What are we eating under such rough conditions you may ask? Well, we're not as ambitious about cooking as some of our friends so we don't prepare meals ahead of departure, seal them in vacuum bags, freeze them (no room in the freezer), and then pop them in boiling water when the seas are rough. Personally my appetite goes way down and it's all I can do to force myself to drink enough water and eat much of anything.
So far we've finished one out of two "hands" of apple bananas, John's eaten one of his five rapidly ripening papayas, and I'm working my way through the Fuji apples. For protein and carbs we're eating peanut butter sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese and crackers. The Safeway muffins showed signs of mold yesterday morning but there aren't many left and we just peel off the outer muffin top with a knife. When those are gone we'll switch to granola bars for breakfast. Last night John whipped up a packet of curry flavored ramen noodles to which he added some peanut butter. He thought it was quite a taste treat, but my stomach rebels at the thought of it.
Ziggy continues to turn up his nose at his wet (canned) food, but gets happy at the sound of the kibble bag. Since he still won't drink water voluntarily I add a little to the kibble and mix it in with the wet, but I basically have to hand feed him to get him to eat it. John caught a tuna today and Z was right there begging for some. The books all say NO FISH for cats with tendencies toward urinary tract disease, but we gave him a little anyway to entice him to eat his other food.
Thursday 4/8
Today we had the "Cooking with Captain John" show. John made our old standby - a cabbage, onion, carrot, rice bowl - and narrated it along the way. I guess I should have gotten the camera out to video it because it was pretty funny. Maybe he'll write some of the dialogue in his blog. Move over Chef Ramsey and Jamie Oliver!
Yesterday was pretty windy, but today is much better. We've gone back to our old friend, the wheel lock, to help steer the boat when the auto pilot can't handle things. This is especially important for doing any radio work (sending emails and checking into the net) which we can't do with the auto pilot. So now I don't always have to stand outside and hand steer while John takes care of those chores. John is in touch with Yves (the manufacturer) about ideas to get the Cape Horn wind vane to work again. We are keeping water (mostly) out of the boat, and have started reading books again.
Linda