Monkey Bay Sliders.

With the boat still in uproar and the offspring due in less than a week I had the perfect excuse yesterday for a little cooking therapy! Just the thing to quiet my nerves was an invite to our next-door-boat birthday celebration last night. With the request to bring along something to eat I set to and decided on 'sliders' the mini-burger latest fashion accessory for hungry boaters...

I found a good recipe from Jaimie Oliver and adapted it a little. They sound fiddly but with a bit of organization on my work surfaces the whole lot was prepared from start to finish in under 40 minutes, not bad!

• Olive oil
• 2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 6 Jacob's crackers or 4 slices of bread, crusts removed
• 500g (1lb 2oz) good-quality lean minced beef
• 1tsp sea salt
• 1 heaped tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic, beaten
• A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. You can make these burgers or sliders in an oven at full whack, on the barbecue or in a hot pan. If you're using the oven or barbecue, preheat it now. Put a splash of olive oil into a large frying pan on a low heat and add your chopped onions. Fry for 10 minutes or until the onions have softened, then put to one side to cool completely.
2. Blitz your crackers or bread in a food processor until you get a fine consistency. Oil a clean baking tray and put aside. Put the cooled onions into a large bowl with the rest of the burger ingredients. Use clean hands to scrunch the mixture together really well, then divide into 6 equal balls for burgers and 18 equal balls for sliders. Wet your hands and roll the balls into burger-shaped patties about 2cm thick.
3. Place your burgers or sliders on the oiled baking tray and pat with a little olive oil. Cover them with clingfilm and put the tray into the fridge for at least an hour, or until the patties firm up..

I finished them off with a piece of lettuce, slice of tomato, dollop of ketchup, piece of cheese(melted on the burger) and a piece of crispy bacon.

I had to use the picture from Jaimie's article as all mine were eaten before I got the camera out! And yes they did look just the same...well apart from no pickles and no sesame seeds but what's that between friends!

I really like miniature 'real food' canapes, sort of wicked but not too filling. You can always eat a lot of them, well we can!

Sinkings,groundings and rescues.

Well our problems fade into insignificance after the bout of sailing news from the region this week!

British yacht Kersti sunk on it's way to Cartagena from the San Blas Islands. Owners Jeff and Ruth Morris took to their liferaft and were quickly rescued by other cruisers.

Yacht Columbine was hard aground off the West coast of Cuba awaiting the arrival of the US Coastguard, last news was that they had been there for 24 hours and had 6 to go before the 'cavalry' were due to arrive. So far they hadn't been holed.

Motor vessel Great Escape is aground in the Sapodilla's, Belize. Hard on a reef with significant damage and taking on water.


Makes our battery issues seem a whole lot more manageable.

Since we have been in this part of the Caribbean every season seems to contain enough dramatic incidents to make you ask yourself a lot of questions! Personally reef sailing scares the shit out of me, shallow water, sharp coral and inadequate charts. Yuck, just not my idea of fun. After our experiences in Belize last season I am in no hurry to return to that cruising ground. Give me the open ocean and a bottom that is so deep the fishfinder can't read it!

I am constantly amazed by the casual attitude of many sailors to navigation in these waters, their reliance on waypoints and the calm way in which they recount 'hitting the reef'. Personally the slightest scrape on my bottom leaves me appalled at my stupidity and carelessness.

Proud Mum.

My three gorgeous children at my sister and brother-in-laws 50th birthday party last weekend. Goodness I do miss them!

Muffins,engines and wifi

Goodness me! 1st December already and I am being chastised for not starting my Christmas blogging...I think it's because I am waiting for Lucy and Alex to arrive before I get in the mood.

Lucy and Alex open their new restaurant, Koh(in Bournemouth) sometime this week so they are really busy. I just hope she has time to get the last minute shopping list that I have sent. It has such vital things as Christmas Pudding and muffin cases on it! Could seriously compromise my Yule celebrations if they don't arrive.

Quick up date on the repairs; looks like we have reclaimed one of the batteries(we only charge 2 at a time) two of the others are coming on nicely but number 4 may well be f.....ed.

Really hope we are successful as the cost here is horrendous, Q1700 each that's 170 euros and they are not even the one's we want... Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Engine fuel leak is fixed although we are still getting some smoke from the exhaust. My theory is that we have another hole in the exhaust pipe further back. When TBH gets to the stage of running the final cable for the fishfinder we will unearth that part of the boat. Yet more mess. Sigh!

So cooking therapy is high on my daily 'to do' list. Yesterday I made another batch of pate and  baked some delicious cherry and walnut muffins. Sadly they just seem to evaporate as soon as they come out of the oven. TBH says its nothing to do with him and the crumbs on his shirt are just 'dirt'! Hum...

Monkey Bay Marina continues to charm. One thing I must mention is how John, the manager, came to our boat and set the wifi connection up for us. In other marinas you are often left to struggle alone to connect and given no guidance to using the system. Not here. John, who appears very computer literate, comes to the boat, actually sets the connection up on your computer and carefully explains just how much surfing the system here will take. What a refreshing and intelligent way to ensure a happy experience.

Things are looking up!

Well it had to improve at some point!
And finally it has....

The fantastic TBH has slogged away with grim determination, in the face of a whining wife, technical hitches and limited access.

We acquired a tuner unit,(for the ssb radio) it's fitted and once again we are connected to the airwaves. I cannot tell you what a relief that is. I heard the NW cruisers net this morning, an achievment in itself as we are so far inland! They couldn't hear me but that wasn't a surprise!It was nice to hear all the boats that we know so well chatting away... Makes me eager to get back out there.

We have downloaded the weather fax via Sailmail and are so pleased that the Pactor unit does not need replacing, that would have been another $1000!

Slowly it looks like we are reviving our sick batteries, it took a while to remember just how our 'smart-charger' worked when all you need to do is get the current in there but TBH kept at it and they are humming away as I type this.

You shudder to think how boats with little practical expertise survive these kinds of breakdown. It's almost impossible to find reliable, capable technical labour here so the only choice is to do it yourself.

Monkey Bay Marina

Well it's been all change this week. On Sunday we had another run in with the rogue jetskiers, this time they dumped water all down the galley hatch, a mess but nothing was damaged. Boy was I mad... I got on the VHF to ask other boaters to look out for these bastards and then watched carefully myself to see where they were headed.
The manager of Monkey Bay Marina very kindly called the Navy patrol for us and within minutes they were alongside.

I had seen where the skis went and with a broken Spanish conversation the Naval guys invited me into their lancha and off we went in hot pursuit, AK47's bristling!

After one false sighting we found the jetski's, no people of course. A large motorboat that was hanging around said they were theirs but they hadn't been used that day and there was only the two of them at the property. Hum 3 jetskis and a large boat out for the use of two people. Well what do I know? I got a bit suspicious when the boat owner told me to be careful as I wouldn't always be surrounded by men with guns! Ah the joys of Central America!

The 'lads' took me back to the boat and we filled in a little paperwork, they were delightful throughout and told us they would keep an eye on the boat whilst we were at anchor.

Needless to say we immediately left the front of Mario's Marina, evidently not a very safe place to be...

So back to Shell Bay and the realisation that our batteries were in appalling shape. We are loathe to buy new ones as the kind we like are not sold here. We needed to get to some mains power and run a long recharge programme, that's if the smart charger still worked after the lightning strike.

We discussed which marina to go into. Mario's has declined rapidly in our opinion so we didn't want to return there. We decided on Monkey Bay, if they had room, it has a good reputation and I had been impressed at the response of the manager, John, during the jetski incident. TBH hopped in the dinghy and went to have a chat...

So up came the anchor again and we headed the short distance downstream to come into Monkey Bay Marina. It is a narrow slip with a small dock and pilings at the rear of the boat. Like the well oiled machine that we have become(!) we glided in with minimum fuss and made off the lines. I must say it's a relief to be sorting some of our problems out whilst alongside. I hate the feeling of vulnerability at anchor when bits of the boat aren't working.

So here we are, slowly and painfully restoring the batteries, we hope, to a better state. The boat is a tip, stuff everywhere.

But the marina is charming, friendly, clean and private. A bit like being a guest in somebodies garden...

Bastards.

It's taking me a while to calm down from a really shitty end to a bad week.

We have been working our way through the current round of boat problems/breakdowns. Some we've solved, some we haven't and some we haven't begun yet. So Friday afternoon all was quiet below, I was indulging in some cooking therapy. Carefully dicing veggies for a guacamole to accompany the evening meal of chicken fajitas, TBH was working on the computer when an almighty amount of water covered the boat.

I shot onto the deck to see a jetski zooming off into the distance. The bastards had slewed up to our boat, on purpose and maliciously. They had generated a massive spray of water which covered the front two thirds of the boat. Probably 10-20 gallons came straight down the forward hatch totally soaking our bed, all the sheets, pillows,cushions etc. They also drowned our little portable generator on the side deck.He is now running at 15% less efficiency than before, water has obviously got into his vital parts.

So their little 'prank' has damaged our almost new generator, created massive amounts of washing and ensured that I will go out of my way to alienate every jetski rider that it is ever my misfortune to meet. Well done you pair of morons, bet you're really proud.

What can you say? What sort of cretinous morons think that maliciously damaging somebodies property is fun? I have cursed them from here to eternity and if I EVER come face to face with them(I got a good look) I truly hope they will end the encounter ruing the day that their paths ever crossed mine.

I have a very blown-up picture of the bastards,they were slowing down to admire their handiwork on the far side of the river, it's not very clear but maybe it will help identify the ***!!!.

In all the time we have been on the boat this is the first time anyone has maliciously gone out of their way to damage us. It's not a nice feeling.