Kaimusailing

More work on the laptop(s) only showed that “boot-repair” won’t fix my problem. I had to redownload a linux distribution to get to download boot-repair. More work needs to be done. It looks like I will have to offload all my documents, downloads, pictures, desktop, and a bunch of other stuff, and reinstall Navigatrix, then reload all those things.
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I ordered some food related items, Tom Yum paste, sausage and file powder for gumbo, and they came in, on the same day that the weather went beyond Springlike and I went on a bike trip to Fort Clinch on Amelia Island with Eloisa and her frisky American Cocker, Blue. I offered to fill up her tank, but it was already at ¾. She drives rather slowly, observing the speed limit, while the locals drive multiples of the speed limit, I suggested taking RT17 instead of 95 where the speeds won’t be like 80mph.
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I wanted her to try the hot and sour soup at Raida’s, but she found out they were closed permanently, so we would have to go somewhere else. There are lots of restaurants on Amelia Island, it is a world different from the North River Marsh, and we were sure to get something there. The ride down to the island was uneventful although she was nervous about something, then all of a sudden was OK. She didn’t know what the speed limit was until a 55mph sign came up.
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I knew of a good place called the Salty Pelican, many have gone there for food and drink, and many have returned again and again. When we got there it turned out that Blue, the little black dog, couldn’t come to lunch with us there, so we went into the nearby marina and found outdoor tables and I went inside to get one. “Oh, but we have reservations”, I was told. I continued to wait at the hostess’ kiosk. Finally she came back after seating others and doing other hostess functions and said she had a high top table for us, was that OK? Yes.
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Outside right next to the high top was Eloisa and Blue at a lower table in the sun, only one chair. A male waiter was going to help us at the high top, but Eloisa asked, couldn’t we just get another chair and eat here in the sun. He seemed hesitant and she pointed over to another table, occupied, but with an extra chair. “Well, I can’t disturb sitting customers...”, something about her look at him ended up with him handing me a chair, for me, and we could sit in the sun.
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We had menus, wine lists, and the special menu, one special of which was no longer available. I noticed a deep fried redfish and shrimp over rice special. I had given back my menu after deciding on that and ordering a bottle of pinot noir, but felt that I needed an appetizer, maybe a soup. I looked at Eloisa’s menu and decided on the shrimp bisque. She ordered a Caesar Salad and the bottle of wine came out right away. Nice glasses. The help staff poured a proper taste for me and I gave it to her and she said very smooth. We indulged.
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The bisque came out and I let her have the first taste, lest I have one of the deadly viruses, and she said, can be done better. It was good, though, and I thought it was missing something that I had had with other bisques, more wine for us. Blue was frisky and wait staff gave him a little bowl of water. I would classify him as an unruly dog, but others might classify me the same.
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Our dishes came out. Mine was a special, but did not have any zap, nothing. Seemed bland. Good of the fish flavors, but if I tasted it blindfolded, I would not have said it had the other ingredients, like the mushrooms, it was just bland. The starch of the rice seemed to steamroller everything else. The shrimp, maybe there were two, were equally bland, none of that shrimpyness. It was like they were suffering under a cloak of rice starch that permeated the whole dish. I ate it all. I was hungry. It was very edible. The bottle of wine held out. Are we really going biking after this?
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The lunch was pricey, but mostly because we consumed a bottle of wine, but I bought it because we both like pinot noir, and I knew I would be back here some day, even as I had been back here some time ago, to write a blog piece at lunch, when the other wifi’s were down.
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We drove through town to Fort Clinch and paid the 6 bucks to get in with our vehicle and bikes, and a black dog named Blue. We searched for a place to park to get at our bikes and assemble Blue’s bike cart, attached to Eloisa’s bike, while I would just be pedaling myself. We ended up at the bike wash area, where salt encrusted bikes, or encrusted with anything, can be washed off. There was a disabled bike wash space for any disabled bikers to rinse the salt, or anything else, off their bikes.
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We rode out. Blue in his little doggie trailer, Eloisa accelerating with him in tow. Me keeping up easily, I didn’t have a dog and trailer behind me. I stayed back and kept pace with them. Remarkable. Blue whimpered from time to time and then we pulled over the side of the road to let him out. He promptly relieved himself, #2 style, and we covered the site with a piece of forest wood. He scampered up a slope, up into the live oak trees with Spanish moss hanging down. It was steep, a sand escarpment. Climb up, difficult, flip flops flopping. Sliding. Up on top it was flat like a little sand mesa. I instinctively went up to a tree and looked down. Took a picture of Eloisa traipsing down amid the trees.
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We came down, avoiding a certain spot where a piece of wood marked the spot, and got our bikes going again. Down a decline, down to Ft. Clinch. Views of Cumberland Sound, sandy banks of the inlet, and a view of the inlet, the St. Marys Entrance, and the spot where Kaimu came to rest after I rammed her over the North jetty in a storm. It was a zen moment or moments, like for 2 hours while we sat there and watched a sailboat work its way into the channel. I told her about how I ran over the jetty in the middle of the night after two days of no sleep, no power left on the boat and all the rest. The helpful rangers. Getting the boat into the marina and then up to St. Marys.
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I knew we had come down a decline to the shore and going back up wasn’t going to be easy, and I worried about her, but she had shown me some strength and stamina, and we set off to go up to the vehicle. She had to work the gears and I realized I only had two gears, my derailleurs needed some oil. She set the pace up the road. Wow. I guess she wasn’t kidding about skating and conditioning. Load things onto the car, the doggie trailer, the bikes on the rack on the back, and head back to St. Marys.
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On the way I remarked we don’t have to go to the fishmarket, but I’d like to get wine and cheese at Winn-Dixie. At the grocers I got a couple of boxes of merlot, one for the Breezeway and one for Kaimu, some cheese for cheese and crackers, and I ventured near the meat section to see if the special on the beef shoulder roast was in effect, yes it was. There was only one left so I got it. 3 lbs. of shoulder roast for 3.49 a pound. Instead of $25, it was $10. We returned to the boatyard and she let me off at Kaimu with my goods, didn’t need to help her with the doggie trailer. She got my bike off the rack and left.
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The next day I was surprised to have slept through the night, I needed that sleep, and didn’t feel all sore and achy after our bike activity the day before. I ate a nice breakfast and instead of doing any meaningful work, worked on the computer some more. I got the idea that the navigatrix os I was trying to install might have a bug, so I tried to download it again. It was such a slow download that I decided to just use an ubuntu os I had already downloaded. All these things take time and I read more of Poland, by James Mitchener, while computer operations were going on. It became aware to me that some of the issues in the book were just like issues now, Ukraine, Russia, efforts of the entitled to restrict the electoral rights of the disenfranchised. The os loaded and I needed a break. Eloisa was returning to the boatyard from an errand and said yes we can go shopping and refill a propane tank.
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We went up to Tractor Supply to refill the tank and compared notes about how we felt after our bike extravaganza. We both felt better than expected. After the tank we went to the fishmarket and I was coerced into buying some beautiful jumbo shrimp, fresh, for only abut $14 a pound. Then we went to the Winn-Dixie in Kingsland, a larger store than our usual in St. Marys. I was able to get fish sauce, red chili paste, and a bunch of other ingredients. We were going to make Boef Burguinon. I had white onions, she got some cooking sherry, we got garlic and a green pepper.
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The stuff for the Breezeway, including the propane tank, were left there, and I biked back to Kaimu with a bunch of other stuff to stow away there, biked back to the Breezeway with the shoulder roast and other things, I had to start cooking right away.
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I also brought with me the laptop with its new operating system. I had saved all my old documents, downloads, and desktop before wiping that old hard drive. Now it needed all that stuff back. I plugged it in and I couldn’t cook and operate the laptop efficiently, so I did it in dribs and drabs.
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The cooking was straightforward, except I was going along two different recipe lines, one was Anthony Bourdain’s simple recipe, no brainer to try that, and the other was the Flavor Principle recipe, more involved. The result was a concoction that I had to find my own way through. Taste it, from time to time, get an idea. So I ended up with something that seemed to grow larger as the flavors mingled. This was what I really wanted, what I had tasted at times from a chef, how did they do it, how did they get that flavor. I had overpowered with too much celery, but I had a lot of that and was trying to use it. Eloisa gave me potatoes, but I decided to just dice them and put them in what was now a stew. I put things in that weren’t called for, left out some things that I forgot, but when I tasted it I could tell it was like an unleashed horse that needed to be brought down to speed. The potatoes helped, then add mushrooms, as raggedy as they were. Eloisa said add more wine, so I did, we were only trying to drain a 5 liter box, go ahead. It needed to cook down more.
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Henrick and Mariola had left the anchorage and were out there somewhere. I cheekily texted him that there was Beef Bourginon and merlot, he texted back that they had problems with the engine and were stuck.
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I think the key to the sauce was a complete can of tomato paste and something else I threw in, can’t remember, too much wine then. Roughrider Lynn and Helicopter Dave came in with some of their own wine. We had been tasting the stew and so they also tasted. Robert came after Eloisa cajoled him. He liked it, or said he did, and left to go hibernate on his boat again. The dog Blue kept causing trouble, demanding to play, jumping on laps, kissing you with his lappy tongue if you didn’t turn him away, but how can you, just a loveable doggie. But he is protective and will bark at strangers and growl, complex. I gave him a nice piece of meat from the stew and let him lick my bowl when I was done. Now I have a friend for life, shucks.
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It was raining with brief intervals dry between the showers and we scooted away during one of them. The photo is of Eloisa traipsing in the live oak forest.