The Towpath Table: Portable Grazing for a Day Afloat on the Kennet & Avon

There is a particular kind of Bath day out that begins with a cool bag and a tea towel and ends with a lock gate swinging shut behind you. The Kennet & Avon Canal runs through the city — under the Widcombe flight, past Sydney Gardens, out towards Bathampton and on to Bradford-on-Avon — and a hired day boat turns a towpath walk into a moving picnic. The question is not whether you can take a grazing spread on the water. It is how to pack one that still looks generous by the third lock.

Choose the boat before the board

Day boats at Bathampton and Brassknocker Basin are compact, and that is the point. You are working with a fold-down table, a narrow gunnel, a cratch cover and a floor that tilts when someone steps aboard. A grazing table works here if you think of it as a grazing table with different physics. Rimmed trays beat flat slates. Lidded tubs beat open bowls. A weighted cloth beats anything that flaps. Keep the tall stacks at home and pack things that can be arranged in a single layer without rolling into the cut.

What survives a lock flight

Hard cheese is your friend: a wedge of Westcombe cheddar, a piece of Cornish Yarg, or a Bath Soft Cheese from Park Farm at Kelston if you plan to eat it early. Cured meats travel well, and a whole salami is better than pre-sliced because you can cut it aboard and it keeps its shape. Sourdough, focaccia and oatcakes all hold up. So do olives in a sealed jar, cornichons, cherry tomatoes on the vine, radishes, grapes, apples, clementines and a bag of walnuts.

What sulks on a boat? Anything with a mayonnaise base, cut melon, prawns, cream-filled pastries and delicate leaves that wilt the moment the sun finds them. A quiche is fine if it is eaten within a couple of hours and kept cool. A bowl of dressed leaves is not. If you want something green, pack whole Little Gem lettuces and a small jar of dressing to add at the mooring.

The no-fridge rule

A narrowboat is not a refrigerator. In November it is a cool room; in July it is a greenhouse with a view. Use two cool bags rather than one, and freeze water bottles the night before — they double as ice packs and later as cold drinks. Keep the bags out of the engine room and under the cratch in the shade, and resist opening them every ten minutes. Cold food should stay cold, so eat the chilled items first and leave the hard cheese, fruit and bread for later in the day. If something has been out too long and you are unsure, bin it. A canal bank is not the place to gamble on egg sandwiches.

Hand hygiene matters more than usual when you are eating with your fingers. A bottle of hand gel, a small bottle of water for rinsing and a dedicated tea towel for hands will do more for the spread than another bowl of olives. Bring a bin bag, too. Nothing goes over the side.

One hand for the boat

Locks are the test. At Widcombe, Bradford Lock or Avoncliff, someone has to hold a rope and someone has to open a gate, which means the food has to be one-hand-able. Small pork pies, sausage rolls, wrapped sandwiches, slices of quiche and cubes of cheese all pass. A board balanced on a mooring bollard does not. When you are locking through, put the tray below and cover it. The same goes for a breezy stretch of towpath: if the cloth lifts, the board goes with it.

Moor up and make it look like something

The best portable spreads borrow a trick from a picnic and a trick from a kitchen. Use a cool box as a table base, drape a heavy linen cloth over it and weight the corners with a couple of clean stones from the bank. A clip-on table is useful, but it is not a serving suggestion on its own. At Dundas Aqueduct or on a quiet stretch near Claverton, a low wall makes a natural sideboard. Cloth napkins beat paper every time on a towpath, because paper becomes a kite.

Drinks without the glass problem

Cans and flasks are the sensible choice. Local cider, elderflower presse and a thermos of tea all work, and none of them shatter on a towpath. If you are boating in the cooler months, a flask of hot chocolate or spiced apple juice is more welcome than another cold drink. Keep glass at home; broken glass and canal wildlife are a miserable combination.

A sample spread for four

Pack a tray of Westcombe cheddar, Cornish Yarg and a small Bath Soft Cheese, with oatcakes and a cut sourdough loaf. Add a whole salami, a handful of cornichons, a tub of olives, cherry tomatoes, grapes, apple wedges and a bag of walnuts. Bring a small pot of chutney and a few cloth napkins. That is enough for four people with room for a pork pie each, and it still looks like a spread rather than a lunchbox.

The night-before pack

Freeze the water bottles. Cut the hard cheese at home and wrap it in wax paper. Leave the salami whole. Pack the board, cloth and napkins separately from the food so the tray arrives clean. Fill a small bottle of hand gel, check the cool bags have their ice packs, and put a spare bin bag in the bottom of the rucksack. If you are hiring from Bathampton, check what the boat provides — most day boats have a kettle and a hob, but you will not need either for this.

The return leg

Leftovers go into lidded tubs, not back into the cool bag loose. Take your rubbish home with you; a boat bin left overnight is a gift to the local wildlife. Wash and dry the board before it goes back in the cupboard, and give the cool bag a wipe. Then start planning the next stretch of canal, because the towpath table is a habit.