Light rain (seeing a pattern here?) removed the chance of a decent view at the top of the capanile , although this didn’t deter us all from climbing the stairs to ‘admire’ the dank, grey landscape (24th August!).
An old hand had joined us, & was found to remark that somehow I always managed to get people on holiday, in the rain. (the clever b&^%ard). After breaking down the tents, we swiftly tidied up after ourselves & thought no more of it, as we set off in the blazing sun heading back toward St Benet’s.
(how wrong we were!)
Just upriver from Horning Hall, we were lured into thinking that 2 fenders idly floating by were discarded… RIVER TREASURE! We wasted no time, performed an all-standing gybe & lurched into the reeds gleefully.
Firstly, they were balloons. Secondly, we’d also gone hard aground. (Bugger). Thankfully both ‘Polly’ & ‘F’ were very supportive.
By 2pm, we were safely moored in Potter Heigham alongside the famous H.W yacht ‘Ladybird’, and were preparing to navigate through the bridges, without being attacked by any hire craft (!)
‘Ladybird’ is quite special, being built as a double-ended racing yacht, and subsequently then being modified & put into hire… (!) She was ‘transformed’ into this;
What followed, was absolute champagne sailing, we headed up the Thurne & onto Horsey Mere, where the sea-breeze kicked in, and we all got to charge around the Mere just messing about in boats.
With thoughts of the evening’s BBQ, we motored back out of Meadow Dyke, navigation being punctuated by;
- Tea (good)
- Jeremy the dog walking off the stern of ‘Polly’ (less good)
Sadly, we’d managed to burn the only non-burning disposable BBQ in the world, so we set about to get quite pissed… However the day was not over!
9.30pm… it’s pitch black, and we’re quietly winding down… A motor boat is heard, heading up Heigham Sounds towards us… with a searchlight scanning the moorings (!)
A VERY surreal experience followed… We were questioned (at length) by 2 river inspectors who refused to show ID, or approach us. It would appear that morning at Ranworth our tents were reported (by some morally righteous twerp) – which had precipitated a largescale ‘boat hunt’ with every BA launch mobilised for several hours, just to pursue us!
Despite the ridiculous nature of being told that we shouldn’t have done what we’d done quietly, without damage – we reached a stalemate & had a nightcap to digest it all…
Night.
A Broadsman 