Woke early this morning to leave the Marina in Ponce for our next leg along the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Travelled in completely calm seas for a few hours with the weather forecast being “5 to 15 noodles”. But it eventually increased and increased until it was over treinta noodles. Okay, so the word for knots is “nudos’, and Larry was constantly wondering why the weather channel on VHF was referring to noodles all the time. One less word for us (and for you all readers) to learn now. So we finally decided to stop for the rest of the day here in Punta Patillas, a small oldish-looking beach resort community.
Larry wants people to know what he does while Tracy lounges with a glass of wine, drives the boat, does all the navigation work, keeps house, feeds and cleans up after him, okay, stop, stop! He does some important stuff too. Like constantly checking on the readiness/seaworthiness of the boat. There is always something to do on a sailboat that is 35 years old. No matter how well maintained and how many new systems you have, there is stuff to monitor, like a hawk.
Take the power steering system: It’s a 35 year old hydraulic steering system with a pump in the steering console (behind the wheel) that provides hydraulic pressure to a ram (a hydraulic cylinder) down under the rear cabin’s bed, that’s connected to the rudder. You turning the wheel, provides the pressure to the fluid and the ram turns the rudder. But its age is showing and the ram is slightly leaky. (as anyone older than 35 can attest to – OMG Larry – you didn’t really SAY THAT DID YOU???) So there are oil “diapers” under the ram to collect any drips and Larry checks them every so often, and changes them. There is a fluid reservoir that you fill with hydraulic fluid and then pump it up with a bicycle tire air pump to about 20 PSI. So a few drops of lost fluid does not mean anything bad. The air pressure in the reservoir just pushes more fluid into the system. UNTIL you are out of fluid in the reservoir, or OUT OF air pressure. So, Larry diligently monitors both the fluid and pressure level and keeps track of when he last checked them. For example, the pressure went from 20 PSI to 10 PSI from 4/4/13 to 4/25/13 (with a lot of use during that period) and got pumped back up again to 22 PSI; reservoir still pretty full. He also looks at all the fittings, especially the ones he made in December when he cut through the lines to tee-in the new auto-pilot pump; one of the most nerve-wracking jobs he has had to do, never having done hydraulic work in the past. (Some day he promises to write up all the steps, with pictures, to install an auto-pilot on a boat and save yourself a thousand dollar installation bill.)
That is an example of “routine maintenance” on an old boat. How many other sailors routinely check, the saltwater intake filters for their engine and generator, the primary fuel/water separator for the engine, all engine hoses and fittings, engine oil, fuel tank (add Biobor), condition of batteries, sails, steering system, bilge pumps, propeller shaft and packing gland, thru-hull fittings, water supply, etc. It doesn’t take long, so Larry can still be generally lazy, as long as these things, and the “to-do” list stay under control.
So, just in case you are thinking of buying an old boat and sailing away (hmm, sound like someone I know??) make sure you can keep the boat running and safe. We’ll tell you more about the “to-do” list some time later. Oh, and we have only been out for a couple of months and already odes are being written to us. We didn’t even have to sink and wait a hundred years like the Edmund Fitzgerald! Thank you to Carl, and congratulations to him for recovering so quickly from his hip surgery, for the ode below:
Soulmatie, Soulmatie, take me to sea
Away from the hard life, from real-atie
A life on the water, a life without pain
seems more than this land bound soul can attain
The doctors, they tell me, I'll never go
But Soulmatie, Soulmatie, they just don't know…
I've got a new hip, made out of zinc
Some stents and a bag, to full up with drink
Soulmatie, Soulmatie, the things that we'll do
if only Soulmatie, you'll take me with you.
Thanks Carl, and get your butt out here so we can teach you how to do some of this maintenance, so we can just lounge and drink those tropical drinks with umbrellas … like people envision us doing all day.
Ok, so Larry is not done contributing for the day. We had awesome Mahi-Mahi picatta again for dinner and he is going to share his recipe.
Mahi-Mahi Picatta
- Catch a mahi-mahi. If you buy it, the recipe may not be as good as expected. If you catch too much of a mahi-mahi for a single meal, it is permissible, though less than ideal, to freeze the excess. Cut a filet from the fish, cut the skin from the filet. Put it in plastic with no air if possible and immediately freeze it. DO NOT RINSE it in fresh water. Just straight from the fish to the freezer!
- With about a pound of mahi filet – cut into bite-size cubes, depending upon the size of your mouth, I suppose.
- roll in about 2 heaping tablespoons of flour, with the following added to the flour: as much garlic powder as you like (who doesn't?) and as much white pepper as you like.
- cook your favorite carb: a cup of orzo (we like whole wheat orzo), or a cup of rice, or some other pasta or spetzle, etc….
- quick-fry the fish nuggets in a couple spoonsful of veggie oil. Can’t use olive oil cause you want to cook hot and fast and the olive oil will burn, though most of our other cooking uses olive oil.
- dump the nuggets in a serving bowl and then make the sauce: about a cup, and a half or so, of white wine (preferable home-made wine from our stock, or you could go buy a really expensive bottle of good white wine and it might suffice). Anyway, the wine goes into the hot pan to simmer. Add to that, a quarter to a half cup, depending upon your taste, of lemon juice, and a couple large spoonful of capers with their juice.
- stir the sauce a bit. Thicken it with the left over flour/garlic/pepper that didn’t stick to the fish nuggets whisked into a half cup of cold water.
- stir some more. If not thick enough for you liking, add more flour. If not lemony enough, add more lemon juice. If not….., well you get the picture. You are supposed to taste the sauce, and sip the remaining wine, until all is well.
- dump the sauce on the fish nuggets. Drain your pasta/orzo or, well the rice should not need draining….
- serve the fish on the carbs, with the rest of the wine, or another bottle if you didn’t reserve enough.
Total (and best) elapsed time from filet of the fish to serving of the meal could be as little as 15 minutes. Though admittedly, we just had our 4th meal from the fish caught and frozen a week ago.
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