Dan's 2007 holidays

April 2007: “Caversham Monarch”, Caversham Boat House, Reading
With such a lot to offer, both on and off the water we fancied returning to the Thames again. Initially we booked through Blakes with Anglo Welsh but after a bit of a debarkle where Anglo Welsh’s M.D cancelled our booking after we insisted we should be allowed to hire a TV or take our own, as per the boats ETC rating. Blakes less random customer service rationale talked through the options and we booked a fairly basic 31ft 3/5 berth from Caversham. With just the two of us onboard we had a fair amount of space. This was the first aft deck cruiser I’d hired, and as the weather was truly spectacular we were glad to be out enjoying the sun, and the scenary. Service from the boatyard was good, and tuition comprehensive. We cruised along past Henley and on to Windsor and both had a brilliant four days. This was such a nice stretch perhaps Anglo Welsh did us a favour!

June 2007. “Serene Gem 1”, Richardsons of Stalham

Back on the Broads! We chose a 28ft Calypso style cruiser, partly because of my affection for the company that designed/built them in the ‘70s and partly because the space and layout offered by the ‘floating caravan’ design was known to go down well with my other half!
Despite being one of the cheapest craft on hire she was nicely refitted and great value.
The weather was kind to us and we pottered around the Northern Broads sampling a few meals out and beverages along the way!

July 2007: “Royal Star”, Go Boating UK of Wroxham

Six of us were off to enjoy the superb comfort and great value of “Royal Star”. A nice boat and great base for a few days pottering, drinking and fishing! The boat had two steering positions - we were glad that the

Weather was quite kind to us so we only had to use the internal helm once..... I’m not sure who designed that but we cruised along in histerics with our heads bent over, all squashed up - I guess it was perfect for the designer who I would guess was 5ft 4“!

We booked a 34ft Mountain Star class named “Benbulben” from Emerald Star’s base at Carrick-on-Shannon for the week and flew in to Knock Airport, hired a car and drove the base. This was suprisingly good value and cost less than the companies coach collection service which they offer from some Airports.

The boat was very clean and built to a high standard. Although around ten years old she still looked reasonably modern inside and out and I got the joy of sleeping in bunk beds.

After an eventful first night, with some drunken 40-something-year olds on several boats singing, and later shouting Sea shanties (plus the odd Abba number!) well into the night before their fun got curtailed by another boat calling the police, and my Dad being kept awake all night by agonising tooth ache the week soon settled down.

Despite being off peak there were a decent number of boats out, many seeming to be taking advantage of the fishing.

We cruised over a few Lochs and down to the base at Portumna before retracing our steps.

We all enjoyed the new waters and new country and are hoping to return to explore the Northern sections in 2009.