Crabbing

Blue crabs are plentiful off Florida's Gulf Coast. A salt water license includes permission to use traps, as well. You can have five traps per person. Found some great information about blue crabs here, including a tutorial for building your own crab traps.

Sunday sailing

We got out on the boat yesterday for the first time in nearly two months. The freshly varnished teak looks great. Going to have to get the bottom scraped this week, since it's been awhile since we've been in the water (too cold!)

I met an old man on the dock while Simon was out grabbing supplies. I wish I'd had a pen and paper to take notes as he casually rattled off all of the sailing options within a few hundred miles, and the conditions of each. He's insisted that we take the boat down to Long Beach, Florida sometime. It's not too far away, so, we'll give it a look.

Reupholstering the cabin

Our boat came with ugly mildewed and worn blue denim cushions inside. We washed it all, but, we're still not crazy with the way they all look.

I finally took measurements to find out how much fabric we'll need. Turns out that doing all the cushions will require about 20 yards. On a forum I looked at, people were saying not to bother with Sunbrella inside the cabin. Since the stuff costs at least twice as much as the option we are looking at, I'll take their word for it for now.

Supplies are looking like they'll cost about $200, plus my time sewing the cushions. I've never done zippers or piping, so, this will be a new experience. We're having a sample of some fabric that we like sent here:

Gonna have to see if we still like it when we see it in person. I liked a different coral pattern, but my husband thought the tone of blue was too light:

Could be that when we get samples, we'll hate them both, lol... will see soon.

Visiting Museums on the Cheap

This morning, I got to wondering whether there were nation or worldwide reciprocity programs for museums. Reciprocity is great: you become a member at one museum, and get free admission at a number of others. I'm a member of a couple of local museums that offer recips with other local museums, and we have gotten our money out of the programs many times over.

After a bit of searching, I found two different reciprocity programs for museums. The ASTC Passport program establishes reciprocal benefits between 300 science museums worldwide. For those interested in visiting other museums throughout North America (mostly art museums, from the look of it) you can join a museum that is a member of NARM, North American Reciprocal Museums.

Making a living while cruising

We hope to start cruising before retirement kicks in, so, we're going to need some income while we are out and moving. Luckily, we both have pretty portable skills (he has years of serving and bartending experience, I'm a freelance copywriter). But, I love the idea of having (somewhat) passive income, as well. There's a post on the Cruiser's Forum that is just brilliant. The author lays out a step by step plan for creating a profitable "expert" website.

Everyone knows a bit about something. And, if that something is specific enough, it would not be too difficult to establish yourself as THE online expert. I'm going to be brainstorming to determine just what that something is for me and the hubby.

(btw, I figure this would be a good place to mention this: if you love this idea, but aren't a writer, give me a jingle. I've written dozens of expert articles on dozens of subjects, and I can provide you with authoritative content for your expert site.)

Varnish, sand, varnish...

sand, varnish, sand, varnish....

All the teak needs refinishing. We let it go too far (honestly, I think the guy who owned the boat last did a less than awesome job) so, nearly everything has had to be taken down to bare wood.

We're going with varnish again this time (Helmsman, if you're curious) but, if this does not last the way we'd like, I think we'll strip all the varnish down and oil the teak in the future.

Readers, where do you stand on the oil vs varnish debate?

I swear, I really do think about things that are not food

My husband and I got a small pressure cooker (6 qt) as a wedding present. I wondered for awhile if it were possible to use it as a pressure canner, and if it wasn't, why not.

It turns out that pressure canners need to be larger, since warm up and cool-down times are included in processing times for foods, and those time periods are much shorter for pressure cookers.

The smallest pressure canner/pressure cooker on the market is this, the 12 quart Mirro. You can do 5 quarts or 8 pints. While I'm still pretty leery of the idea of operating a pressure canner on a moving boat, home canning some goods before sailing seems like a smart way to save money and add variety.

More lazy food

So, everyone on the sailing & preparedness forums is absolutely mad for this Hormel Roast Beef and Gravy. I was pretty dubious, but, even people who appear to be pretty good cooks like the stuff. Always one for a new experience and a dinner I can have prepared in 5 minutes flat, I picked up a can.

And, you know what? They're right. The meat is really tender, like a well-cooked pot roast. The gravy is reasonably flavorful, and is just fine after adding some red pepper flakes & ground black pepper. I meant to stir in a dollop of horseradish, but I discovered I'm out. Simon and I ate the gravy over baked potatoes for lunch, and it was a satisfying meal. I think the beef & gravy would also make a good basis for a stew if you added some cabbage, carrots, potatoes and other vegetables.

The only problem with the stuff is the price. At both the grocery store and Amazon, the stuff sells for over three bucks a can, which is a lot for what you are getting. You can bring it down to $2.88 a can if you use Subscribe & Save at Amazon, but, I'm not sure I'm comfortable having a canned roast beef subscription.

Still, if I find it cheap enough, this will probably make it into the food rotation.

Trashy Couscous

This totally shouldn't work. I shouldn't share this recipe. It's too embarrassing. However, it's just to weird, cheap and easy not to make note of.

I found this recipe on a now-defunct blog several years ago. It stuck in my head because it was so moronically brilliantly simple.

TRASHY COUSCOUS
1 can condensed vegetable soup
1 can water
1 cup couscous

Heat the soup & water on the stove. Add the couscous. Cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.

This is shockingly good, considering the humble ingredients. I bet it would work with other condensed soups, too.

So, what's this blog about?

My husband and I bought our first boat about a year ago. She's a 25' Catalina. We're having the time of our lives.

We plan, once the kids are at college, to buy a bigger boat and sail full-time. That's about six years from now. So, for the time being, I'm reading up and learning all I can. This blog is a place to store the good ideas, and maybe help out someone else if they stumble by.