An e-disaster

We left Lincoln and the Fossdyke navigation at the Stamp End Lock which is unusual because it has a guillotine gate.  At the press of a button the gate slowly rattles and creaks up   allowing us to enter the lock.   From here we are on the River Witham all the way to Boston.  

One of the reasons we decided to live this lifestyle is because it will give us more time for the things we want to do.  We are both keen to spend more time cooking and fancied trying traditional Cornish Pasties.  

A recipe was obtained from the internet and the ingredients included strong white bread flour for the pastry.  I haven't heard of using bread flour for pastry but apparently it would give the pastry strength to hold the filling and stay in shape.   The pasties were a joint effort - I mixed the pastry which took some effort to achieve the slightly elastic dough described.  This went into the fridge to rest while I went outside to do the same.  Kev chopped the filling ingredients following the quantities given.  

When we rolled out the pastry it became apparent we had more than double the amount of filling required.  I rolled the pastry as thin as I dared and we made up the pasties.  The pastry certainly was strong and held together during cooking but it was rock hard!  The next night we had the remaining filling in a pie with good old shortcrust pastry.   

The River Witham was straightened by the Romans and the result is a rather long and monotonous stretch into Boston but the trip was worthwhile.  The moorings at Boston are excellent and just a short walk from the town centre and an enormous Asda.  The Witham Way footpath follows the route of a disused railway line and an excellent country park meant Bess had plenty of interesting walks.

Boston is famous for St Botolph's Church and it's tower, the Stump.  We decided to go up the Stump which is 145 feet high at the balcony, a climb of over 200 steps .  We read the warning notices advising you not to go up unless your were in good health and feeling enthusiastic we went to pay.  The lady in the shop took our money and asked if we had a mobile phone.  Yes we had - that was good we could use it to ring the shop's phone number if we had an emergency!   How hard was this climb going to be?  The spiral staircase was steep and narrow but the view was well worth it.  Unfortunately I'd forgotten to take the camera with me but I wasn't going up again.

St Botolph taken from our back deck on the moorings at Boston

While we were in Boston I spent the vouchers my colleagues had generously given me for a leaving present.  I bought a Kobo e-reader which will be very useful on the trip - thank-you everyone.  

Back on board I fired up the laptop and was busy working on an email when the internet connection was suddenly lost.   I glanced up to the window ledge where I'd used blu-tack to fix the dongle to receive a better signal.  The dongle wasn't there - it had taken a nose dive into a cup of tea on the bookcase below.   It's surprising how much tea a dongle can hold.  After much shaking, blasting with switch cleaner and being left to dry overnight it was obvious the dongle wasn't going to recover.   Luckily there is a 3 Store in Boston and the next day I was able to buy a replacement which will not be suspended above cups of tea. 

Our route from Lincoln to Boston - the turquoise ovals are our mooring places.