Cajun Moon-First Voyage 2012- Perfect Boat Food

Took a while to get on board, it's been over 6 months, since Cajun Moon has been out and about, the dislocated thumb put the skipper out of action for months.

Not quite the maintenance man we are used to!
We arrived to a mess, but Lana (Plane Server, her occupation according to her little friend Zavier…Love it, Not Trolley Dollie, just a plain Plane Server)
got working.
We finally got the food stored and in-between showers, managed to unload the rest of the stuff from the car.
Finally got underway, no rain thank God and about 15 knots wind...on the nose of course.
An easy trip to Islington Bay.

The best first anchorage when it has been a little stressful leaving port.

On arrival the anchor caused a little problem, it was very stiff, from under use and the breeze was chilly but Lana persevered. 

Yay done.

Should be easier next time
Lana made great lunch.
Prawn cocktail with fresh bread and a Watermelon, Marinated Feta and Celery Salad.

Excellent.

How simple is this, Lana used a bought seafood dressing. It was fine.

So big fat prawns, tossed in a seafood dressing,on a bed of lettuce, with some avocado, chopped spring onions

A little bowl of chilli mussels on the side, a Perfect Boat Lunch

Bottle of Deutz, to whet the whistle, we rested, read and I finished "Before I Go To Sleep"…Good little thriller.
It had been a late lunch and luckily,we had already decided to have an easy dinner, 

bit of cheese and crackers glass of wine

Just as well, because when Dale went to turn on the gas...

guess what...wasn't working. Bugger.

Now as it turns out two Xmas holidays ago, we had a gas problem, whilst in the Coromandel and bought a couple of burners from Mitre 10.

Cheap as chips and very efficient.

Found them in a locker.

Hooray, but where are the canisters. No luck,

Skipper couldn't remember where they were.
Lana scuffled through the side cabin but to no avail.
No problems, we could always go shopping in Waiheke tomorrow.
Drank wine and ate the cheese, with left over bread and some crackers.

Problem no 3
Dale has had a sleep button put on the stereo, so that we can go to sleep with the iPod going, a great idea, but as it turned out…it went off after 30 minutes. All of the time!

We couldn't seem to over ride it.

Oh well, worry about that tomorrow!

After a couple of dodgy starts we got the DVD going and settled down to watch "The Killing"  Series2. Gripping, except for the sleep button.

The TV turned off every 30 minutes.

Never mind, worry about that tomorrow.

Next problem the solar anchor light is not working, BUT we do have a real one on top of the mast, so problem fixed.

Uses a lot of power, but we are visible and we do have plenty of battery power.

Oh well, worry about that in the morning.

Another small problem.

For Christmas, Dale gave me a car charger for the iPhone and supposedly the iPad..Thought it would great to use on the boat.

But it seems it only does the phone.

Oh well, we have the inverter and other chargers.
Next, cleaning the teeth...mmmm, water tasting a little salty, strange.
Off to bed.

Slept all night.

Thursday
Dale woke up and found the canisters, in the locker, obviously too hard at night.

Hooray… We could have our hot lemon and water which gets our systems going.

It was a lovely day.

Warm sunny.

Lana had her first swim of the year

A bit of ship shaping and we were off to Waiheke.

This is more like it

The familiar sights of Skipper

And Bosun

Calm as - lovely.

Yes the anchor went down reasonably easily. Great.

Nice to be back on board, just need to get rid of a few niggles!!!
Changed over to a new water tank, still salty...

Oh well, good for cooking pasta and potatoes.

We have many containers of fresh water, so we are Ok for drinking.

Interesting for showers though.

Salty skin.

Not to worry, lots of body lotion.

Oh and the Hot water is not working.

This would normally not be too big of a problem, but when washing dishes with salt water, one finds that, one gets through a hell of a lot of washing detergent

Oh well Weather is good.

Made a nice Risoni Salad for lunch.
Cooked up some olives, (see below) using Lana's fresh oregano.
She also brought rocket from her garden.
Marinated some red onions,

I think this Pasta Salad would be a good recipe for Ruth Of Click Once Upon a Feast

Blog Event, Click Presto Pasta Nights 
to have a look at this weekly event.
Lots of ideas for Pasta Dishes from all over the world
This week, the event is being hosted by Alisha at Cook Craft Enjoy

Once again a Perfect Boat lunch

I am very keen on my cooked Marinated Olives

So So Simple

1 can Kalamata Olives in Brine, drained

4 tablespoons of Olive oil

4 cloves garlic peeled and lightly smashed to flavour the oil

3-4 Sprigs of fresh Rosemary or Thyme or Oregano

Sprinkle of chili flakes to taste

2-3 strips of lemon zest,

Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil gently 

Add the garlic

Just warm through

Add the rest of the ingredients

Let cook very gently for about 15 minutes

Sometimes I put them in a 130C oven for 15 minutes

Let cool and either eat straight away or store in an airtight container

This Salad is once again So So Simple

Just prepare your ingredients

Then, throw them all together

1 can Tuna in Olive Oil drained

Reserve the oil

250 gms Risoni cooked to Manufacturers instructions and drained

Toss it in 1 tablespoon of oil from the Tuna

1 red onion, sliced and marinated in 3 tablespoons French dressing

Best to leave for about an hour

About 12 olives

Good handful of Rocket

Freshly ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together

Taste, you may need some more French Dressing

Once again, best prepared about 30 minutes before you eat

Nice time to meld all of those flavours

We all had swims. It was beautiful.

Here's to Us

For dinner, we had schnitzel with mashed potato and cauliflower plus sautéed courgettes

Here is the trusty burner, we are very grateful for this burner. The gas only lasts for about 2 hours but as luck would have it, we had 3 canisters.

Lovely dinner.

So we’ve got gas

Dale fiddled with the Solar light, so that works

AND he managed to over ride the Sleep Button on the Stereo.

We settled down to another episode of The Killing.

Excellent

Friday,

Another lovely day. Sun, Sea, Good Wine, Good food.

Can’t ask for much more than that.

Lovely Sunset

One more episode then nice sleep. 

Saturday

Well so much for "Red Sky at Night, Sailors delight"

Rain!!!

Oh Well, we just sat and watched the next 7 episodes of The Killing.

Didn’t feel at all guilty. It was pouring.

Stopped for lunch and Dinner.

Sunday, time to go home, forecast was for Gale Force winds, but now luck is on our side and the forecast, as it is frequently, was wrong.

It blew a bit but was quite comfortable and no rain

We arrived back to the Marina safely.

So, Dale now left with many chores, before we go out again.

The Joys of Being Skipper.