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Starblazer - 30/01/2013 – Fish for dinner but….



There were few memorable events on Friday but one gave us pause for thought.
We have noticed that when a darkish cloud passes over us the wind often
freshens and alters direction then settles back to its previous strength and
direction. There is occasionally a little light rain but these cells do not
always show up on radar. During the morning radio net I was in the cockpit
when suddenly the wind whistled up from 16 to 28 knots and backed 30o. I
quickly punched a 30o course alteration into the autopilot control and the
sails coped admirably as we got the wind back behind us as the gust
subsided. A few minutes later we were hit by another gust at the same time
as a large wave knocked us sideways. The autopilot couldn’t cope and just
squawked nosily, showing an ‘off course’ error. I shot across the cockpit
to cancel the alarm which was probably the wrong reaction. Fortunately John
rushed up on deck from the radio net and hand steered, back onto a course
with the wind behind us while I took over the radio.

The winds subsided but it did give us a glimpse of how quickly conditions
can cause problems. We had a great day’s sailing but every time we spotted
a cloud looming up behind us we were ready to steer if necessary. That
sentence contains my excuse for no blog yesterday, so I am writing this a
day late. During the night it was cloudy and dark; we couldn’t see if any
one patch of cloud was darker or more threatening than any other and thus
had no warning of potential wind squalls, wind shifts etc. and I didn’t feel
comfortable sitting at the chart table typing a blog.

News from the galley: I made some very tasty orange muffins from a South
African cookery book I bought in Cape Town. They were very quick and easy
to throw together; it’s a recipe I shall make again. We did have fish for
dinner but sadly the local fish population declined to grace our plates! I
found two slightly undersized hake fillets in the freezer so made a fish
pie, combining them with sweetcorn (tinned), carrots (as fresh as 4 weeks in
store can be) and Surprise peas in a white sauce topped with mashed potato.

For ‘younger’ readers I perhaps need to explain ‘Surprise’ peas. In the
early 1960’s in the UK domestic freezers were not available, many homes didn’t
even have refrigerators, so peas were highly seasonal or tinned. Someone
came up with the idea of freeze drying peas, retaining all the flavour
(sadly lacking in the tinned variety), easily stored in small boxes and
rehydrated by boiling in water for about 10 minutes. A decade later
domestic sized freezers were becoming more common which led to a huge
expansion in the frozen food market, frozen peas fast became part of our
staple diet. I had all but forgotten Surprise Peas until I discovered them
in a New Zealand supermarket! They are a wonderful addition to a cruising
yacht’s food stores, now packaged in small polythene bags, taking up
significantly less storage space, weighing far less and, to my mind, being
far tastier than their canned brethren. I also found some Homebrand Peas in
a slightly larger, slightly cheaper packet which taste just as good.

Joyce

I should explain that I had a Saturday job in a grocery shop during the
early 1960’s which is how I know a little of the history of peas on the
British dinner table. I am not so old that I was cooking family dinners
then!





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