Sunday 27 November 2016

Enough of the "what we did over summer vacation" type essays. You know, all that sailing and diving crap that makes blogs so tiresome. Instead, let's discuss something really important: fungi. They flourish in dark, moist environments - for example the nooks and crannies of a sailboat. This is called mildew. They don't have chlorophyll so can't make their own food and, being lazy, don't hunt or gather so lay about eating dead stuff. Some can make you sick, some can make you well and some taste good sautéed in butter. They reproduce with spores, so don't date, fall in love, get married or go to the pub after work to keep from going home. Except for mushrooms, which can occasionally enjoy a caper, they are brooding and sullen creatures and can coat your surfaces or stink up your boat just out of meanness. They have the mental acuity of a hormone-infused teenager and unlike dogs, cats and horses.. OK, dogs and horses, cannot be trained. We use Mold Away to motivate acceptable behavior. The headliner over our bunk has recently requisitioned an intervention.

In the Bahamas and numerous other places around the world one must take care when eating reef fish. The cute, colorful little rascals often carry a dinoflagellate that produces a neurotoxin that causes ciguatera. These organisms are called Gambierdiscus toxicus. Although many of us took no Latin in school, one might reasonably make an inference. Apparently fish themselves are not harmed and are seldom literate so pay scant attention to the name, but humans can get very sick and may be crippled or on the odd occasion die. Because reef predators eat infected fish and effects are accumulative, larger ones such as barracuda are an especially sporty diet. Going into the anchorage last afternoon Jan, following a considerable period of fishing, but not catching, hooked one a meter long (as an aside, they can also bite the snot out of you). Being friendly and incautious we made dinner for the 2 crews sailing with us. The fish was delicious and there were leftovers. Today being Sunday we had banana pancakes with, of course, real Canadian maple syrup (Jan's Canadian, you know), but tomorrow morning - barracuda omelets.

Jack