Welford in Winter

John visited Patience the other day and commented how damp it was around Welford basin.
Patience is reasonably dry inside, but all around is dampness, caused obviously by the weather, the season of damp and short dark days followed by darker nights, but also by the fact Welford is sheltered by high and sturdy trees. Normally this is an advantage but in winter what sun there is is shaded out.
Here's a shot I took on a sunny day last November (yes, they exist). Bright it may be, but the shadows are evident and the trees are clear. In summer of course it's a positive advantage, protected from the wind.

John swept the decks of fallen leaves, cleared the drain holes and ran the engine to pep up the batteries. As the bedding has been taken away to dry storage there is nothing else to worry about, lying as she does in a safe haven.
Happy Christmas, Patience ....

Welford to Crick

Tuesday 23rd September and there is still warmth in the sun and energy in our bones. On a pleasant day for late September we make an uneventful journey from Welford to Crick in 4 1/2 hours.
There is time to reflect (ho ho) on watery things, such as Pink Floyd's new album "The Endless River" and Peter Ackroyd's meandering book "Thames - Sacred River". Of which more later.

We take an evening stroll up the prominent Crack's Hill (a glacial moraine), from which there are extensive views, then on to The Red Lion in Crick. On our last visit the place was crammed and hot, then we were soaked in a deluge while returning to the boat. This time we chose from a good range of food and Adnam's beer in pleasant surroundings, busy though not too much so, puzzled only by their decision to charge Debit as well as Credit card users an extra 50p - and their website which seems to consist of a single page and uses the suffixes eu and pn. Quirky!

Holidays Pic

I dreamed of a holiday on Patience, far away from the rain of the English spring ...

 

It's a fine mooring but even though it's raining heavily here in the Fens, the waterfall surprised me ....

Paint Job

Patience is a reasonably dark green throughout. We find this suitably subdued and unfussy, as becomes dear Patience. Its official term is either dark green, Donegal Green or Racing Green - each slightly different from the other and easily confused. I don't mind which we use, but it must be consistent. The results of mixing instead of matching become apparent (though not obvious) in places where we have patched small areas instead of a whole panel.
While putting off the big effort of repainting we have looked at other boats of course and so, on a short visit to Bristol docks, I was interested to see these two.

Painted as a rural landscape with pale sky

The opposite of camouflage

Let invention and creativity thrive - but on balance Patience will remain dark green!

The Bargee's Pail

Referred to in this month's Waterways World, The Bargee's Pail is a variant on a basic slow cooker, much like a medieval stew pot, with food suitably wrapped cooking slowly in a simmering cauldron.
It is the recipe of the Pail that is interesting.
Rose Prince's article in The Daily Telegraph describes a layer of diced swede in the base of an earthenware pot, followed by slices of pork belly, then a layer of parsnips and one of carrots. Cover the contents in water then add a rolled piece of suet pastry covering the meat and vegetables to keep the heat in. The pot goes into the bucket, covered by a lid, and the whole thing simmers over an outdoor fire.
After an hour and a half, add the potatoes, a large knob of butter, a strip of smoked bacon, garlic and thyme among the vegetables. Finish with a second layer of suet pastry. Everything should be cooked after two and a half hours.

The Bargee's Pail featured in Waterways World is much the same as the description above though it features chopped apple on the top and a bottle of tea to the side!

A response to this article refers to a "fireless cooker" which is an insulated chest containing a hot slab of metal providing enough heat to cook a meal slowly. The "Hangi" or earth oven works in the same way. My wife would set off on her annual Guide camp with a meal of barley rice cooked on our stove and placed in a haybox - an old tea chest insulated with straw - which would be cooked ready for the evening meal once the tents had been put up.
And it's this insulation which is the appealing thing for me. I don't like having the gas on for extended periods. It generates water vapour, or too much heat in the cabin in summer, or both, and is wasteful. A heavily insulated container means you can leave it on deck to literally cook in its own juice.
On the other hand, if you're out on the bank for a few hours and in a position to have an open fire, The Bargee's Pail would be a good choice. You can also cook baked potatoes in the embers or a stew in a Dutch Oven which is ideal for a long slow wood burning fire.
So for me The Bargee's Pail in an insulated container rather than over an open fire is economical, safe - and very tasty!
You might, however, prefer a small pressure cooker - 3 litres capacity, costing £20-30- which would be compact and efficient enough for a narrow boat. Add to that "80 Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker" by Richard Ehrlich. Both can be obtained from Amazon and would provide a quicker alternative to the Bargee's Pail.

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.

Brandon on the Little Ouse

Doing a recce of local rivers by car in advance of a future boating visit I visited Brandon, at the end of navigation of the Little Ouse.
I've driven through Brandon  many a time on the way to the north Norfolk coast but this was the first time down by the river.
The river is reached along the High Street on the Swaffham Road. Cross the bridge and immediately after it on the left are Jean Paul's restaurant and The Ram, a traditional pub. Park in the layby outside the pub.

Jean Paul's Restaurant garden downstream from the bridge

The bridge from downstream, on the riverside walk - restaurant on the left

The Ram has a beer garden and a track signposted Riverside Walks. Brandon House opposite is a more upmarket hotel/restaurant.
Opposite the Ram is Riverside Way. Pass the retirement home and follow a bridleway sign down a narrow track to the river and the Environment Agency moorings, sturdy and some 20 metres long.

EA 48 hour moorings

A small stream with a bridge adds a little turning space to the river, ample for a 50 footer I would think.
After this the EA's signs warn of low water levels and inadvisable navigation.
Brandon town provides food and supplies, take-aways, restaurants and shops.

The bridge from upstream, opposite the EA moorings

All in all a good place for an overnight stop and an attractive trip up the Little Ouse.
PS Link to a later post about Brandon.

Easter up the Great Ouse

As we grow familiar with Patience and with the ways of the rivers it's easy to forget that some folks have never even been on a narrow boat (or barge or even "longboat" as so many people call it). So in a spirit of broadening the experiences of my family and friends I took Patience up the Old West to Pope's Corner with my parents - who in all their 80 plus years had never been on a narrow boat. They expressed themselves "excited".

Then on the day of the Royal Wedding I tried to avoid the sentimental outpourings by taking a trip to Ely with a friend, leaving our respective wives to gawp at the ceremonials. Tony cycled up from Cambridge, we had lunch at the Cutter at Ely (where we learned in 70 seconds of BBC News what our wives had been drip-fed all morning). Then we toured the cathedral, which had been open all day for a service to celebrate the marriage, paused by a brass band also celebrating the day, through the happy masses in the Cathedral Green and past a few moored up cruisers strung with bunting to the Lazy Otter with Tony's bike on board.
A good day out with a conspicuous failure to avoid The Wedding .... Nevertheless I wish the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (so they're now local?) every happiness.
I noted, incidentally, how much newspaper space was taken up admiring Pippa Middleton's bottom. So a good day was had by non-royalists too!

An Incredible Journey

Two weeks ago we journeyed the full 16 miles from the Lazy Otter to the Mill Pond in Cambridge where Patience passed in stately progress past Kings College Chapel.
Now in early April we ventured a little further afield and sailed past the noble Statue of Liberty.  We were lucky that the trip across was quite calm though I confess to a bit of nervousness myself!

And in case you're wondering why there's no-one at the tiller, I'm bound to point out that you can't steer and take a photograph like this at the same time! So of course we used our sea anchor, more usually used in the rivers of East Anglia, while we rowed a short distance away on a small dinghy.
And of course you will ask - how did we get dear Patience over there? So here's a pic of  the Global Bayonne Terminal in New Jersey, where handling a 45 footer like Patience is child's play! See the space to the right of the Winnibego - loads of room!

Patience along The Backs 2

Still flushed with excitement from our expedition up the Cambridge Backs, photographs come flooding in! We had sixteen people involved and about half of these had cameras, some stationed at key bridges, some on board, several actually running between bridges to catch us at more than one point.
We cannot neglect their efforts - so here are some more shots, thanks to Sylvia and to John S.
Starting with the classic shot (of Clare College) in front of Kings (College Chapel) ...

and Colin in front of Kings College Chapel

Approaching the Mathematical Bridge

our camerawoman, Sarah, above with crew and passengers below

... and everywhere, bridges.

Patience along The Backs

The Rivers Ouse and Cam are Patience's home territory and we love the riverside moorings, winding currents and wildlife. But there is one part of the Cam where narrow boats rarely go. This is called "The Middle River" or more commonly The Backs, because it passes by the backs of the university college. And it is a fact not commonly known that powered boats can, with the permission of the Cam Conservators, navigate this short but world famous stretch of river between 1st November and 31st March.

And so it was, that with a suitably enthusiastic load of passengers and large numbers of awe-struck onlookers, Patience set off on her magnificent and stately journey past the dreaming spires of Cambridge.

The Conservators having given their permission and contact details, so they can warn us of water surges and warn the punt companies of our presence, and also having given us the number of the combination lock (and waived their statutory right to charge us one shilling and sixpence for the privilege) we passed through Jesus Lock and into a different world.

Here punts reign supreme and Patience slipped slowly on, huge in proportion, confident yet wary in movement.

Once a rash punter sped across our bows but generally Patience, like a swan amongst ducklings, lived up to her name and glided gently along, past beautiful stone colleges, manicured Fellows' lawns, bright daffodils and the soaring heights of Kings College Chapel.

The bridges were a major attraction. Looking at them from the bank it seemed impossible for Patience to pass through. St John's Kitchen bridge is in fact the lowest, at 2.08 metres (6ft 9ins) at normal river levels, so we had cleared all debris from the roof, including aerials and chimney. In fact we passed through the central arches with maybe 18inches clearance - though you do have to duck as the stonework comes towards you rather alarmingly.

For the record, there are 9 bridges, in order:
Magdalene St Bridge
St John’s 19th century Bridge of Sighs

St John's Kitchen Bridge (designed by Wren, built 1712)
Trinity 
Garret Hostel  
Clare College 1640

Kings College
Mathematical (1902 copy of the original of 1749)

Silver Street
So, bridges above, punts all around (some rocking alarmingly and veering off unpredictably) while below were the uncertain depths of a river where historically horses walked a causeway in the centre of the river rather than a bank side tow path - so the middle line was not necessarily the deepest.
The final challenge was the weir by Silver Street bridge and The Anchor. Here our earlier recce indicated there was ample room to turn and go back under Silver Street Bridge - but since then the number of stationary punts had increased and were in danger of clogging our passage back. For a moment we were trapped between the weir, a flotilla of punts and unable to see through the bridge arch. Fortunately our sentries on the bridge parapet acted as traffic signals and prevented a collision. We were through, and barring one confrontation with an overhanging willow (which we preferred to ramming a nearby punt), we made it back to Jesus Lock without incident.

It was a great trip, celebrated with a meal at The Fort, followed by champagne and a specially decorated Patience cake onboard.

Would we recommend it? Once, yes, though not often! It is an enshrined right that powered vessels including narrow boats can navigate the Middle River and it would be a shame to lose that. But the Conservators have wisely placed a time restriction on powered boats because power and punt together create a tricky mix. We were careful; nearly all the punters were careful too, but we saw enough rocking punts and wayward poles to realise that it wouldn't take much to cause an incident. So we're happy for the punters to reclaim their territory for the summer.
Thanks to all who came with us, either on board or dashing tirelessly ahead to take the photographs.
We finally moored up for the night at The Bridge at Waterbeach, having taken some passengers to Baits Bite whence they cycled home, and others to Waterbeach to catch the train.
Thanks particularly to Mark and Sarah for their photographs (and whose copyright they are) and to John for his seamanship.

... and a quick link to Lucky Duck, another Cambridge narrow boat who did this same journey last autumn!

Note: More pictures in the next posting - "Patience Along The Backs 2".

Learning the skills

While we wait for the survey I've been doing a bit of research to update my knowledge of boat handling. No substitute for actually doing it but good preparation and this should also be useful for training any of the family who want to borrow the boat.

Luckily I came across some useful guidance on WikiHow, so until I can make the definitive guide book for Patience the best place to look is here for managing a lock, and here for how to control a narrow boat.
Useful advice such as: "an arm held out to prevent the boat hitting a lock side will get broken" and "NEVER EVER tie a rope from a boat going down a lock" (because once tight you'll be unable to untie it; either the rope will snap or the part of the boat it's attached to.)
If you prefer YouTube demos you could try this one or this one on getting through locks.
There don't seem to be any video clips for solo boaters (thinks: maybe there was no-one around to hold the camera ...) though I did find a detailed written description of what to do mooring or in locks when you're solo.
The canals and waterways FAQ might be useful too.
Actually any advice is useful before you start out and although we shall no doubt meet helpful people near the locks it would be wise to work out in advance what we should do in a crisis (and thereby avoid it ....)

Later addition: read our series on Narrow Boat Problems And How To Avoid Them.