Bread day on Zephyr
31 July 2011 | Motu Piti Aau, Bora Bora
Still blowing
Well, it blew and it blew and it still continues to blow so here we sit just waiting for it to slow down. With that being said, yesterday was "let's make bread day" aboard Zephyr. I started early as I thought I'd make a couple of different loaves. Being out on the hook, far away from a town(it's on the other side of the island) we have started to run low on bread so it was the perfect time to fire up the oven, pull out the flour, etc. and have at it. I'd downloaded a recipe off the internet a while ago and had already made one loaf last week. It was OK, but not as good as I had hoped. This time, I tweaked it a bit, adding a bit more sugar as well as a bit more yeast and allowed it to rise a good bit longer than they recommended on the recipe. I keep the loaf in the engine room for rising as it is the warmest place on board and it rose wonderfully. The last time I made it, it didn't look totally done when I pulled it out of the oven. I checked the temp of the oven to make sure it was correct and let it cook just a bit longer and it came out great. It rose so much that it hit the top of the oven as I tried to slide it out.
For my second loaf, I went with the braided cranberry walnut bread I made quite a while ago. I loaded it full of both cranberries and walnuts and added some orange extract to expand the flavor a bit. It has to rise a good bit longer than the white bread I made earlier so it didn't come out of the oven till after 1600. As you can see from the picture above it came out just fine. We fired up the generator so we could make toast this morning and it was wonderful if I say so myself.
Tracy was feeling off her game for a change and she sat and stitched and read and slept through the day. A day of rest is a good thing. With the wind still blowing, it really wasn't a good day to go anywhere so sitting still here was just fine.
We have found that this is the bay where Bora Bora teaches sailing to the kids of the island. Every day(except Sunday) they come out in small single sail monohulls(smallest kids), intermediate Hobis(a bit older kids) and bigger Hobies for the more experienced kids. They flash around the bay going back and forth practicing their tacks and gibes time after time. Many make it up onto one hull as they flashed past Zephyr hooping and hollering as they went having a great time. There are chase boats along side just to make sure no one gets in trouble so they are well supervised. Yesterday, in the high winds, several flipped on their side. Some needed assistance getting them righted but even then, they seemed to be having a good time. Starting young like this will make these kids excellent sailors as they grow up.