OK, time to address another common question we get from people about what it is like to live on a boat and that is, "What do you cook on a boat and how?"
Well......way back 20 to 30 years ago when my daughter, Amy, and I would go for a weekend cruise or our annual one week cruise on our sailboat, I thought that the only things you could cook on a boat were canned Dinty Moore Stew, canned Hormel chili, hot dogs, and occassionally if you got really adventurous and used the portable gas grill you could have grilled hamburgers or chicken breasts or pork chops!! Coffee was instant coffee! YUCK!!
Obviously, Linda did not live on the boat at that time! She is an amazing cook and produces an unbelievable variety of meals on a two-burner alcohol stove. She can even "bake" cornbread, cakes, meatloaf, and other things on the stovetop in a skillet as we don't have an oven!! I have never had as much variety of meals in my lifetime as we have on the boat! We have such a huge choice of meals that it is a running joke with us to say, "We haven't had THAT in forever!" Fortunately, we both like the same things and both dislike the same things so we are always in agreement on whatever Linda wants to cook. All my life, I did much of the cooking but since moving onto the boat 5 1/2 years ago, I have not cooked dinner or done the dishes except for perhaps a couple of times when Linda was ill with the flu! I am one LUCKY guy!! :-) We make coffee by heating water in a tea kettle and pouring it through a Mr. Coffee filter, yeah REAL coffee in the morning!!
At one point a couple years ago I "got stupid" and suggested that Linda should write a cookbook for cruisers and have it published! By now it would be a HUGE cookbook! AND writing it would have been WORK, something we are both seriously allergic to now that we are retired and living in paradise!! Fortunately we both regained our sanity and decided not to do that!!!
We have a small refrigerator powered by the 12 volt batteries and charged by the solar panels. We shop every 4 to 5 days so the refrigerator space is adequate for our needs. We buy frozen foods and just plan to use them within a couple of days as the refrigerator does not have a freezer compartment. We mostly like to drink ice water which we keep in the refrigerator. Oh, and, course, a daily ration of rum and coke for me with dinner!! Arrrgh, pirates must have their ration of grog you know! :-)
So, anyway, the answer to the question of what you cook on a boat is "anything you want!"
After we returned from our trip to Europe and Connecticut, we had a diver come and clean the bottom of the hull of all the barnacles and other growth. Then we "busted out of jail", meaning we got out of the marina as quickly as we could. We find being in a marina very confining and a serious lack of privacy with the other boatowners walking the dock. So we headed out and anchored for the evening off a beautiful park at Maximo Point in St. Petersburg where we have anchored many times before. Then we crossed the mouth of Tampa Bay the next day and returned to our "summer home" anchorage at Anna Maria Island.
Our friend Jack Grose and his lady friend Ann came down one Sunday and we took them out sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Longboat Key Pass has a very small drawbridge (only half as wide as most bridges) and a very strong current going through the bridge so we had not used it before. Their visit gave us a reason to go out the pass and see what it was like. Not too bad but you sure are hoping the bridge opens in time before you are swept into it by the current and take down your mast and rigging!!! :-( We had a nice wind and a perfect day for a sail on the Gulf and a great time with them.
A few days later we went down to anchor at a favorite anchorage at Longboat Key. We had a very rainy couple of days while there (very unusual for Florida to have rain for two days in a row) but it is a nicely protected anchorage so we just hung out on the boat and Linda worked on some of her craft and sewing projects.
We are now back at "our" anchorage at Anna Maria Island. Here is a photo of a view from the boat.
Next up will probably be a cruise to places in Tampa Bay that we have never been to and then a trip down to the Keys by rental car to get our car and bring it back up here as we won't be returning to the Keys this winter.
So...that's about it for now. We are currently watching Hurricane Irene as she heads towards Florida but it looks like she will go up the east coast so we should have minimal impact over here on the west coast. Always happy to dodge another bullet! :-)
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