Kaimusailing

It’s easy to write a blog post about a beautiful day that was a long string of zen moments, great photos, food and wine, only to deteriorate into a next day of raw blustery winds, rain, dripping in the galley, waterlogged phone, lack of sleep, deflating air mattress, and the propane heater tank is empty.
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The boatyard had been very dry and every vehicle blew up a cloud of dust. The dirt in the boatyard is engineered to pack down and support the heavy boat moving vehicles, but when it gets very dry, it gets dusty and soft like a sand dune. I can tell because my fancy bike with its narrow tires starts to slew around in the sand and sometimes I go down and have to impact the sand carefully. So I should be grateful for the rain. Yeah, right.
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The screen protector on my lovely smart phone has been cracked a few times and now water made its way behind the protector, between the protector and the glass of the display. Functions started behaving oddly. I found my backup screen protector, and only then did I peel off the cracked up one, cleaned the screen with the provided cloths, and applied the new protector. Everything worked correctly and the phone looked like new.
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A Galaxy S22+ appeared on eBay at $175 and only a day or so to go in the auction. Once again the seller had no feedback at all. Hmmm. I put it on my watch list.
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I was supposed to make a big batch of chili, Ole Mole, with the cocoa and orange marmalade in the sauce. The weather was too raw outside. I did my taxes instead. I used On Line Taxes, because they honestly only charged me ten bucks last year for the state tax, federal free, and same this year. My taxes aren’t free because I don’t make enough money. Go figure.
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I had time to look at things like my thumb drive that was backing up all the photos from my archive. I went back to look at some shots taken back when Kaimu was first hauled out after the disastrous voyage over the St. Marys Entrance jetty. Somehow these old shots give me incentive to keep at it.
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Jack van Ommen has done it again. The itinerate choir voice who has sailed all over the world and destroyed a couple of small wooden sailboats in the process has nailed his third “Fleetwood” on the Northern coast of Cuba. He is in his eighties and very robust and adventurous, but I hope I can avoid the things he can’t seem to. I don’t know who is the worse. Me or him. At least he goes to church and sings. It depends if God is Triton or Bacchus, which way we will go at our demise.
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I called my brother in Hawaii, having missed the usual call yesterday. I don’t remember much of the conversation, and I don’t think he does either. We were both competing in the wine tasting competition.
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The next day I needed to go to the post office and get a shower, it was chilly, so I washed and got into a blue sweat pants and my charcoal tee shirt with, “The beatings will continue till morale improves” on the back. My daughter thought that was funny and got it for me a few years ago. On the front it says “Captain Andy’s Sailing Adventures”. No kidding.
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In Eloisa’s car was Blue, the black dog, and he was on high alert. He likes to jump in your lap and lick your face. Now he was extremely agitated, having been inside during the recent rain storms, plus thunder. The driver, Eloisa, handles things on an in use basis, even while driving. I know about this. It is dangerous. I do it, but I have advanced mental faculties. The dog is a danger. He is all over the cockpit, down near the pedals which can be used to stop us from dying, in my lap, licking, sitting his butt on my arm. Cut it out.
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I don’t want to caution her or about her wayward amok doggie, who loves me, but I end up going into the Post Office and get 3 packages. One is a package of two stainless waiter’s wine corkscrews, the other is a replacement for a wine bottle tool set, and the third is Canadian pharmaceuticals. We go to the nearest grocer, Winn-Dixie, and get stuff for chili and some items otherwise.
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Earlier she opted to wait at the crossroads traffic light to go into the mall to the laundromat. It would be more efficient to just take the right at the light and go right into the grocers, then hit the laundromat with a right turn on the way back. I’m glad I didn’t speak up, she just needed to use the ladies room, it’s nice. Time is of the essence. OK.
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We returned to the boatyard and I said back to the Gulag. I was starting to put away stuff, but I went up to her and Blue, mostly because he frisked around at Kaimu and I had to bring him back to her.
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I had some more painting to do, but I had on clothing that hadn’t been discolored with paint, so I went up to the pilothouse, which is the repository, and changed into a green tee shirt that had some paint on it and a pair of shorts that didn’t seem to have any paint on them, but the zipper was broken, so they could get painted.
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I rolled on a coat of rustoleum marine topside white on the stuff I had already painted, a second coat and that might be it for them. There are a few more surfaces that will need two coats and I’m sure we have enough paint.
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I bring a cutting board, the cheap knife I use to prep things, and a bunch of other things to the communal kitchen, which is catch can as catch can. Not totally defiled as before, but no one will empty the garbage, so don’t put anything in there, it will be there a month, just use the hot water to wash stuff, but don’t linger, don’t leave anything, the place can get even more foul.
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I prep a couple of onions, one red, and the bags of multicolored peppers, not spicy, and the meat is stewing in the big skillet outside on a small table. At some point the meat has rendered its water and fat and I drain the skillet into a bowl. I now add spices and all the prepped onion and peppers. Mix the big skillet. Add spices, maybe two tablespoons of cocoa, peanut butter, orange marmalade, chili powder, cumin, balsamic vinegar, apricot preserves, and mix a lot, it’s a big skillet and the flavors and spices need to be spread around.
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I do taste the concoction now and then and rinse the spoon in between. I’m riding a lot of spices that take their time to meld into the mix. Also there is an essence, the sauce that develops, it is wonderful, but now I have to shut it down and put it on the stone table. I take out a scoop of the chili and put it in a bowl along with some of the blue corn chips, taste it, eat it up. Good. Eloisa comes around the boatyard with Blue.
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The flavor is great, the apricot really does a number on it, but it could use more zip, but some don’t want too much zip.
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We have traffic in the boatyard and people smelling the smells of the chili concoction. It’s attractive. Blue sits out in the middle of the traffic way, like he is keeping an eye on us and being our protector. Robert comes by and gets a big bowl of the concoction, but leaves to eat on board, he has a prosthesis that bothers him, he is like my brother.
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Helicopter Dave shows up with some of my spoons, plus one other that is not mine or his, but he gives it to me. He gets a big bowl of the concoction to return to Roughrider Lynn. Our big dining extravaganza is a hit or miss take out kind of thing.
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Eloisa and I are coping with the no-see-ums. She is wrapping herself with a blue themed sarong, and commenting about wearing orange for the first time in a long time. Her top is an orange print. As we part I have my bag of blue taco chips tip over a full glass (plastic) of wine, right onto me, onto my painting clothes.
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We have to get back to our respective haunts, on opposite sides of the boatyard. I change into a blue sweat bottom to replace the wine stained painting shorts and head out on the bike. I end up near Eloisa’s place, but she must be inside with Blue, it isn’t even sunset yet. I bike around the North end of the boatyard and return to Kaimu. I end up consuming more wine.
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The next day I’m well rested and up early. I get to the communal rest room and sit and wait. Normally I would have my smart phone to play games to while away the time. Eloisa and Blue emerge, well, how nice, My turn, I say, but we discuss a few things while the morning airs subside. I end up back at Kaimu to get busy. There is one small partial deck box cover, can’t be more than a foot long, that needs to be made. I get the original down from on deck and throw the new beam covers up to be fitted.
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I have a problem. My right hip is again bothering me. I think it is because I have been sleeping on a collapsed air mattress. I can pump it up, but it goes down quickly. I have some HH16 adhesive on the way from Amazon that can fix it.
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I spend most of the day waiting for Amazon to deliver. Eloisa is cleaning a yacht and I am babysitting Blue. We bike around the yard, me on the bike and Blue trying to minimize his efforts, sniffing and dawdling. When I try to do something productive I find I can’t almost even walk, pain in the right hip.
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Sad to say, the day continues like this, with biking round the yard with Blue dragging back, and then sitting waiting for the Amazon delivery. Conversations develop with boatyarders. How are you doing. Terrible. Sorry to hear that. The correct answer is glad to hear it.
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There is a big commotion, a newly assembled engine is hoisted on a fork lift. They go all around to position it for entry into Dave’s big motor yacht, but there is a lot of yelling and foul exhaust from the old fork lift. Dave sat for a while and said maybe he would sit this one out. Too much commotion.
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Eloisa texted me, is it lunch time? I had said maybe chili hoagies for lunch. I got the rolls and chili, microwaved the chili for 90 seconds, and then she appeared. I had a couple bottles of water. We ate the chili and hoagie rolls, then she had to get back to work. I washed up.
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Rosie, the mother of the artist, came around. I talked to her about things, what the commotion was. I had been sitting, zen like, for a while, except that Blue could only rest for a certain time, then he was up for adventure, wild animal. I was glad to talk to her. Eloisa came around with stuff. The captains Tom and Dave had agreed to go off to the gas station restaurant for celebratorial beer. I told her and we agreed to celebrate too, there.
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Somehow we got me and Blue in the vamper for a ride to the gas station restaurant. We were eager to celebrate something. Tom and Dave were inside, we were outside with Blue, unsure if we could go in with him, and we went to the outside bar. When we came in there was parked a bright red Austin Healy Sprite, bugeyed Sprite, and I knew Geoff and Karen were at the bar. We sat next to them. Eloisa next to Geoff, Karen spouting off at the other end. She had sold her mother’s house, there was an oil leak from the heater, I said, you should watch Schitt’s Creek, online. Eloisa got me started on that, like an addiction. Eugene Levy, his son Dan Levy, Chris Eliott, son of Bob and Ray’s Elliot. Yeah, I don’t know what’s right. Karen going off on all the trials of trying to sell your mother’s house, an albatross that they are now almost rid of.
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The next day was more of hip pain and limping slowly around. I could bike like anything, but standing and walking were painful and difficult. Blue’s water bowl, zip lok bag of doggie food, and one of his tennis ball playthings were right there at my boat, but I had no idea of what I was going to have to do. Watch him for now, for the morning, watch him all day, no instructions. I texted for more information. No reply.
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I limped around and got my package of HH-66 adhesive, supposedly the good stuff, and I got things done with some breaks to rest my hip. The new beam covers got installed with green tension straps, the deflatable dinghy got tested for leaks and I found two of them on one side of the bottom. That tube was leaking, the other was not.
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The local grocer sent a weekend sale ad that included pork shoulder butt, bone in, for $.99 a pound. Tomatoes on the vine for $.99, and other deals. Eloisa had been working in the yard cleaning a boat and came by. We discussed shopping for these deals. She had to return some things to the home improvement store where she bought some industrial physical protection gear to use while roller skating, which she now wanted to return. That was great, could I go along and get some solvent to clean up the dinghy for patches, and how about the supermarket next door where we could get some of these deals, yes, I got my wallet, and we were gone.
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I knew she was tired and I was tired in a painful way. We both needed something to perk us up. She needed fuel, but the local gas station next to the gas station restaurant was at $3.79/gal. I said let’s take the back way all the way up to Kingsland, there are a lot of gas stations, they must be cheaper. We rode along through the countryside. Traffic was heavy though.
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All the stations were displaying the same price, must be a conspiracy. She said, they got the memo. We stopped at Walmart to look for a kiddy pool for a dog in need back at the boatyard, but they didn’t have them yet. There was a gas station that I insisted we try on the other side of the mall where the store was and it was 23 cents cheaper than all the others. We filled up there.
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At the home improvement store where Eloisa returned her safety items, I could not find quart cans of xylene or acetone. I was actually shocked at that. Also I was shocked that I could barely make it through the store, my hip was so inflamed. I did buy something called Goof Off, which some say works well to remove old glue.
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In the big grocery we got a lot of food. I used the shopping cart as a walker. If I kept the weight off my right leg I was kind of alright. I felt diminished from just a few days ago, why was this happening. Maybe I will be one of the one’s using the powered shopping carts. I need a disabled sticker for my bicycle.
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Back at the boatyard, the Gulag, we had a lot to do. Stow some items in the fridge, go to Lynn’s boat to barter for a split to the pork purchase, she gets the bones and half the meat for $5, I get half the meat for $4.05. Seems like a good deal, but I have to do the butchering, which I do. I don’t have a big enough pan to saute the steaks that were on sale, but I clean up and season a pan I got from the free pile, still had price tag on the side. It was stainless with the thick bottom, a very nice pan.
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To season a pan, put it on the burner and let it get very hot, then hit it with cooking fat until it smokes. Then let it cool down. Some use peanut oil or lard. I used olive oil that may not be as effective.
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I had butchered the $.99/lb pork shoulder butt and threw away a couple pounds of fat. I took the bones and half the meat to Lynn’s boat and Dave gave me $5. I had the remainder waiting for me in a zip lok bag. I texted Eloisa about the shrimp which we had got at only $10.99 a pound, Mayport fresh shrimp, right off the boat, very large.
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I know I wanted to impress her with a NY Strip Steak dinner with pepper wine reduction, and she wanted to impress me with something she would make with those colossal shrimp. She takes her time and produces. While I waited, who should show up but Steamfitter Bill. Holy Mackerel, nice to greet an old friend. He was coming up to the boatyard to help a lady sail somewhere and she was making dinner for him, so he had some time to kill. I told him about Eloisa and he was sitting in Blue’s chair. It was amusing that she and Blue showed up right then. She had a skillet and some aluminum foil, and Bill stood up so Blue could climb into his chair. We chatted and Bill left for dinner and we had to concoct our own.
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I had put the skillet back on the hot plate and now it was ready for the steak. I forked the steaks onto the cooking surface and wiggled them around as they started to sizzle. It was growing dark and the stars came out. Eloisa had wisely brought a portable lamp so we could see what we were doing. I set the timer on the phone for medium rare.
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When the steaks were done Eloisa placed them on a white platter with a silver lid over them to let them rest. I poured a little merlot into the pan. It boiled almost away and I scraped the bottom with a large fork and let the sauce develop. I went inside and lifted the cover from the steaks and poured the thick sauce over them. We had to let them rest for a while.
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Eloisa’s own skillet full of jumbo shrimp was hastened by me, I guess. But time was late for dinner and we started eating the shrimp while sipping the wine. Red wine with shrimp? It seemed to work. The shrimp were huge and soaked with an Irish butter garlic sauce. It was almost that we could just eat the shrimp, but what about the steaks?
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I decided to cut into my steak and accept that maybe I hadn’t waited long enough for whatever is supposed to happen while you let steaks rest. After the shrimp now I was getting my favorite cut of meat, of all meats, NY Strip Steak, medium rare, with a simple pepper wine reduction. Mmm. I could still get at the shrimp, but I gorged on the steak and some toasted bread that Eloisa somehow made. Crusty. Soaks up the steak, and/or, shrimp sauce.
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It was dark now and a few people were coming back and forth near where we were. Blue growled and barked at them. You notice, I said to Eloisa, that he barks and then retreats behind us, he is a sham.
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It is sad to end a day with perfection at the end, we should have started earlier. I know Eloisa reads these things and would probably add some comments, but she said she could have made the shrimp better some how, OK, maybe we will do this again.
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The end result of the pork barter deal with Roughrider Lynn, was that now we had a quantity of pork to cook. I found several recipes of Roast Pork with Apricot Glaze. We have all the ingredients.
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Time runs on and we can’t lag too far behind. We are getting spoiled with beautiful days after beautiful days. Maybe a little rain comes through, we should be happy for that. We will not be happy with what we cannot get, but we can be happy with what we have got.