clinging to the wreckage: June 2009

Monday, 22 June 2009

Older, wiser?

Ah well, life continues. We are a little older and a bit wiser...

Still here in Placencia we have the VHF working again. New lights on the compass, new bulbs in the interior that blew.

It has certainly made us reassess our future plans. Not, I hasten to add, in changing any of them, but in an understanding of how the' less is more' cruising has to be the path we follow...

If we do intend to voyage to remote areas we have to be able to fix any breakages on board OURSELVES. Now some of the modern electronics just isn't up for this! Even given TBH's extraordinary talents, and brains. rewiring circuit boards is not an easy skill to aquire at sea!

So the decisions we are currently leaning to are : No autopilots. We only ever used them when motoring in no wind, usually we rely on our Monitor self-steering gear. We will invest in a couple of tiller pilots to affix to the monitor. One to use and one as a spare.

NO LED lights ANYWHERE. They do not seem fit for purpose. they may save power but they cannot cope with the conditions. Both navigation units are sealed and impossible to repair. We could have repaired the old ones!

The big problem is the ssb. I cannot envisage living without it. Email and weather info I cannot live without... we are still thinking about that one. We do realise that we should have had a good back up short wave receiver, that's at the top of the new shopping list!

The weather here in Belize continues to be pretty unpleasant. Nightly squalls and storms. Last night we sat in the cockpit for a couple of hours watching the boats drag around us...

There is a charter boat base here and some of the 'sailors' skills are obviously in the novice stage. Nothing wrong with that, we all have to learn. But we felt safer watching them in case anyone came too close. My heart went out to one boat as it spent 2 hours or more trying to get an anchor on about 10 feet of chain to bite... I longed to tell them to let everything they had out but felt it would probably be misconstrued!

We are off to isolated anchorages again to spend a few weeks formulating plans...

Monday, 15 June 2009

Lightning strike

Ist June was the official start of the hurricane season and we were struck by lightning...

Lost the ssb, hence no blogging, weather, emails. Radar dead, autopilot dead, all LED lights blown. VHF aerial vaporized...

Feeling pretty shocked. We were in a quiet lagoon in central Belize and sat with wide eyes in the early morning as the world seemed to be coming to an end around us. Not a pleasant experience. Anyway the boat survived as did we. We are slowly working our way through the problems and hope we can repair some parts.

Oh and to add insult to injury the depth gauge stopped working too. Huh!

Cuban-style shrimps with rum

100ml rum
few drops tabasco sauce
zest and juice of 1 lime
2tsps worcester sauce
2.5tbso plain flour
pinch of ground cumin
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
24 large shrimp,peeled and deveined
10z butter
80ml olive oil
4 large cloves garlic,crushed
1tbsp chopped parsley
1tbsp chopped coriander(cilantro) leaves

Mix rum,tabasco,lime juice and zest and worcester sauce in a small bowl.
Mix flour with cumin,nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.Dip the shrimp in the mix before cooking.
Melt half butter with half oil in large saute pan, when hot add half garlic and half shrimp. Cook until prawns are pale pink and lightly golden. Lift on serving plate, keep warm. repeat with remaining butter,oil, garlic and shrimp.
Pour rum mix into pan and allow to bubble for a minute or two, stirring.
Mix with parsley and ciltrano.
pour over shrimp and serve with rice as a main dish or alone as a starter.

Delicious!

Caramalised Onion,Fruit and Nut Pilau

2tbsp Ghee
2 large onions, sliced
2tbsp Ghee, extra
1tsp hot chilli powder
1tsp ground black pepper
1/4tsp saffron threads
4 cardamon pods, crushed
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1tsp salt
2 cups basmati rice, washed and drained
4 cups water
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pistachio nuts, shelled

Heat ghee in large pan. Cook the onions until caramelized. Remove from pan.

Add extra ghee and spices to same pan, cook stirring, until fragrant. Stir in salt, rice and onions.

Add water, bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cover until rice is tender and all water has been absorbed.Stir in fruit, cover and stand 5 mins.

Just before serving stir in nuts.

Carrol Shelby's Chili Recipe.

1/4	lb suet or 1/4 cup cooking oil
1	lb beef round steak, coarse chili grind
1	lb beef chuck, coarse chili grind
8	ounces can tomato sauce
12	ounces beer
2	tablespoons crushed red chili peppers
2	medium garlic cloves, minced
1	small onion, finely chopped
1 1/4	teaspoons dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
1/2	teaspoon paprika
1 1/2	teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/4	teaspoons salt
1/8	teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4	lb monterey jack cheese, grated

Melt suet or heat the oil in a heavy 3-quart (or larger) pot over medium-high heat.
Remove the unrendered suet and crumble meat into the pot. Break up any lumps with a fork and cook, stirring occasionally. until meat is evenly browned.
Add tomato sauce, beer, crushed red chile, garlic, onion, oregano, paprika, 1 teaspoons of the cumin, and salt. Stir to blend and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.
Taste and adjust seasonings, adding cayenne pepper.
Simmer uncovered 1 hour longer.
Stir in the cheese and the remaining 1/2 teaspoons cumin.
Simmer 1/2 hour longer, stirring often to keep cheese from burning.
I serve the chili with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese to garnish, and warm cornbread on the side.
The cookbook actually called for 1/4 cup of crushed red chile pepper, but unless you have a taste for fire, use less! I use half that amount, and I really like hot food.