The last supper (in Bermuda)...

The view out my kitchen window...

Barbequed Ribs with Tamarind BBQ Sauce
Blue Cheese Cole Slaw
Curried Sweet Potato Fries

We had an ‘04 Blanco Nieva Sauvignon Blanc with dinner tonight. It’s a nice little Spanish wine – 100% Sauvignon Blanc, clean, crisp and really nice floral tones. It went perfect with the cool Bermudan night, ribs with sweet and sour tamarind bbq sauce, blue cheese cole slaw and curried sweet potatoes. Ok, the perfect meal for the wine actually would have been those little bait fish swimming around in the waters here – scooped up, dredged in flour, fried in hot oil, a sprinkle of lemon and eaten like French fries; maybe a nice fennel and citrus salad to accompany them; good company and some Edith Piaf playing in the background... But the crispness and acidity played well against the sweet and sour of the barbeque sauce, the crew and I behaved like a bunch of four year olds (per usual) and all in all it was a great wine, and a great dinner…

When I came on board the boat, I was told that I couldn’t bring too much in the way of clothing and belongings, so I opted on a backpack full of clothes, and a case of wine and five pair of shoes (a girls has to have her priorities). I have three drawers and a half of a teeny, tiny closet for all of everything I own. So basically, my clothes are serving as buffers between the bottles… When I’ve worked my way through my stash, it’s going to be difficult to have to pay full-price for wine again; I’m hoping my wine friends in New York will still hook me up and ship to the Caribbean! I hear that wine is reasonably priced in the Caribbean… But I’m preferential towards Oregon, Spanish and Italian wines at the moment and from what I can gather, those Caribbean-ers drinks mostly French, but I guess if I have to go back to French --- it’s a sacrifice I’ll just have to make for the betterment of mankind…

But anyway, I digress (get used to it)…

I didn’t have a recipe to make the tamarind barbeque sauce that I had in mind so I just winged it and it came out tasty and delicious. I started out by caramelizing sugar in a pan, when I had achieved a nice, dark color I added tamarind concentrate then added some hoisin, ketchup, brown sugar and rice wine vinegar (just a touch) and cooked it for a good, long while. What’s not to like about hoisin? Tamarind is the fruit of a tree native to Africa, South American and Tropical climates. Ripe tamarind is tart and tangy, the quality it added to my barbeque sauce. In Mexico, tamarind is used to flavor drinks and candies. In Indian cooking it’s used as a counter-point to the sweetness of dates in tamarind-date chutney, Caribbean cooking it’s used a lot in sauces, and is found throughout Asian cuisine…

The engineer, who fancies himself a grill-master, and I had a debate about par-boiling the ribs and DM came by and threw his two cents in – which was that I should go ahead and boil them. Against my better judgment (but since I’d never tried it before), I par-boiled the ribs in water with bay leaves, oregano, marjoram, thyme and black peppercorns for about an hour. They came out anemic and grey, but tender. I tossed them in the bbq sauce before grilling. They were tasty but I think that par-boiling leached out at all that porky goodness and left it behind in the pot and in the time it took me to par-boil three substantial racks of ribs, I could have had them going in a slow oven, basting them and treating them with loving care to coax out all their delicious flavor – and then finishing them on the gas grill… My friend Vincent, from Mississippi, will surely string me up by my toes when he reads that I boiled the ribs. I say never leave decisions about barbequing to a non-American, and an American that can’t cook (the captain). Vincent would say never leave barbequing to a Northerner…

The sweet potatoes I cut into fat wedges, tossed in oil, dusted with curry powder, salt and pepper and stuck in a 425 oven until they were golden brown. And the cole slaw I made with shredded cabbage, carrots, apples, raisins and homemade blue cheese and gorgonzola dressing – quite tasty. But I’m sure any purist would have an opinion on that too…

I actually cooked for my friend Vincent and Melissa’s engagement party this past summer. Vincent’s family is all southern and it was requested that I make pulled pork. Marinating over night and six hours on the grill, the pork won accolades from the people that would know… For that I also made the blue cheese cole slaw, and found curried, pickled green tomatoes in a gourmet store (Rick’s Pick’s – excellent pickles of all kinds); with some nice, soft buns, they made the best New York version of a pulled pork sandwich…

At least now I can say with conviction that I’ll never par-boil ribs again…

Gorilla's In The Mist...

Breakfast:
Homemade Blueberry muffins
Roasted Pablano, Mushroom, Spinach and Cheddar Frittata

Dinner:
BBQ Ribs with Sweet and Sour Tamarind BBQ Sauce
Cole Slaw
Curried Sweet Potato Fries

The day usually starts around 7am, it’s not as if you can sleep when everyone else is up since we all basically share quarters…

The crew doesn’t like to eat breakfast early. So, I wake up, sit on deck with my coffee and watch the boys as they go about their business. I feel like Sygorney Weaver in “Gorilla’s In The Mist”, a silent observer of men in their natural habitat; fixing things, replacing lines and cables, sanding, painting, lacquering, a little chest pounding and some jumping around and throwing things to defend their place in the male hierarchy. Unlike New York men these men are actually handy, mechanically inclined and don’t require a users manual to screw in a light bulb; and all while wearing clean polo shirts and pressed shorts… There is a God, and she’s a woman!

This morning I made blueberry muffins from the Gourmet cookbook. The recipe called for a crumb topping, which was nice and I found the muffin itself good, moist, nice crumb structure but slightly lacking in flavor and character. The crew loved them and gobbled them up, but next time I think I would add some orange or lemon zest to the batter to give it a little zing… I’ll have to play around with it.

For the frittata I roasted pablanos over the gas flame; peeled, seeded and chopped them. A lot of people will peel and seed roasted peppers under running water but you lose a lot of flavor doing this. I recommend laying the pepper flat on a cutting board, and using a small pairing knife to gently scrape the skins and seeds away. Breakfast is a great way to use up extra ingredients. I had some leeks in the fridge that were on their last legs so I chopped them up and threw them in the pan with some red onion. Sautéed the mushrooms, added the roasted pablanos, a few handfuls of baby spinach and then the eggs; cooked it for a few minutes on the stove top and then threw it in a 350 oven, five minutes before it was finished I sprinkled on some grated cheese. When the cheese was almost melted, it was ready to serve.

I’ve made a lot of frittatas in my day and I have to say that making them thinner and in a wider pan, rather than thick and smaller, yields a much better result. I was debating which pan to use and decided on a 12 in’ non-stick skillet. The frittata was just about an inch thick, no more than that, and took maybe 10 or 12 minutes to cook (using 8 eggs and about ¼ cup of milk). I find that if you make a frittata too thick, the bottom gets over cooked while the top is still loose. This one cooked up just perfect…

There are quite a few boats in the bay here at St. George and like us many of them are heading to the Caribbean. There is a nice rapport among the boat people. Everyone is very friendly and introduces themselves… I met two people in the local coffee shop (which offers internet access) – Greg and Wendy. Wendy is on a catamaran and is sailing down to St. Maarteen for the winter and Greg is transporting his family’s 45 foot sailboat down to Tortola so that they can come down for winter and spring breaks to go diving…

Bermuda has been great. The water is a brilliant aquamarine, loaded with little silvery fish that I’m tempted to scoop up, fry and eat with some fresh lemon and a crisp, cold bottle of white wine… The weather is gorgeous and the people are always smiling and friendly. The island has a real European feel and they even drive on the wrong side of the road here. I’ve dodged a few scooters and busses because I was looking in the wrong direction while crossing the street! With Christmas on its way, I see people outside wrapping Christmas lights around the palm trees and tinsel going up in the shop windows. Unlike New York, nobody paints fake snow on their windows or puts white blankets of cotton batting under the Christmas trees… No reminders of snow. Brilliant! I want to stay!

Tomorrow we set sail for St. Maarteen, in theory at least, as I’m learning in the sailing world – everything is tentative… I don’t know if I’ll be able to post again before we head out.

Sushi Party in Bermuda

Tuesdays Menu:
Sesame Soba Noodles
Wakame & Bonito Salad
Salmon Teriyaki
Spicy Tuna Rolls
Do-It-Yourself Maki Rolls

The crew had been having a hankering for sushi and considering how hard they’ve been working, I feel compelled to treat them to the things they like…

Danger Mouse and crew all seem to love Asian food and when I arrived on the boat there was a well-worn copy of Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger in the cabinet. I’m glad I brought Simply Ming instead of Blue Ginger since it’s already here… I’ve decided to cook my way through both books…

Blue Ginger has great recipes, is a great intro to Asian ingredients and the recipes work really well. The recipe for salmon teriyaki was perfect. I was a little slow in pulling the fish out of the freezer to defrost it so I didn’t have the full hour to marinate the salmon. In order to make up for the shortened time, I cut the salmon into 1 ½ inch by 1 ½ inch cubes so that they would soak up the marinade, and would also look cool on the plates. I broiled it in the oven for just a few minutes, basting the salmon a couple of times along the way and a final time at the end. As the marinade reduced, it made a perfectly lacquered, caramel-y glaze on the salmon and came out perfect.

There was a recipe for hijiki salad which I had started to make but since I was already doing sesame soba noodles and the hijiki recipe called for sesame, I decided to modify it and make it a bit more like oshitashi – one of my favorite salads I order whenever I go out for sushi - only I substituted wakame for spinach. Wakame is a type of seaweed and can be found dried in China town and at Japanese grocery stores. When reconstituted, the leaves are wide, slightly rippled and jewel green and has more of briny, sea flavor and a slippery texture compared to the more well known hijiki seaweed which is dark brown/ burgundy in color, has a more toothy texture and is nutty, woody and slightly sweet in flavor. The vinaigrette was simple; rice wine vinegar, sugar and a few drops of soy sauce and then sprinkling of bonito flakes on the salad just before serving.

For the spicy tuna inside-out rolls I diced up the tuna then added a small amount of mayo (sacrilege that I would put mayo with Grade A ahi-tuna, I know, but that’s how spicy tuna is really made!), chili powder and the minced whites of scallions. This was definitely a winning combination.

For the sushi rice, the recipe in Blue Ginger worked out perfectly. After repeatedly swishing and rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, lay the palm of your hand flat on top of the rice and add water just ‘til it hits the big knuckle on your middle finger (it’s called the “Mt. Fuji” method), covered bring it to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, let stand for 30 minutes then fold in a mixture of rice vinegar, mirin and sugar, cover with a damp towel until ready to use. I spread the rice out on a sheet of nori then sprinkled it with black and white sesame seeds, flipped it over and put the spicy tuna on the nori side and rolled it up in the sushi mat. If you attempt to make sushi, wetting your hands when working with the rice keeps it from sticking to you (keep a bowl of water at your work area), and use a very sharp knife keeping it wet, slice – but don’t apply too much pressure or you’ll squish your rolls!

I then sliced up some tuna, cucumber, avocado, scallions and enoki mushrooms, cut a bunch of nori sheets into fourths, put out the bowl of sushi rice at the table and let the crew make their own hand-rolls.

Everyone had fun…

The leftover sushi rice was converted into shrimp fried rice on Wednesday. I sautéed the shrimp with some chili paste and set them aside. In a wok I added smoked bacon, garlic, and ginger then the sushi rice, soy sauce, two eggs and scallions and just before serving I through the shrimp in and tossed it all together.

For the veggies I made a quick stir-fry of shredded napa cabbage, celery, red peppers, mushrooms, chili-paste, lime and thai basil leaves.

Two meals well received…

Now that I have the crew sufficiently under my culinary spell, I’ll have to figure out just how I can manipulate and use them to my benefit… ;o)

It looks like we will be leaving Friday to continue on our journey to the Caribbean. This time I am much more prepared for the crossing. I’ve made five dishes which the crew now knows that if they touch before we set sail, they are likely to lose a finger or three…

The passage food includes, by popular demand, the lamb curry (which I made back in New York and which got eaten before the last sail because the crew begged and pleaded. This time, their pleading will get them nowhere!); chicken and corn chowder; macaroni and cheese; pork meatloaf with sweet and spicy barbeque sauce; and three-cheese veggie lasagna. All easy to warm up and eat.

The first time that I made the lamb curry, I used taro root instead of potatoes. I learned that taro doesn’t freeze well. After thawing the curry and reheating it, the taro had completely disintegrated but the benefit of that was the curry was nice and thick.

Let’s hope for a little less excitement for the second leg of the journey…

Green Eggs and Ham

The funny thing about seasickness is how quickly it passes! As soon as the waters calmed and Bermuda came into sight everyone began feeling better. By the time we dropped anchor the crew was famished and requesting that I make their favorite South African meal – steak, eggs and chips – African food at it’s finest! After this ordeal, how could I deny anyone their favorite meal?

Steak, eggs and chips it was…

Fortunately I had a few flank steaks in the fridge that I had vacuum sealed and planned on cooking on the passage. I also had a pork loin that I had marinated in pomegranate syrup before sealing…

I made a big bowl of “chips” (‘french fries’ to us American’s) but all I had were waxy potatoes which don’t fry up so crispy. So, I used the tried and true French method for the perfect pomme frites and fried the potatoes three times; each time in hotter and hotter oil. By the final fry the frites came out golden brown and crispy. Ideally I would have done the flank steaks on the grill, but that wasn’t an option so I gave them a nice Cajun rub and pan seared them, sliced them up and cooked a bunch of eggs sunny side up and wobbly and threw them on top, and roasted the pork loin in the oven for Danger Mouse and Tom (I didn’t think I’d have enough steak for everyone)…

I can honestly say that I’ve never before eaten steak and eggs but the South African’s are slowly (or not so slowly) getting me hooked on their meat laden diet… Plus, I was famished too. So, I cozied up to my plate of steak, eggs and frites and I have to say, it was delicious! The runny egg oozed into the meat and then cleaned up with the potatoes, was a winning combination… The crew, Danger Mouse and Tom, blissful and unrestrained, devoured 5 lbs. of flank steak, 2 lbs. of pork loin, 10 potatoes, seven eggs and a big bowl of bok choy.

The next best thing to that meal was the hot shower that preceded it (and the laundry done the next day)… Everyone was so excited to be clean and well fed. Everyone slipped into a deep, restful slumber that night for the first time in a week.

The Mid-Atlantic Snore Fest that filled the air that night I’m sure woke the entire island…

Update and backtrack...

Tom went to the doctor and learned that in the attempt to get the boom under control he had fractured his thumb in two places, and will need surgery and physical therapy. He flew to New York yesterday morning and will be missed on the rest of our journey to the Caribbean… He is a real salty dog; always a funny story or dirty joke to tell and always smiling and laughing even when he injured himself.

The guys removed the boom from the boat and cut it in half where it had bent, now both pieces are firmly secured to the bow of the boat and on Friday or Saturday we will continue on our way. Originally we had planned on going straight to St. Barth’s but now we’ll head to St. Maarteen for equipment and parts and then to tie up somewhere in St. Barth’s where the guys can make the necessary repairs. St. Barth’s isn’t too keen on having boats in any state of disrepair on docked – so who knows where we’ll end up. This means that the party season on the boat probably won’t begin until Christmas or after, which is just fine by me as keeping the crew of South Africans fed is plenty of work…

Our last four days in New York were hectic, I spent every single day out shopping for provisions for the boat. Captain Danger Mouse sent me to his favorite store, a place called Corrado’s, in New Jersey. Corrado’s was a real find and well worth the trip. It is a giant Italian and ethnic specialty market with more cheeses, sausages, olives and things than you could possibly imagine and isles upon isles of ethnic ingredients. I made two trips and filled up two heaping grocery carts each time. There were also several trips to Costco, K-Mart, Stop’n’Shop and all my specialty vendors in the city. I hardly had time to cook anything for the crossing and the crew ate the lamb curry and the Bolognese, which was intended for the crossing, as soon as I came on board… I’ve since learned to hide things away and now have secret stashes around the kitchen of cookies, banana bread, lasagna, stews and pasta’s all for the rest of our passage…

Finding places to store everything is the biggest challenge. The coffin freezer is completely cram-packed without an inch of extra space. I have tried to organize it as best as possible, but it was inevitable that I would need something from the very bottom and have already emptied it and repacked it twice since we’ve been in Bermuda. There are lockers underneath all the sitting areas around the boat and they are stocked with cans of tomato sauce, olive oil, cereals, grains, Parmalot milk (which doesn’t require refrigeration), pasta’s and a million other ingredients.

I had read that cooking on a boat takes twice as long, presumably because of the movement. But getting to what you need is what really takes time. Even for a simple can of tomatoes I have to remove two cushions behind a table, lift the locker top, move bags of dried mushrooms, blocks of chocolate, and cartons of milk just to get at them; and then of course, I have to put it all back.

There is a pantry and it is stocked to the brim with every ingredient I could foresee needing. But the shelves are also blocked by planks to prevent things from going flying when the boat rolls so those have to be removed in order to get at things. Of course, with the storm we hit, everything went flying and I’ve been stock piling towels to tuck into the pantry shelves for the rest of the passage. I have to secure things much more than I did last time. In the storm, the coffee maker ripped out of the wall and there were still grinds in the top, so coffee grinds went everywhere. The microwave shifted a few inches and had to be moved again by the engineer in order to get it open, the toaster broke and my one pantry casualty was a jar of grape leaves that crashed on the floor. All in all, the kitchen didn’t suffer too much – but there was a lot of straightening for me to do when we arrived in Bermuda.

We usually walk around the boat barefoot, or in flip-flops when we leave. But with so much glass broken in the pilot house and my jar in the kitchen, we’ve all started wearing shoes as every one of us has stepped in glass. We’ve swept, and vacuumed and mopped but those tiny splinters are still lurking about waiting for a vulnerable foot to work its way into…

Dramamine: the Segue Way Drug

By noon the first day the sea was really rolling and sea sickness was a definite. I tried to stifle it as I was the rookie and had something to prove; I didn’t want to be the first one down. But as evening came and the winds picked up we started hitting 10 to 12 foot seas, my green hue gave me away and I took a dose of Dramamine. As luck would have it, Dillon, our deckhand, was actually the first one to feed the fish, but I was soon to follow…

At sunset the crew began watchkeeping in four hour shifts and between shifts most people slept or read. As the crew awoke for each shift they helped themselves to sandwiches, some pasta that was made by a crew member sympathetic to my seasickness, and copious amounts of junk food; “chockies” as they called them – Cadbury bars, mini Hershey bars, mini Almond Joys, and chocolate covered raisins

By 1am the first night we hit the Gulf Stream which brought warmer temperatures but 20 foot seas and gale force winds. It was only a matter of time before the entire crew was seasick, and the worst was yet to come… We took a beating all night long and the entire next day; thrashed about like a rubber ducky in a washing machine, on spin cycle; pounded senseless by 20 foot waves crashing over our bow as we sailed against the Gulf Stream. So much for the Thanksgiving dinner I had planned. Pretzels and ginger-ale were the order of the day…

The winds picked up as night rolled in and we were hammered as the waves grew to 30 feet. The crew had installed new rigging only days before our departure and in the rush to depart our trusty captain never performed a test sail or had any of the equipment checked. The cotter pins were never put in place to secure the shrouds, the piece of equipment that holds the mast to the deck, and the two main shrouds began to come lose. In rough seas and bad weather, the decky and the engineer in raingear and harnesses, tethered themselves to the deck and went out for repairs.

I was half-asleep on the couch in the pilot house with Chris and Sheila, it was 1am our second night out, Tom was on watch. As we lurched from side to side, with the explosion of waves crashing over our bow, it felt as if we were on a German U-Boat coming under enemy fire, not a mega-yacht heading for the ultra-swank island of St. Barth. We were all so sick from the constant smashing about that we disregarded the cannons, bombs and gunfire going off outside and slept right through the ruckus, but we all sprang to attention at the sound of one tremendous explosion that sounded of a direct hit on our starboard side. We opened the doors of the pilot house to find that the 50 foot; 1000 lb. boom had lost its main sheet and was swinging wildly off of the mast, crashing into the boat each time we were hit by a wave. The boom swung across the lines of the stay sail and ripped a huge mechanical wench clean off of the deck. The lose sail was adding to the already erratic lurching of the boat and it was imperative that we get the boom under control as it was threatening to crash into us and take out the pilot house completely.

Aubrey, Dillon, Tom and Chris rushed to put on their harnesses and get outside. As they tried to grab the lines of the boom, Tom filleted his hand wide open and fractured his thumb. As the guys tried to gain control of the boom, Sheila and I stayed in the pilot house keeping an eye on the radar and looking out for any crew falling overboard. Against its own force, the gigantic boom bent clean in half, like a jackknife. Sheila and I jumped as Aubrey hollered, “GET AWAY FROM THE GLASS!”.

Gripped by fear and completely nauseous I darted down the steps to the main salon wondering what kind of nightmare I had just committed myself to; this certainly was not the adventure I had signed on for and if this was how things were beginning, than I was afraid of what else might be in store. Just then, the boom came crashing through the pilot house sending the crew running and glass everywhere. Waves sloshed through the broken window as the crew lassoed the boom and secured it to the broken window.

After this all unfolded, there was no amount of Dramamine that could help my seasickness. I ran to the head, clung to the toilet for dear life, emptied the nonexistent contents of my stomach, and made my peace with God. I imagined abandoning ship and a heroic rescue at sea by the Coast Guard. I wondered to myself if I’d be able to grab my laptop before I was helicoptered to safety. I questioned how I could be so stupid as to give up my business in New York and leave my friends and family behind to put my life at risk, and I thought about all those damn nice bottles of wine that would go to waste if the boat sunk. And for the umpteenth time in seven years, I thought to myself, “good god, why did I ever decide to become a chef?”. My temperature soared and I broke into an unbelievable sweat. Paralyzed by shock and seasickness, unable to move and not knowing what else to do, I curled up on the bathroom floor fully accepting that I just might die. Sleep came on like a drug-induced coma…

The Boom in the Side of the Boat

The captain/owner sent a distress signal (also known as a pan-pan) into the Bermudan authorities still a solid two days away but at least they knew we were in distress, had our coordinates and would be following us on radar expecting our arrival by late Saturday, or sending help… My hopes for a dramatic helicopter rescue were dashed, but at least my laptop and personal stash of crew wine were safe, relatively speaking.

I awoke the next morning groggy and disoriented. We were still being pummeled by 30 foot waves and water sloshed in through broken windows in the pilot house. I hesitated moving from the safety of the bathroom floor but the owner/captain requested that I make sandwiches for the crew. I gingerly changed my clothes and made my way to the galley. Garbage strewn about from a tipped trash can, coffee grinds everywhere from the coffee maker which had ripped out of the wall, the clanging of lose jars in the cupboards and the sound of water rushing past the port holes made for a sensorial overload nearly bringing me to my knees. The smell of food was thoroughly revolting; ham and cheese was almost too much to bear, condiments were out of the question…

Ham and Cheese Sandwiches:

Yield: 6 Sandwiches

Prep Time: 2 Hours

Ingredients:

12 slices bread
6 slices ham
6 slices cheese

1. Take bread, ham and cheese from refrigerator.
2. Lie down on floor for 20 minutes and wait for nausea to pass.
3. Remove bread from bag and place on the counter.
4. Cut cheese and open ham.
5. Lie down on floor for 20 minutes and wait for nausea to pass.
6. Add ham and cheese and put on top bread.
7. Repeat steps 2 through 7.

All in all, it took about an hour and a half to make five ham and cheese sandwiches, which would never be eaten…

I crawled into my bunk, but was tossed out two times and rained on by a downpour of falling cookbooks, eventually deciding that the floor was as good a place as any to sleep. I slept for nearly 24 hours, as did almost everyone else…

Bermuda Coming into Sight

The crew was beat, our nerves frazzled and spirits sagging and when we thought we could take it no more, the seas calmed. We looked out through a tangle of rigging and bent steel and Bermuda come into view. A very, very welcome site for us all…

Setting Sail!

Dario thought it would be funny to wake us all at 7am this morning with the sound of the emergency horn on the boat. We flew out of our beds and ran towards the pilots deck as he stood there laughing. The thing was, we were all a bit hung-over from too much wine last night and he knew it…

We lifted the anchor at 8:45 this morning and after weeks and weeks of waiting and anticipation we’ve finally set sail. I watch as New York fades away into the distance and we head out to sea. New Jersey is the last bit of land that remains but in a short time that too will disappear beneath the horizon. The head sail (also known as a jib) is hoisted and floats like a dandelion in the wind. It’s absolutely majestic to watch and I’ve found a cozy little place at the bow to nap; protected from the wind and where the sun graciously offers up its warmth. Even with the winter chill in the air, I slipped into a peaceful meditation to the sound of the ocean.

We’re sharing space right now with a few giant freighters staged or heading towards New York Harbor. It’s magnificent to watch them pass by.

We should hit the Gulf Stream and warmer weather in about a day…

You can’t imagine the expanse of the ocean until you’re sailing on a boat in the middle of it, nothing around but water and knowing you won’t see land again for at least seven days.

We expect to arrive in St. Barth’s on December 5th or 6th, hopefully sooner…

120 foot boat is big. Giant, in fact, but not as big as a lot of people probably think. Or perhaps it just doesn’t feel as big as you might think. Several people commented to me that we wouldn’t even feel the waves because the boat was so big. I can assure them that is not the case. Three or four foot swells create a nice roll – and being below deck, like in the galley, can be felt quite strongly.

Now we are at sea, the boat is beginning to toss a bit and I’m not sure if I’m getting sea sick or if it’s my hang-over working one over on me. My stomach is feeling a bit nasty and I haven’t been able to eat much today. Let’s hope it’s a hangover…

At this moment, I wish that I had planned my meals a little better and not let the crew eat my MRE’s but they begged and said they couldn’t bare the idea of lamb curry sitting in the fridge and not eating it... I’m a little nervous about wobbling around the kitchen… But I’ve got pasta and marinara sauce made and I think I’m going to sauté up some shrimp to go with that. Keep it simple…

Time to nap.

Fish Out of Water

The boat in the yard:


Rigging going up:


Dillon hanging from the mast:


Today was a big day. The rigging went up; a process which took the entire day and one very big crane… The guys finished just as a giant rainstorm hit. I was in the kitchen putting away all the provisions I’d shopped for today when I heard the blip-blop of rain on the hatch. Then, I heard the scampering of feet running overhead and all the boys came barreling into the boat. It was a big accomplishment to get the rigging up, and that everything fit properly. This means that tomorrow we go into the water, and then the sails will go on. Now it is a mad dash to get everything ready to set sail on Monday or Tuesday…

I spent hours this morning on the phone talking to my meat and fish purveyors and placing orders. On Friday morning I’m picking up 160 lbs. of fish including sea bass, sea bream, salmon, halibut, cod, tilapia, calamari, shrimp and scallops. On Saturday I’ll be picking up almost 200 lbs. meat and cheese including beef, lamb, pork, quail, duck, venison, a whole proscutto, cured meats and sausages. I’m a little freaked out about how much I’ve ordered but Dario told me to provision the meat and fish for six months – including parties.

We have a deep-freeze unit, called a coffin. I’m tempted to make the crew get in just so I can figure out how much it will hold! I’m holding my breath… I’m also holding my breath to find out how much my meat order is. My fish order is $1,600! And I’m guessing my meat at about $2k. Other provisions are probably going to total another $2k. I have spreadsheets with all my prices on them and have been haggling between my purveyors for the best deals. I’ve got Quicken on my laptop now and have to keep detailed accounts of everything I spend, as well as all my receipts for Dario to go through to make sure that I stay in line and am not feeding the crew Kobe beef. I’m basically running a small restaurant on the boat. Only I’m open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the menu changes every single day…

Dario was on the boat for dinner tonight. I hadn’t expected that he would be here as he doesn’t usually stay on the boat when we are out of water at the Marina. So, this was the first time that I cooked for him. He walked into the kitchen and said, “what’s cooking, chef boy-r-dee?”. Is now a good time to tell him that I call him Papa Smurf?

I made my own version of fajitas for dinner tonight; black beans with Chorizo, sautéed Portobello mushrooms, zucchini and red onions, roasted red peppers, roasted pablanos, and fried queso fresco. The queso fresco that I found was really firm, much like Hallumi, and it cooked up really nicely. Papa Smurf asked me if I was cooking tofu, I think he was relieved that I wasn’t. Everyone, including Dario, enjoyed dinner and they said that they wished I had been there all summer (but I can honestly say, I’m glad I wasn’t because it would’ve really sucked to spend a summer in a boat yard in Staten Island).

Dario designed this sailboat and had it custom built in South Africa. It took five years to build and was completed in 1993. He had built four other 88 foot sailboats before embarking on this one, which was the realization of a dream. This past year, while the boat was in the Caribbean, the mast snapped in half. Amazingly, it didn’t cause any significant damage to the boat. But the 150 foot mast, originally built in Holland, had to be shipped back there for repairs and then back to be New York to be replaced on the boat. It took two giant cranes to get the mast back on the boat, bigger cranes than the one used today…

As I walk through the boat, I feel as though I’m in a humidor. The interior is almost entirely wood – all of it polished to a high-shine (and all the responsibility of that, thankfully, is on the steward and the deckie). It’s a very handsome boat.

Big day tomorrow, must sleep…