Castaway on the Southern rivers

On 16th July 2005, Golden Mean played host to a wedding reception on a small island in the Thames in Berkshire. Four years to the day later we cast off from a small marina in the Waveney valley, with two small live-in crew members (not present at the wedding reception), one ship's hound and the mothers of the bride and groom who have now been promoted to the titles of 'granny' (or variations on that theme). In addition we have a third Granny on board; 'Granny Crew', who, in her role as ableseawoman, friend and Pyrenean walking companion to the paternal grandmother, and general 'good egg', has been adopted by Port and Starboard and is an essential part of the team on such adventures. Our mission: to collect Granny Partridge from the station in Norwich. In order to avoid the tedium of a 30 minute car journey we decided in our wisdom to cruise to Norwich, heading north on the Waveney through St Olaves where we would de-mast to go under the first fixed bridge at Haddiscoe. We would then continue up the New Cut to Reedham and join the river Yare travelling in a Westerly direction to Norwich. At just under 11 feet our air draught did not permit us to travel the full distance to the yacht station conveniently located opposite the train station, however we did make it as far as Whitlingham Country Park on the outskirts of the city before securing a suitable mooring and receiving the aforementioned GP via taxi. On the return leg we stopped just north of Somerleyton (famous for it's red brick making in the 1800s) and re-rigged the boat ready for our first river sailing. With two grannies on childcare and the third on sail trimming, we successfully sailed from the swing bridge at Somerleyton back to the Waveney River Centre. Nothing broke, nobody fell out (or in) no last minute jibes and no collisions. We were lucky - and pretty pleased with ourselves I don't mind admitting. Our only regret was that we didn't position somebody outside the marina where there is a spectacular view for several miles across the marsh where a large tan sail would have been gliding seamlessly across the horizon on the evening of Monday 20th July. It's a little hard to get more than a quarter of the sail in shot from the deck. However there is now no doubt that we will repeat the experience and we will ensure that we have camerapersons at the ready across the marsh next time. Here is a backing track for our first Broadland voyage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3V_bfnHUk8

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Now hear this! William Blythe would be proud of you Port. Granny Crew supervises the raising of the mast. No.1 is doing the winching down below!Granny Partridge and Grandmajo take to the hills (Herringfleet marsh) with Port and Starboard, whilst Golden Mean is prepared for some river sailing Granny Port and Granny Starboard!

Port and Starboard take their Grannies for a tour of Reedham quay, whilst the Captain ponders how best to extract Golden Mean from a very tight spot, in a very strong current...

Sundowners at the Woods End Tavern, Bramerton

Now this grassy mooring reminds me of Shepperton (although a lot less busy).... and it's a popular spot for fishing too. Grandmajo found a chap who had just caught a 7lb bream (I'm pleased to say he returned it to the Yare after he got the obligatory photo)

Safely moored at Reedham with the 104 year old swing bridge in the background.

Intrepid explorers set out from a woodland mooring at Brundall for the quiet backwaters of Surlingham Broad

Granny Crew teaches Starboard a few nautical tricks, whilst the ship's hound keeps a look out

Starboard enjoys Surlingham Broad and trailing her fingers in the water

Whilst Port is an old hand and takes a turn on the tiller later

We love these woody hide-outs. Even when the tide goes out at 3am and we all wake up on the tilt!

Alongside Whitlingham Country park in Norwich, awaiting collection of Granny Partridge.

Stretching our legs on Buckenham marshes

The gaff and boom are reattached after the last non lifting bridge at St Olaves, on our homeward stretch South

A long view over Buckenham marsh

The new walkway makes a mooring like this much easier, although Magic got a bit of time to get used to using it. Our bow is tied to a tree and our stern to the sign saying 'End of water-ski area'.

Back in the early days on the Broads, sailing with the square sail on Oulton Dyke with four of our children's godparents on board.