May 12, 2017

We departed super rolly Glass Window Bridge and peered at the obstacle, which was the path:  Current Cut. This is a small cut, dividing Eleuthera from Current Island. Massive amounts of water squeezing through this tiny cut causes a crazy current: 6 knots at ebb tide and up to 10 knots during spring tides! One helpful Grumpy Captain reviewer stated "We went through at 14 knots (our top speed is 8). What a ride!"

Now, why not just go through at slack tide when there is no current? Great idea! When is slack current? This is like asking your family what they would like for dinner: blinking, silence, I dont know, followed by 5 reluctant and different answers. The general consensus: 1 -2 hours after Nassau high tide, and brownies. So is it 1 or 2? It depends on the wind, the temperature, and who got elected. Was it the yellow shirts with the rude hand signal or the red "It's The People's Time" shirts?

Oh, and you could totally just go for it and hope for the best, however, the channel is surrounded by rocks and sandbars, so if you have erred, it may be a costly mistake (hopefully you can blame your spouse).

Surely there's another way? Yes, there is - but it would have required several more hours of bashing directly into the wind, just to go through another cut, that, because it is a Bahamian cut, is sure to inspire fear and loathing in it's own special way. 

We were hoping that some poor sap would be in front of us and we could just follow them like lemmings, but alas, we were alone, hoping that our very vague "hope for the best" Bahamas navigation planning would work out OK.  We ended up going through 1 hour a 45 minutes after Nassasu high tide, with 1.5 knots against us. Perfect. Sure, 0 current would be nice, but we'd much rather have a manageable current against us and be able to maintain steering vs. being even more at the mercy of the sea. 

Now the saga was over, we headed to Meeks Patch for the night. We're sad that we didn't make it to Spanish Wells and Harbour Island, however, we didn't have the energy and didn't want to miss the weather window to travel to the Abacos the next day. 

We barely had the energy to take Hastings to the beach, where the "why are so many tour boats landing on the beach" riddle was answered. A large pig emissary was sent out to check for food. Hastings sternly told the pig how stingy his parents are with food rations, and he was not about to share.  The pig went away, off to check on the next batch of hapless sailors. We went home, to check on the next batch of drama: Abacos, here we come! 

Would you rather have 10 minutes of terror and get it over with or 4 hours of mild stress and aggravation and go the easier route? 

By request, Lucy’s recipes make an encore appearance today! But Matt adds a sweet finish because you can’t keep him out of the galley. In fact, if you start cooking this he’ll likely pop up and finish it for you, which is handy albeit annoying.

Chana Masala

1 large onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon garam masala* or curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cayenne or red chili flakes

1 can of diced tomatoes with liquid

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 cup vegetable broth

salt and pepper to taste

*Garam Masala is a handy spice mix to have aboard, but if you are like Matt and prefer having whole spices around (they last longer!) then you can easily make garam masala but tossing together a mix of coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and whatever else you might have. If grinding whole seeds to make the recipe, I recommend toasting the seeds in a dry pan before starting the onions.

Saute the onions until they begin to brown. Add the garlic and continue cooking until browned and aromatic. Add the spices and fry with the onions, making a thick paste. Add the can of tomatoes and deglaze the pan with the liquid. Add the chickpeas and broth; simmer for at least 15 minutes, but really as long as you like. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remember if you used canned tomatoes and canned chickpeas it can be easy to go overboard on the salt, so you won't need much.

Serve with cooked rice, basmati preferred but any will do. Use a clean spoon and make a double batch of rice, because next you'll want to make….

Stovetop Rice Pudding

Remaining cooked rice (2 servings)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk or 1 cup evaporated milk + 1/4 cup sugar

2 cups water

2 tablespoons Birds custard powder or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Add milk and water to the pan with the rice and stir. Simmer until thickened. If adding custard powder, mix the 2 tablespoons in a separate bowl with 2 tablespoons of water (make a slurry) then add to the pudding. Flavor with your choice of fruit, coconut, a dash of vanilla, or cardamom. 

If Captain Lucy were in charge of the galley, we would have cereal for breakfast, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. The next day, she would make cereal for breakfast, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. After that, she might make cereal for breakfast, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. Rounding out the week, she’d do cereal for breakfast, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. The weekend is special, she’d make cereal for breakfast, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. Sunday brunch she would have fried eggs and potatoes, cuppa soup for lunch and chickpea curry (chana masala) for dinner. It’s Sunday after all. 

(Lucy's note: for some reason, Matt is forgetting several major food groups: potato chips, garlic dip, and hob nobs) 

The good news from all this is that when Captain Lucy gets a hankering for dessert, she’s prepared! These ooey, gooey chocolate oat bars are perfect for the Omnia stovetop oven on the boat, and they are pretty quick to whip up too. Get your insulin shots ready, it’s dessert time on the blog! 

Crumble:

1 stick of butter

Filling in progress!

Remember how bitterly we've been complaining about the wind? It's always 26 knots when we anchor, reefing, storms, etc? Well, now we have a new complaint: no wind! We had barely a breath of wind as we left Rock Sound, headed to Tarpum Bay, 15 miles away. The guidebook says there are royal poinciana trees there; my favorite tree! 

We tacked back and forth, watching the conch crawl along faster than us. Idly reading the guidebook, I noticed that the next town, South Palmetto Point, had a pizza place. We love pizza!  Royal poincianas were abandoned and a new course was laid in. We spent an hour making 1 mile of progress. We were getting hungry for pepperoni pizza. 1 mile from our destination and approximately 4 hours away, we gave up and turned on the engines, motoring into Pau Pau Bay. 

What a beautiful area! Every island chain has been unique and different. Here we had random rocky islands and imagined we were in Thailand. Coconut palms surrounded well-kept houses with yards. 

I went back to the guide for the pizza place number, and noticed "closed on Tuesday". Well, that sucks for people who want pizza on Tuesdays. Lucky for us, it's Saturday. Doesn't it feel like a Saturday? Maybe it's Wednesday. No. It's Tuesday. Of course it is. I guess we'll just have rum, coke, and despair for dinner. 

The next day was a great day: Wednesday. We sat around watching the clock. At 5PM, I called the pizza place. It rang about 30 times. They are probably just taking a large order. I waited 10 minutes and called again. A wonderful savior answered the phone. 

"I'd like to order for takeout, please."

"We're closed today."

Just to add to our sad state, the sun and the moon both conspired, with their roundness, to further our contemplation on magical round objects, forever just out of reach.

Dusk over still waters of Pau Pau Bay

Full Moon rising over South Palmetto Point anchorage

What's the farthest you've ever travelled just to reach a certain restaurant? 

Ever since we left Long Island and have been heading north, we have been sailing downwind. This is a condition we could get used to; it's very gentlemanly. We sailed into Rock Sound and, because the winds were from the south, settled in to the south anchorage. We got out the spy goggles and noticed about 15 boats in the east anchorage, exposed to the fetch. Do they know something we don't? Are they getting free Netflix there or something? Is the holding here crap? Maybe there's a chucacabra that eats people where we are? A Kraken that lives in the blue hole 100 feet behind our boat? I don't know, but we were quite happy for one night in the south anchorage.

During day 2, 3 boats joined us (we're leaders!), but we left them at sunset to go to the west anchorage for west winds and squalls in the night. Yep, we arrived to the west anchorage alone, leaving 3 boats in the south anchorage and still about 15 boats in the east anchorage. By 7AM, 6 boats had joined us. Leaders again! We stayed 2 nights in the west anchorage and were then abandoned as the wind shifted to the east. We're really lazy and didn't feel like moving, but we eventually upped anchor and made the long 1.5 mile trek to the east anchorage, where all the cool people were. This anchorage was awesome in east winds. It was notable for it's silence and it's noise. No water sounds - no swell, no chop, no wind howling in the rigging, which allowed us to hear the sweet sounds of land - dogs barking, confused roosters crowing at all hours, deranged limpkins screeching through the night. 

We were in Rock Sound for two reasons: it's one of the few anchorages where, if you feel like it, you can get protection from clocking winds, and to get an extension from immigration. We dinghyed to the airport dock, walked through the mud to the airport, tracked down the immigration official (there aren't helpful signs on the doors, or greeters, or metal detectors, or anything like that!) and were granted the extension. Praise be! On a side note, the officer was overjoyed to be going on vacation next week, away from the drudgery of the Bahamas. Destination? Miami!

Rock Sound is a very exciting place. It has groceries and propane. Oh be still my beating heart! We also did laundry (in the bucket), climbed the mast to check the rigging (still there!) and manufactured bug screens for the salon  (it deters cocker spaniels, but the other creatures just giggle and they push on through)

It's not all storms, moving, and chores though! We left the dinghy in the bushes and walked about 10 minutes to the Caves. There is a boiling hole by the caves; a inland pond that is connected to the ocean....fish and turtles can swim back and forth. Cool, huh? 

Sadly, Hastings couldn't get down the 10 foot ladder so we took turns exploring the caves alone. Thankfully, they were filled with light streaming through the roof, with trees growing straight up. We love the Bahamas. In the US, someone would have yelled at us for leaving our dinghy in the bushes, there would be a parking lot, a ticket taker, signs, waivers, roped off areas, but here it's just: there are caves. If you find them, good luck!  

Dinghy landing

Caves

I loved the light and trees streaming through the roof

Go Batty!

Crawling through the tendrils

Have you ever moved to see different vistas in the same city?