle down.

I wrote up today's journal as the family watched a film "Mermaids" on the TV and the warm weather turned into a storm outside with thunder and lightning and plenty of rain which felt refreshing after all the heat and humidity.

I had brought the girl's school reports back to Norfolk and they showed both in quite a good light. Debbie had achieved good class positions in her maths and science subjects and Della had achieved very high positions in all her subjects.

here was controversy today as England's Test Cricket Captain, Roy Atherton, is censored for using a pocket full of dirt to tamper with the ball in the last Test. Even so, South Africa beat England for the first match played since their re-acceptance into international cricket.