We picked up our boat, the Sapphire 1, from Richardsons Boat yard at Stalham on the 14th May at 1:00pm. The Richardsons yard is huge with possibly hundreds of boats. Ours was, I would say, one of the mid range as far as luxury is concerned. The takeover of the boat was reasonably fast and as we were in a hurry to get to Potter Heigham Bridge in time for the pilot there to take us through, we were grateful to get away quickly. With hindsight there were a few more questions we could have asked and could have sought more advice on the techniques of mooring in difficult places etc., still we picked it all up on the way. We made our way down the River Ant through Barton Broad and Ludham Bridge to the River Bure. We then went up the River Thure to Potter Heigham. This was about a three hour journey and was really too much of a rush to do on our first day. As we went along we got to know the boats facilities better, there were two toilets and they proved to be a challenge to operate. When we arrived at Potter Heigham the pilot imediately took us under the bridge (£10 return charge). There are only certain times when the boats will pass under the bridge and it's worth ringing ahead to check that you won't have a long wait. Once we were through the bridge we relaxed a little and made our way to Catfield Staithe. This was a lovely quiet spot but there was only room for one boat and barely enough room to turn out 35ft boat round. This was also one of the few places where TV reception was difficult.
Catfield Staithe
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