We all met at Brighton Unit at about 7.30 on Friday morning. We loaded up the two minibuses and the land rover and we got on our way by about 8.30. The weather was quite nice. It was cold but it was also sunny.

We arrived at Norwich by about 1:00. We would have been there earlier but the CO decided to drive around in circles looking for the boat yard. We eventually found the boatyard which was Hearts Cruisers. The people from the boatyard had already got all the boats ready and they were alongside the river by the road.

We parked up and then unloaded the transport. We then put all of our stuff onto the boats and put it away. The boats were quite old but they were clean and there was lots of space.

When we were all ready the people from the boat yard took us under a very low bridge. We had to lower the windows on the top of the boat to get under the bridge. This happened a lot throughout the weekend. They then made sure that the staff from our Unit knew how to drive the boats so they came back in one piece. They didn't look too worried.

We had picked the boats up from a place called Thorpe just outside Norwich. We made our way into Norwich (right up through the town centre) and moored up just past Norwich Sea Cadet Unit (which is a floating Unit). The photo shows the journey up the river into Norwich.

We made our dinner and then got ready to go out. About 10 minutes walk from the boats was a precinct which had a cinema and a bowling alley. We went bowling that evening and got back to the boats about 9:45. We made our supper and then turned in.

We got up way too early and made our breakfast. The CO helped out with the cooking and you can see him in the photo. After breakfast we tidied up and then started off down the river. There were lots of other boats on the river, especially rowing boats. We all took turns at being the coxswain and lookout. The journey was quite slow because you are only allowed to go at 6 knots and some places it is only 4 knots. The weather was cold but it was clear and sunny.

We made our way past a lot of other boat yards and through some small villages. You can see the river in the photo. When we were not being coxswain or the lookout we had other things to do. We might be getting a meal ready, cleaning up or doing some splicing. Chief O'Keefe had us making up lots of lines for fenders which meant that we had to do lots of eye splices. We did all of the fender lines for the boat yard where we got the boats from as they had let us have the boats very cheaply.

We stopped at Reedham to fill up with water. We also had lunch while we were there. After we had lunch we carried on down the river. At about 3:00 we got to Braden Water which is like a huge lake. We were allowed to go faster over Braden Water but it still took us nearly an hour to cross it. You can see us crossing Braden Water in the photo. When we got to the other side we went under two big bridges. We then moored up for the evening just outside Great Yarmouth.

Some of the staff went off to do some shopping and we had some free time. When the staff came back from the shops we made our dinner. After dinner we walked down to Great Yarmouth sea front. We had some free time in the arcades but it had started raining by then so we did not stay for too long. When we got back to the boats we had some time to play cards or games and then after doing supper we turned in.

We were going to stop at Brundal on Sunday evening but it did not look like there was much to do there when we went past it on Saturday. Therefore we decided that we would go back into Norwich.

We were quite used to the boats by now so it did not take long to sort out breakfast. You can see us in the boat in the photo. After breakfast we started off back up the river. The tide was really strong so we had to be careful when we turned around. The boat felt really slow because we were heading into the tide and sometimes it felt like we were hardly moving. The tide was changing though so it was not long before we were making good speed again.

L/T Tapp had a problem with the electrical power on her boat and had phoned the boat yard. They said they would meet us at Reedham to sort out the repairs. We made our way back up to Reedham and we got there by about 10:30. We had to wait a little while for the people from the boat yard so we filled up with water and had an early lunch. You can see the boats moored alongside in the photo. The people from the boat yard arrived at about 11:30 and replaced the battery in the boat. This fixed all of the problems. We started off again and made our way back up into Norwich. We got there by about 4:00. After some free time we made our dinner and then tidied up.

We went back into the precinct we had been in on Saturday and went to the cinema. Afterwards we went back to the boats, had supper and turned in.

We got up early again and had breakfast. When everyone was ready we started off back down to Thorpe. On the way we tidied up the boat so that it would be ready to hand back. We got to the boatyard by about 09:30 and the people were there to meet us. We finished tidying up the boats and then got all of our stuff off. We then packed up the minibuses and landrover with all of our kit. We had a group photo taken which you can see here. By about 11:30 when everything was ready we set off for Brighton.

We stopped at Thetford for lunch and eventually got back into Brighton by about 4:30. We unloaded the transport and after tidying up we went home.

The camp was really excellent. We all had the chance to be in charge of the boats and we had to sort out almost everything ourselves. The CO has promised us that we can do it again next year.