Fairly Basic Onboard Food

The previous blog addressed fundamental food stock and Really Basic onboard food. Visiting "pubs with grub" in the evening is part of our enjoyment of the trip, though after a while we start yearning for a light meal or something different. And what do you do when eating out starts draining your limited budget, or when you can't face yet another menu with steak and kidney pie and chips.
I'm excluding here anything I regard as complicated, and looking only at the simple level. I'm also making a case for food that lasts when stored on board. At home I'm all for fresh food - and would be on board too, but I want to know that when I'm miles from a shop and there is no pub grub I can rustle up a good meal from stock ingredients. I've no doubt there are some of you who would happily turn out cakes and pies and great delights while onboard. That's not our focus - though if you've got a pie to spare we'll buy it from you ....
In my case scrambled egg on toast easily fits the bill. I like to add quartered tomato and a couple of anchovies, sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper. I'm quite partial to an omelet too, to which can be added almost any diced vegetables to make a light but substantial "spanish omelet".
Preparing a meat sauce from mince, onions and tomatoes will give you a fine bolognese sauce for pasta. It can be made quite quickly on the boat (though it benefits from half an hour in the oven), or even easier if made before you leave, kept in the fridge and heated up on the boat. It can be eaten with any pasta  (spaghetti is popular in the UK though less authentic). You can add carrots, cabbage, broccoli or salad on the side but various combination of tomatoes, garlic, onion, bacon, anchovies and olives make for a rich variety of pasta sauces, each with an Italian name (ragu, bolognaise, puttanesca sauce etc). Some good vegetables and a plain can of tomatoes can form the basis of a good non-meat sauce for pasta.

A full English breakfast is also quite easily made, with eggs, toast, bacon, tomatoes, black pudding, mushrooms and sausages all  easily made on the hob and grill then transferred to the oven until everything is ready. I have reservations about sausages though, as they take a while to grill well and our grill is not very effective.
Similarly baked potatoes take time to cook in the oven (quicker with a metal spike through them) so gain points for ease but lose points for time and for gas use (or am I just mean?). Slicing the same potatoes thinly means they can be cooked quickly in a frying pan and eaten with mushrooms, bacon or whatever.
A stir fry using olive oil to quickly cook sliced broccoli, mushrooms, carrots and onions, with garlic and soy sauce for flavour can be eaten on its own or with boiled rice.
Pasta is good not only with a tomato sauce (get sauces ready made in a jar, chopped in a can or concentrated as puree in tube) but also with cream, butter, bacon, mushrooms and cheese.
Fishermen have got it made with fresh fish, poached, grilled or barbecued with lemon and herbs and wine - but make sure the fishy smell is dispersed before you go to bed …

Sliced and roasted potatoes can be done quite quickly and mixed with roasted vegetables, while any kind of barbecue is handy if your mooring permits (don't forget fuel and silver foil and recognise that the fun is in making it but it isn't fast food) while pork chops are quick and easy too.
In the end you can get most things in a jar or a tin that will last all year unopened and so will be ready for emergencies. So choose your favourite and add it to your store.
I think I've also been persuaded by boil in the bag rice. The reasoning is that doing rice well in a pan as I do at home uses a lot of water for washing, a few minutes to boil up then half an hour in the oven if you're to avoid nasty sticky stuff burned on the bottom. Boiling in the bag is quicker, neater and more economical (though more expensive to buy, initially). Rice also opens the way to stir fries, kedgerees and all manner of tasty stuff either fresh or in jars.
No doubt you will be able to suggest your favourites, so do add your comments below. Remember that a "Fairly Basic" meal should use standard or storable ingredients, be easy and quick to make.
For more suggestions take a look at Nigel Slater's 30 minute cook book. Forget the few recipes with long lists of ingredients: the rest are all worthwhile and very practical. So what can you contribute?

Really Basic Onboard Food

What do you eat and what do you cook when on your boat?
Of course some boats have extensive kitchens, with microwave ovens and modern gadgets. Indeed our galley includes a small work surface, fridge, hot and cold water, sink, 4 rings, grill and oven. Palatial compared to some of my camping experience!
But what we usually cook is really basic. Why?

• Because we are on holiday, happy to moor by a pub where possible, and cooking is not our hobby (I'm a man with only basic cookery skills). 
• Because our grill isn't great.
• Because we are not often continuously on board for more than a week at a time, and rarely away from a shop. 
• We'd generally rather be doing other things. 
• We have very little storage space - a small fridge and kitchen cupboards already full of crockery.

But up the further reaches of the Ouse or its tributaries there are moorings without any facilities at all for miles, and also after a week of pub meals sometimes you want something simple. So here's how how we cope.

Firstly we have permanent stores, food that can be left on board throughout the year and which will provide a good meal at any time. Obviously you should replace anything used as soon as possible; it serves as a reassuring presence any time you are hungry anywhere.
Second we have food that we bring on board with us at the beginning of the trip and try to replenish as we go.
So here are two stock lists. These hardly need recipes attached as cooking is so quick and simple. Anything that takes a while to cook doesn't make it here!

Permanent stores:
dried or long life milk, coffee and tea
packet soup
tinned soup
baked beans
tinned sardines
tinned tomatoes and/or ragout sauce
tinned tuna
beer and wine
squash
spaghetti
noodles
boil in a bag rice
stir fry sauce
cereal (preferably of a type that can be eaten with or without milk)
marmalade / jam
marmite
crackers
biscuits
beer
flour in very small container
sachets of mustard, mayonnaise and sauces left over from  pub meals

Snacks of boiled sweets,  biscuits, peanuts, bananas and dried apricots (all easily nibbled even by solo boaters while travelling).

Fresh food
bread
margarine or butter
eggs
bacon
milk (in separate 1 pint cartons to fit in the small fridge)
yoghurt
cheese
fruit
fruit juice
smoked mackerel fillets, vacuum packed

From this we can make tea and coffee throughout the day, with fruit always available.
For breakfast: cereal, coffee, toast, fruit juice and eggs (soft-boiled, scrambled, fried or poached).
For lunch: hard boiled egg, tuna or toasted cheese or smoked mackerel sandwiches, a cup of soup.
And for an evening meal: choose from soup, scrambled eggs and bacon or poached egg with baked beans on toast,  grilled sardines, pasta and tomato sauce +/- bacon, or pasta and tuna or pasta with cheese sauce (using a roux of milk butter and grated cheese), soup with added noodles. Smoked mackerel can be used for sandwiches, added to scrambled eggs or mixed with white sauce and served with pasta.

For boat cooking I prefer pasta or dried egg noodles to rice or potatoes (though cut thinly these can fry quickly) as it is easier to keep in store and quicker to cook. I prefer bacon to sausages for the same reason. To cook rice in ten minutes without it sticking to the pan I use boil-in-a-bag rice. Then I can cook up a vegetarian stir fry (using a bottled sauce of hoisin or szechuan) from any finely cut vegetables I can find.
But please, No Pot Noodles! They are an offence against nature!
Next I'll make suggestions for a level up, but there is a firm place for Really Basic, where you know the ingredients are always on board and a meal is just minutes away. Just remember to take them off the boat if she's laid up for winter, then replace with new stock come spring.

Patience and The Motorway

Which motorway sign has the greatest connection with our boat?

Probably not the signs for water or bridges that you might first think of.

- though these could be useful ...
What about ....

or (ouch) ...

No, the connection - admittedly obscure - is with the sign for domestic animals.

Why a cow?

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert created a wholesale redesign of road signs that heralded the development of motorways in the UK. The new system became law on January 1st 1965. More detail from The Design Museum.
The cow on the sign warning of farm animals was drawn by Margaret Calvert and was based on Patience, a cow on her relatives' Warwickshire farm.
So Patience the cow, Patience the boat.

Patience  describes the state of endurance under difficult circumstances and is one of the seven heavenly virtues. Given that Patience the boat has endured grounding, near collision, and being clogged by weed, all at a maximum speed of 4 mph, the name would appear appropriate.
According to Jim Shead's Waterways Boatnames  Patience is the 68th most popular boat name of the moment, with 34 examples of boats in that name. Our Patience appears twice in the list, but still, we have a more popular name than I expected.

Other famous Patiences include:
the solitary card game, an uninhabited island off Rhode Island, a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, a 14th century poem, a gulf off eastern Russia and a moderately common forename.

"Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can; seldom found in women - and never in a man."

Winterising 2 - changing the antifreeze

As it must be at least three years since the engine antifreeze was changed, we decided to replace it. Antifreeze not only protects the engine against freezing, but is important in preventing internal corrosion. It is degradation of the corrosion inhibitor that limits its useful life and it is usually recommended that it is replaced every couple of years.

There are various types and colours of antifreeze. The original antifreeze in the cooling system was green - probably 'HOAT' (hybrid organic acid technology) in an ethylene glycol base. We have replaced it with Unipart 'Cool Blue' 2 year antifreeze, which is stated as being suitable for all types of diesel and petrol engines. This is a traditional ethylene glycol based mix.
One of the problems with a swim-tank-cooled marine engine is the large volume of coolant in the system compared to a vehicle engine. The volume of the swim tank in Patience was calculated at about 25 litres, which together with the engine block and connecting hoses would account for an estimated total coolant volume of between 30 and 35 litres. We therefore bought 15 litres of antifreeze to give a 43 to 50% mix. The recommended mix is 50% to cover the very lowest expected UK temperatures.

If you use a hydrometer for measuring the concentration, don't forget that the specific gravity of the mix depends on its temperature as well as its concentration. A 50/50 mix at 70 deg C has a similar specific gravity to a 30/70 mix at 20 deg C. Therefore, according to the hydrometer, the mix will seem to be weaker if measured at engine running temperature compared to the same mixture measured when cold.

Another problem is draining the system, as the bottom of the swim tank is right at the bottom of the engine compartment, so draining it into a bucket just doesn't work! We decided to drain it into the engine compartment bilges and then use the bilge pump to pump it into empty containers for safe disposal. This works up to a point, but it is difficult for the bilge pump to extract the last couple of centimetres, which had to be sponged out into a bucket!

We extracted a total of 30 litres of coolant, which, allowing for some coolant left behind at the bottom of the swim tank and engine block, confirmed our original estimate of 30 to 35 litres in total.

Having drained the system and replaced a couple of the flexible hoses that looked slightly worn, we put the 15 litres of new antifreeze into the system and topped it up with water. Running the engine for a few minutes made sure that the water and antifreeze were well mixed and that any air pockets had been eliminated. A final topping up with water was then carried out.
On the way home we disposed of the old coolant mix at the local recycling centre. Job done!

PS Based on our experience above, do this before it gets so cold that you're the one who needs anti-freeze! Make sure you have enough containers for the old liquid; they should be used only for anti-freeze so label them boldly! Finally, don't forget to wear disposable gloves, as antifreeze is toxic, and dispose of the old mixture responsibly - don't just tip it into the river!
See also the earlier post: Winterising

Winterising

As our third winter with Patience floats into view we've made sure she is prepared for the cold. Out with the water in the tank (revealing a few rust spots we'll be best touching up before the spring), out with the waste tank (pumped out at Ely) and in with the roof gear such as the poles.

Ironically two days after our winterising there was the sunniest and warmest day for a long time, so instead of taking her out I set to with the sander and paint brush and smartened up the area around the top of the starboard side and the roof rail. With harsh sunlight it was difficult to tell how it looked but I'm hoping it's an improvement.
In addition to the rust spots in the tank the sides will need smartening up. The fridge is a bit erratic when lighting and John has ordered a replacement water pump, then I think we can really batten down the hatches for a few months.
You might read the Engineer's Report from last year for a summary of what John has done to keep the engine up to scratch for its winter hibernation.
Patience has acquired a new neighbour in the form of a self-built cruiser, Queen Bea. She does rather loom over Patience but we think in a fight Patience's metal might just win out over Bea's laminated wood. Anyway, it won't come to that if we check the moorings frequently.
Next year we'll consider moving further afield though for how long we need yet to decide. We've thought of exploring the Middle Level or The Nene now that we've seen what the Ouse and its tributaries have to offer but we've become quite accustomed to The Lazy Otter.
See also the later post on Winterising and anti-freeze

Retreat from Reach and The Winning of Wicken

An early start was prompted partly by the addition of crew and partly by the belief that if we left early there would be less chance of meeting another boat coming towards us down the lode.

Leaving Reach on the Lode

It was a serene journey. Knowing that Patience had made it down with only a bit of reed interference I left John at the helm and stood in the bow with my camera. Peaceful and with surprisingly good views over surrounding fields (the lode being rather higher than the fields around) I was stunned to see a bird heading at speed straight for me, down the channel created by the high reeds on either side. Only at the last moment did it veer away revealing a rusty orange breast - a kingfisher.  I have seen these often along local rivers but always as a flash of electric blue from the banks ahead of the boat, never heading towards me.

Lodes Way bridge reflected in Reach Lode

The Lodes Way bridge over Reach Lode is a new creation: certainly not on our maps though linking two existing tracks, we found out later that it was erected earlier in the month (September 2011). It forms part of the National Cycle Network route 11 joining Bottisham, Anglesey Abbey, Reach and Wicken. A beautifully constructed and substantial bridge for a humble lode such as this.
And so to the Upware stretch where we now turned sharp right under the steeply arched bridge leading to Wicken Fen and its National Trust centre.

Bridge at Upware crossing the entrance to Wicken Lode.

Wicken Lode is also narrow and bends rather more than the relatively straight Burwell and Reach lodes. It is, however, shorter and provides a useful mooring only a few minutes walk from the Wicken Fen National Trust Visitors' Centre (cafe, shop and information, loos, bike hire, walks, bird hides etc).

Mooring at end of Wicken Lode

Along the way you might also see the undomesticated Konik ponies, part of a grazing project to create new habitats for a diverse range of wildlife.

Konik ponies by Wicken lode

The visitors' centre revealed to us the details of the new bridge (see above) and ticked us off for thinking that the Lodes were created by the Romans, as we had thought. It is now believed that they were designed for water management, avoiding the flooding of local grazing land and they were probably built by the monasteries at Ely and Ramsey. Later they came to be used for trade (clunch, reeds for thatch etc) and now of course for leisure.
Finally back to Upware, through the lock, grabbed a fortunate mooring at Five Miles - a pub which is very popular in summer despite being Five Miles From Anywhere and having interior decor like a 1970's discoteque. Nevertheless there are moorings, spacious grounds and a choice of beers. And the baguettes were good value too.
And so back up river, the stretch from Upware to Pope's corner being wide and attractive in good weather. Today was accepted as a record breaking day for weather, the hottest October day in the UK ever (29.9 degrees). It was good to be out on the river.

Reaching Reach

And so it was that, on the day in late September that recorded Cambridge as the hottest place in the UK, Duncan set out alone in a desperate attempt to reach Reach.
As described in the previous blog entry, Reach is a pleasant little village which is rather in the back of beyond - hence its charm. Reaching it from the Cam is an experience, past the Five Miles with its constant stream of cruisers, (so no moorings for me), through the Upware lock and its warning lights ("You haf only fifteen minutes zen ve shall close ze lock gates!") and into a long string of quiet straight moorings ... It was there I paused to have my egg sandwich and my lukewarm can of beer (the fridge having broken down).

Upware moorings from Wicken bridge looking back towards Upware Lock

After a while improving the gangplank in readiness, by adding non-slip strips and drilling holes to anchor the landward side using tent pegs, I set off down the straight lode to Reach village. Mostly straight, very narrow at times, Reach Lode is not a place you'd want to meet someone coming the other way. I imagine you'd both have to creep into the rushes, probably switch off engines and slowly inch past each other, grim faced. Having done a recce (see previous blog) I knew at least there was somewhere to moor up, though a sluggishness in the engine power and a rise in temperature suggested I had weed wrapped around my prop. A narrow stream between the reeds is not a great place to switch off and delve into the weed hatch, especially if there is (and there was) another narrow boat not far behind you. Reversing in these circumstances is, as they say, not an option ....

View up Reach Lode from Reach moorings

Anyway, got there eventually, a cruiser already in the GOBA mooring who helped take a line as I sidled up the river into a place I'd planned for myself. So many reeds and bushes it was hard to nudge in, but thanks to this chap on land I got it secure, with the stern in the only clear space.

View from and of Reach moorings.

Then up comes narrow boat two, with an experienced crew but they just couldn't find a spot without reeds and bushes so it was my turn to haul them in.
Memo to Parish Council / GOBA / Environment Agency - PLEASE cut the vegetation! It's potentially a great mooring, let down by the fact you can't get into most of it unaided or without a gangplank!

Reach Lode beyond head of navigation. Bankside vegetation makes mooring almost impossible.

Spent the evening in The Dyke's End - an excellent and friendly pub with good food on a varied menu - without the air of a gastro-pub. I think it would be on my Top Ten Pub list, and only four minutes from the moorings! Why don't they make more of these moorings? That evening there were four boats, 7 people, all of whom ate and drank at The Dyke's End. That's £200 in one night thanks to the moorings. Spare a few quid to cut down the vegetation and you could double that from boaters!
Next - Return From Reach