First Time

Cooking On The Norfolk Broads

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How To make Dinner without Blowing The Bloody Boat Up.

A complete guide on cooking on a small boat

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A First Timers Guide To A Norfolk Broads Boating Holiday

So you've decided to take your first boating holiday on the Broads. Good choice! You probably selected your boat by going though the glossy brochures from one of the hire companies.

I'm always amazed at the photographs and descriptions in these brochures, they usually tend to only have a passing similarity to the real thing. But in general all of the broads hire boats are well built and in good condition.

When you get to the boatyard you will find the staff friendly and helpful, well, they have just extracted a large chunk from your wallet and large wads of cash tend to make me friendly too.

After you have unpacked and stowed your gear it might be an idea leave your suitcases in your car (if you don't have a car the yard will usually look after them for you). Now is a good time to have a poke around the boat and try and work out where everything is - like the loo, or head. You also should take a moment to work out how to get out of the boat, ok now I know that sounds daft, but you will be sleeping in a new place and if you need to get off the boat in a hurry at night you don't want to think about where the exit is, like being on a plane. Fire is the main reason you would want to get off a boat in a hurry, well fire and opening time that is. Most boats have two or three sources that could cause a fire; the galley, the engine, and your boat mate who loves to set farts alight. So you're exit routes need to bypass these areas. Now might be a good time to review the Safety section of this site.

Even though the boatyard has a large chunk of your hard earned readies, they are about to let you loose with a very expensive piece of property, namely the boat. With this in mind that will want to check you out before letting the boat go.

You'll find the boatman to be an invaluable source of information, and will happily answer all of your questions. If you don't understand something ASK, you don't want to be stuck somewhere, or have your holiday ruined because you don't know how to use a piece of equipment. Also the boatyard doesn't want to have to send someone out to help you unless it's a real problem.

If you're not familiar with boats the yard will probably take you out for a test run so that you can get an idea of how the boat handles. I've noticed on these "check out" trips that the yards usually don't show first times how to reverse. This is something you are going to have to do, especially as a lot of moorings require stern on mooring. So make sure to have the boatman show you.

A couple of years ago I was at Ludham Bridge taking the mast down before going under the bridge. Now we were in a bit of a hurry, but we had to stop and watch as cruiser skipper tried to turn his boat around in the river. This was so interesting that we grabbed a couple of cold ones and watched the show.

His boat was about 35' long and the river at that point is nearly 50' wide. This should have been a simple turn. Slow right down to idle, and almost stopped, make a sharp turn, and slip the throttle in to idle reverse, and increase the revs slightly to stop the boat if the turn can't be made.

Well this chap's idea was to just use two throttle settings, full ahead and full astern. He probably spent a good fifteen minutes going back and forth across the river, not even changing direction, just churning up the water as the prop cavitated.

So the basic rule here ? just take it slowly and let the boats momentum do the work.

It's great to be on the river, but at some point you're going to have to stop and moor up. This is sometimes easier said than done. If you have a chance, practice, on a quiet river bank before trying to moor up at a busy staithe or boatyard. The first time I had to moor up was when I was a young kid. I jumped off the boat and just stood there with the mooring line not knowing what to do with it.

"Just wrap it around a pole", my Father instructed me, and being a good kid I did what I was told. Although this didn't impress Mr. Bartochowski who was on holiday from Krakow.

There are a number of Mooring methods :-

Rings

By far the easiest. Just pass a loop of mooring line through the ring and tie with a simple reef knot.

Posts

You need to use a clove hitch or a few half hitches

Mud Weight

You will need to use the Mud Weight, sometimes called a "Mud Plug" if you are mooring in the middle of a broad, or if you are stern moored against a jetty or bank .Simply drop it over the side, after FIRST making sure the end of the rope is attached to a cleat ! Then pool the mooring line until it's fairly taut and secure on a deck cleat.

Rond Anchor

The Rond Anchor is shaped like the letter "L" and is used when mooring at a bank. Just stick the pointed end into Rond (Rond is peat or soft earth). Stamp it down with your foot and then tie the mooring line through the ring on the Rond Anchor, just like at a ring mooring. A word of caution about the rond anchor. They are made of steel, steel doesn't float, ergo, rond anchors sink. So the recommended way of mooring up with a rond anchor is to have one person step off the boat with the mooring line, and a second person step off with the anchor. The second person can try and get it in the ground while the other holds the boat. There is a temptation to toss the anchor from the boat to the shore. Not a good move as despite the aforementioned flotation abilities, Rond Anchors do seem to have amazing flight characteristics, and an incredible ability to bounce - usually into the nether regions of the person holding the boat.

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