Sunlit Horizon 2 - 'Lads Week' 2012 - Day six



Day six began and where normally this is the point on a 7 night break where you think how nice the holiday has been but that tomorrow is you last full day, I still have 4 days ahead of me.  This made me happy.  Despite the fact it had been a windy night and the rain and grey had lingered into the morning but come about 9:30am calmness had returned, the cloud lifted and blue sky and sunshine made such a difference to things.

I left my moorings at the formal 24 hour moorings for How Hill and headed to Richardson’s at Stalham – where upon arriving was shocked to see just how full their quay’s were and it was only Kingfisher that had some space – yet also of not all the Broadsman and Carousel boats were out – they certainly have proved very popular with the hirers.

I topped up with water and then bought £50.00 of fuel because I’d not been sure how much had been used with the cruising on the southern rivers and if had money to come back at the end would cancel itself out regardless.   Very friendly chap who did the fuelling and was bang on £50.00 which bought 35 litres of fuel.  Once paid it was a short walk to Tesco for some more bits and bobs.  I love going into Stalham, via the quiet and beautiful staithe and then returning from civilisation back to a cosy boat.

It was now a very mild day, dare I say warm and after leaving and having a bit of fun on Barton Broad weaving my way between the yachts with a good swell, I thought to myself why not just moor up and spend the afternoon chilling out with some nice wine and a book in the sunshine – so that is what I did and found the most beautiful of wild moorings between two trees.  

This personified what I love about solo boating.  The freedom and choice you get to decide what to do at a drop of a hat with nobody else to nag about being bored moored up in the middle of nowhere – naturally this is not for everyone, but for me it does not get much better.  I must confess I did get a bit carried away as I also thoroughly cleaned the exterior of the boat, cleaned all the glass and even the fenders.  Sunlit Horizon II may have been ‘just a hire boat’ but now looked a damn fine hire boat.

It was lovely once you moor how quiet it is and one can hear approaching boats for many minutes before they come into sight, together with the wildlife which seeing you are of no harm get ever closer and feeding passing ducks and swans was the icing on the cake.  What was absolutely shameful was hidden behind the tree my bow rope was tired to were 4 rubbish bags, some with broken glass bottles, others with rotting food in – =cleary ripped apart by passing wildlife.  This beggers belief how people can come and moor up and then leave their rubbish ‘hidden’ instead of take it with them to be thrown away responsibly.  I took the time to clear this so it could not cause any more nuisance or harm to others or wildlife.
And that really was that, a lovely day, a nice evening which although the wind got up about 9pm, with the bank and the trees went over the top of the boat and did not cause any bother for me whatsoever.  If you recognise the mooring in the video, I thoroughly recommend it on the river Ant as a peaceful place to spend a night.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Brinks Belmore | The Big Tour - Day 7 (Part 1)

Brinks Rhapsody - The Review

Brinks Belmore | The Big Tour - Day 6 (Part 1)