Day 13 - If you know, you Jeanneau

Today was quiet and quite routine.  After my morning time we went ashore.  I really wanted to have a Bloody Mary at the Wild Strawberry.  Last year it was a really nice drink. Basic Zing Zang mix but they doctored it up to be “Boujee.”  Our faces were visibly surprised when we got a glass with zing zang and vodka. No olives, no pickle, no nothing.  Apparently, they only have this sad Bloody now. They were very apologetic, and we drank our morning Vitamin C and enjoyed the view of the bay and Ciara.  Kona laid in wait and made eyes with anyone who looked at her with pity.  Some younger girls came over and fell in love with her.  Their family is connected here on the Island, although they were from PA.  That seems to be the case here. There are not a lot of straight up tourist like us here.  Their family owns the “nice” restaurant here, Circle M, and we are debating giving it a shot since we will be here a few more days.

We walked Kona to the hardware store for more parts (some fell overboard yesterday) and Kona got an exceptional amount of Frisbee time. 

We spent the afternoon on Ciara.  The weather is still a bit cool so we haven’t been enjoying the outside as much. Today it is going to blow hard.  Enjoying the inside, I have made myself a “Debbie Nest.” Taking over what will be Cory’s bunk. I have my pile of happy things and pillows and blankets all together. I will miss this when the boat is full.  We napped (of course!) and read. I have now completed two books. This is a huge accomplishment for me as picking up books is hard for me.  Focusing on the task of daily writing (however many errors and rambling) and reading were two of my goals for this summer.  Captain and I had set out for these first set of weeks to be just about enjoying the slower life.  We have to loop back to WI and July will be very busy.  We have scheduled time like this again in August when I can reclaim my nest.  We are thoroughly enjoying the slower boat life. I sincerely hope I can somehow transfer this mindset to the winter where the ease of suburban life pulls me away from the things that truly make me happy. 

I read Saga of a Wayward Sailor (Tristan Jones, 1979) and Red Sky in Mourning (Tami Ashcraft, 1998).  Captain has reminisced how Tristan Jones captured his imagination at a very young age and this is one of his favorite books.  What a salty sailor! From smuggling two tons of Edam Cheese out of Holland, by chance, to the loss of his most trusted 3-legged, 1-eyed dog Nelson. Tami’s book was her telling of her survival of Hurricane Edward and loss of her beloved Richard at sea.  Her story was told in the movie Adrift, which I have seen many years ago.  I wanted to read the story and it was exceptional.  Captain was so kind to me as I cried non-stop the last 30 pages.  I’m so glad she showed her readers that this wasn’t just a story of survival.  It wasn’t just a story of lost young love.  Her vulnerability to reflect on her trauma and to find herself through that difficult path is remarkable.  Her love for the simplicity of life at sea and exploring the world echo deeply within me. 

And now I’m on to Master and Commander (Patrick O’Brian, 1970).  I’m on a nautical theme.  I’ll have to move onto some other theme after that.  So if you see new terms like Spinning Yarn you will know I have been reading nautical tales.

We made BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner.  We had normally bought those frozen kits, but this time we tried freeze dried shredded Costco rotisserie chicken and a bottle of a nice BBQ sauce.  It worked really well and the freeze dried food continues to over impress.  I am pondering how to show you more about the freeze drying and it may be a winter blog for you, as that is when we do all the work.  For now, all our food is ready to go and there isn’t much to show. For the chicken we had bought 5 Costco chickens and shredded the meat.  Froze them on the tray in our regular deep freezer for a day and then popped them in our freeze drier.  The process takes 12-24 hours depending on the water content.  These probably took 12 hours but I always add extra time to the process so I don’t have to wait for the machine to beep randomly overnight.  When it’s done we bag them up with an O2 absorber in good mylar bags and label them. That’s it! I grabbed my groceries from my basement this year.  The meat, when reconstituting, will only take on the water it needs so you don’t get soggy or non-rehydrated meat.  You can boil off the rest or strain it. Tonight was hot water to get it rehydrated and boiled it down, added BBQ and warmed. That was it. Our dishes were just one pot and our plates.

After dinner the wind had calmed and we took Kona to shore.  Silly Captain thought 8:15 would be plenty of time before 9pm Taps.  We would end up talking awhile with another local who was taking pictures of our boats in the anchorages.  We also wanted to check out the fleet of nearly identical sailboats that had come in to the far southern marina.  We had a comically short visit with them.  A “Jeanneau owner Rendezvous.”, all from the Grand Traverse Bay area. They were enjoying their evening so we left them and headed back to Ciara. It was already 9pm and my motto was “anyone who hears me doesn’t know we try to make it 9pm, I’ll get to it later” so we enjoyed our walk back. Two other boats had set anchor nearby.  Again, three beautiful boats.  We took some shore photos and then took our dinghy to get a closer look at the large schooner Huron Jewel.  (www.ditallship.com).  Once back aboard I played taps and we settled into the late evening. I remarked as I started today’s log that it was quiet, and yet I had a lot to say.  I think the quiet is reminding me that being in silence is peace.