Rock and Roll
19 April 2013 | About 64 miles south of the equator near Kirabati
Rod
Hi everybody. As you probably know, most of our blogs are written by me, Rod. But Elisabeth does write too, and today she would like to tell her side of the storyÂ....
So, last night, about 02:00, we crossed the equator, and I, that is Elisabeth here writing, did not bother to get up in the middle of my precious off watch to pay my respect to King Neptune. Instead I planned that we would have a nice lunch consisting of - TOAST HAWAII (a German favorite) - and a beer for lunch today, to mark the occasion. The sea conditions were pleasant, complete with sunshine, so we happily drag our plates and beers into the cockpit, open the cans, have a toast, and eat a bite. Then we looked at each other. Ahead is something much looking like a squall coming our way. Food back down below, beers in the fridge, close the hatches, reduce the jib - the standard fire drill. We barely finished, and the wind started picking up, nothing dramatic, a little rain, the whole thing didn't last very long. So we got the jib back out mucho pronto, 'cause today is the day where we finally are able to steer an easterly course, and we sure don't want to miss any of the opportunity. Did I say jib back out? We were barely done, and the wind started picking up, this time much more seriously. Another fire drill. To make a long story short, the wind picked up and stayed up blowing over 30 knots for about 2 hours, with gusts to 35! Woohoo! Are we making good speed now! Only one problem. We are now going southwest (we need east), running before the squall. Well, at the time of this writing, about four hours later, things have calmed down some. At least enough for us to be able to change course so we get some easting, way not enough to get to Funafuti, but at least some. I think I will never ever again not properly acknowledge King Neptune when crossing his property line.
Hi again, it's me Rod. She tells it like it was. It was a seriously nasty squall, but also a seriously tasty lunch. Toast Hawaii is a treat that Elisabeth learned as a little girl in Germany. Her version today deserves the recipe, so get your pencil and write this down:
Ingredients: Slice of bread. Today, she used the German black bread that you can buy at places like Trader Joe's etc. Any bread will do. The "original" calls for American white "Wondeer" style bread.
Slice of cheese. Today she used Monterey Jack. The "original" calls for American Cheese Food Product - each slice individually wrapped, Homer Simpson style.
Slice of ham. "Original" calls for lunchmeat style ham. Today she used SPAM, a common South Pacific substitute for ham - commonly found on sailing boats.
Slice of canned pineapple. Fresh would do, but not much fresh pineapple in northern Germany in the 1960's. "Original" calls for canned.
Procedure: Fry the ham, toast the bread in the pan. Put the ham on the toast, pineapple on top of the ham, and melt the slice of cheese on top of it all. Serve. Mmmmmm, good!
Don't forget the beer. "Original" calls for the local northern German beer. Today, we had Tsing Tao, the superb Chinese beer - expensive in the States, but way cheap in the Marshall Islands. Found in most yachtie fridges. Once again, mmmmmm, good.
That's it for now. We love you all! By the way, we can see that some people are leaving us some comments. We can't read them now because this blog is being transmitted over our HF radio - we only know they are there, but we thank you so much, and promise that we will address all of them when we reach port. Cheers!