We've spent Thanksgiving weekend (Thurs-Mon) exploring the islands off Las Paz - Espiritu Santos and Isla Partita - part of the National Marine Park. We've read comments from other cruisers who have been around the world and choose Mexico and the Sea of Cortez as their favorite cruising ground. We can see why. The water is warm, we could see the bottom, the anchorages were deserted or shared with one or two other boats. We were able to take hikes, see whales, dolphins, tropical fish, blue footed boobies, and catch the occasional fish for dinner. Paradise!

Tuesday night we left for the mainland - estimating a 40 hour sail. Our destination is Mazatlan and we timed our departure to arrive in daylight but this boat is too fast and we are ahead of schedule. Our first night started with perfect conditions - light air and calm seas and a full moon (in fact I penned this blog by moonlight). Later the wind picked up to about 13-15 knots and we reduced sail to slow the boat down. We don't want to arrive before sunrise on Thursday. Our schedule involves preparing two dinners, breakfast and lunch underway.

I've done a lot of cooking on boats, but mostly at anchor and mostly on catamarans. I'm still getting used to cooking underway on a gimbaled stove on a monohull. My 'refrigerator' is top-opening. This is the most efficient way to keep the cold air inside (as opposed to a more convenient front-opening door). The two hinged lids to the reefer are also my counter-space. This means I need to get everything I need out of the fridge before I start as it's difficult to retrieve a forgotten ingredient once I have converted my 'lid' to a cutting board. The reefer is so deep, I can't reach the bottom without laying across the stove (make sure it's not hot!) and diving down into the nether reaches. Organization of the food is of utmost importance. I've decided that I don't want to put raw meat (frozen or fresh) in the fridge because no matter how well it's packaged, it will sweat/leak something disgusting and require a total cleaning to get rid of the smell. This usually requires totally emptying the fridge and hanging upside down over the opening while swamping out with Clorox without getting asphyxiated in the process. So I've decided to fill my fridge with fresh produce, fruit, cheeses, fully cooked, vacuum packed meats like salami and kielbasa and, of course, beer. Bruce is OK with this. I've provisioned the boat with lots of quality rices and grains, pastas,legumes of every variety, and lots of spices. I buy hard squashes that keep forever. When I do buy a whole chicken, it goes right into the oven. So when I haven't been to market in awhile, it's a lot of beans and rice but our goal is to live simply and this diet should be very heart healthy, right?

We are pretty low on ships stores so yesterday before leaving the anchorage I made a focaccia bread. For dinner I improvised a stew inspired by an African soup I had tasted about 20 years ago. I had one yam left so I peeled it and cubed it and put it in the pressure cooker with a can of tomato sauce, a can of water, half a chopped onion, and cayenne pepper. I brought it up to pressure for 10 minutes, then turned off the stove to let the pressure come down and the yams finish cooking. Then I add about 3 stalks of celery, chopped, and stirred in big spoonful of chunky peanut butter. I had rice already cooked from the night before so it was a quick, easy, one pot meal. Bruce was sitting at the top of the companionway steps keeping me company. He asked what I was making and I lifted the lid to show him and mumbled something about an African stew. He said, "Looks like African Fart Storm to me!" I totally cracked up. "That's the PERFECT name! And tomorrow I'll make Moroccan Fart Storm with chick peas, and then Indian Fart Storm with Red Lentils and Curry!" We're also eating a lot of Mexican style food - homemade salsa, tortillas, beans, and any other ingredients I need to use up. But I've already named this style of cooking "Mexican Train Wreck". It sounds better than "Fart Storm" at cruiser pot lucks.

Bruce says as soon as we get to Mazatlan, he's taking me out to dinner!