Cal

The 2019 version is just as informative.

It is a bit 1980's though. There must be a suitable alternative in this day and age that is well more modern looking, but still able to put up with the rigours of years on hire.

Every time we have hired a boat we have always wondered who set of that typical hire boat interior of a lighter wood veneer with dark wood cappings on everything and trims around cupboard doors and the finger hole draw pulls. It is almost universal on hire boats. Even the shed we hired in Brittany had the same fit out.

Must be an age thing but I had to google that. Never heard of it!

I doubt many head units will ever reach their full potential on a boat. Ours certainly doesn't. We opted for a Sony single din head unit that has all of the features of the unit that Rascal has posted and have teamed it up with some Rockford Fosgate speakers in the cabin and the cockpit. Sounds great when playing music or watching a film.

Richardsons mention Wayford Bridge on their website. Example here: https://www.richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk/boats/mystic-horizon/

We still get the pull of the water from the commercial boats on the Aire and Calder, sadly not so many as there once were but plans are afoot to get more commercial carrying going again on this waterway. The boat will sit back on her ropes a good 10-15 minutes before the ship comes past. You have to remember to put plenty of fenders and lines out. Luckily the A&C isn't all that busy so the chances of being pulled into another boat are pretty slim.

We discovered it quite by accident one year on a hire boat. We had come down the Yare in quite bad weather and there was quite a chop. We were not looking forward to an unpleasant night moored at either Cantley or Reedham. By chance as we were debating the best option for the evening we passed the end of the dyke. We quickly turned, moored at the end of the dyke and had a very pleasant evening tucked away in the shelter.

I really dislike the taste of burned food.

We have had them in the past. We were not really keen on them though. The suet was just too soggy.

Cooking a Fray Bentos pie on board does become a problem when you don't have an oven though

Ok so it isn't the Broads. In fact it isn't even Norfolk but we did get a stunning sunset this afternoon in Burton Waters, Lincoln.

Rip off really! Thankfully it's cold out so the deck is doing grand job of keeping the tinnies cold. And it's great excuse to go to the pub later for dinner

Bloody boats. £500 for a new fridge and then they want an extra £30 for the mounting kit

Our Sunday joint of pork is to go in the bin today. Discovered that our fridge has bailed out

Yes but how do you reheat them with two rings and a grill?

If we had more cooking facilities I would cook more on board. I miss a proper Sunday lunch with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. Can't achieve that on our current boat but the next one we will have one most weekends.

Might even do myself some chilli braised sprouts to go with it.

I love liver and onions. The other half won't eat it. I only get thd occasional chance to have it now. It is his works Christmas party in few weeks so I will be having liver that night.

Sweet chilli salmon and stir fried vegetables? (We help run a Facebook group for cooking at home, on holiday, camping and on boats hence the food pictures )

Last resort for us that. Prefer a nice home cooked meal most of the time. This was a nice recent boat meal. Aberdeen Angus ribeye steak, garlic and cheese mushroom, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and broccoli.

I can't remember the last time I followed a recipe. The best meals tend to be when you throw in a few ingredients and hope for the best

We eat well onboard with the two rings and a grill. It is surprising what you can rustle up with two rings and a grill we don't starve. Only trouble is our gas bottles are the 2.7kg Camping Gaz bottles which are stupidly expensive. Last bottle was £32! Which is part of the reason we got the electric kettle which has halved our gas consumption. Try as we might we can't get Calor bottles that fit in the gas locker. Only the two tiny Camping Gaz bottles

Forgot to add our inverter is 2kw which is overkill for the slow cooker and electric blanket but we also use an electric kettle which is more power hungry.

We tend to run ours when cruising, more often than not on a Sunday when we are returning to our home moorings so we can plug in towards the end of the cooking. It's fine cooking for a few hours without the engine running but any longer starts to take its toll on the batteries really. The total draw from the inverter and slow cooker is about 16 amps but at this time of year we also have the heating on so touching 20 amps. Fine for a dinnertime pub stop though and then onwards again to our home mooring.