Oriental, NC

The most exciting thing I did yesterday was to bake a batch of TollHouse cookies.....

I will admit they were pretty darn good!   Duane continues to work on the electrical feed to the dock.

Dinner was on What If, followed by a game of cards. 

Oriental, NC

The electrical service that extends out to the dock was poorly designed and installed by the previous owner....so that needed to be rectified.  Just starting the process - Duane ordered a 250'  spool of large wire.  He and Ed will run this wire out to the dock to replace the existing wire and install better outlets for the boats to connect.  We've ordered everything for delivery so we still don't have to go out!

I searched the internet for "interesting fish recipes" and came up with a foil-packet meal idea.  Chopped veggies (potatoes, carrots, onions, green peppers, some corn, peas, green beans) and par-boiled them.  Sprinkled over butter and veggie base.

Added cherry tomatoes and topped with chunks of wahoo and lobster (Duane's packet got only wahoo, of course), sprinkled that with olive oil and Old Bay spice.

 Baked at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Turned out lovely!

Simple dinner, was very good!   We played some cards for a couple of hours, fun!

Oriental, NC

Finally the wind has died down, looking forward to the next week of 70 degree spring days! 

View from the back of the boat this morning....39 degrees so the water is "steaming".

Oriental, NC

What a difference a day makes! 

We went from a beautiful spring day to cold, misty and blustery!!!  Notice the foam in the water near What If...quite a churn on the creek!

And what a difference on the shoreline.  Lots of loose grass washing up on the rocks.

The water is pretty high now - this is where I was standing tossing rocks on dry ground!  Better weather coming tomorrow - looks like a nice 10 day spring forecast.  I'm happy about that!

Oriental, NC

We had a bit of a scare in the morning when the strong frontal line passed thru.  Tornado warnings and sightings were all around.  Windy!!  But we escaped any damage at all. 

But, the water was all "sucked out" of the creek for a few minutes. 

Our boat was actually aground in the slip - the water level was down by 2-3 feet from normal. 

View of our shoreline - you can see the normal water level on the rocks.

 Since our rip-rap has done some migration into the silt, I decided that it would be a great time to hop in and toss it back uphill. 

I got alot of it done before the water came back - the water was only low for 10-15 minutes.   Good dirty fun!

Oriental, NC

We decided it would be a good night for roasting hot dogs on a fire.....we all gathered a bunch of deadfall and pine cones.  Got a nice bed of coals.

Had all the fixin's.  (Sorry Mom, the tablecloth is in the Avion back at home!)

Cathy matched my folding cooler perfectly!  Had a nice relaxing evening around the campfire.

Oriental, NC

Ho Hum, not a lot going on!  Just some chores, laundry and general cleaning.  How about with you??

Another pretty day.

Dinner was on What If,  a nice chili - perfect for a slightly chilly day!

For those interested, here's the recipe I used for the Tom Yum soup (I more or less followed the recipe minus the lemon grass  and the coconut aminos - used extra lemon juice and soy sauce as substitutes)

Tom Yum Soup

Ingredients

• • 3 tablespoons ghee or organic butter
• • 5-6 scallions, tops and bottoms divided, sliced
  
• • 5 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced
  

• • 4 cups vegetable broth (or broth of choice)

• • 4 small lobster tails (about 1.5 cups of cooked meat) or shrimp or chicken

• • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

• • 1 teaspoon coconut aminos

• • 1 teaspoon lime zest

• • 1 tablespoon red curry paste

• • 2 tablespoons minced lemongrass (the soft inner layer)

• • 2 teaspoons Sriracha (or preferred hot sauce)

• • 1/4 teaspoon finely chopped ginger

• • 1 tablespoon cooking Sherry

• • 1 cup coconut milk

• • 1 bunch of cilantro minus the stems, one handful + extra for garnish
  
  
•     Noodles of your choice
  

Directions

1. In a Dutch Oven or heavy bottomed pot, heat ghee, bottoms of scallions, mushrooms, and garlic until scallions are translucent.
2. Add broth. Add lobster tails. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until tail shells just turn red.
3. Scoop out lobster and set aside.
4. Cut lobster tails down the center and scoop out undercooked lobster meat. Set lobster meat aside. Place the large lobster shell portions back into the broth. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 30 minutes.
5. Remove lobster shells from broth and discard. Whisk in coconut aminos, lime zest, red curry paste, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger. Heat for 10 minutes.
6. Add Sherry, coconut milk, chopped tops of scallions, and a handful of cilantro. Whisk together and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add lobster meat. Continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Oriental, NC

We spent a large part of the day on the boat computer - upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10.....what a pain.  Robert had to help me remotely several times.  Still have a few kinks to work out but it's not as bad as I expected since there are some really old programs that we still run on that 12 volt computer.

Anyway, was a chilly, windy day!!  I do miss my steady 80 degrees in the Bahamas!!!

I made Tom Yum soup for dinner - pretty good!  First time I've tried making it at home, love it in a restaurant.  I used lobster for the 3 that could eat it, chicken for Duane.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  I did have to substitute a bit of lemon juice for the lemon-grass that was called for by the recipe. 

And another pretty sunrise!

Oriental, NC

We had a quick-moving storm pass in the morning.  Beautiful strange line of clouds as it approached.

The most exciting thing that happened was getting groceries!  The local Piggly Wiggly is offering to deliver your groceries.   You just email them your list and they call you with the total.  You leave a check for them and they put your groceries on your doorstep.

We don't really have a doorstep, per se......so we used the mini-van.  Cathy and I both sent in our orders (which included the much needed propane!).  We taped the checks (and a small tip for the driver) to the glass and put our empty propane cylinders out.

Before long the "Piglet" vehicle arrived and Melissa (in gloves and mask) started toting all our groceries to the van.   Didn't take long and we waved thank you from the bow of the boat.

Quite a haul - I was out of most fresh or frozen vegetables and many staples were running low.

And we hadn't had any chips for a couple of months because they're $7+ a bag in the Bahamas so it was fun to re-stock.

We took spray bottles of bleach/water and did our best to wipe all the items down.

I did end up putting some of the staples like bags of corn meal,  sugar, oatmeal, etc. in a big tote bin since they were too hard to spray with bleach.  I've set that box in the cockpit and will open it up in a couple of days.  Being extra careful since you just don't know where any of this stuff has been.

 The soggy slippery items eventually got put away.  Fun to be re-stocked but it was quite a production.  This should hold us for a while!

Oriental, NC

Pretty sunrise....pink sails in morning, sailors take warning.  Maybe some rain in the forecast!

About the only exciting thing that happened was I made a new Bahamian bread recipe.  This time it's a slightly sweet coconut bread.   It's a recipe from Bimini Big Game Club.  A really rich breakfast bread.

Bimini Big Game Club Coconut Bread

Ingredients
2 ¼ cups flour
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp dry milk powder
1 ½ tbsp. sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 whole eggs (one for the dough + one for egg wash)
1 egg white
1 ½ tbsp softened butter
1 ½ tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup coconut milk
½ shredded coconut
Directions
Sift together the flour, salt, dry milk powder, and sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the dry yeast and mix well. Once combined, make a well in the flour mixture and add in one beaten whole egg and egg white, softened butter and vegetable oil and mix. Gradually add coconut milk and shredded coconut and mix to form a soft dough. Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 20 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Roll the dough into a big ball and put into a greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to allow dough to rise until it doubles in size, which will take an hour or so (for faster rising, warm the coconut milk in a saucepan until bubbly). ((My note- it took about 4 hours total to rise both times!!!)) When the dough has risen, punch it down with your fist and transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for another 10 minutes. Then place dough in a greased bread pan and brush lightly with egg wash made with the second whole egg. Allow to bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until top has browned and dough has cooked through. Serve when cooled slightly.

Oriental, NC

Another slow day.....

The biggest accomplishment for my day was getting the mini-van washed.

It's been sitting for 5 months, plugged in to a trickle charger.  Started up on the first try!  (We still haven't gone anywhere yet in it though). 

It grew this strange fungus.  This looks like pollen, but it's actually sticky growth, sortof like a soft lichen you'd see on a tree. 

Took a lot of scrubbing - and there is still some residue in the seams.  But I think it's good enough for a first round.

And went for a wander about.  Pretty day on the creek!

Oriental, NC

Yum, the bread turned out great!

We spent the day doing chores and mostly cleaning the boat.  The rugs got a washdown - first time in 5 months!   Beautiful sunny day to dry them out.  Washed all the moldy cushions as well with bleach/soap.

We heard thunder rumbling.....first time we'd heard that in 5 months!

And got a really good fresh water rinse!

And this is the sunrise shot this morning - pretty, moist and calm.

Oriental, NC

The most exciting thing that is happening is we're watching bread dough rise.....haha....but true.

We've not ventured out yet to go to the grocery store....and we're out of bread. 

Fortunately, today is going to be much warmer - so we'll be out doing a lot of much needed cleaning on the boat. 

Oriental, NC

We spent the day relaxing and catching up on a bunch of laundry.  Fun stuff, right? 

Had dinner aboard Sojourn, called it an early night.  I think everyone is still a little frazzled from the almost 1000 mile journey in the last 10 days.

Back to the pretty sunrises on Brown Creek! 

Ed and Cathy are just tied to our dock right now.  We have made an appointment for the pilings to be moved to make a slip wide enough for them next month.

So, there probably won't be much "sailing" going on in the next little while.....hope everyone is safe and healthy.

Completed Bahamas journey!

Up early Thursday morning - the "North Myrtle Beach Skyline" view over the marsh near Calabash as we pulled anchor.

Had a fantastic start to the day with a fun sail.  We did this last overnight leg of the trip offshore from the Little River Inlet to Beaufort.  Winds/waves were forecast to build overnight, so we hugged the shoreline to keep the sail as comfortable as possible. 

Interesting work boat out the channel (at Southport, I believe.)

A huge barge being towed by a tug.

Nice photo of What If under sail.

The final sunset of this Bahamas trip!!

And after a very "lumpy" night at sea, the final sunrise of the trip approaching the Beaufort, NC inlet.

Sea birds on the shore at Beaufort.

And the usual Beaufort sights.  Coast Guard boat.

Tanker being loaded.

I believe this is part of the phosphate industry.

An up-close look at some of those barges.  They're huge!

I spied a little helicopter in someone's back yard along the intercoastal.  I believe we've had that heli in for fuel at Siler.

And before we knew it, we were at  River Dunes for a fuel top off.  We didn't leave the boat - the dockhand just handed us the nozzle - took our credit card and handed us the receipt.  We then pulled off the dock and washed our hands!

And now we're back at our dock with What If.

Had our first beer in the US to celebrate a fun winter.   Before you worry about social distancing - we have "breathed the same air" as Ed & Cathy for the past few months.  We've been to exactly all the same places and we are part of the same "household" for now.  And we haven't been in contact with anyone at all for the past two weeks with the exception of being handed fuel hoses on two occasions.  So, for now we plan to stay on the boats and not venture out.  Plenty to keep us occupied.  Not what we were expecting to be doing in April, but we'll make the best of it!