More from quiet Ganges

I mentioned in my earlier post today that I've been getting lots of work done. People often ask, "How do you get work done while you're on the boat." Answer: battery power and generators.

But batteries still only last so long, and we can only (in good conscience) annoy our boating neighbors with a limited number of generator hours per day.

And so I find myself hanging out at Ganges Salt Spring Coffee Company. This is the kind of coffee shop I wish, wish, WISH that Nanaimo had! Still, after as much time as we spent in Nanaimo this summer, I have not found a coffee shop to meet my simple needs (chai+a plug-in+free Wifi).

This place also has very cool art on the walls, and tout that they have "Great coffee that doesn't compromise the Earth." I like this place. It is a bit noisy, but what do I care; I have noise canceling headphones! Since I was as low on battery power as I was, though, I've been here for quite a while. I have suddenly found myself in an unusual spot: my busy work is all done.

I've answered 6 weeks of non-pressing emails that had backed up, checked out my sister-in-law's Flickr page and oogled over pictures of brand new baby Tessa, sent the invoice out for the work I did in Seattle, published all the work I had done on the boat and was waiting for a strong, reliable Internet connection to finish up, and completed many, many bits and pieces of other stuff as well.

So here I am on the blog again. Babbling away.

But my battery is still only at 83% full. Sure, I've got other stuff I still could do, but... oh crap, a look up and out the window in front of me shows raindrops. We FINALLY got the boat under 80% humidity after Sunday's solid downpour in Nanaimo, and now I'll be dinghying back in the rain. Did I think to bring a raincoat? No. Would Scott have ever made such an error? Never.

Oh well.

And since I'm on a bit of a babbling streak here, I thought I'd mention a law that is true on land as well as on a boat: smoke detectors always chirp their battery's near-demise in the middle of the night. I was wondering why I'd set it off so much less frequently lately. So I'll have a quick stop at the store for a new battery before going back to the dinghy, too.

One thing that is sort of fun with the fall coolness and wetness is that, once we actually get the diesel heater running, it makes a cooktop as well as a heater! This morning I made split pea soup with carrots and onions. I don't know why cooking not on a regular stove is such a fun novelty. But it seems to be true anywhere. It is why men grill and people love camping. Maybe it makes us feel more hearty or something, as if we'd just discovered fire all by ourself.

Yep, that dinghy is going to be plenty wet by the time I get back to it. Maybe I'd better forgo the last 13% of my battery charge and head out now.

Cheers,
Mandy

Everything is better in Nanaimo

I don't know if it's just because of the location, as the sort of northern terminus of the protected waters of the Gulf Islands, or if there is something about the place itself, but it seems like Nanaimo always serves as our happy place when we are cruising in the Strait of Georgia.

If there were ever a time we needed a happy place to go to, it was certainly this week. Ending a whirlwind, on again/off again visit to Vancouver the day after returning from a trip back to the States (for work and play; Mandy worked, I played), we had an arduous crossing of the Strait with no realistic options for bailing out or stopping early. Mandy came down with a terrible cold and was laid up in the v-berth most of the day; the wind was on the nose, and was only moderate at that, which made for a lot of slow beating across a lot of slop left over from heavier breezes the night before; we were low on fuel, necessitating a two hour detour and arguing against motoring; and we hadn't had a chance to go shopping to restock our barren pantry before we left. Also, another storm was brewing on the horizon, ominously, all day long.

So it was under those conditions that we chugged across the Strait for eleven hours, ending up at nightfall in an anchorage that was chock full of Labor Day sailors. In the rain. All I could do after such a numbing day was shovel down some hot ramen (which, together with instant oatmeal and granola bars, comprised the entirety of our larder for the trip) and crawl into my berth and hope that the anchor was set well enough to endure the wind shift coming with the storm.

We woke to a rainy, miserable day, in a damp, dark, chilled cabin. Mandy was still sick, I was still tired. But it was Labor Day, and we didn't really have anywhere to go: docks and anchorages were full, and anyway most of the stores we might have gone to were probably closed. So we just hung around and watched the rain coming down on the portlights.

Today was a new day. The rain stopped, the anchored boats evaporated, the stores opened, and the docks cleared. We hauled the anchor in and motored over to go shopping. It was still overcast, but fresh food brightened our spirits considerably. Returning to Mark Bay, the well-protected, solid anchorage off Newcastle Island Marine park, we had our choice of spots to drop the hook. I got well in close to the dinghy docks, and in the most protected nook in the bay. We managed to get our fiddly diesel heater going, and between it and the glimpses of sunshine that shot through the clouds by mid-afternoon, we got the cabin heated up and the relative humidity down from just over 90% to around 75%. Not exactly dry, but a lot drier, and warmer, than it had been.

We didn't have either oatmeal or ramen or a single granola bar all day today.

Tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be the best days before another storm system rolls in late in the week, so we hope to spend some time exploring the park further. When it starts raining again, we can either hole up here with the heat on and the wet all locked outside, or we can take a little harbour ferry from the island in to town and amuse ourselves there. It feels good to be all stocked up, with no pressing deadlines, easy access to provisions, power and Internet readily available, and no need to venture out for anything.

We'll probably sit here for a week or so, then duck into a marina to do laundry and take on water, then start poking our way south through the Islands again. Even if September this year doesn't extend our summer measurably, fall isn't so oppressive if you can stay warm and dry and pick your ports as you choose, rather than being forced into them by circumstances.

Boat cooking: 1965-present

Scott and I have majorly simplified our eating in the past few months. Part of it was an experiment to see if 1) we could reduce our grocery budget 2) I could get healthier food down his gullet. Goal #1 was definitely met, mostly by not buying the pre-seasoned, easy cook noodles and rice type stuff. That crap costs a heck of a lot more than uncooked (uncanned) beans and rice! I think we've begun eating healthier on the whole, too, but I'm certain every nutritionist would shake his/her head at the amount of Ramen we eat. However, our Ramen almost always has veggies cooked in it (usually carrots, sometimes corn, and on rare occasion, peas). And we don't consume most of the broth. We've cut probably 3/4 of the meat we had been eating out of our diet, and filled much of that space with vegetables. On the whole, it has been a health gain.

I've even learned how to cook black beans in our hand-me-down pressure cooker from Mrs. G. First I asked for advice from Mrs. Moon, chef-extraordinaire. Then I read the Recipe Book before first using my new cooking apparatus, finding the giggles along the way. Along with cooking and cleaning instructions, other gems of informative text include:

In addition, every housewife is interested in the saving made through the reduction of cooking fuel costs... when using a Pressure Cooker. Inasmuch as foods cook in a fraction of the time usually required, naturally costs are greatly reduced.

(First, a grammar thing: why is there an ellipses after costs?) Grammar aside, I actually do care quite a lot about cooking fuel expenses. It has been my main motivation for obtaining such a thing.

The Recipe Book then goes on to explain:

Also, when preparing soups and stews, the housewife can be assured that all the health-giving vitamins and minerals contributed by each ingredient will be retained to the maximum degree.

I really do need to get myself a nice new apron to cook with this thing. I'd hate to mess my dress while making dinner every night! Be assured, also, that there will be no scurvy on this boat. Our vitamins will not get tossed overboard with the cooking water here!

It is a Presto Pressure Cooker, and the front cover or the Recipe Book proudly boasts that it was made in Eau Claire, WI, just a hop, skip and a jump from where I grew up, and merely a hop from where all my adult life was spent up until I moved to Seattle. However, I'm pretty sure I wasn't even born yet when this pressure cooker was actually being produced. The Recipe Book is copyright 1965.

I've gotta hand it to Mrs. G, this Pressure Cooker and Recipe Book are in dang good shape for being older than her children are! Here's a woman who takes care of her stuff!

The recipes inside the Recipe Book (I like typing Recipe Book, it's quaint) are deliciously midwestern: Brown Beef Soup, Porcupine Meatballs (yum), Fresh Tongue (yum, yum), Smoked Tongue (yum, yum, YUM, oh, but it doesn't say which animal's tongue... it does, however, give the weight the tongue should be: 3 lbs), Weiner Schnitzel, Norwegian Meatballs, Veal Birds (what's a Veal Bird?), Ham with Scalloped Potatoes, Pork Hocks with Sauerkraut and Potatoes, Economy Pork Steak, Meat Cabbage Rolls, German Potato Salad, Perch, and Brown Betty (I have no idea).

Now, jumping ahead a few decades, just this morning I came across a free e-cookbook, Stonesoup: Minimalist Home Cooking from one of the blogs I read. The recipes are easy, look very tasty, and also seem to take into mind my sensitivity to the amount of cooking fuel necessary for each recipe. Recipes here include: Simple Soba Soup, Shaved Fennel Salad with Snowpeas, Baby Spinach Salad with Couscous and Almonds, and Egg Fried Rice. Oh, and lots of other recipes, too.

If you're curious, go ahead, download it yourself. The pictures are pretty, too.

:)
Mandy