As the sun set, the angry black clouds that had been chasing across the sky disappeared, the wind rose to a screeching as if to remind Estelle that it was not over. But down below in the warm glow of the hurricane lamp, the crab cakes were disappearing quickly. And the snowbirds were reminded by a sudden gust that it was time to go!

So we're off... tomorrow. Today it is still blowing 20-30 knots and we took our time getting started. For breakfast we had "Soft Scrambled Eggs with Pesto and Ricotta" from a recipe out of the New York Times. And with it, back bacon (in the US its called Canadian Bacon), toast and coffee. If the weather is bad, we just cook our way through it.
Here's my recipe for Soft Scrambled Eggs with Pesto and Ricotta (one serving):
1/2 tbsp butter;
3 large eggs;
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese;
1 tbsp (or more, to taste) pesto;
3 tbsp fresh ricotta cheese broken into clumps;
salt & pepper to taste.
1. Over medium-high heat, melt butter in a medium sized skillet.
2. Beat eggs with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese. Pour eggs into pan swirl and turn heat to low. Stir eggs constantly until very loosely set and slightly runnier than you like them.
3. Remove pan from heat and drizzle pesto on eggs. Off heat, give eggs one more gentle stir, enough to finish cooking them and mix the pesto in dark green streaks. Serve eggs and scatter ricotta over them. To reduce the "richness", reduce or skip the Parmesan, and substitute cottage cheese (low fat is an option) for the ricotta.
But yesterday, when we went out for a spin (the wind went down about 4:00 pm until dark, when it came back up), we watched two Watermen (in Chesapeake Bay, fishermen are called Watermen) crabbing just behind us. Seeing them catch one, we went over to look and they showed us a large basket they had caught that day. Its easy to see why they are called Blue Crabs. They are very blue in the claws and the tips of the shells. We began chatting and one asked where we were from. When we told them PEI, one said "I bought my fishing boat from Sterling Hennessy on PEI!" He said that it was an excellent boat and was sorry to hear he is no longer building them. This morning after breakfast, we decided to head back to St Michaels for the night. Two nights in a remote creek is enough, and here we can do a laundry, buy some fuel, and go for a walk. In the morning, we were entertained by three guys in a Carolina Skiff who set out a trot line running just past us. A trot line is a line about 300 yards long with cram bait every couple of yards (they use chicken necks as bait!). Laid out, it lies on the bottom with anchors and floats at either end. Once laid out, they hook the line at one end and slowly motor along it. Crabs will grab the bait and hang on even as they are raised to the surface. Once they appear at the surface, one of the crabbers will use a dip net before the crab lets go, and scoop it up into the boat. These guys were from Philadelphia ("Did you see Rocky?" they shouted. "It was shot in our neighborhood, we're Italian!") we chatted each time they ran past. They got about 4 crabs per pass. And they insisted we write down their recipe for sauteed crab (we did, and it sounds good). And by the size of them., they do enjoy food. So we did a few more jobs (I replaced a couple of torn screens, bailed the dinghy and cleaned up the cockpit locker), we had lunch and headed down to St Michaels on the last of the strong breeze. In St Michaels, we had booked a marina berth for the night as anchoring is a bit dicey both for space and holding. So tied up for the night, we had lamb chops with ginger glazed carrots and sweet potato. And an "Old Vines" Zinfandel, using our recent boat show decanter!