Diary

Cooking On The Norfolk Broads

Or

How To make Dinner without Blowing The Bloody Boat Up.

A complete guide on cooking on a small boat

• Home
• Articles
• The Equipment
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Snacks
• BBQ
• Shopping List
• Recipes
• Hints & Tips
• Links
• Comments
• Webcams
• Broads Map
• Weather
• Books
• Log In
• Norfolk Broads Pubs
• A Broads Holiday Diary - June
• Interesting Stuff
• Book Sample - PDF
• Webcam Gallery Archive
• First Time Boaters Guide
• Norfolk Broads Message Board & Discussion Forum

Tuesday June 22

Breakfast – Swan Inn, Horning
Lunch – New Inn, Horning
Dinner – Hermitage, Acle

We picked up a fantastic 35’ sloop, Lapwing, from the Norfolk Broads Yacht Company, and after the usual check out and promises from me not to damage the boat too much, we set off for the pub. Well at least that was my plan. As this was a research project for “Cooking On A Boat” it was decided that we should actually buy some food, so off to Wroxham it was.

Roy’s of Wroxham bills itself as the “Largest Village store in the World”. Which it may well be. But as a supermarket it leaves something to be desired. We did manage, however, to get sufficient supplies to keep us going for a couple of days.

The plan had been to do some practice sailing to get the kids used to the boat, rigging, mooring etc., but we had to catch the tide at 8 am so I wanted to get as close as possible so we would not have to wake at first Swans fart.

So we motored down to Acle and we had the first experience of taking the mast down on this boat. All the while we were motoring down I was noticing that the wind was perfect and that Wednesday was going to be a really good sailing day.

After taking the stick down and putting it up with no hitches at all I was getting very confident about my crews abilities. As there was still plenty of daylight left I decided that we should try and moor at Stokesby. As we approached I noticed that the tide was ebbing rather fast, and that it looked like there was only one mooring left. So I passed the pub and planned on doing a quick turn, head into the tide and moor up. All fine and dandy in principle, until I realized that our boat was 35 foot long, and the river was only about 40 foot wide, also I had a small engine and the river was running at about 3 knots. Well I was committed at this point and to my delight the boat turned on a sixpence – outstanding. All that was left now was to send Chris up forward to get off with the mooring line.

And then the boat came to a halt. Six feet from the bank – really! The tide ripped us off the shoal very quickly and it was decided to head back towards Acle as Bonnie had seen a sign for a restaurant with plenty of moorings.

We made it to the moorings for the Hermitage just as dusk was starting. This can be one of my favorite times of the day on the Broads. The light is perfect; the river takes on a glass like finish, disturbed only by birds flying low to feed off annoying little insects. But more often than not I’m complaining because there’s no wind, we’re in the middle of nowhere and the pub’s open.

We had a lovely dinner at the Hermitage, just a short stroll from their moorings, and started to get ready to settle in for the night.

As you may well be aware the Facilities on Broads yachts are, to say the least, rather small. So Chris and I decided to use the riverbank instead.

Every father looks forward to there first “man to man” chat with his son. Well Chris was bought up in California, where he is very aware about the dangers of Poison Oak. Stinging nettles on the other hand are something completely new. They fall into the teenager’s botanical category of “other green stuff”

So instead of giving sage, Fatherly advice about life, women, repairing carburetors etc., I have instead to explain the problems of not only getting a rash from a stinging nettle on his soft dangly bits, but the fact of life that he’s not going to find anyone around to rub lotion on.

So after the itchy scrotum discussion we get ready for bed. Now as I mentioned earlier this time of night is normally very still, so before turning in I went for a walk on the bank, had a smoke and a cup of tea. Normally the smoke just gets in your eyes. Tonight was different; I couldn’t even light a cigarette as the wind was starting to blow. Unusual I thought, but nothing to worry about.

At 2 am I woke from this strange dream about the boat sinking, by the time I had gathered my thoughts I realized that I was soaking wet, as was just about everything and everyone else inside the boat. At 4 am the sun started to come up and I poked my head outside, it was pouring and the wind was blowing. In fact the night before the weather had looked so nice that we didn’t even bother to put the awning up. In retrospect a very bad idea, because when I did go back to sleep I was awoken by the sound of the Bilge pump going off. Spiffing.

Comments

From - LizzieT Posted On 10 Oct 2004

My dad (Richard T) is a really good chef even though he almost set fire to our kicthen when he was trying to mke yorkshore pudding.

From - roy abrahams Posted On 20 Aug 2004

hallo out there just a quick comment i moved to norfolk in 1969 just to be near the broads and my wife and i will be having our 52nd holiday on the broads this xmas our 4th xmas on a boat its just brill its just a shame to see so many boat yards closing many of them old friends over the years if you have took the time to read this thank you and keep on boating

Add Your Comments

Recipe Categories