Adventures in Baking
09 April 2023 | Underway, 14 degrees 20 minutes N. 124 degrees 48 minutes W
Burt
Post time is 1106, 4/11/23. Captain Eric on watch, Peter trying to
sleep, Kristen chilling, me blogging.
Yesterday was our first day of classic tradewinds sailing.Wind off the
aft quarter in the high teens.White puffy clouds sliding across a bright
blue sky.Warm sun.Rover smoothly rolling with five to six foot swells,
racing southeast at 7 knots.A wonderful day on deck.
I chose this day to bake a loaf of bread.There were only a couple of
slices left in the loaves we brought with us, so it was time.
First step review the recipe and ingredients for a basic loaf of white
bread.Linda Ahlvin, who did an amazing job provisioning the boat for
months of travel across the South Pacific,made that part easy.Bread
recipes on 3/5 cards all clipped together.Where the ingredient would be
found among Roverâs scores of cupboards and lockers carefully noted in
the stores binder. So far so good.I know what to do and what to do it
with.Now I just need to gather everything together and get started.
Did I mention how pleasant Roverâs motion was on deck?Down below itâs a
whole different story.The gentle roll above translates to 20 to 30
degrees of roll side to side, some of those rolls quite violent.Any
movement requires planning and a firm grip on something solid. At this
early stage of the voyage every cupboard is packed full of supplies.It
often takes more hands than God or evolution provided us to extract just
the single desired product while remaining in place and preventing
unwanted items from flying unbidden from the depths of the locker.
Okay, so two or three bruises later, all the makings and tools are
assembled.Time to begin.The working surface of the galley runs
athwartships (side to side).In this orientation anything on the surface
slides side to side with the discordant rhythm of the roll.Whereâs that
third hand?
Despite the challenges the preparation of the dough went relatively
well.Lots of flour everywhere, but its easy to clean.The dough rose over
the allotted time, went in the oven for about 40 minutes or so.A peek
revealed a nice brown loaf of fresh bread almost ready for some sweet
butter.Almost done, what could go wrong at this point.
What went wrong were those darn extra big swells that come roaring
through.Just as I positioned myself in front of the hot oven to lift out
the loaf, a big sell hit and through me violenly across the
boat.Fortunately, for the hungry crew, the bread stayed safely in the
oven, and for me I fell butt first onto the seat of the nav station.No
harm no foul as they say.
And the crew said the bread was great.
Burt
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