West Stockwith Again

Just a few more pictures from our latest West Stockwith cruise for you today. We were forwarded these by the crew of Red Duster at the weekend.

Naughty-Cal approaching West Stockwith

Naughty-Cal on the fly by

Happy narrowboaters (our guests that is) get their first taste of "real boating"

Wild and Windy

The weather certainly kicked up a bit of a fuss over the weekend with high winds and squally heavy showers in abundance. On Saturday we braved a quick run out to Lincoln to do the shopping before quickly heading back for the safety of the marina. By now the wind was certainly blowing and we had a very undignified and heavy landing on our mooring, luckily the fenders were at the right height and no damage was done. So we roped up well and sat out the storm with the aid of a few beers. With the winds growing ever stronger we retreated for an early night. It might have been an early night but it certainly wasn’t a restful one with the wind and rain periodically waking us up throughout the night.

Sunday didn’t start off much better. The wind was still howling down the marina with waves bigger than we have seen on the sea noisily crashing into the boats hulls. Gradually as the day wore on the wind started to ease so we grabbed the chance whilst it was there to sort out the dinghy. The engine was pulled out, cleaned up and stashed in the car. Then it was time to start on the dinghy. So we pulled her out and set about the thankless task of scrubbing the hull, which was looking like a forest already with the rapid weed growth. After much scrubbing the hull and tubes were weed free but we need to get some proper dinghy cleaner to get rid of the lime staining at the waterline. Finally we deflated the dinghy and attempted to get the floor boarding out ready to take home to sand down and repaint. We tried for over an hour to get the boards out, before giving in, re-inflating the dinghy and hanging it on the davits. The current theory is that the boards have swollen with the recent rain water sitting on them. So it is now hung vertically off the back of Naughty-Cal in an attempt to dry them out and have another go, in a few weeks, at getting them out. Failing that then come spring and the warmer weather we will have to sand them down and repaint them insitu on the pontoons. The evening finished quite serenely, which was a pleasant change after the battering the boat had taken over the last couple of days. Under clear skies and breathless winds the temperature plummeted allowing a sharp frost for the first time this year, but, with the heating on we were warm and cosy in the cabin watching Still Game on DVD, with a hearty dinner of lemon and garlic peppered pork loin, mashed turnip, onion and parsnip, asparagus, carrots and cabbage cooking away on the stove. We even ate at the saloon table for the first time this year, preferring to be tucked up warm than outside on the cooler cockpit.

Winter is certainly on its way.

Its the Weekend Again

November seems to have flown by. It’s the weekend yet again, it doesn’t seem as though it was four days ago that we were last at the boat. Work has been busy, home life has been hectic and planning our Christmas season is also keeping us pretty busy. There don’t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment.

It will be another busy weekend onboard Naughty-Cal with a host of small jobs to start and finish, she will also no doubt need another quick rinse to rid her of a week’s worth of building site grime. She is getting ready for another top up of diesel, the mild month we have had so far has meant that we are using more fuel than expected for the time of year with more cruising than anticipated. We will take 60 litres this week which will see her almost topped up again. The list of jobs for this weekend includes, looking at the navigation lights, again, the white stern light has given up the ghost for no apparent reason, applying the new Sealine decals to the transom and interior mirror, a job we have put off for a while and having a general clear out of the cabin and cupboards again. It is amazing how quickly you accumulate junk onboard a boat. One last job for the weekend will be cleaning and packing away the dinghy. Asbo has had a season of hard use, much the same as Naughty-Cal, so this winter she will be taken home and treated to a good spruce up, with her tubes and hull thoroughly cleaned, floor repainted, bow bag installed and engine sent to the dealers for its annual service (we normally service our own engines on the cars and boat but we can’t even buy the service parts for the price the dealer has quoted), all in readiness for next season. A little hard work over the winter will mean that we are ready for the off come spring and the start of the 2012 holiday season.

We will of course still have plenty of time to do the usual rounds with a short cruise into Lincoln to do the weekends food shopping and have a spot of breakfast or brunch depending on the time. With the weather continuing to be unseasonably mild we should probably have another weekend away from our home berth and make the most of it. Destination unknown as of yet though.
Sunday, as is becoming the norm, will be a relaxing day, a day for unwinding and chilling out. With no deadlines looming, and no need to rush, we will have the day to pick and choose what we do and where we go. A visit to a pub will no doubt be on the cards but we must make sure that Naughty-Cal is left for the week, ready for next weekend’s E Pontoon Christmas party at the Pyewipe Inn. Next weekend we will leave our berth on Friday evening to take the pick of the pubs moorings, so she must be ready to leave at the turn of the key on Friday evening, with a full water tank, adequate diesel supplies and adequate beer supplies.

Chopsticks

Following a recent unsuccessful attempt to eat food in public with chop sticks we have decided that we need to get in some more practice before we attempt it again in public. So we have taken the plunge and ordered six sets of chop sticks, two sets for home and four sets for the boat. This should enable us to practice whenever possible so that the next time we eat in a posh Chinese Restaurant we won’t be throwing more food at each other and the floor than we are eating.

Now rather naively I had assumed that you could buy chop sticks from any supermarket, it seemed sensible, however upon trying to purchase some it proved rather harder than we thought. We have eventually ordered our sticks from China, finding them to be the best source for our needs. Six sets of stainless steel chop sticks delivered from china will come to the princely sum of £7.20, including delivery. Now we just need to wait for them to be delivered before the practice can begin in earnest.

We are determined to crack this ancient form of cutlery and become fluent users of chop sticks. Lord only knows how much food will be thrown on the floor, at each other or down our clothes in the meantime though. This could be a rather messy process.

Garlic, Rosemary and Chilli Lamb

I am a great lover of Lamb and find it hard to beat a good old fashioned Lamb roast lunch, with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and all the trimmings. Hard to beat that was until I discovered that lamb goes hand in hand with chilli.

For this recipe, take a lamb joint of your choice, we usually use shoulder or leg joints but it will work just as well with any cut. 24 hours before you want to eat your lamb make up a mixture of butter, chopped rosemary, chopped chillies and crushed garlic. Smother the lamb with this mixture and leave to sit in the fridge overnight. Then cook your lamb as usual, the time it takes will depend on your personal preference and the size of the joint. The result should be a delicious crisp skin and fat layer that has taken on all of the lovely flavours, with melt in the mouth meat.

Roast potatoes and parsnips scattered around the meat also take on the added zing of the chillies and flavour of the garlic and rosemary making them unbelievably delicious.

Enjoy......

A Weekend of Contrasts

What a start to the weekend. Saturday was bright, sunny and relatively mild. It gave us the ideal opportunity to give Naughty-Cal a good scrub; the last couple of months of cruising have left her looking fairly grubby, not helped by the building works starting near our home berth. With Cal gleaming once more we set out for Lincoln to do a spot of shopping, Liam going one way and me the other, catching back up at the boat. Liam wired in the inverter, a job which has been on our list for a long while but always seemed to get knocked back. At last it is done in time for the winter season; we can now use the electric blanket whilst away from our berth. We also fixed the door catch, another annoying little job that has taken a age to get around to doing, then we started to dress Naughty-Cal for our pontoon dinner in a couple of weekends time, she looks great with her lights twinkling away at night. With the boat now in fine fettle we set sail for Saxilby, not a long cruise but enough to feel as though we are away for the weekend. We treated ourselves to a lovely Chinese take away before heading to the Sun Inn for a few pints.

Sunday was a complete contrast to the previous day. Dull, gloomy, foggy and damp, so we settled in with lots of hot coffee and the newspaper, tucked up in the warmth of the cockpit with no need to go anywhere in a hurry. The weather didn’t give us any great sense of hurry but eventually we set sail for home in the thickening gloom, a slow cruise given the conditions and we both felt happy as we rounded to corner and moored on our berth, the heater still hard at work keeping us warm. With a pan of stew bubbling away on the stove we spent the evening with a few beers and some good music before turning in early ready for the working week ahead.

Another November Weekend

Well another weekend is upon us and it seems to have come around so quickly. The countdown is certainly on for Christmas and the remaining weeks are just flying by.

This weekend we have a bit of a clean up to do. Naughty-Cal is looking very grubby at the moment and whilst the weather is fair for the time of year we may as well make the most of it and give her a good scrub, most probably for the last time this year. This should not take us too long though, one of the benefits of having a small boat, so should leave us plenty of time to head into Lincoln to do a spot of shopping and grab a bite to eat. Our butcher has started doing a “meat for the week” deal which is too good to miss. With a roasting joint of beef, lamb or pork, two pork chops, two chicken breasts, two rump steaks, some mince and six sausages for £10, it is incredible value and serves us well for the weekends meals and also most of the following weeks evening meals. With the shopping done and the boat fully stocked and cleaned we will no doubt have a small cruise somewhere, Saxilby seems highly likely to be our destination and if the weather is kind we may stay overnight and make the most of the remaining 2011 season away from our home berth.

With no concrete plans for the weekend Sunday will most likely be a day of relaxing with the newspaper, some good food and a few beers whilst watching the world go by. If we have both gotten rid of these stinking common colds we may even venture out for an autumn walk to exercise the lungs and legs and try to get back to some sort of fitness. I hate being ill but I am determined that this cold will not ruin our weekend. With some well earned rest, good food and liquid refreshment I am sure we will recover quickly enough.