Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases

LIVING ABOARD A SAILBOAT in a Nor'easter

                                                    

Snowy Rhode Island Marina!
Can you believe Christmas is next week? Every year the time flies by faster and faster! I mean, wasn't Christmas just last year? Christmas is a hectic holiday. Everyone rushing here and there trying to get the very last present to wrap and put under the tree. Yesterday, Friday December 19th, it was absolutely nuts out there on the streets. Not only is it the last shopping weekend before the holiday, but, we also are in the middle of a major Nor'easter! I expect this kind of weather in Vermont, and I was used to it after having lived there for almost 10 years. But here in Rhode Island? This was a surprise to say the least! I could understand it in January or February, but before Christmas?

                                                         

It was midnight, Friday, and I was still sitting at the computer all snuggly and warm. The wind had picked up and our 40 foot sailboat, Ladyhawk, was pitching wildly and banging against the dock. We'd already gotten 9.5 inches of the heavy white stuff and the wind was blowing around 30 mph from the Northeast. We were supposed to get another few inches to total around a foot when all was said and done. It was low tide and the ramp was as steep as it was gonna get. This makes walking down to the boat almost impossible, unless of course I want to slide all the way down on my tush! I've done that before and hit every rung going down. That ride left quite the bruises on my hiney! What were we thinking? On a boat, in Rhode Island, in the water, in the winter! Are we some kind of nuts, or what?

                                                                           

Fast forward to Saturday morning, December 20. This is what we woke up to. Eleven (11) inches of snow! It was hard digging out because of the deep drifts created by the strong Northeast winds. And cold? We're talking bitterly cold weather for the likes of Rhode Island! The normal temperature for this time of year is 40 degrees. Yesterday, the high was only 20! Take that and add 25-30 mph wind gusts from the Northeast, and it gets down-right frigid!

                                                                           

                                           

The Blizzard of '78
Although this was nothing compared to the Blizzard of '78, where many people were stranded for days without electricity, heat, water and food, it's still considered a big storm for December. I was living in Rhode Island in 1978. We had 2 little kids at the time and we did lose our electricity for 5 days. We finally had to give up and take the kids and stay with friends until power was restored.

People panic in these situations. That's why the stores were so crowded yesterday. According to Wikipedia, "The Blizzard of '78 eventually gave birth to a tradition in Southern New England known as the "bread and milk runs". After the Blizzard of '78, it became a custom in regions of Massachusetts and Rhode Island that whenever a severe storm approached, such as a hurricane or a blizzard, most Bay Staters and Rhode Islanders jammed supermarkets to buy bread and milk, while the markets tried to keep up with demand."

                                                  

Living Aboard a Sailboat in a Nor'easter
so, while everyone was busy shoveling their walks and driveways, and digging their cars out, we were shoveling our dock and the ramp to GET to the cars! John took the camera out early this morning and snapped some photos. He didn't get too many of Ladyhawk or Nirvana. He was able to get some of the dock though. At least it will give you an idea of what boats look like covered in almost a foot of snow. It can get really dangerous on icy docks. One slip and you're in the water! And don't even bother screaming for help. With the wind howling and everyone snug in their boats, you'd be lucky to be heard.

The inside of Ladyhawk is a little chilly now. At 3:00 am (yes, I'm still up writing) the temperature outside is down to 20. This morning we woke up to 15 degrees. All three electric heaters are cranked on high trying to keep up. The teak and holly sole is freezing and I have to wear slippers all the time. But don't feel sorry for me. It's not always like this. The summer more than makes up for it! For now, John and Brad are asleep, I have a hot cup of tea, Life is Good, and tomorrow is another day on the water!

                                                                              

A Snow Day is A Baking Day!
Oh, and you know what I do when I get snowed inside the boat all day? I bake and cook! I made a from-scratch real Butterscotch Pudding Cream Pie! I had a little extra that I put in a bowl for myself, and man, was that ever yummy! Stay tuned...I'll be sharing that recipe with you next week for a Tuesdays With Dorie day!

LIVING ABOARD ~ Gardening on a Sailboat

                                                  

Living & Gardening Aboard a Boat
Most of you probably have a small spot of earth that you can grow a few vegetables in. Some of you have more than that and have quite a nice plot of land with raised beds and tidy rows of lettuce. Still others have greenhouses filled with tomatoes and peppers. Me? I'm a little different. I have a very unique gardening arrangement. I do my gardening on my sailboat, Ladyhawk.

                                                                     

When we sailed off into the sunset, I left a 14' X 30' greenhouse behind, filled with organic tomato and pepper plants. My raised beds were chock full of all colors of lettuces, herbs, pole beans and cukes, and too many more incredible edibles to list! In the four years that we've been gone, I realized how much I really missed my gardens. I missed having fresh basil right outside my door, ready and waiting anytime I wanted to make a Caprese Salad Bento Box. I missed the fresh dill when I felt like making Grilled Salmon with Cucumber Dill Sauce.

                                                             

Tomato Sandwiches
But most of all, I longed for those red, ripe juicy heirloom tomatoes. You know the one. That perfect tomato you could eat right off the vine like an apple. I would cut off a hunk of fresh-out-of-the-oven sourdough bread and sneak off into the garden with a knife. First stop would be the basil patch. Just a few leaves were all I needed.

                                                                             

Then off to the greenhouse. I'd sit right down on the ground, dirt on my shorts and all, and make myself a tomato sandwich. I didn't need to wash it, just a little wipe with my denim shirt and that tomato was clean enough to eat! Forget about the napkin or paper plate. One bite into that sandwich and I had tomato juice dripping down my face and chin. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water! How bout you? Are you salivating yet?

                                                                     

         

How To Grow a Garden on a Sailboat
This was the summer I decided I was going to have a garden again. But on a boat? Where the heck was I gonna have a garden? Was the salt air going to have an effect on my veggies? How about the bees? Don't I need bees to pollinated the flowers? What about???? So I got a few pots and a friend gave me a few tomato plants. I bought some green and purple basil, some mint and lemon balm, and a HUGE purple petunia that cascaded over the bowsprit.

                                                                         

Container Gardens on a Sailboat
The mint and lemon balm took over the pot and ended up sprouting vines through the handles! The mint made the best Mojitos and Watermelon Gin Fizzes (coming soon!)!
I had so much basil that I made more than my share of Homemade Pesto for Grilled Pizzas and pasta salads. I had trouble with the cilantro and it promptly died as did my rosemary. Oh well, to the sea I say, to the sea with it! 

                                                    

One Ton Tomato!
The friend that potted the tomato for me also planted a few surpise seeds in the soil. I didn't realize this until I saw a trailing vine trying to attach itself and wind all the way up the backstay! I quickly stuck a bamboo pole into it and let it do its thing! They ended up being quite beautiful too! The tomatoes were awesome, producing tons (OK, so I'm exaggerating again) of tomatoes that made their way into many sandwiches, Panzanella Salads and Award Winning Chili.

                                                                   

            

Boat Gardens? What a Great Idea!
Our dock mates have to walk right past our boat and the trailing petunias. It was BIG and it couldn't be missed. People would stop and stare and then say, "Wow! What a great idea!" They were even more amazed when they saw the rest of the vegetable garden on our back "40"!  The back 40? Yes! Our boat is 40 feet long, and the veggie garden is on the aft deck!

                                                                              

Next year, I'm going for the window boxes! Let's see if anyone notices!
 
                                                          

LIVING ABOARD ~ Moving Into a Bigger Sailboat

                                                         
Where the Heck Have I Been?
Well, it's official. We bought a new boat. We moved into a new boat. We're cleaning the new boat, and cleaning, and cleaning... It seems to be a never ending job and right now it's a bit overwhelming. How does this make it "our" boat? I peed in the toilet and now it's mine! Isn't that what cats do when they mark their territory? They pee on something! So, I did.

You probably thought I sailed off the edge of the earth. Not quite, so let me tell you a little bit about what I've been doing with all my spare time!I should be ecstatic and doing the happy dance, but I got to tell ya, it's got me shaking in my flip-flops!
                                                                           

LADYHAWK
Although not brand new,  LADYHAWK  - a 38 foot Irwin center cockpit sailboat - is new to us and at 40 feet overall with the bowsprit, is like a Pirate Ship in comparison to our little NIRVANA! Remember "Captain Ron" with Kurt Russell and Martin Short? Rent it sometime and think of us! Gorgeous wood trim and solid louvered doors. Lots of wood. Did I say lots?

                                                                                                                                            
Hot Water!
There's so much to do and fix and make it homey. John is fine with the way it is, but I like a little comfort, a touch of home. I don't want to feel like I'm camping like we did for 4 years in NIRVANA. He hung up a couple strands of rope lights around the master stateroom and now it looks awesome! Yes! We have 2 staterooms and we can have company again! Hey! I turned the faucet on and HOT water came out of it! Buckets and buckets of the HOT stuff! You really have no idea how happy this makes me! OH, and a SQUARE bed too! My LLBean sheets finally fit after all those years of a V-shape! I have walls to hang family photos on, not just a calendar.
                                                                        
Two Heads, No Waiting!
I have 2 toilets (heads)! No waiting! There's a table that can stay down all day and night now. We don't have to fold it up when John goes to bed anymore. Counter space galore! The stove has 3 burners and not just 2. HOWEVER, it's not a brand new shiny Easy-Bake-Oven like I had with electric pilot lights. I have to turn the gas on each time and light the burners with a match or a torch. Plus, we found out the oven doesn't work. YIKES! I NEED the oven to do my job! So, after I post this, I'll be heading to Newport to buy a new thermocoupler and John will install it tonight. Then I can get back to baking and cooking!
                                                                          
Three Burners so I Can Cook More!

                                                                  
A Bigger Oven so I  Can Bake More!

Poor NIRVANA
After years of saying we needed a bigger boat, I'm sad. I cried the other night as I moved the rest of my belongings out of NIRVANA. Literally cried like a baby and then fell asleep in the V-Berth with a wet tear-stain around my face. No one was there, the boat was empty and I dozed off. I'm not sure what the problem is, whether it's that I'm so emotionally attached to that teeny boat that we lovingly took care of for 4 years or that we are so totally exhausted from trying to clean 2 boats and move from one to the other.
                                                                             

All I know, is that I feel like we've let down our best friend. Like a faithful dog or a child. We betrayed her and now we're passing her off to who-knows-who. Hopefully someone that will love her as much as we did. Someone that will enjoy the custom cabinetry my son-in-law built, the curtains my daughter and I made together and my Easy-Bake-Oven. John is gonna have a hard time too, but he won't admit it. He just spent the past week cleaning and painting NIRVANA'S bottom, waxing and buffing her hull and dressing her up like the new gal at the dance. He's after me to list the ad in the paper, online, anywhere. But I can't bring myself to do it. One thing's for sure...we can't have TWO boats!
                                                                           

Forgive Me For Not Writing!
So, that's what I've been up to for the past 2 weeks. I don't have a working oven at the time and I've been too busy to post about much of anything. I've missed two Tuesdays With Dorie projects and countless other things. Forgive me for being so lax in my writing. There is hope and light at the end of the tunnel. John will fix my oven and I can back to some normalcy with my cooking, baking, pictures and writing about it all. Thank you all so very much for sticking with me through this. I promise you more photos as things get put away and it looks like a real yacht instead of a storage unit!
                                                                      

LIVING ABOARD ~ Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Gorgeous RI Weather
The weather in Rhode Island has been exceptional lately, with each day getting warmer and sunnier. Today's temperature was around 75 with a light wind out of the southeast. The sunny day and bright blue sky made the water look even more intense, making a great backdrop for white billowy sails.  There's been a flurry of activity at the marina as all the impatient boaters want their boats in the water and ready yesterday! Kids and dogs and sailors. They all seem to go together!



Cherry Blossom Sling Margaritas
Living on the water as we do, We don't take the weather for granted. When the sun shines and the temps rise, there's only one thing to do. Break out the margaritas and have a dock party! And that's exactly what we did! John dug out our folding dock chairs and set them up on the dock next to "Nirvana". Out came the folding table (everything has to be very compact on a boat) and the margaritas! As I was browsing the Williams-Sonoma store near us one day, I noticed a new Margarita mix called "Agave 15 Margarita Mix". They had a few different flavors, but the one that tempted me the most was Cherry Blossom Sling! It was soooo red and luscious looking. According to Williams-Sonoma, "Cherry Blossom Sling creates a sweet-tart scarlet margarita that pairs Key lime with the juices of Bing, Lapin and Sweetheart cherries." That's good enough for me! I had to have it. ($16.95 for a 32 ounce bottle) On the way home, I stopped for a bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequila ($16.95) to mix with it. The 2 bottles made enough to serve a crowd! We poured it over the rocks and darned if I didn't forget the salt!

Cheers!
Here's John toasting all you poor landlubbers! Unfortunately, there's no way I can prove I was at this party as I was the one taking pictures! You'll just have to trust me on this one!
Look at those gorgeous boats in the background. They're not ours.
To go with our pretty red margaritas, we had Green Mountain Gringo Salsa and tortilla chips from Vermont.

Marinated Salmon & Brown Jasmine Rice
The entree was a huge slab of Atlantic Salmon. I really don't like salmon at all, but since we're trying to eat more fish, I decided to try it once more. This time I marinated it in a garlic, wine and herb packaged mix that you add water, vinegar and oil to. I slid it right into a Ziploc bag (the fishy never touched my hands) and it stewed in the marinade for about 30 minutes. I like to grill the fish outside cause I just don't like stinkin' up the insides of my boat! But grilling fish can be a real bummer if the fish flakes off and slides into the coals! To remedy this problem, we've taken to grilling our fish in a heavy-duty foil packet. I slid the fish onto a big piece of foil (again, the fishy never touched human hands) and topped it with sliced onions, yellow peppers and juicy red tomatoes.
                                                                              

Doesn't it look delicious? I folded the foil at the top and pinched off the sides and it was ready to take to the grill. John cooked it for about 20-25 minutes ~ it doesn't take long. Check it a few times cause there's nothing worse than dry salmon!

I served it along side a wonderfully fragrant brown jasmine rice and Ginger-Lime Sauce. It was awesome! There was virtually no clean-up because the foil packet went right in the garbage!

And the best part? We ate it "Just sittin' on the dock of the bay, Wastin' time"!

(Otis Redding recorded the lyrics to his song "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" just a few days before a plane crash took his life in 1967.)

LIVING ABOARD ~ MY LIFE ON A SAILBOAT ~ PART II

                                                            
LIVING ON A SAILBOAT ~ ARE WE CRAZY? ~ Part II
By the middle of July, it was time to say Goodbye. After a mind-blowing Bon Voyage Party, we were on our way. Just like that, we felt like a couple of contestants on a new reality TV show! The "Dream" was to run away and sail down the coast. The "Prize" was supposed to be anyplace warmer than Vermont and then finally the Bahamas.
We motored down the Champlain Canal, the Hudson River, took a left at Manhattan, up Long Island Sound and into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. It was a glorious 13 day trip, stopping and anchoring along the way. The plan was to visit friends for 2 months, say See-Ya-Later and continue down the coast to North Carolina in time for winter. We didn't win first place, but we were runners-up!

                                                                     
MARINA LIVING
Things don't always work out the way you want. Almost four years later, we're still in Rhode Island, living on our 30 foot pimped out Pearson sailboat. Our address is a marina with a swimming pool, brand new bathrooms, showers and washers and dryers. "NIRVANA" is tied to a dock with high-speed internet, air conditioning and a million dollar view. We have waterfront property all year round ~ and yes, that also means we live on the boat in the dead of winter! There have been times when we've had 8" of ice around the boat and I slid all the way down the ramp on my butt! OUCH! We've dropped things overboard, had mechanical breakdowns, lived through a blizzard and gone through some horrible storms.
                                                                           
MY "EASY BAKE OVEN"
I traded in the big bakery equipment for a two burner gas stove with an "Easy Bake Oven" and a hand mixer. It's truly amazing what I can produce in such a small space. I have all my professional chef's knives, kitchen gadgets galore and my Pampered Chef stuff. My galley (that's what you call the kitchen on a boat) is tricked out with more gadgets than most chef's home kitchens! We don't have hot water or a shower and just got a fridge 6 months ago. There's a composting toilet in the head (that's a bathroom in a boat) and a wind generator for our 12 volt power. We have a TV, but we can only watch dvd's on it. I have my laptop and a great stereo system with all the music one could want.
                                                                            
SEALS AND SNOW
We have two cars in the parking lot and my hubby goes to work every day. There's fish to catch, sunsets to watch, snow to shovel and a full moon to kiss under. We have people over for dinner and dock parties in the summer. There's a grill at the top of the dock and lots of friends to share food, wine and fun with. We've been visited by seals and swans, kids and grandchildren. There's always a holiday to celebrate and we decorate with Christmas lights and a wreath. We're really no different than you, only our house floats! Life is good.
                                                                      
Even though I dream of drinking margaritas on a warm sandy beach, I still love my little boat. Don't get me wrong,  a bigger boat, a shower and a square bed would be nice ~ like in the near future! I can't imagine another lifestyle other than the one we're living right now.

                                                                            
BON VOYAGE!
So, what do you think about that? Are we crazy or are you envious? If you still can't believe it, feel free to pick what's left of my brain!
                                                                              

LIVING ABOARD ~ MY LIFE ON A SAILBOAT ~ PART I

                                                         
MY LIFE ON A SAILBOAT ~ Part I
I realized the other day that many of you have no idea who I am or how I live. My name is Donna and John is my husband. We live a very unusual life.

You would think that because I bake, cook and drink wine, that I would have a big fancy kitchen with stainless appliances and a huge oven. Sorry to disappoint you, but that was in our former life as bakers and caterers. Gone are the Kitchen Aid mixers, 10 burner stove, 30 quart mixer and convection oven.

Most of you probably live in a house with four walls, a basement and hot water.  Square beds, refrigerators and more than one shower. Many people think we live just like they do. Not even close!

Enter my world. Here's a quick ten minute tour of My Life On a Sailboat.
We started boating around 7 years ago on Lake Champlain in Vermont. We loved the mountains, but the peace we found on the water was like therapy to our tired souls. We were catering and baking big time, and it wasn't long after we started boating that we got burned out. It's like the flame went out one day and we knew we had to do something different with our lives.

We gave our four grown children two years notice that we had decided to do something crazy. We let  the inn know 10 months prior to leaving to start thinking about a replacement. Surprisingly, our kids were fine with it, albeit a bit sad at the thought of losing us. Our friends were filled with envy when we explained we were sailing off into the sunset. The innkeepers were not that happy, but were able to find a chef a month before we left.

                                                                        
We bought a bigger boat in Rhode Island a year before and had it trucked to Vermont for the winter. What a sight that must have been to see a sailboat half buried in the snow at a dairy farm! We gutted the boat during the winter and our son-in-law started making gorgeous mahogany cabinets and beautiful blue counter tops and table. He designed built in bookcases and lockers. It was beginning to look like home by the end of spring.

                                                                         

We sold the wholesale business to our son and our daughter took over the catering and wedding cakes. Our kids grew up in the business and because we had done this for what seemed like forever, they were able to step right in and take over. The departure date was set for June, but one thing led to another and it wasn't until the middle of July that we were able to cast off the lines and sail away.

                                                                              

COME BACK LATER FOR PART II ~ MY LIFE ON A SAILBOAT