"When I think of all the fools I've been, it's a wonder that I've sailed this many miles." -Guy Clark

Saturday, April 23, 2016

less than a month, and counting (literally)


Less than a month away from the spring sail and I'm sorting through gear.  A survey of batteries, mainly AA lithiums, showed I had almost 30 which is enough for the gps (which seems to eat batteries for breakfast).


As for the gps itself, a Garmin GPSmap 62s, I went into the main menu track manager and deleted all the stored and archived tracks, some dating back a few years.  No need to take up all that storage.  Plus I went through all the pages to make sure all the data boxes had the correct settings (on the start of my last sail I found the speed in knots and distances in nautical miles, I prefer miles and mph).


And a survey of the food shows I've got plenty on hand.  I picked up the nuts - peanuts, cashews and almonds - yesterday.  In the next week or two I'll get the dried fruit.

Webb Chiles, artist, sailor, author and connoisseur of freeze dried meals, recently had a journal entry with his suggestions for slight adjustments to cooking instructions to get the best results.  His ideas are copied below.  I will follow the first, third and fourth instructions, but not third as I do not cook while sailing and an anchored Spartina is steady enough to pour boiling water, nor the fifth because I do not carry wine on board.

        Five cooking tips from the JetBoil of Chef Webb.
        Add a little more water than called for.  With freeze dry food, too much is far better than too little.
        Do not try to pour boiling water into the pouch at sea.  The mouth is too narrow.  You will pour boiling water on yourself and the cabin sole.  Put the contents of the pouch into something like the big plastic measuring cup I eat from and pour the water into it and then cover with something, even a paper towel will do.
        After you add the water, stir the ingredients well and be sure all are wet.
        Let the meals steep a couple of minutes longer than the stated time.
        If appropriate, and it almost always is, add a little wine to the dry ingredients before boiling the water.

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