rudderless

Random Things from the Galley, and beyond

1. Quinoa was not a hit. I inherited about fifteen pounds of it from a lovely couple leaving their boat for the summer. It cooks wicked fast, it’s healthy. I just need to get them to like it.
2. Taco mix. Also not a hit. We don’t do many of the quick-fix sauces and stuff at the supermarket and here I am reminded of why. Not a hit.
3. Trader Joe’s kitchen towels are awesome. If they were twice as big they’d be perfect. I will be buying another 4 or so when I’m in Atlanta this weekend. They dry fast, soak up tons, and are perfect for throwing on a flat surface when I’m washing dishes.
4. Dishes. I wash all of our bowls everyday. We use them constantly, it seems. And loads of kid’s IKEA plates. Constant. I do miss the dish washer, I will admit. Could care less about the microwave and other appliances, but do not take your dish washers for granted, landlubbers.
5. Coffee grounds? Bane of my existence. The sink doesn’t drain directly overboard- I have to pump it out, so we try to minimize the stuff that gets in those hoses, for fear it will sit and fester and smell. This is just one of a great many quirks of the boat that we didn’t change, thinking that there must have been a good reason for doing it that way. But seriously, if we ever do change it, I will not. Repeat WILL NOT miss scraping wet coffee grounds out of the bottom of that sink (that never fully empties). No matter how carefully I dump the French press, they sneak in.
6. The oven continues to impress. We made a pizza!
7. For our grand voyage I will be packing eight hundred loaves of bread, six dozen jars of peanut butter, and four dozen jars of jam. Clearly our children can survive on this ration for months at a time. John and I are suffering from the sameness, but them? They will never tire of the PB&J.

Speaking of whom, Rosy got two of her canines (teeth) this week. I’ve said it before, but teething is the big awful thing of the first two years that nobody warned me about. Visions of reliving the teething years=best birth control on the block. Two teeth to go, for now. Relief is setting in.

Meanwhile, Sophie has pink eye. John has predicted we will all fall victim to it by the end of the week. Living in 33 feet does have its challenges when it comes to managing contagions. She said before bed, “I tried not to touch Rosy all day!”

The girls and I leave for Atlanta this weekend and John has a slew of new things to play with- non-skid paint, a new radar tower, a fuel tank to install, a DC system to work out. We got a good quote for a dodger, so that’s coming along. Every day, a little more.

Sophie and I read a Jon Muth book tonight and while she was more taken with the panda bear illustrations than the Buddhist undertones, she made me read it twice. I love the end: “Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world.”

In our rush of getting ready, it’s easy to look beyond the here and now. The weather is heating up, we have a zillion things to juggle, parts to order and install, bills to pay. But when we stop and have a meal, take a walk, read a book, we are doing something just as important. For them, especially.

Highs and Lows

First, the drama.
Wordpress dumped my post from last night. Ugh.
Rosy threw up on me twice today, in the parking lot of West Marine. It reminded me of Sophie’s stomach bug on the transatlantic flight back from Germany. When you’re so thrilled that somehow you have extra clothes, not only for the kid, but also for yourself. I think in Rosy’s case, it was brought on by too much party food. Let’s hope. Then, at dinner, Sophie spilled an enormous soda all over our table, cushions, and the library books under the table. I can’t decide which was the highlight of my day.

Speaking of highlights, my sister is engaged!!! Whoo-hooo! Sophie said, “Do you think I’ll be invited to the wedding? So I can wear a beautiful dress????!!!” Congratulations Corey and Su!

This week the mainsail went up and that means I need to get cracking on a sailcover. We’ve already had one dude flake out on our dodger project, so we’re off to recruit the next stoner in town. The Keys Disease is something we won’t miss.

John got most of the engine systems completed this week. Exhaust, vented loop, seawater intake, fuel tank, insanely-difficult-to-locate fuel filters. My grandfather would have had a laugh over the search for the German Mercedes-Benz filters we ended up putting in our Danish diesel. I’m not sure why, but he would have had something to say about the ordeal, appreciating the ridiculousness and the worldliness all at once. I miss that man.

We are at that stage I remember so well from our first boat. It was some night in August, 2004. John worked all day doing the last wiring and hose clamping. The sun had set by the time we got Rubi’s engine to start and we went puttering down the Chelsea Creek in Boston, never so thrilled to hear the chugging of a diesel engine. To be underway again. It’s just magic. It still amazes both of us that we put that engine in, top to bottom, beds and shaft and all, and it ran like a top for 1700 miles. If we can only be so lucky again.

So between the engine and the sails, this little boat may be taking a trip one day sooner than later! Fingers crossed, eh?

And this is our crew:

Playing

The ladies have been playing on the boat, but it’s funny to watch how the different space has changed their needs. They tend to focus on one toy at a time. One task- coloring, swaddling the babies, jumping off the step onto the cabin sole, again and again. The stuffed things have been a hit, as they fit in well in the forepeak, which is one giant bed. The toy trucks and trains haven’t seen much use. The colored pencils are used six times a day (we’ve banned markers on the boat, with our nice new upholstery). They have been into the play food, and dress-up occasionally. I have a wishlist for Roo’s birthday and everyday occasions, which I’m compiling for me, but also for family and friends who wonder what kids on a boat might like. We have to avoid sharp edges or points, things with tiny parts, toys that can become weapons (our beloved dragon got shelved for the reason!). I’m filing this away for June 27th. Not long from now- frighteningly enough!

-More playsilks (we have blue and green), as they use them all the time, for capes, flags, blankets, burkhas.
-Ferby colored pencils. They are the best and John even found a wicked cool sharpener for them. Sophie uses them all day long. I need to get a couple of sketchbooks so cleanup is easier and they have an ongoing forum for the scribbling.
-Lyra crayons. Rosy uses these. Basically any writing device that can leave marks on its own when dropped onto a cushion has no business near Rosy.
-Cool workbooks and coloring books. Sophie’s ready for the cool Taro Gomi editions.
-Doll diapers. That fit Blabla dolls. Rosy loves to reenact our bedtime routines, complete with “nighttime diapers.”
-Books books books, especially paperbacks we can squirrel away.
-iTunes credits. Books on tape, TV shows, new music. We are addicted to iTunes. All of us.
-Stationary. My parents sent Sophie some stamps a few weeks ago and you’d have thought she’d received gold coins. This kid loves mail.

In other news, John just raised the mainsail. First time in who knows how many years. Talk about liberating . . .

Another Week

Another week, another few dozen projects. The overhead is slowly going in, the stove done (thanks, John!), the boom and mainsail, the running backstays, the engine filters, the fuel tank, the radar tower, the DC electronics, the solar controller, sail covers . . . the list goes on. The girls are recovering from the egg hunt overload and received some sweet stuffed things from their grandparents. The stuffed animals are almost as popular as the crayons these days. It’s funny how so many of their toys have gone forgotten and unused since we’ve moved aboard. A whole new place means a whole new way to play.

Speaking of playing. One of our oldest friends in the harbor just got himself a new dog, Fluffy. Sophie has found a new best friend. Something to really chase! Fluffy joins a family of Golden Retrievers aboard Tevake, our friend Chris’s boat. Here’s one of his predecessors, Knuckles, back in 2005.

And for inspiration, I’m thrilled to be following Behan Gifford’s updates as she and her family make their way to the Marquesas. They are two days out of Mexico and posting onto their blog via radio (magic ham technology!). It’s better than any miniseries.

The Galley

Yesterday John hooked up a propane tank to the stove that came on the boat. The glorious, three-burner stove with an oven. We’d been cooking on a camp stove, which worked well enough(we fed ourselves for two years on the original Rubi with a Coleman propane camp stove!), but WOW, this thing rocks my liveaboard world.

Our celebratory dinner was a cabbage/sausage/noodle jubilee. We are cabbage fans on this boat. Simple, sauteed cabbage is so cheap and easy and so delicious. We eat it all the time.

But this? This is a great recipe. A pasta recipe that truly comes together in one pot. We loved it. The girls devoured it. It’s our new favorite pasta.

Treehugging Tuesday- SOAP!

A few weeks ago my liveaboard friend Behan left this comment: “In the realm of small things: speaking of fish-friendly detergent, there is this old cruising myth about Joy. Liveaboards / cruisers are supposed to love it “because it gives suds in salt water.” Somehow I don’t think it’s fish friendly, although I can’t point to a reference. And… why the fuss about suds? They’re not necessary to get clean, right? The friendly stuff still seems to work just fine. How on earth- (Earth!) can we get this myth dispelled?”

Truly, eh? We’ve tried to do without petroleum-based soaps for a couple of year now, even off the boat. Now that we’re on the boat, when I pump my sink water overboard every day, I can’t imagine using anything but biodegradable, fish-safe soap. It’s my responsibility to do stuff like that, eh? There was certainly a time, on our old boat, when we indulged in our old friends Joy and Dawn. But in the last two years or so, there are so many choices in the realm of cleaning supplies, it wouldn’t even occur to me to buy the other stuff. So, like Behan asked, why do people do it?

I assume it’s habit. It’s what you’ve always known. I can understand that. You assume the other stuff works better with its rinse agents and sudsing properties. It might, but you’re probably using too much of it anyway. It can be cheaper, certainly. But the best advice someone gave me a while back is to dilute, dilute, dilute. The soap companies want more of your business. Things have become so super-concentrated lately that you can easily replace half the soap bottle with water and still have an effective solution. The same is true of laundry detergents. If your clothes smell strongly of detergent, you’re using more than you need. Half the recommended amount will suffice in most cases. For the same reason you use less with cloth diapers, use less in normal loads. Lots of soap causes it to build up on your clothes. When we first tried Charlie’s Soap- a washing soda-based natural cleaner, they recommended running a few loads of their soap and water through the machine, just to eliminate the nasty detergent residue. Eww. It does wonders for cloth diapers.

Use better stuff, use less, and if you’re a sucker for scents, I can whole-heartedly recommend Seventh Generation’s dish soap and laundry detergent. It smells like something you might actually find in nature, not to mention that it’s made from the good stuff.

And speaking of laundry- here’s the new normal. IKEA octopus with wind blowing down the hatch. Good times.

Twenty-One Months

Dear Roo,

Happy Month Twenty-One! I feel like every day you shed another layer of babydom. Potty training, running and now skipping, singing songs, enjoying the quiet of a long car ride (wow, to think the epic STRESS of car travel might be over), talking talking talking, pretending, coloring, cutting “noodles” of Playdough. The only thing left is Booby. Your beloved connection back to babyhood. All curled up in my lap, as sweet and soft as you were on this day twenty-one months ago. Your canines are coming in and that’s exascerbated the need for Booooo-beeee. I’m not sure if you’ll be giving it up anytime soon. There are days when I want that more than anything. Some space, some sleep. But I also know that this is my last chance to feel connected to a baby. Wow, my last baby is almost a little girl.

This has been the month of the boat. You’ve been a trooper through it all. At times maddening with the mess and merry-making. The tumbling acts and the lack of volume control. But you’ve also grown up and adapted to the changes like the smart, loving girl that you are. My other favorite firsts have been the kisses you peck your lips for, the true hugs, the “I Wuv Yous.” The questions – “What happen, Daddy?” “What dat?” and the long cries of “Here MY come!!” You imitate Sophie’s games to a T. “Skip to My Lou” is the new favorite song, loaders and backhoes still a roadside obsession. You had your first fat lip, falling headlong into a puddle. You’ve also been swimming like a fish- as coordinated and determined in the water as you are on land. Next year you’ll be jumping off the stern and swimming around the boat, I’m quite sure.

I say it every month, but you are a shining light, so bright and cute that we can barely look at you sometimes. Especially in the morning with bedhead. You are the one and only Rosy. Apple of our eyes. So funny. So COOOT. So very you.

I love you to pieces in the fire (as your great-grandmother used to say),
mama

Just a Day

Today was a big day here on the boat. This morning John solved our big computer issue. Our boat is steel, so any Wifi signal we receive from the marina, or surrounding businesses, basically stops at our companionway. If we were ever going to surf the web or talk to our family on the webcam from the cozy confines down below, we needed a way to get that signal down into the boat and into the computer. 5-Mile Wifi sent us an antenna and some nifty cables and voila, problem solved. I read a magazine article recently about homesteading and building off the grid. When a veteran housebuilder was asked what his first step would be, he said, a strong internet connection. It allows us to do the research we need to do, to get ideas, to secure the strange engine parts we might need. To read forums, blogs, to write, to stay connected. And no matter how romantic it might seem to be out of touch for a while, living on the boat is not something we do for vacation. It’s our everyday. And in that way, we need to be connected.

We spent the other half of the day tackling the overhead together- the styrofoam/plywood/vinyl sandwich that has to go on the underside of our steel. Teamwork made it bearable, but both of us will be so glad to move onto our more mentally stimulating tasks- the engine for John, the sailcovers and other canvas for me. It’s not hard work, it’s just annoying work.

The girls were wonderfully patient, moving through all of their onboard activites like champs. Coloring, letter-writing, tumbling, present-making, playdough, putting the stuffed animals to bed, napping, eating, DVDs, an inordinate amount of time in the head (seriously, I feel like we take them to pee all day long). Just another day to them. Which ended with a swim in the ocean. Their heaven.

Every time I watch them gleefully, confidently swim away from me, it’s proof positive that we’ve made the right choices. This is where we should be. Styrofoam showers and all.

Karma

Last week, on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day, I was in the cockpit trying to use the internet. John was putting Sophie to bed. I heard a woman’s voice- faintly, saying something along the lines of, “almost, almost, get it, get it, get it, oh oh oh . . .” You know where my mind went- we live in close quarters with our neighbors, open hatches, blah blah. Then she started screeching, and I was relieved at the thought that it might be over with. Just then John appears and says, “Is she yelling HELP?” He went to investigate and sure enough, she and her equally-as-intoxicated husband were swimming around the marina looking for a way to get up, having fallen off their dinghy. John and some neighbors helped them up and tucked them in to sleep off their Guinness. But wow . . . I hope my neighbor’s head isn’t in the gutter when I need saving.

The story reminds me of a larger issue that’s plagued me for a long time. I can be so utterly convinced that one thing is happening, or that one process or direction is going to work, that I shove off any thoughts to the contrary. Buddha would say that I am attached. Attached, to my own detriment, to one outcome or thought. It’s a lesson I am working through. I got caught by it this week, working on the overhead insulation. It’s a simple process that, for some reason I was making more complicated by insisting on reusing materials and creating this jigsaw headache of styrofoam. The solution is using big pieces that we can fabricate easily, and remove easily. Duh. But I couldn’t hear the lady’s voice in the back of my head. Or see what was really in front of me.

I am probably the last woman on earth to have read Eat, Pray, Love. At some point Elizabeth describes karma, and does it well- “This is the supreme lesson of karma- take care of the problem now, or else you’ll just have to suffer again later when you screw everything up the next time. And that repetition of suffering- that’s hell.” Let me remember that when we’re halfway to Cape May.

My styrofoam karma. Coming back to get me.

One Pot Corned Beef!

Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Veg

My parents bought us a pressure cooker for a wedding gift and over the years, I have expanded my repertoire. It’s brilliant on a boat, as it packs a big punch- one-pot meals that taste like you’ve worked all day making them. When really? They took half an hour under pressure . . . this recipe follows that approach. Celebration food in just over an hour. It doesn’t get much better.

3-4 lbs corned beef brisket
8-10 small boiling potatoes, peeled
A few handfuls baby carrots
1-2 onions, cut in half

Cut the corned beef in half, such that it will fit in your pressure cooker.
Cover it with water and add the pickling spices that come with it.
Bring to high pressure, then lower heat to stabilize, cook for an hour.

Release pressure with cold water, remove beef and tent on a plate. Add veggies and bring back to high heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes then release pressure again with cold water. Check to see if veggies are tender and if not, simmer until done.

Serve with crusty bread and cabbage- you could add cabbage at the end and repressurize for a minute or so to cook it. But we love shredded, sautéed cabbage. It cooks fast and is never soggy. The other must-have: horseradish sauce. Some friends served us pork tenderloin with horseradish sauce and I have never loked back. Addiction is a fine thing when it goes so well with so many delicious dinners.