The Channel Islands, Santa Cruz and Catalina
At Santa Cruz Island, south of Santa Barbara, we made our first failed attempt at catching Spiny Lobster. In the process, we met the Russians and got to try fresh Scallops, Sheepshead, and Sea Urchin. I also learned a lot about how to prep each of them.
We did however harvest about 3 pounds of fresh California mussels. We scrubbed and scrubbed and de-bearded, and scrubbed some more, and finally had a big bowl of shiny mussels. I opted for the classic white wine cream sauce with lemon zest, served over pasta. It was perfect! we also got to try a variety of sized mussels from finger sized to palm sized. The medium ones were best.
A few days later, rounding the southern tip of Catalina Island, with my best friend Troy, we were trolling with a spoon and caught something! We reeled in what looked like a tiny tuna. We made the bold decision to keep the fish, and try to figure out what it was. Unfortunately without service, that meant texting a description to our fish expert friends, via our satellite phone. Their response was a Spanish Mackerel. We caught two more and kept the larger of the 2. We satellite texted our chef friend and got some mackerel recipes. I served the fish with a mustard sauce and fondant style fingerling potatoes and roast broccoli.
Once back in cell coverage we learned they were a cousin of the mackerel, the Bonito!
The next day, we hauled in 2 more Bonito and had a delightful lunch of fish tacos. Turns out LA doesn’t have the best tacos…Scooter does.
That night in emerald bay, on the north side of Catalina, we had my favorite ‘fancy’ dinner on a scooter; Pork Tenderloin in a brown sauce, cajun mashed potatoes, and a cucumber salad.
We enjoyed a few bottles of wine in honor of the Catalina Wine Mixer, and I fashioned up the Bonito carcass into our crab trap as bait. Taylor confided in troy that this was a stupid idea, but since I was enthused, they’d let me.
The joke’s on them though. We finally hauled in a lobster.
This was a major highlight on Scooter. The water was 15 feet deep and crystal clear. After about 15 minutes we could shine the flashlight and see the trap with brown smudges all around it. I hauled it up and immediately the smudges darted away, except for 1 unlucky lobster that got caught in the net.
I opted to grill the lobster, with a simple lemon garlic pasta and my favorite roast broccoli. One thing I have to admit I am terrible at on Scooter is grilling with any fat source. Fat is flammable, and our grill is tiny. Basting lobster with butter, results in a fireball. Grilling chicken in an olive-oil based marinade results in a fireball, grilling bacon (nelson’s idea) results in a fireball that nearly sets the boat on fire 60 miles off the coast of Oregon. Advice welcome.