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

Saturday June 26

Breakfast – Full English
Lunch
Dinner – Deep Fried Breaded Chicken

Before we left the USA for our holiday I had received an E-Mail from a journalist for the Eastern Daily Press, the largest local paper in the area, who wanted to do a feature on me and the Cooking On A Boat website for a magazine they put out every two months, “Norfolk Afloat”.

Now this is the first time that I have been interviewed without having my rights read to me first. It will be interesting to see how the article comes out.

After he left we set sail for Brundall, a lovely sail, I had hoped to get to Norwich but it was getting late, so we decided to overnight at the Coldham Hall Tavern.

Leaving Brundall should have been a no-brainer, but I took it into my head that as the breeze was light we might as well put the mainsail up before we left. Had I taken the time to look up at the flag flying by the railway bridge I would have reconsidered putting sail up.

Also putting up your sails on a lee shore is, in a word, stupid. Somehow, with assistance from the Harbour Master I managed to leave the mooring without taking the dirty great green pole with me, more by luck than skill.

As we left Reedham in such a hurry I forgot to pick up some essential supplies from the local store on the Staithe. This, by the way, is one the best stocked corner shops that you will find on the Broads.

As we went through Brundall we noticed a small shop in the marina where we could pick up the essentials that I forgot (Beer, Smokes and Milk!), but we assumed that we could go to the village after we moored up.

It had been a hard day sailing so we popped in to the boozer to re-hydrate. While there we asked the locals about finding a small shop. Well the closest was the one we had seen in the marina, and so I was going to take the boat over while the family relaxed for a bit. But they decided that they wanted to stretch their legs, and would I mind waiting in the pub until I got back. No Problem.

I enquired of the bar tender how far the shop was, “well sir looks like you’ll have an hour or so to wait”. Stuck in a pub for an hour by myself – yes there is a God.

While waiting in the pub I got to know the locals and staff rather well and heard many stories about the boat, all very complementary. The moorings outside the pub allow for about 4 boats to be in line, and while I was there someone called the bar and asked if they could reserve a mooring. I hadn’t done a great job of mooring but there was room for a couple of boats either side of me, so I offered to move the boat along. But the bar tender explained that if they couldn’t moor in the space I had left them they shouldn’t be skippering a boat.

Eventually the gang made it back and we adjourned back to the boat to prepare dinner. Normally I don’t recommend deep frying on a boat due to the dangers of spillage, fire etc., but I though that I’d give it a go as we were in a place where we were unlikely to get knocked or moved about too much.

Well have way through deep frying a bloody great ocean going private cruiser came along side and asked, well more like demanded that we move our boat. Well this was not a good point for me to stop, which I explained to the owner, and there was plenty of room for him to get in, but obviously not enough for him, well after some discussion that ended in me using an ancient two word nautical expression, where the last for is “off” I returned to my frying. Not ten minutes later the pub manager came over and asked, politely if we could move. I explained the situation about the oil, that I couldn’t stop, danger of fire, lose of life etc., no problem he said, would it be all right if he moved the boat for us as he understood such things. And he did a wonderful job; we didn’t even feel the boat move.

So now this Prat in a boat, suitably called “Chaos” tried to moor up. I should point out that the skies are clear the river is like glass and about sixty feet wide, so I was rather surprised that the skipper had to have the radar running, maybe his GPS didn’t give him enough information about the distance to the river bank.

After dinner we returned to the Tavern for a nightcap. Here we learnt some interesting history about Coldham Hall and a battle that was lost back in the 1600’s when some Dukes army was “distracted by livestock”, we wondered about this phrase for the rest of the trip, and I must admit that I did see some rather worried sheep on the river banks.

I forgot to mention that while I was doing the deep frying I decided to make some appetizers. As Bonnie hadn’t spent much time in the UK, I thought that I would do some Prawn Crackers, which we can’t get in the USA. Well while I’m telling her what I’m doing she tells me that they are disgusting, and didn’t want any more. With a straight face I managed to tell her that they need to be fried first…

Coldham hall is also the home of the Coldham Hall Yacht Club, who arrange the Annual Yare Navigation Race. While we were moored up, trying to enjoy the evening we saw a yacht come in to view that looked familiar, it was the couple from the Geldston Locks, and they kindly invited us over to BBQ at the Yacht Club.

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