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2nd September 2011
Yacht Master Chef
Today I passed my Yachtmaster exam. Yay for me!

I'm especially glad about it because I would not want to do that again. It was extremely gruelling since there were three of us taking the exam, and the examiner insisted on making sure each of us performed every single possible exercise. Sometimes several times.

The whole thing took from 11 o'clock Thursday morning to 2 o'clock Friday afternoon, with a generous 3 hours of sleep between 5 and 8 a.m.
The weather was mostly pretty mild, which was a bonus, but there was still enough wind to allow one of us, who shall remain nameless, to ram the boat at speed into the end of a pontoon whilst undertaking an extremely tricky manoeuvre to come alongside under sail and in the dark, putting an enormous gouge into the hull.

We decided to simplify our evening meal during the exam by making up a huge pot of stew beforehand ready to reheat. I made my apple-supplemented stovies, and invented an interesting variation on the theme of glazed carrots. (There was no honey on board, see, but plenty of marmalade.) They seemed to go down well, though there were complaints that no one could taste the apple in the stovies. Which, I explained, was the general idea. A subtle enhancement, I explained. Also, being Scottish, they complained that they weren't authentic Stovies since they had corned beef in.
Everyone's a critic.

Marmalade Glazed Carrots
side veg nautical
A bit like Michael Smith's Glazed Carrot Sticks with Ginger and Orange but with a secret ingredient.
The quantities I used were a bit random, but I wouldn't overdo the marmalade. I had about 1 tablespoon for a half dozen carrots.

Serves 6

Ingredients
Method
Peel and julienne your carrots into thick matchsticks.
Put them in a pot with a good knob of butter, a pinch of salt, a crumbled stock cube if you fancy it, the marmalade and a splash or so of orange juice. Don't overdo the orange juice - you just need about half an inch in the bottom of the pot.
Bring to the boil and simmer the pot, half-covered until the carrots are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Give them an occasional shake to make sure they aren't sticking.
Interesting. I wonder if you could completely do away with the orange juice. After all, that's all marmalade is right - sugar and orange juice?
I should think ground ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg would be good additions, and you could always add some brown sugar if the carrots aren't sweet enough.

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