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.
