Month: November 2020

And a forgotten sense of community

This week we’ve felt at home for the first time in a long time.

• We had a duplicate visitor, so we felt like someone wanted to see ‘us’ more than ‘us and the boat’.
• We reconnected with relatives I only see every decade or so.
• A ‘fan’ invited us over to dinner. We were acquaintances with a distant connection before and left as friends.
• Tay’s college buddies planned a trip to visit from separate hometowns to use our boat as a sort of reunion.
• We had access to a car and could run errands!
• We have a REALLY nice shower at this marina and it doesn’t charge by the minute.Plus we have no immediate plans of leaving and San Diego is beautiful.

We found a slip in San Diego’s Americas Cup Harbor with not a minute to spare. We set to work doing laundry, showering, cleaning the boat, and getting ready for Hailey & Kyle. They finagled a work trip to San Diego to visit us for a few days. We had an amazing 3 days of great food, decent sailing, and lousy surfing.

---

After Hailey and Kyle had to get on their flight, we were invited to have dinner with Taylor’s Brother’s Girlfriend’s Grandparents. Linda & Dave have been following our trip and wanted to feed us and welcome us to the city. It was a lovely evening of bluefin sashimi, a delicious fall roast, and a lot of fishing information.

The real reason they invited us over, however, was to meet Eunice. They’re Captain Eunice’s biggest fans. And they’re knowledgable cat people so they knew she needed some room to run in a big house, and more stimulation than our 32 foot home can provide, at least for one night.

They more than exceeded the stereotype for grandparents, by leaving us at the end of the night with full stomachs, leftover roast, and a gift basket full of homemade marmalade, boysenberry jam, and 3 pounds of fresh Bluefin Tuna!!!

---

The next night, my Mom’s cousin had a little get together and invited us, with the intent of finally getting us in the room with some very seasoned sailors. Their other dinner guests were accomplished America’s cup racers, had several trans-pac’s on their resume and had a race in the bay the following day. We learned a lot about sailing and had a great night. At the end of the evening, they offered us their spare Car!!! We haven’t driven since August and forgot how much you can see when you have access to land.

---

The next morning we washed the boat again (our never-ending battle) and gathered some provisions. Tay’s track teammates from college, Sam & Christie, landed and the adventure started over again. We enjoyed a dinghy ride, as is customary, and then got to work on the most fun dinner on Scooter to date. One of the provisioning runs was to a Japanese Grocery store, and we had all the fixings to make a Sushi smorgasbord. Sam flew in with fresh Salmon from Alaska, and we had a bunch of Bluefin Tuna from our gift basket from Dave & Linda.

Sushi Rolls will be a new staple on Scooter.

We made a good effort to fish and sail but only had luck with the latter. It was the busiest water we’ve ever spent time on, and it was so much fun. We were under full sail dodging the 1000 other sailboats, pretending we were in some regatta, not on a slow condo.

The next day we were able to drive to a beach and make another effort to learn to surf. Progress is slow but we’re getting there. We wrapped up the adventure with a bonfire on the beach, and a salmon dinner.

---

San Diego might be our home for a while for a few reasons:

• Apparently, people want to visit us in warm climates.
• Mooring is cheaper than expected
• We’ve been invited to Thanksgiving here!
• We still have to improve our Spanish (and diesel reliability) before heading south into Mexico.

So if you’ve ever wanted to spend a few days on Scooter, we’re currently taking reservations for December 🙂

Living like locals where we could never afford to live.

A week ago we left Marina Del Rey, sailed along the “marine layer” (aka smog) of LA toward Long Beach. My Great Great Great Grandfather Phineas Banning was the go-getter who put together funding to dredge Long Beach harbor and build break walls. He got wealthy had a great big estate, it was turned into a museum, and a century later the museum was closed from a plague and I took a picture by the gate. 

• Long Beach was awesome. $1.50 fish tacos topped the list. The Queen Mary was cool (also closed though), we got a lot of walking in, and figured out another city bus system. 
• Newport is a massive bay filled with yachts and mansions. This made for great dinghy rides. We spent hours on Scootie exploring the nooks and crannies of Newport. It’s also apparently the home of Duffy electric boats, my future competitor when I release my own custom cocktail-cruise-dinghy. There are 9,000 boats in Newport and I’m convinced 8,000 of them are duffy’s. We also put forth another attempt at surfing. 

• Dana Point was the most expensive marina in the world. Apparently, every boater has also read the same book I’m reading (Two Years Before The Mast, by Richard Henry Dana Jr.) and needs to stop and see the cove named after the famous sailor. Fortunately, we were able to anchor for free. It was just ok, but we were distracted by a diesel failure on the sail in. Greg, our engine, died off the coast of Dana Point. Luckily we had our sails up so Taylor sailed and I spent 3 hours troubleshooting. Eventually, we got up and running again. I’ve always enjoyed being an amateur mechanic, but it’s 100% more fun in a stationary garage. I was sick, frustrated, and covered in diesel which made it very gratifying to not have to call the towboat.

• Oceanside was nice. We had a long walk to the grocery store. Tay bought a “top-shelf liquor” for the first time in her life: a friend sponsored a nice bottle of scotch for an early Christmas present. I handed over the reins to the galley and Taylor cooked a bomb dinner. Polenta, pork tenderloin in a pan sauce, and roasted carrots. She also found a new appreciation for the timing required to serve 3 hot dishes with a 1.5 burner stove. 

• Mission Bay is a great big bay with tons of waterfront but Scooter is too tall to access most of it due to a bridge overhead. So we anchored just outside and explored via dinghy. Scootie has been carrying a heavy load this week, keeping us entertained.

• The plan is to make San Diego tomorrow, and then it’s visitors and family for a few weeks before the next step, whatever that is.

Life in the smallest kitchen

If you’ve ever wondered what we eat on Scooter, here goes. It’s a 12 square foot kitchen and my favorite place to be. Here marks the start of a (perhaps) weekly series called Scooter’s Galley. Now that we’re in California, and are catching more of our own food I’d like to share how we eat and also hopefully encourage visitors to come see us for a cheap vacation.

---

I love to cook. I think if I could get paid to do anything for the rest of my life it would be to cook…buuuut cooking for money is a whole different game and I think it’d ruin the fun.

It’s been a fun challenge to adapt to cooking in the smallest kitchen but Tay and I (and hopefully some guests) can attest that it’s gone well.

1. Local Fare: Cooking what’s free
   • In the PNW we had ample access to blackberries. We picked and preserved as much as we could before we left. Blackberry Jam has been a staple on yoghurt, pancakes, Oatmeal and PB&Js. We’re finally on the dregs of the last jar, and need to find a new abundant fruit.

1. • We were terrible at fishing in the PNW, and are only slightly better in California. To date, Scooter has hauled a meager 10 fish aboard in 2 years of fishing nearly every day. Of those 10, 4 have been big enough and legal to eat. But, they’ve been many days of delicious food.
   • Crabs have been on the up & up for us. We pulled 3 crabs up in the puget sound in 2 summers and things have been much better since. We’ve pulled crabs up in Oregon, and California and finally have our system down, which leads me to…

2. Budget Bites. (things we eat when we don’t have visitors)
   • I always bought chicken thighs and breasts. Kroger has them for 1.99/lb so it’s the cheapest meat by far, so I thought. Until I realized a chicken carcass makes the best Crab Bait. So killing 2 birds with one stone, we’ve started buying whole chickens, parting them out, and enjoying the 2 for 1 value. And in a short time, I’d like to think I’ve mastered the grilled chicken quarter.
   • For life on a budget, we eat a lot of oatmeal, PB&J’s and Ramen. Fortunately, 15 cent ramen with a couple soft boiled eggs, sundried tomatoes, and green onions feels pretty gourmet for under a dollar. We also got into the sailor classic of canned sardines. A little hot sauce and served with crackers, it’s actually a really good lunch. (see below image).

1. Preserved Provisions
   • Canned goods were vital. They say to estimate the worst-case scenario for how long a passage might take and provision for double. I’ve gotten pretty handy with a canned beet salad or spicing up beans and rice. Also, you can make a pretty bomb stir fry with canned chicken. Fortunately, I was always able to make something better than canned soup so the Progresso remains in the bilge. Canned beets, feta, and cucumbers never go bad as far as I’m concerned. Eunice appreciates canned fish as much as we do.

1. Rice is key. We had 20 lbs of rice on board. Which might have been dumb to assume in a situation where we’re desperate enough, we’d still be able to cook rice…but whatever. We are still eating ample rice and stretching calories to maintain the budget. Also side note, one of the best meals of my life was plain rice… 36 hours into a pounding sea outside the Strait of Juan De Fuca, unflavored calories were a Godsend.
2. Local Fare Revisited.
   • We got a free tuna fillet in Half Moon Bay. Fresh Albacore is amazing. When it’s not canned, it isn’t horribly dry. It might be my favorite fish from this journey. We made Ceviche first which was glorious despite it being cold food on a cold night. Then the tuna steaks were as good as anything I’ve had in a restaurant, and the tuna tacos were a great way to finish the fish which at this point was like 6 days old so I wanted to make sure it was cooked.

1. Clams were a blast. We haven’t found any in Cali yet, but the horse clams, and weekly batches of homemade clam chowder will be one of my highlights from the Sound.

• Finally, we found out lemon trees are common in people’s yards and sometimes they are free for the snagging, dangling over sidewalks, or even left out in tidy piles for passers-by to have. So we made a batch of limoncello and got some little jars. We’ve been looking for something to give other sailors because people have been so generous to us!

Thanks for indulging me. Scooter’s kitchen gets more exciting every day, so follow along or come visit and get a taste.

Troy’s visit, and the seafood smorgasbord.

Sunny Los Angeles lived up to the hype even though we never got more than a mile from the ocean. Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, and Malibu were plenty to keep us entertained.

My best man Troy flew in from DC for a week-long adventure. And a cherry on top was our friend Cynthia came in from Seattle for the first weekend. The last time Scooter saw Cynthia we were trapped on the hard in Gig Harbor. And the last time Troy set foot on board we lost our steering, the first time. So we had a lot of catching up to do. It took a substantial dinghy ride to cover the former largest small craft harbor in the world, but we were up to the task. Also, it was Halloween so the people in the electric booze cruise boats were in full regalia, and the people on the $400,000/week charter yachts were to the 9s and presumably drunk.

---

A fresh day gave us a chance for an 11-mile walk to the Santa Monica pier. The highlight of the day was the Venice Beach skatepark. It was like watching a Disney movie. An 8-year-old was the main event, shredding, talking trash with the adults, and capturing the attention of the eclectically dressed skaters and spectators alike.

Taylor’s mind was racing. Between her desire to do anything dangerous, her passion to teach all kids the athleticism and motor skills life requires, and her love of anything inspiring that could be a Disney film, she was in heaven. We’ll have to come back (Spoiler, we did), and we definitely need to budget to buy her a skateboard.

---

We also had a weeklong mission to have the best taco’s in LA, per a Letterkenny bit, but that turns into a tall order without a car. Still, we made a pretty solid effort. Given our budget, we often had to split tacos, or quickly get home for an actual dinner. In any case here’s the research.

• Taco Libre was good but mostly because we were starving. (5/10)
• Teddy’s Red Tacos was the LA experience we needed, beef tacos dipped in beef consume (9/10).
• James Beach was nearly the ‘best fish taco I’ve had in my life’. Scored most of its points from Peter Klaven (8/10)
• Valle, a recommendation of Tay’s Malibu cousin might actually be the best taco I’ve had in my life. Pork Belly perfection. (9.5/10)

---

Off to Catalina! We spent one night in Avalon. The mooring field was nearly empty (15 boats) but was still hard to navigate in our sluggish boat. I can’t imagine trying to catch the mooring ball on a busy summer Saturday (200+ boats). Avalon lit up at night, and seemed cool but wasn’t for us. We shoved off around Catalina’s southern tip in search of some empty beaches. We caught 3 Bonito but didn’t know what they were without cell service. We had to send a detailed description via sat phone to our fish experts. Once confirmed they were edible and legal, we texted our chef friends for recipes. They turned out great, so thank you to our remote research team.

We stopped in Little harbor and surfed and swam at Shark Cove. It was mostly deserted so we got to surf poorly without being judged.

Then it was a quick jaunt up to Cat Harbor for the night and respite from the swell.

The next day, the swell prediction was stronger so we devised a plan to save Troy from turning green. He hiked the 6 miles across the island, and Tay and I sailed the 18 miles around to the other side. We met up with him at Emerald Bay, after he snapped some perfect shots of Scooter from above, and we hauled in another Bonito for lunch (fish tacos, 10/10). Scooter is officially the place to go for Tacos in LA.

As the sun set, I stuffed the bonito guts into the bait bag and the crab pot went over the side. Taylor talked a little trash to Troy about how feeble my attempt was, but she would soon come to eat those words, literally.

The water was so clear, with a flashlight we could see 15 dark smudges around the net, and when we pulled it up the spiny lobsters exploded and flapped their tails away, except for two that got tangled in the net. They’re freaky. Locals call them bugs which feels very appropriate. They rub their antennae against their skull like a guiro. They have no claws, just all sorts of legs, and antennae longer than Scooter’s radio antenna.

---

We arose with the sun, and motored back to LA hoping to beat the brewing Gale.

We saw Humpback whales, a mom and calf feeding, which kept our streak alive of guests seeing whales and brought Scooter’s whale-count to 42. Back in the marina, we feasted on lobster tails.

---

For Troy’s last day in town, we hit the skatepark (as spectators), ate at the aforementioned taco joints, and were inspired to watch skate documentaries.

This was an unbelievable week. For those interested, stay tuned (sign up) cause this Thursday I’m going to dive into my favorite part of Scooter: The Galley!

Russians, Seafood, and Camraderie

Earlier this week we anchored at Santa Cruz Island. As we pulled into the cove, another sailboat motored in right before us, so we patiently waited while they set their hook. Eventually, we asked if they were going to stern anchor and he couldn’t hear us over his outboard but signaled “I’ll be back in 5 minutes”. He dropped his diver and came to chat. He said he doesn’t like stern anchors. He likes to spin around. He said they’re diving lobster but there’s enough sea life on the island no one will be hungry.

Inspired, we hopped in Scootie looking for spiny lobster.

---

We didn’t find any lobsters but eventually, the other anchorage residents motored up to us to check-in. He said, “We’d like to have you over for happy hour but we’re already 20 minutes late! Come over when you can!”

We went over with a bottle of wine expecting nothing. What we received was fantastic, and felt a bit like a culmination of our cruising experience.

The boat belonged to two Russian friends, sailing and diving. They spearfished, collected shellfish, and enjoyed what the ocean had to offer. 

One was a doctor, avid SCUBA diver, and spearfisherman. He competed for the Soviet National Team in the Decathalon. The other traveled to America to explore, got temp work, flipped a house and put the profit into Apple at $1/share, and hasn’t worked since. It took him a while to get citizenship but luckily he doesn’t need to work anymore. 

They shared conversation, advice, sailing stories, fishing details, and so so so so many seafood recipes. 

We had sashimi scallops, fried scallops, sheepshead, and fresh sea urchin caviar. 

Not too many wine bottles were opened, only 1 beer was cracked all night, and no one had a cocktail. But…we did drink an entire liter of vodka. Every 10 minutes, they filled the little brass glasses and we toasted. It was amazing. The best part was each toast was serious and heartfelt, such as, “Cheers… to the happiness of our souls!”.

That night might be a peak of our sailing adventure. It also doesn’t hurt that we collected 5 pounds of mussels and were able to have a mussel feast the following night.

---

The next adventure is another round of friend visits! Stay tuned for LA updates.