Kaimusailing

Radio Bill loaned me a book that was very interesting, by Bill Browder, Red Notice. In it Browder describes how he survived being the largest investor in Russia at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, researching how undervalued some Russian companies were, getting 25 million to start a hedge fund, building it to 4.5 billion, then having Putin steal it. Also in the book is the rise of Vladimir Putin, how he became the richest man in the world and put the oligarchs under his thumb.
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Browder is responsible for the first sanctions levied against Russian evildoers. Sanctions were imposed by Canada, USA, and the European Union. These sanctions were effective and hamstrung Putin and the oligarchs. I believe the current sanctions will be devastating to the Russian economy. What Putin and the oligarchs are doing and have done is beyond criminal, Russia may be the most corrupt entity in the world.
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Jack von Ommen posts again after demolishing Fleetwood II, now he has another boat in Europe. He must learn to find land in other ways. He vows there will be no more shipwrecks.
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I had to do Pizza Night again, and after last week, I wanted it to go well, not like it did then. Eloisa was no where to be found. I biked around the boatyard, Blue not scampering along beside me. Robert said, Where is your Girlfriend? I said she goes out during the day, I should have said, You mean your work slave?, she did so much for him, and so much for everybody. I ran into Lynn and she asked if I were doing Pizza Night today, and I said of course. She seemed to doubt that Eloisa would attend. I started to worry. I said Eloisa is able to figure things out for her self. She knows what to do. Lynn said she also knows what not to do.
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We had a good crowd and the pizzas were carefully concocted, the first was a pie I meant to be the Margarita, but Eloisa wanted that to be the second pizza, so I had to make the pie into another, I hadn’t used the fresh ingredients that were meant for the Margarita, instead I dusted the pie with italian herbs, garlic powder, and some garlic salt, the only salt in the pizza. I used the same Barilla sauce and whole milk Galbani mozzarella. I had a lot of sweet pepper julienne, sausage, pepperoni, some large presliced mushrooms, and the slices of mozzarella to top it off. Then I made the Margarita pie. They went in at 750 degrees, the oven was not right up to pin the meter, but it was good.
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The pies were coming out. Big Dave was there, now making six at the table, so, each pie had six slices, and soon we would eat it all up. It was all good. No leftovers.
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The next day was cleanup, of course, and the realization that I had only one piece of ham after making breakfast. I was low on everything. I organized a shopping list. I wanted to get the $10.99/lb. shrimp again and compared weekly fliers from both Winn-Dixie stores. I had bought the shrimp from the store in Kingsland, about 5 miles further than the nearby store in St. Marys. It looked like both stores carried the shrimp. Eloisa came by and we went to lunch and she chose Compas, a mexican restaurant. We both liked the Nacho Lebre, but it was too much food, so we ordered one order and two plates. I had a margarita. The split Nacho Lebre turned out to be the perfect amount of food for the two of us, plus a bit for Blue, the black cocker spaniel.
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I had a shrimp/avocado recipe in mind, but I had trouble finding what I wanted. Eloisa took over and it became a salad with bowtie pasta. I made additions to the shopping list. The St. Marys Winn-Dixie was really close, but really deficient in the shrimp we were after. We headed up to the bigger store in Kingsland. I shopped alone and found all the items on my list and checked them off. The beautiful shrimp were there and I picked up an avocado. When I got to the vehicle I submitted my avocado purchase for scrutiny and she thought Haas avocados would be better, also we needed two, one for the dressing, and one for the salad. I had also forgotten to get a lime, so she quickly stopped in the local St. Marys Winn-Dixie to get those on our way back.
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I biked around with Blue a bit in the boatyard and talked to Radio Bill that there was a going away party for him Thursday night, so don’t sail away quite yet. Well, the earliest he could leave would be Friday the 13th.
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I spoke with Rocky, owner of the boatyard and chief crane operator, about a boat that Geoff the Chemist was asking about. Geoff knew more about it than I did. It turns out the boat is a very desirable motorsailer called Nauticat, but the engine was corroded internally and totally a goner. Rocky asked my about my friend, the one with the small boat. He meant Webb Chiles who had passed through the yard in just a few days. Yeah, I said, he said he’d never been in a boatyard that worked on Sundays and had never been in a boatyard that didn’t discuss payment. I figured they had his information to mail a bill or email a bill, but Rocky said, tell your friend there’s no charge because of what he’s done. I relayed that information to Webb. Astounding.
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I offered to boil the shrimp and cook the pasta, so the salad can be constructed out of already prepared ingredients. I used the big stock pot and filled it about halfway with hot water from the tap. It then sat on the electric hotplate in the communal kitchen while I sat outside playing games on my phone and waiting for the water to boil. When it boiled I set my timer for 2 minutes and dumped the shrimp into the boiling pot. I had a sieve sitting in a large saucepan and dumped the boiling shrimp into it. I lifted the sieve and shook out the water, then I ran cold tapwater over the shrimp to halt the cooking process. The shrimp water was returned to the stock pot and brought to boil again. It took a while and I began cleaning shrimp, dumping bowtie pasta into the boiling water, timer set for 12 minutes, continue cleaning shrimp. When the timer went off I dumped the boiling water into the sieve which was now sitting in the deep sink. I again ran cold tap water over the pasta. The pasta and shrimp were put into zip lok bags in the fridge.
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Later we made the pasta salad with shrimp and avocado with avocado dressing. We ate and savored. I fell asleep early and woke at 9:45 PM, fitful night, I could get back to sleep only to awaken again, and so on. I got up at 7:30 AM, a bit early, made breakfast with pumpernickel bread and my usual ham and cheese omelet.
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I must apologize for the lengthy blog post of a few days ago. I only realize now that I had written what should have been 3 blog posts, but never posted them until I was done with the last one. I had proof read as I went along and when I posted, just select all, copy, and paste to the blogsite. When I absentmindedly looked at the blog a couple days later I said, oops, nobody is going to read all that in one sitting, they’ll just skip over it. Just as well, I’ll try not to do that again.
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We were having a going away party for Helicopter Dave, Roughrider Lynn, Radio Bill, and Eloisa, who was heading to South Florida. Dave and Lynn were ready to launch and it would interfere with party plans, so we moved the venue to St. Mary’s, the Southern River Walk grill. Dave and Lynn were planning to arrive there on their boat after the launch and we would be there to greet them and have a party.
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Radio Bill was helping Dave with the boat and said he would probably arrive with Dave at St. Marys. Lynn was running errands.
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I asked Big Dave to ask Bill if he needed a ride to the party, it looked like Dave and Lynn couldn’t get underway and were being hauled back out again. In the end they all showed up and enjoyed a night of live music, good food, and plentiful drink.
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The next day I scheduled a laundry run with Eloisa and we spent some time at the Wee Pub and I had pirogies and pinot noir. I shopped for pizza ingredients and had to purchase the pork chops that were on sale. I planned to make baked pork chops, but it will have to be later, the ladies are having a margarita night, no men invited.
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The image is a shot of the North River and a cloud formation that could clobber us later.