Thursday, November 18, 2010

Domestic chores

Not much to tell about in the monotony of a crossing where the wind
and the sea are almost always the same, day in day out. What breaks the
monotony are the few technical glitches coming from wear and tear on the
rigging and the equipment, and what we try and do in the galley to make
things a little more interesting.
The day after the genoa fell on deck, I decided to try and make an
"ailloli" which is a kind of mayonnaise, but the egg is replaced by
crushed garlic to make the emulsion with the oil. It is served with cold
boiled fish and vegetable, in this case yellow fin tuna, potatoes and
carrots. It would have been nice to add cauliflower, but we have ran out
of veggies except for onions and potatoes.
Then the day before yesterday, this time at midnight, while reefing down
the main, I noticed the base plate that attaches the rigid boom vang,
and is fixed to the mast with eight rivets, was coming off. I quickly
made and emergency tie up with a line, and then looked for steel clamps
big enough to go around the mast. In the end, we used four clamps, two
to make one, and tied the plate to the mast with them. It should hold
until Cabedelo, if we don't tighten the boom vang too much.
Yesterday, I then went into the process of baking bread. I used to do
that in the70's, but have not done that since. At first, it's a two days
process, as you first have to make the batter with which the bread will
rise. You mix flour, water and dry yeast in the right proportions and
keep it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then you mix that with again flour,
cold water and salt, by hand or with a mixer if you have one, then let
it rise for 2 to 3 hours, then mold it into whatever shape you want and
put it in the oven, with a container full of 1 liter of water at the
bottom of the over, and bake it for about 1 hour.
For a first attempt, not too bad. The oven was set a little too high and
I should have put more flour in relation to the water, but overall, it
looked like bread, tasted like bread with a crisp crust like we like to
have it, just a little burnt on the underside, and aluminum paper glued
to it.
Today, the clamps that hold the locking wheel of the windvane to the
main steering wheel broke. Fortunately, the autopilot was cooperative
and kept the boat on track while we did the repairs.
We now have 632 miles to go (it is midnight on Thursday night, November
18) and it looks now like an arrival very late on the 22nd.
The wind remains on the ESE at 15 to 20 knots, with a swell from the SE
that keeps us rolling, with the sails wing on wind, and we are doing
more than 7 knots. So far, everything looks good.

1 comment:

Robert said...

Good bread! Well done:) Of course it is a bit easier with "fresh yeast" but if you could not get it in Lobito, the dry one is the only way. Do you have pix of your repairs for the jib roller, the boomvang and the windvane?
You approaching close to South America: what are the changes? Do you see new varieties of birds? Do you already feel the swell ricochet?
Bon vent:)