Marvellous Mooring

As I said last time, the beautiful sight of Leander sailing, was not a familiar one to us, but we did get quite familiar with her moored profile and I would spend quite a lot of our shore time, admiring her fine lines from the river bank.


I particularly liked this mooring as there was a handy seat for me to rest on as I looked at Leander and thought how beautiful she looked. In fact, not only was Leander beautiful, the situation of this mooring was also very beautiful. We were at Gay's Staithe which is a delightful and peaceful a mooring as you can get. This is how it looked, as we left the next morning after everyone else had gone.


We were all very contented. Not only had we had a peaceful night in this idyllic spot, we'd also found a good pub a pleasant mile's stroll down the road, where we'd had a lovely time chatting with 2 fellow boaters and their 2 canine friends. They (the human half of the quartet) were kind enough to decide they couldn't eat all of their huge bowl of chips, and kindly donated most of them to us.

What lucky bears were are.

Lots of love, Eddie and crew xxx

Stop Press: How Amazing!

Dear readers, I'm interrupting my posts, which as you know relate to our April holiday, with a story from yesterday, which as you will soon see, has an incredible link to our holiday.

Yesterday was our male minder's birthday, so when he had finished working, we drove over to the Norfolk Broads to see something of the 3 Rivers Race which we had heard about while on holiday.

The 3 rivers race is a real monster of a sail. It is a 50 mile course which requires competitors, who start at Horning, to round 4 marks on the rivers Bure, Ant & Thurne, before returning to Horning. It is nearly as far as we travelled in 5 days, and they have just the Saturday, running in to Sunday, to complete the course, and yes, they do sail overnight. It all sounded frightfully exciting which is why we decided it just had to be seen.

We took our bicycles with us so we could ride round some of the course and see the boats at different points on the course.

Our first stop was St Benet's Abbey. When we were still 2 or 3 miles off we could see lots of sails on the river and when we reached the river bank by the Abbey, we could see a traditional sailing boat approaching, and from the numbered board on her side we gathered it was participating in the race. As we watched the boat making the slow progress that tacking into the wind on a river gives you, we were reminded of our holiday, as we had ourselves sailed to Horning then tacked back past the Abbey with lots of short tacks and laborious progress.


I dicussed with my minder the fact that the boat looked as if it could have come from Martham boatyard, which hired us our boat, Leander, as it was very similar. Can you imagine our surprise and delight, when the boat eventually reached us, then tacked away from us, showing us clearly, the name on her stern, that of Leander.

I jumped up and down as I was so excited. Of all the hundreds of boats sailing on the Broads that day, the very first boat we had seen was our very own Leander. What an amazing and wonderful coincidence. You may wonder why we hadn't recognised her sooner, but there were a couple of reasons for this. One we had never seen Leander sailing, as we were always on board seeing the cockpit view, not the external view, and two, the sails looked different, as she had a brown rectangle of cloth which was there to use as a fill in for racing (it fills in the 45% angle between the mast and the gaff rig. My female minder also thought the curtains in the cabin were different!

As we watched Leander sail off towards Potter Heigham, we had another treat. One of the huge Norfolk Wherry Trust wherries, Albion, came up the river from South Walsham Borad and passed in front of us. It wasn't taking part in the race, but it was still a sight worth seeing.


Our next port of call was the low bridge at Potter Heigham (remember my posts about it) which racing boats had to pass under. We had heard that many did the complex operation of lowering sails, and then the mast, in mid river and right at the last moment. Our minds simply boggled as we knew how difficult this had been for us, and it was something we simply had to see.

Here again we were lucky with our timing. We arrived at Potter Heigham bridge just as a steady flow of boats was approaching. You would have to see it yourself to understand what it was like, and just how skillful some of the boat crews were.


Talk about leaving it to the last minute! I had to put my paws to my eyes and peer through my claws, as I could hardly bear to watch, as it kept looking as if a crash was inevitable.


My heart really was in my mouth, but all the boats we saw, just like this one, got the mast down just in the nick of time and made it through.

I think they were helped by the fact that the winds were light at that point so there was little drifting. Quite a few boats did stop to lower sails and masts and I thought they were very sensible!

This wonderful specator sport, and seeing Leander, certainly made it a great day and we were pleased that our minder had enjoyed his birthday so much. We will definitely be making this an annual event.

Next time we'll return to our own adventures on Leander.

Lots of love, Eddie xxx

Low Bridge Ahead!

Now, the Norfolk Broads and their rivers extend over quite a large patch of Norfolk, and, while it is an unspoilt area of great beauty, people do live there, and they don't all have boats, so they need cars and roads to get around.

So, from time to time, our peaceful sail was interrupted by the looming presence of a road bridge. It is a feature of Broads bridges that they are very low and everything has to be lowered, first and foremost the mast, to get through.

Getting the mast down for the first time was quite scary and definitely challenging, but, as you can see from our next picture, we did manange it (after 2 attempts!). If I'm looking a bit exhausted on the roof, I was; a fresh wind certainly didn't help.


The key to it all is the metal plates which act as counterweights. Due to the rather irregular sizes of some of our plates, getting the mast to swing in and out of the trap door affair cut into the foredeck, was quite a feat, as it was an extremely tight fit. If you look at my next picture, you'll see what I mean about the metal counterweights (or perhaps you won't as I seem to be blocking the view of the plates!)


In the background you'll see the bridge we wanted to pass under. In our next post we'll get a lot closer and you'll see what a tight fit it was.

Lots of love Eddie & crew of Leander xxx

It Takes a Team Effort

While getting Leander ready to sail had its challenges, there were still more challenges to face once we were under sail. Trying to help the cabin cruisers dodge round us while we were tacking was one (clear paw signals were definitely required); trying to stop Leander sliding into the reeds when the wind dropped and she lost way was another; but, at a more general level, there was also the absence of some modern sailing accessories, which I tend to take for granted, to contend with.

I'm principally thinking here of the lack of cleats and winches for pulling in, and holding, the sheets for the sails. Fighting the wind, which was trying to rip the sheets out of our paws, was hard work at times and led to some cramped and sore paws, even with sailing gloves on.


This is where I was very lucky to have such a good crew. They don't all appear together on one photo, as someone was always busy with a task, so you'll need to look at both pictures, either side of this text, to see the dedicated crew who supported me very faithfully, and of whom I am very proud.


As you can see, the usual suspects of George & Yorkie were there as they wouldn't miss a holiday and needed to write the Norfolk Broads chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide. They were joined by Ellie and Billy the elephants, Gerry who was experiencing his first B.U. adventure, and lastly Randolph, who had a dual role of crew member and of keeping his minder warm at night. As you can imagine he worked especially hard.

I may have been the skipper, but I would never have untied from the river bank without my trusty crew.

More sights and tales coming soon.

Lots of love Eddie & crew xxx