New Canvas on My Sailboat and Other Improvements

Been awhile since I've given the old Enola update. 

Me and my guy Nando are always working on something - me dreaming, him executing! 

I got a new parchment colored canvas bimini (witn new stainless steel frame) and all hatch covers.  Holy moly - what a difference that light makes.  And now you can stand up while at the helm.  The green was beyond tired and falling apart. 

I just replaced the stove.  I mean, this new one just lights right up.  Guess I've been used to living on the Flo Bo where I need a lighter to light mine.  It's like I've entered a new life with this small gesture. 

I installed a little TV with a mini DVD player.  Of course, all the varnish works needs to be done and redone.  I'm having her painted a new fresh shade of green while I'm away in Indo, as well as having her bottom painted.

I'm on the make for a full radar, chartplotter set up - you know, for the long hauls I anticipate doing someday.  Time to put in the watermaker as soon as I can located it in storage!  I need an autopilot.  I of course need a bit more comfy mattress with some new thread counts. 

Oh, and since I posted last on her, I changed her slip.  She's now right on the main channel for easier in and out access.  Not sure if I ever wrote about the fiasco when me and Lis took her out last (engine died, slip closed in on us, controls caught in the gate...almost never came back and headed straight to Mexico) - it was horrifying.  I'm gonna work this summer to build back up the confidence that was RIPPED FROM MY ENTIRE BEING with that one little dramatic event.  Oh, and about a billion people were out on a Sunday.  Christ.  Anyhow, new slip is much, much better and all the seals and sea lions literally live in my back yard.  Just a nice way to begin or end the day.

Anyhow - the more time I spend on her, the more things I find to tweak.  Nando is always painting something, replacing a hose for this or that, making her look really special.

I just love this vessel.  And oddly, the old owners who sold it to the dude I bought it from reached out the other day.  They were trying to hunt her down and found her via the Tooth.  Must mean she haunts).

And BTW, Enola is the name of the little girl in the movie Waterworld that everyone was looking for - she had the only map to dry land tattooed on her back.  I know Enola is ALONE backwards (which I love), but to finally know from the original owners why they named her that is cool.  I dig alone, though... 

PS, these are iphone photos, so sorry the quality.  And, I don't have the cushions out, but when I do...very cute indeed!

Oh - and just realized that the tempered butter in the last post was at Frasca in Colorado - NOT Casa de Mita in Mexico.  Must have been cause I am planning a trip back to CdM that they made their way into that entry.  Unreal.  They have great butter too:))

 

Tempered Butter, Cleanses and the Art of Making Your Own Grub

My new fiscal year...

Been on a bit of a cleanse lately.  1000 days in Jersey will do that to you.  I'm just over feeling grody when I eat.  So, I cut it all out for a bit.  Killed off the gluten, the dairy, the sugar, the caffeine, the grease :).  Feeling pretty good and gonna rock it til the end of the month, see what that does for the mind fog. 

Of course, this has me literally day dreaming about what I will toss back the minute months end is here (and PS just before I go back to Indonesia, finally!!).  Eggs with cream cheese?  Spaghetti with loads of butter?  Taco fest galore?  I dunno, nothing even sounds that good right now cause I've been making all kinds of good stuff.  Homemade celery salt - it makes the jarred kind taste like ashes.  Last night I did a veggie lasagne (the noodles were squash and zucchini) with a Vitamix whipped up cashew cheese.  Literally delish.  I was floored.  But, ya gotta think about it, and plan it and shop for it.  The Mar Vista farmers market on Sunday and my CSA is the best place to get it all done.  It you could even witness my smoothie revamp.  Every super food from S. America is tossed into the AM one...not that I feel like a mil - but way, way better than before.  Whenever before was...

Oh yes - I was supposed to lay off alcohol, but that ones been a tad hard - at least it's just been really good Pinot Noirs'.   Not 1/2 dozen margaritas (I do use good tequila though).  Interesting to see what all jacks the mind and bod - and clearly, it's all that I cut out.  Cause not once in this little sojurn have I been sick from food.  Real amazing to know.  This will tell me all that I'm allergic to once I get back on the regular life eating.  But, good thing is - I'll just have to be thinking about what I eat more than not.  I've always been the best eater I know...so it will be primo to see how I lay out my decision making process, especially when I'm taking some long trips later this year.  Where, oh where, shall I end up?

Meanwhile, ever had tempered butter?  I had some down at Casa de Mita in Mexico with each meal and it was like God's candy (as Lisa would say).  Every meal, I would solo house this creamy/thick butter and just knew it was from another land.  This is not the way normal butter tastes.  Of course, leave it to CdM to come up with next level butter. And, leave it to me to figure out how to re-introduce it to my every day at the end of this journey.  It's something to behold.

 

Radioactive Fish Cause to go Vegan?

A new hunt begins...

I've flirted with going vegan for years.  It's what my blood type calls for.  It's more ethical to my soul.  However, I love the water and all that comes out of it.  Buckets of sashimi, grilled red snapper, smoked trout, bags of oysters, peel-and-eat shrimp, arctic char stew.  I adore it all.

But, now that bluefin tuna has been reported on as being radioactive (Oh, Japan)...holy moly.  It's like my world has flipped upside down.  Last night I was thinking - hell, now everyone will be asking for farmed fish (which has its own set of horrific problems).  Not to mention, that it seems that all Gulf shrimp now have no eyes.  Christ.

Is the ocean ruined from the nuclear leak in Japan?  Probably.  All this madness is starting to wash up in Oregon.  HUGE floating docks (oddly enough, what you would build your own personal FLO BO on - per my dad) have made their way thousands of miles across the sea and plopped themselves onto the Oregonian shore.  Guess what came with them?  Loads of invasive species that hitchhiked their way across the sea on a radioactive floating dock.  The Oregon folks cleaned them all off and buried them, but still - it's not known if they hatched anything.  I mean - how the heck are you supposed to keep eating when you start to listen to the world out there?

This all brings me to land.  The Bud (my dad) says 2015 and Japan will be no more.  80% of folks there now are exhibiting flu like symptoms.   And 50 million tons of debris is headed this way - which will hit from Alasaka to Mexico.  Payback and karma.  Unreal to even contemplate in this world.

Soooo....I've moved into researching land in the southern hemisphere, where there is water on it.  Lord knows what happens here  in the next year or so.  Or 10.  Nice to have it narrowed down.  South Africa, Indonesia, Ecuador, Peru.  All options. Just look south of the Equator.

I'm just sayin - do a little research.  Watch what you put in your mouth.  It's FREAKY-DEAKY...and I shant be having sushi anytime soon.

Bluefin tuna is a deepwater fish.  Think about what swims above it...