Lobster on a Race boat and why memorable meals are not always the fancy ones

Sorry for my blog absence, but I have been off racing the Annapolis to Newport Race and then hanging out in Newport. However , I did have what I am certain will go down in my personal great meals of all time while in Newport. It was not the hardest preparation but the environment that made it great.

While at the dock in Newport we decided to have a lobster boil on the boat. Corn on the cob, lobsters, butter, wine or beer. One pier over was where the lobstermen sold their lobsters.

So we got 1 1/4 lb lobsters for everyone who was staying on the boat at the dock and I boiled them along with corn and melted some butter. Served alongside cold beer and wine and sunset on a fast raceboat it was the perfect dinner.

Now I should stop showing you pictures of the live lobsters posed all over the boat and instead tell you how to make this happen for yourself. Ok first you sail from Annapolis to Newport in the tropical depression Andrea. Humm you say that is a little to hard. Ok then how easy are these instructions

Boiled lobster dinner

Ingredients

1 lobster per person 

1-2 ears of corn per person 

butter 

1. Obtain live lobsters you want them about 1 1/4 lbs per person. 

2. In largest pot bring water to a rolling boil

3. Put lobsters in head first one at a time prepared to put the lid on top of them so they do not snap out and boil for 18 minutes. 

4. During this 18 minutes at some point stick the husked corn on cob into the boiling water for 5-8 minutes

5. In separate pot melt the butter.

6. Using tongs remove the corn and then the lobsters from the water allowing as much as possible water to drain off. 

7. Serve with melted butter. 

8.Ideally with lobster tools but should you be on a boat not stocked with such items you may find your sailors eating it with the help on a good clean multitool 

Limeaid

Everyone makes lemonaid but in reality, I like limeaid even more. Not to mention I had a ton of limes in the house as they were on sale at the grocery store this week. So how to make this tart delicious drink
Ingredients
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice ( around 6 limes but varies by size of limes and level of juicy goodness)
4 cups cold water

How to
1. In small saucepan over medium heat stir together the 2/3 cup sugar and the 2/3 cup water using a whisk until the sugar is all dissolved. Take off heat.

2. Juice the limes until you have a 1/2 cup of lime juice. You will get more juice out if you firmly roll the uncut lime against the cutting board before cutting and juicing.
3. Pour the simple sugar mix into your container and then add 2 cups of cold water and then add the lime juice and the remaining two cups of cold water . Put the lid on and shake or stir with a spoon if no lid.
4. Pour over ice and enjoy. Lime wedge garnish is optional

Strawberries

Sorry for the delay in posting I have been visiting my folks down NC and some family things. I will be back posting again. In the mean time I harvested my first strawberries of the season this morning. Just a few and simply rinsed and eaten.

Rambutan Rum Drink -Tropical Sand

So whenever I go to the Asian market I make a point of buying some random ingredient usually a fruit of vegetable and working it into the menu for the week. This week I saw this:

They are called Rambutans and look like a cross between something from Dr Seuss and a Tribble from Star Trek. Either way neat looking. Here is a close up of one. Pretty red fuchsia colored and then with lime green spikes.

Rambutan

They are a tropical fruit and when you cut into then have a pearly inside which is the fruit you eat and it has a woody almost almond like pit which you do not eat.

See the pearly inside of the rambutan

Upon tasting one I decided it would be excellent in a rum drink. Side note: My spell check keeps thinking Rambutan is not a word and that I am trying to spell ambulant, which means mobile which you certainly will not be if you drink too many of these. 

How to make Rambutan Rum Drink I am calling Tropic Sand

Tropic Sand  makes two 

3oz Goslings Black Seal Rum 

4 Rambutan 

1 cardamon pod 

10 oz ginger beer

1 teaspoon honey

For garnish 

1 Rambutan per drink 

brown sugar 

How to make a Tropical Sand:

1. Pour 3 oz of Goslings Black Seal Rum into a heavy glass that your immersion blender fits into.

2. Smash cardamon pod and place in rum. Let extract for 5 or so minutes.

3. Harvest the flesh but not the woody seed of the rambutans and place directly into the rum.

4. When all rambutans peeled remove the cardamon pod. 

5. Add the honey and then blend with the immersion blender until the rambutans are totally pureed.

6. Rim two martini glasses with brown sugar and then pour the fruit and rum mixture between the two glasses. 

7. Add ice cold ginger beer on top and garnish with a fresh rambutan.

8. Serve. For fun I took a bit of rambutan peel and twined it around the stem of the glass. 

Wednesday Night Racing- 1st night

This means summer is officially here. Last night was the first night of Wednesday night racing. Thursday night racing has been going on for several weeks but this means my summer schedule is now set. My Wednesday night boat indulges in a swig each of Mt Gay Extra Old at the end of every race if we win. Someone that taste of Extra Old last night sealed it. First night and summer sailing season has begun, and tastes like good rum.

Running Aground:What happened and what to do

So I was sailing on a friends boat today. She just bought into a boat share which is nice but she does not have much experience running this boat nor in the area that her new marina is. She is good crew but normally does not skipper. She made a mistake which was novice and ran aground. Her novice mistake was failing to keep the green channel marker on her right while leaving the channel and thus going into a shallow area. Remember the saying is
"Green when going
Red right return"
That means you need the green markers on your right when going out and red markers on the right when returning back to the dock. This rule applies in North America but not Europe.

So what to do when you run aground? Well it is a lot better when you ground on muck like we did.
If you ground
1. Assess to make sure no crew hurt themselves and that no water is coming in the hull. If good then:
2. Figure out where the deeper water is.
3. If lightly aground you may be able to slowly go in reverse and unground. Be careful to not overheat your engine and gun it reversing can bring muck into the engine and cause overheating.
4. You can in a sailboat move the boat weight  to heeling on one side to allow the keel to raise up and not drag and thus get off the ground as in sailboats the keel is usually the lowest part.
5. You can kedge ie throw the anchor off in direction of deep water and use it to pull yourself in that direction and then do this again and again until you are in deep water.
6. You can wait for the tide to rise.
7. If you have a dingy you can use the dingy to pull or to get the anchor out further for kedging.
8. Hail a friendly boat to help you tow out or call SeaTow or Towboat US.

We used a combo of 1-4 to get off this time and then continued on for a nice remaining sail.
But the best thing is to avoid running aground all together as you are much safer. I know friends who have been in  serious accidents and done major boat damage when their vessels ran aground.

Tres de mayo potluck sailing club party.

I try and keep notes on how parties I organize go. This was not my personal party but one I organized for social part of sailing club.
People :

47 at max about 60 total

Food:
Taco theme. 

20lbs taco meat,

150oz worth bean and onion vegetarian taco mix

6 heads lettuce shredded

case of 200 taco shells

40 oz sour cream

1 lb shredded cheese

16 oz salsa

Potluck for drinks desserts and sides. 

Tons of sombreros

Weather 

mid 60's high winds. High winds under pavillion were an issue but we found out that a truck jack thing will lower the sides of the pavillion after everything on the tables were blowing away the first time.

Next time/lessons:
More taco meat more beans more lettuce we had more people then expected. 
Thia was a huge success and we actually had a great time the music provided by Chris was fantastic! Overall I would've if I could do it again had much more taco meat even though the prior year we'd only gone through 15 pounds of taco meat. This year we had a much better showing the weather was better and this contributed to a much larger number of people coming.