Yesterday was baking day. Tracy took off for the galley while I headed on deck for a different project. Instead of the Pecan/Cranberry bagels I'd made a few weeks ago(YUM!), Tracy was going to make English Muffins. She hasn't made them in a long time. Out came the cook book and in she went.

While she was busy below, I headed to the bow of the boat to put up the tarp we bought a few days ago. The Sun beats down here most of the day and even with an air conditioner, it can get warm inside. This time, we were going to use our spinnaker pole to hold it up away from the deck so at least there would be some air flow across the deck. As I was about to attach one end to the mast, it started to slip from my hand(the darn thing is 21 feet long) and was headed for the water. I tried to grab it and lost my footing and started falling along with the pole. I reached out for anything to grab and quickly came to realize there was nothing to garb hold of. I was headed for the deck. With nothing to grab, I just relaxed and let it happen, with "this is going to hurt" going through my mind. It's like in the movies where every action shot is in slow motion. I hit the deck with a resounding thud. Sitting there on the deck with the back of my neck slammed against the life lines and my arm having been scraped against a line on the way down, boy did my butt hurt! "That's going to leave a mark" going through my mind. Tracy came running up on deck to see what I'd dropped. Just me! The errant spinnaker pole had jammed itself between the rigging and stay on board(yea). I picked myself up(quite slowly) and started in on the project again(much slower this time). I tied one end of the pole to the bow and fitted the other end to the mast. At least the pole was attached. I grabbed the tarp(14 X 16 feet) and ran it with the 16 going from the bow backward. Tracy came up on deck to assist with placing the lines down each side as the muffins were doing their rising thing below. I swapped out bungie cords for line once all the preliminary attachments had been made. We are now about 90% covered. Tracy finish her English Muffins shortly after 1200 and we took off for the local cafe for lunch.

As we walked over to the cafe, along came the Fiji Meats delivery truck with the order I'd place the day before. We got 4 chicken breasts, four steaks(hopefully aged meat this time), a rack of ribs(I'd ordered Baby Backs but got Spare ribs instead) and a freshly roasted chicken. Fiji Meats cooks all kinds of meat on Thursday night and Friday morning so you can order just about anything and have it delivered fully cooked. Costs a bit more but at least you don't heat up the inside of your boat. I had everything shrink wrapped(except the cook chicken) and frozen so it would go into our freezer already frozen(sort of). Here's the breakdown: .85 kilo of steak= $22.37fijian ($12.10US)
.616 kilo of ribs= $13.91fijian ($7.53US)
.97 kilo of chicken= $17.95fijian ($9.71US)
1 roasted chicken= $14.20fijian ($7.68US)
vacuum bags= $3.00fijian ($1.62US)
total for all of it= $71.43fijian ($38.64US) Delivery was free.
All in all, considering most of the meat has to be shipped in, the prices aren't that bad. I'll let you know how they taste. I'm have barbecue sauce simmering on the stove as I'm typing this so Ribs are for dinner tonight.

After lunch we retuned to Zephyr and I headed into the galley to make a couple loaves of bread. As I've said in earlier posts, Fiji has many wonderful things to offer, but good bread is not one of them(that we have found). This time, while I used the same recipe I've used over the last months, I brought in a machine from civilization(now that we are in a marina with plenty of power to spare)A Cuisinart!!!! When we came back to Zephyr last year, we brought our full size machine with us. We'd had a smaller version but wanted the power of the full size. Once the dough was made, I plunked it into the Cuisinart and let it do the kneading. Around and around it went with me adding a bit of flour every now and then. Once it had done the kneading for me, I let it rise(into the engine room again) and then into the pans and back in the engine room. Into the ovens and out 40 minutes later. We were set to have our Fiji Meats chicken and freshly baked bread for dinner!

We sliced the bread and smeared on fresh butter. It wasn't quite the same as the last batch. Two things had changed. 1--I'd used a different flour this time and 2--I'd let the Cuisinart do the kneading. Not sure which made the difference but while it was still quite tasty(much better than the local loaves) it was just a bit different in it's flavor. So out with the old flour(not much left anyway)and next time, I'll go back to kneading by hand(the old fashioned way).

When we came into the marina last Tuesday, Mo assisted us in tying up to the lines from the center post in the marina. He used different lines than what George had used when we first tied up in late October. Yesterday, the winds blew through the marina just a bit harder than they had before and we were moving all over our space. We'd move to the right and bump fenders with the boat on that side and then shift to the left and tap Purrfection(catamaran). We reposition our fenders and tightened up lines at the bow and still we kept moving all over our space. I can't imagine what would have happened if a blow of even 50 knots had come through. I spoke with George(oversees the marina) and he came out this morning and took one of my new lines and ran it out to the same line we had used when we first came in. I'll be adding another line at our stern in a few minutes to see if that helps keep us away from our neighbors.

So, now the sauce is all made and the ribs defrosted and the post is all typed and it's on to another project. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures I posted.