Cooking Christmas Lunch Aboard
In the run-up to the big day, try and do your advance shopping whilst your boat is moored within an easy trolley run of the shops, or a suitable drop-off point for an online shopping service. Tinned food and drinks, bottled water (for your fussy guests who won’t drink from the water tank), root vegetables, and anything alcoholic is always much heavier than you think, especially after a walk along the pontoon on a freezing cold day.
Buy the perishable goods as late as you can, it saves on fridge space which can be used to pre-chill drinks. When you need the fridge space, stash these chilled drinks in the coolest part of your boat (the bilges are always a great option) as with any luck they will stay cold, especially if insulated in newspaper or similar. If the weather is cold you don’t need to worry so much as you can use the free “outdoor” fridge but be mindful of security. There are some Grinches out there who will spoil your Christmas given half a chance.
Go boating
Stocked up, with water tanks full, it’s time to take advantage of the festive bubble period and go boating! Whatever you are roasting, whether it’s the traditional turkey or something else, it will do well as a very slow roast. Grab some hot drinks (we always love hot chocolate and mince pies and cruise somewhere lovely for Christmas Day).
The coast is a perfect place to relax and over the holiday season you’ll find passing boaters are even friendlier than usual. Life and Christmas dinner is always better by water.
Christmas Dinner
What can be better than sitting down to a full roast dinner, but on a boat we are little bit short on space – take a look at a few tips and suggestions of how to make a perfect roast even in the tiniest of spaces.
Organisation
It can sometimes be a bit of a chore, but you have to get organized and get your timings right, trying to peel carrots, whilst making gravy, taking the roast out of the oven and putting in the Yorkshires could lead to a bit of a muddle – let’s talk timing…
Timing
For this example we will roast a Chicken, make some roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, carrots and broccoli (if you’re feeling bold or bored or just want to impress or make the meat go further then you can also make Bread sauce from scratch!).
Let’s get cooking…
If you have a fridge on board great, this will save a lot of time. Prepare you vegetables the night before and place in the fridge, the same with the Yorkshire pudding mix. Time for a quick cup of tea or a tipple…
Now onto the…
Chicken
If its been in the fridge all night, take it out before cooking to allow it to get up to room temperature. Let us know the dimensions of your bird and we can check the size of the oven on board!
But what about the potatoes and possibly only one shelf in your oven… Well they all go in together.
Potatoes
For great roast potatoes you will need to boil them for about 5 minutes before putting them in the oven.
Vegetables
What vegetables you have with your roast is really up to you, brightly coloured vegetables look good on the plate. In a small galley, with minimal cooking space think about combinations that can be cooked together – thinly sliced carrots will take the same time to cook as broccoli, this is a great time to use a pressure cooker or bring a steamer that goes on top of a pan. You can of course also pop veg around your bird in the oven too
So, the chicken and veg and potatoes are now in the oven, the rest of the veg is prepared and the Yorkshire pudding mix is ready – now what? Well you can go away and do something else for a while (washing up or a game with the family), as so far it’s only taken you about 20 minutes!
Now is the perfect opportunity to make some bread sauce.
Don’t forget to baste your chicken, and turn your potatoes…. if you’ve made pigs in blankets, turn them as well.
Once you take the chicken and potatoes out of the oven ramp up the heat HOT HOT HOT… put your Yorkshire pudding tray in, take it out when it is hot and dribble a bit of oil into it, put it back in the oven to get the oil HOT. Carefully remove it, stir your mix, add to pan and return to oven, about 25 minutes.
See it wasn’t all that difficult… Time in total about 1¹/²hours.
CONTACT USWHAT CLIENTS SAY
Charted a Bavaria 36 for a weekend trip. Last minute booking and super impressed with how we managed to sort thing out so quickly and easily after just a couple of e-mails and phone calls. Arrived late Friday after office was closed but check in pack had been left for us to pick up and overnight onboard. Boat very nicely kitted out and left Sat morning to ride Westerly tide to Lymington. Great local knowledge given during the morning walk through about where to moor and get dinner. Nice sail back on Sunday. Weather turned foul but she handled really well under full sail. Everyone on board enjoyed themselves and it's exactly what I'd hoped for from the weekend. This was first time sailing from Hamble and it's a great location to get quickly into the Solent. Definitely will be back once weather warms up and days get longer to try some longer trips. Thank you Hamble Point Charters for a great weekend !
My family and I had a great charter experience recently thanks to Alex, Andy and the whole team. Well maintained boat, friendly service and advice. We plan to charter again next year with them.
Alex, Becca and the team could not have been more helpful considering we called them at 4:45 Tuesday for a boat on Wednesday, another charter company had let us down at the last minute. Check-out and back in was well organized and we had a great 3 days sailing.
As a family, including our 4 year old Labrador, we recently chartered a 'bareboat' yacht from Hamble Point Charters for 7 days to cruise the Solent. The company were fantastic from our first enquiry to handing back the boat. The yacht was clean and well presented. A great week and we will happily use them again!
We have just had another wonderful week on a yacht we chartered from Hamble Point Yacht Charters. We have sailed several of their boats, this time it was a lovely 35 foot Bavaria. Chartering from HPYC is always an easy choice for us: the boats are well maintained, support is excellent, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful. On top of that, Hamble Point is such an ideal starting location for sailing around the Solent.
This is truly a 5 * service. The team really looked after us both ashore on arrival and also while at sea. We were a relatively inexperienced crew but always felt the team ashore had our backs. Thoroughly recommended.
I just wanted to say Thank-you very much for the weekend charter. It was exactly what we were after (albeit cold!) plus Andy was an awesome teacher and great company. We’ll definitely be keen to book again soon!
We had a fabulous four days. Marina is ideally placed for the Solent, boat was in great condition, well equipped and a joy to sail. We were well briefed and the shore side team including the dog very friendly.
We charted one of the sailing yachts for a fantastic weekend cruise in the Solent. The boat was in superb condition and well equipped, the staff was very helpful explaining how things work on the yacht and there was also a video available with all the important information. 10/10 would recommend!
Had a fantastic week chartering Blue Otter, Alex was incredibly helpful and sent loads of information and date checking prior to booking. There was a handover video and both the handover and return were really smooth. The boat was lovely and well maintained and Lee was really helpful in recommending places to visit (and helping identify the steering issue as an autopilot takeover - doh!). Definitely will be back and would fully recommend!
Just back from a lovely week in the Solent. Great service from HPYC from first inquiry through to return handover. Very straightforward to deal with, and the yacht was in excellent condition. We've chartered from many companies in the UK and abroad and the attention to detail (and flawless inventory!) was second to none. Everything about the yacht and equipment had clearly been well looked after and was in immaculate condition. Great service, will use again.
Always very friendly service, and well-maintained yachts. Easy check-in and checkout. Will be back...
We had a great time and were very happy with everything. Your team were genuinely friendly and were very helpful when we needed it. Is a big contrast to many charter companies I have dealt with in the past.
Watching the sun go down with a glass of bubbly on the deck of a sparkling yacht was unbelievable. What a treat, and a much needed change of scenery in these troubled times. We will be back for sure
Fab service, nothing too much trouble, including my daft questions. I'll be a repeat customer for sure!