Johnny organised a trip for 20 of us to the Norfolk Broads for the first may bank weekend. We were off sailing the broads on wooden japonicas, four people crewing each boat. The plan was to sail the boats through the canal system during the day and docking somewhere near a pub in the evenings for dinner and drinks.
I met Shane, Alex, Becs and Paula in Norwich on the Friday night. We arrived in Martham at about 11pm and found our mighty vessel - Japonica 3 - it was stright to bed for all of us in anticipation for a big days sailing the next day. The Japonicas are about 60 years old and had four berths, there is a little toilet and gas cooker in each - what more could we ask for!
We woke in the morning and provisioned the boat from the local supermarket. Alex & Becs were part of our crew and Paula had her own boat to captain with a few novice sailors from London (lucky she had all of the experience gained in the bahamas). The rest of the contingent arrived Saturday morning and prepared their boats! We were off though... we had a couple of small hitches while we learnt the ropes and collided with marshes and a pier... no harm done and soon we were off.
Shane, Alex and Becs quickly had the boat mastered, I sat back and supervised (a critical role I am sure you would agree), unfortunately having a bit of a belly now hindered my ability to whip around the boat with the same ease as the others - bugger! They were a well oiled machine lowering and erecting the mast to go under the bridges, trimming the sails for max speed and navigating all of the traffic on the broads. Soon we were in the lead and had to pull up and wait for the others since we had no idea where we were going...
The other boats arrived and we were quickly overtaken by Paula B. We travelled to the second bridge and ended up stopping for a while after Johnny's boat collided with a motor boat damaging one of the stays. We continued on to Barton Broad and rafted up to wait for our group leader... he took too long so we found a mooring and headed to the pub instead! Mooring was not without its issues with G ending up in the water fully clothed (camera, phone and all)... not a happy camper - Sam quickly pulled her out and it is safe to say she resembled a little drowned cat! Anyway ended up walking for the longest 10mins ever but it was worth it. The pub was great and food was excellent, Becs took the initative and used the 'My Pregnant Friend' routine which got us all sorts of special treatment... I was served a hot chocolate to die for! That night it was a very deep sleep for bub and I as we were shattered.
The next day we had much more wind and headed back to Barton Broad for some sailing races. We had to swap a few people around on a couple of the boats as tempers flared and some people were taken a little out of their comfort zone. Japonica 3 however was cruising... as you can imagine with Capt Smart at the helm nothing was a problem! Once we were sorted everyone had a great day sailing up and down the broad dodgy the various other vessels on the broad. After lunch we headed back through the system to another pub and found a mooring for the night.
This mooring was not quite a great as the one before. We ate at the Lion Inn, which was as shocker... Becs and I spoke to the pub owner in the afternoon to make sure he was fine to serve 20 of us for dinner... not a problem we were told and were booked for 7:30pm. Apparently it was a problem and we didnt get fed till about 9:30pm... and then he wouldnt take dessert orders as he was to overwhelmed. Was a very bizarre situation.
The next morning we cast off early and sailed up to Hinkley Broad. Our plan was to have lunch there but everything was closed - instead we watched the hertigage car club wind through the lanes - there were alsorts of fabulous cars coming through. We left there with brilliant weather and enjoyed a great sail back to the dock before handing over the boat and heading back to London! Such a great weekend, fantastic job Johnny!
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