Karen's MasterChef Australia Experience

MasterChef Australia is one of the highest rating television programs in the country. It pitches amateur cooks against each other in a competition that is far more a developmental culinary journey than confrontational beat up based on artificial personalities found in many ‘reality’ programs.

Given her passion for cooking, it’s not surprising that Master Chef is Karen’s favourite television show by far. Each season thousands of hopefuls apply for a place on the show. These are whittled down to just sixty or so in each State who get to actually cook for the producers as part of the audition process. In 2019 Karen was one of those select few. Below is her account of the adventure.

Karen's cooking is normally done in Our Dreamtime's small but efficient galley.

My MasterChef Australia Experience

Wow wow wow! ... I never thought I would be standing in front of a bench in a commercial kitchen eyes riveted on a MasterChef Mystery Box but here I was. The day had started extremely early with a trip to my local Farmers Market to ensure I had everything ready for my audition cook, and now, at 5pm, I was one of thirty hopefuls who stood waiting to hear those words, "Your time starts now".

After completing the intensive application process I had waited for the notification to see if I had made it through the 1st screening test. With your personal life history laid out for the scrutiny of the show’s producers, you hope that you showed a great enough love of cooking and commitment to your future food ambitions. I feared my listed future ambitions may have been my weak point. I didn't have grandiose dreams of opening my own restaurant or pop-up, I simply wanted to learn more, and be able to continue to blog and vlog about my food experience as we sail the world to remote places. I want to bring the new diverse food experiences we enjoy into other people's lives. Thousands of hopefuls apply but only a few are chosen. So when the brief email appeared in my inbox inviting me to actually audition to appear on Master Chef Australia I was excited to say the least. The date and venue were set and then a further detailed email arrived giving very precise instructions on what I was in for.

Audition #1 would be a Mystery Box with a 1 hour cooking time. Your food and suitability for the show would be judged. If successful you would be invited back the following day for Audition #2 to cook your signature dish. "Signature Dish", what signature dish? It's not like I run a restaurant and am known for one outstanding dish. Rob is lucky to have the same dish twice as I am always experimenting and utilising whatever fresh ingredients available in season at whatever place we are in at the time. Problem number one, what to cook.

I had two weeks from the time of being notified to the audition date. Now the pressure was on. I finally decided on making Thai style stuffed squid my new, and first, signature dish. I chose it as, firstly, Moreton Bay was teeming with them at the time. Secondly, it would showcase our lifestyle of living on board, and thirdly, I was confident in producing a flavoursome dish in the one hour time frame.

Each night for a fortnight Rob would call “Your time starts now” and I’d launch into producing a Masterchef worthy masterpiece before he shouted “Time’s up” sixty minutes later. We’d then sit down to diner, critically picking apart everything from presentation on the plate to every nuance of the dish. By the end of the two weeks of experimenting and tweaking the recipe, Rob and I were wondering if we would ever want to eat squid again, specially Thai stuffed squid. At the time I really didn't want to see another squid in my life let alone cook one under the pressure of television cameras in your face while producers fired questions. 

This is TV right. So you have to be honest. Not only were your cooking skills going to be scrutinised but how you presented, spoke and your knowledge and love of food had to shine. So for the first time in 8 months I went to the hairdresser, cut, colour, and blow dry. Then I had to choose an outfit to comply with the instructions of long pants and closed in shoes, practicality and safety first.

So back to audition day.  After my trip to the market, I carefully went through the ingredients I would require for my "Signature Dish" and packed them ready for transportation. Next came the equipment I would require. Nothing but knives and hard fixed appliances would be provided. I had to bring everything else I needed to cook and plate my dish. This is of course if I got through Audition #1, As we were not going to find out if we were through to Audition #2 until early evening on the Saturday night and would need to be back the following morning, I felt forward planning was essential for my piece of mind. It also kept me busy thinking about Day 2 and not what I was going to face in a couple of hours. The nerves were building regardless.

Arriving a bit early at the venue, there was one other person waiting. With my instant thought being ‘thank goodness I'm not the first’,  we fell into easy conversation and found our love of food a great uniter. As time drew closer the crowd grew with many bringing family and friends for support. Chloe and Ben, top ten and runner up of the 2018 season, arrived to chat to us. This eased the nerves as it gave us a great opportunity to ask questions about the 2018 show and the living arrangements in the MasterChef House. At this point I discovered that four of the people auditioning in my group had also auditioned in previous years. Wow! It can't be that traumatic if they are willing to do it a 2nd or 3rd time.

Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the "Mystery Box" and the words "Your time starts now" echoed in my head. The first peak at the produce was both exhilarating and terrifying. Provided was a selection of protein, and an array of product and produce that could send you in either a savoury or sweet way. However usual combinations weren't so obvious and you had to improvise. I immediately looked to my comfort zone, savoury and started planning my dish. Seafood of course. The hour did go by quickly with the production team coming up and constantly asking what your dish was, where did the influence come from, how were you going to plate up, and asking you questions about yourself etc.... the final ten second countdown began with everyone joining in and then the hooter sounded. “Step away from your plate!”

One by one our dishes were tasted with us waiting eagerly for the judges to make their decision. This is where the self-doubt sets in. Did I do enough? Is it cooked correctly? Are the flavours coherent? Are the flavours exciting? Is my dish a winner? Do I fit what they’re looking for? While quite complimentary of my efforts, unfortunately that’s where my Master Chef journey ended.

As I sat chronicling my fantastic experience the following day, the six talented Master Chef hopefuls chosen from our audition were cooking their "Signature Dish". Good luck to each of them. I’m sure they cooked their hearts out.  I for one will be watching the 2019 MasterChef Australian edition knowing it's a tough road to get to the top 50 let alone the top 10. I hope I see some familiar faces.

There was one final challenge though.  Rob and I had to eat our way through my "Signature Dish". More squid.  Such is life in Our Galley.

Cheers Karen.

Check out Karen's "Dreamtime Sail - Our Galley" blog for much more food and cooking.

Thank you to all who support us through watching our videos, reading our blogs or who step up and support us though Patreon and Ko-Fi. You inspire us everyday to be creative 🙌

You can help us out and support our creative work for FREE. 

By watching, 👍, 🔔, Subscribing, Commenting and best of all Sharing this video or blog with your friends 

If you would like to make a donation towards our creative work, you can by heading over to Ko-Fi they take no fees so the support goes directly into helping us buy and upgrade equipment 

Do you want more? 

Patreon gives you that … you get behind the scenes updates, 

Patreon only photos and posts, you can watch our 

episodes ad free and before they go public … you get it first!

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We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too.

To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos, also check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail

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In Search of the Perfect Yacht Tender

Since we began cruising we’ve worked our way through most of the tender options sailors have to choose from. The first boat we crewed on had very old Avon inflatable that was well past its use by date and required constant pumping. In short it was awful. The second boat had a sailing dinghy as a tender which was a lot of fun but storing the sail and mast would be an issue on many boats. Our boat in the Mediterranean, Alcheringa came with a small, soft bottomed roll up inflatable. Nice and light, reasonably inexpensive but limited in performance. 

Alcheringa's dinghy was light and compact but limited.

When we returned to Australia and purchased Our Dreamtime, she came with an aged Aquapro aluminum hulled rib. Rather than spend money on a new tender, we elected to do a refurb job on it. See Breathing new life into our aging dinghy. It then served us well until it suffered terminal damage when we misjudged the current in the Burnett River and squashed her against a pylon while on the davits bursting an air chamber. She did a good job of protecting the stern of the yacht so didn’t give her life in vain.

After an extensive refurb, our Aquapro RIB sacrificed itself on the davits when wedged between a pylon and the stern as the river current caught us by surprise in Port of Bundaberg marina.

Subsequently, we found ourselves in urgent need of a new tender and headed to ebay from where we purchased a Chinese PVC 3 metre, air hull, inflatable with aluminum floor inserts. At $800 it was the cheapest thing we could find. Initially it was great apart from actually being surprisingly heavy. However, just 12 months in Australian tropical conditions and every seam began to come unglued and, despite our best efforts at repairs, we gave up and dumped it.

Our Chinese PVC replacement was cheap but only lasted one season before falling to bits. It was also surprisingly heavy.

We were on the dinghy hunt again but were determined to come up with a more permanent solution. The price of new, hypalon ribs was enough to scare the pants of us so we began searching the second hand market. That’s where we spotted a 3 metre tinnie (Australian slang for aluminum dinghy) complete with 8HP Yamaha outboard for just $400. We can’t resist a bargain and snapped it up. The Yamaha was a long shaft version which had been mounted with a transom extension. It was pretty awkward so we sold it for $300 which means our tinnie actually only cost us $100.

Our $400 bargain dinghy. Note the long shaft Yamaha with transom extension. 

We soon discovered a couple of downsides to a tinnie as a yacht tender. Firstly they are hard and, even after running some plastic tubing round the gunnels, we were constantly worried about damaging Our Dreamtime’s painted hull every time they nudged each other. Another issue is the tinnie had no inbuilt buoyancy so if filled with water would sink. Add in that its stability was so bad you virtually had to part your hair in the middle or risk listing or even capsizing.

That’s when we discovered a thing called a Kapten Boat Collar on Google. Everything we read and the Youtube videos we watched convinced us the boat collar might be our answer. They are manufactured by a small family company in the town of Nambour about 100 kilometres or so north of Brisbane. Check them out .HERE As the dinghy itself owed us so little, we decided to cough up the money and try one of these collars on it. One for our size dinghy costs under $900 plus fitting.  However, we were assured installation is reasonably simple with over 70% being done by customers rather than company so we decided to save money and do it ourselves.

Here’s how its done.

Click on the image to watch the video on YouTube on how we installed our Kapten Boat Collar.

Our second hand dinghy with boat collar is the best yacht tender we have had so far and all for under $1,000.

We had intended to trim the overhang at the stern but changed our minds and decided to leave it to provide both additional flotation and extra bumper factor to protect our yachts hull. 

We added a new 9.9hp Mercury to complete what we have found to be an excellent tender combo.

What about the results. The difference is unbelievable. The dinghy is now completely stable in all conditions and unsinkable. You can literally stand on its gunnel without a problem. It’s now also possible to climb into the dinghy from the water which will be fantastic when snorkeling. The dinghy planes very easily and really gets along with it's new 9.9hp outboard. In fact it easily matches the performance we managed in our inflatables with a 15hp engine. The collar is also a brilliant alround fender when the dinghy is alongside the yacht. We are convinced we have now found the perfect yacht tender set up to suit our needs at last. It might not be for everyone but we love it.

We'd love to hear from you in the comments what type of tender you've found suits your needs.

Thank you to all who support us through watching our videos, reading our blogs or who step up and support us though Patreon and Ko-Fi. You inspire us everyday to be creative 🙌

You can help us out and support our creative work for FREE. 

By watching, 👍, 🔔, Subscribing, Commenting and best of all Sharing this video or blog with your friends 

If you would like to make a donation towards our creative work, you can by heading over to Ko-Fi they take no fees so the support goes directly into helping us buy and upgrade equipment 

Do you want more? 

Patreon gives you that … you get behind the scenes updates, 

Patreon only photos and posts, you can watch our 

episodes ad free and before they go public … you get it first!

Another way of support is through buying from our store.

Checkout the range of books we have available 

https://payhip.com/Dreamtimesail

________________________________________________________________________

We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too.

To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos, also check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail

If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.

You can also find a full list of all our blogs by clicking on the Contents tab above.

A Cockpit Table Fit for a Whitby

Any owner of a Whitby 42, or one of its Brewer close cousins, will know one of the boat’s few shortcomings as an ideal liveaboard yacht is the lack of a cockpit table. Yes the salon does have a very user friendly, fold down table quite capable of hosting a dinner party but if you cruise tropical waters, as we do, sundowners and most meals are generally enjoyed in the spacious centre cockpit above. Here you fast become sick of juggling your dinner plate on your lap.

The available space all revolves around the binnacle located in the centre of the cockpit which provides a challenge when it comes to coming up with a table solution. On the internet we have seen a number of innovative designs produced by other owners but all seemed a bit complicated to us. We wanted something simple to use at anchor that could be easily stowed away when sailing. It took us a while but eventually it was Karen that solved our table dilemma.

While Rob was away for a few days working, she’d been poring over online marine suppliers websites and spotted something that really grabbed her attention. An Australian company, Sam Allen Wholesale, www.samallen.com.au, had a genius design wonder that was the key to solving our untimely lap dance issue. It was a stainless steel mounting plate, bar and table bracket that she saw the potential of and ordered on the spot.

The start point is the mounting plate which was secured to the cockpit locker in line with the centre of the binnacle.

Sam Allen's actually sell these separately so it's possible to have more than one position around the boat where the table could be mounted.

After a very quick delivery she secured the mounting plate on the vertical face of the portside locker in the cockpit. After sliding the removable pole into the mount she was able to measure and determine that with the helm removed, something around a 60cm x 60 cm (approx. 24 x 24 inch) table would fit nicely on top and put an end to our unwanted hot food lap dances.

The bar slides easily and securely into the mounting bracket.

The next step was a trip to the hardware/homemaker centre to find a suitable table top. Sometimes things are just meant to be and there, on display in Bunnings, was a small outdoor table that was not only the exact right size, but also sat on a single centre leg supported by a wide base. After parting with $129 it was hers. 

Back on ‘Our Dreamtime’ the pedestal base was soon unscrewed and discarded. It was necessary to slightly offset the Sam Allen's centre mount so the table top rested against the grab bar of the binnacle.

The centre mount was offset slightly to position the table top against the binnacle.

The mount slips onto the pole and is held with a spring loaded pin in a locating hole on the bar.

 A stainless hose clamp was installed to support the edge of one corner of the table top but there was still a certain element of “wobble’ happening. It was clear the other corner also required something to secure it to the binnacle.

The edge of the forward corner of the table is supported by a hose clamp.

It was then back to the online catalogue where Karen discovered the perfect fitting. The female end is screwed to the binnacle and the 90degre, male side secured to the table. And the job was done. 

Karen adapted another Sam Allen's fitting to support the aft corner of the table.

The female half of the bracket fits neatly on the binnacle.

This was the final piece of the puzzle.

When Rob arrived back to the marina after four days away making television, he was greeted by a fantastic sundowners spread of fine nibbles and a nice bottle of wine on Our Dreamtime’s awesome new cockpit table.

It has since proved an outstanding success. It does require the wheel to be off but we normally remove it and stow it below when on the dock or at anchor to make movement around the cockpit easier. The table breaks down into the flat table top and stainless bar for easy storage when underway.

It’s safe to say our cockpit table has provided the one missing link to make Our Dreamtime the perfect liveaboard cruiser for us. It has entertained many a sundowners and dinner guest aboard and made Karen’s already wonderful cooked breakfasts even more enjoyable when we’re not worried about maple syrup spilling off the plate and running down our nether regions. 

Our new table was all Karen's work and makes her wonderful breakfasts even better.

We even discovered that by putting a box on the portside seat we could extend the table to make it large enough to hold a typical Aussie style Christmas cold seafood lunch.

Aussie Christmas lunch in the cockpit. What could be better.

Ted Brewer did an outstanding job designing these boats. We absolutely love Our Dreamtime and mouth our thanks to Ted often.  If only he’d known about Sam Allen’s and Bunnings back then.

Our Dreamtime's new cockpit table has made entertaining friends so much more comfortable. Crispy skin duck by Karen.

Thank you to all who support us through watching our videos, reading our blogs or who step up and support us though Patreon and Ko-Fi. You inspire us everyday to be creative 🙌

You can help us out and support our creative work for FREE. 

By watching, 👍, 🔔, Subscribing, Commenting and best of all Sharing this video or blog with your friends 

If you would like to make a donation towards our creative work, you can by heading over to Ko-Fi they take no fees so the support goes directly into helping us buy and upgrade equipment 

Do you want more? 

Patreon gives you that … you get behind the scenes updates, 

Patreon only photos and posts, you can watch our 

episodes ad free and before they go public … you get it first!

Another way of support is through buying from our store.

Checkout the range of books we have available 

https://payhip.com/Dreamtimesail