Early Fall in Baltimore - 2017

Oct 11 thru Oct 16

--Blogpost written by Bob

We are planning on leaving Baltimore on or about October 25 so that we are Hampton VA by November 1.   We have a bit less than two weeks remaining in Baltimore for the season. This is kind of a crazy time with lots of little last minute things to accomplish before we leave.

This power boat is sitting a little low in the water!
It sunk in its slip at the next marina to the west.

Repositioning FORTRESS (again!)

After trying several different locations, we are back to
stowing our FORTRESS (secondary) anchor on
the foredeck between our two hatches.

Making Bermuda Fish Chowder

Maggie is in Sarasota, FL this week helping a friend and I thought I would spend this rainy overcast day (Sunday, October 15) by trying to make Bermuda Fish Chowder--my favorite meal from one of my favorite islands, Bermuda. 

Bermuda Fish Chowder is very spicy but delicious!
(photo courtesy Goslings Black Seal website)

I decided to use a recipe from the Goslings Black Seal website.  Of course, Goslings Black Seal rum, a staple of Bermuda, is one of the ingredients.  I decided to make half of the published recipe.

After dropping Maggie off at the airport, I stopped by The Fresh Market in Annapolis and picked up the ingredients I needed.  I found everything except sherry peppers which are red peppers preserved in sherry.  I made a substitution (Italian Piquillo peppers in a jar) that I hope will work as well--they look similar.

Leeks are used in Bermuda Fish Chowder and I never
remember using leeks for any reason prior to this.
The edible portion of the leeks is the white
and light green portion of below the base
of the leaves.  Leeks are similar to
green onions, only larger.

I decided to use some cod fillets that I purchased for grilling but I am not that excited about the taste of cod anyway.  (In Bermuda, they use fish heads.)  I cut up the fish fillets into one inch pieces and boiled them in water.  After draining the water, I picked through all the pieces of fish and made sure there were no bones remaining.  I started the chowder-making effort by frying the leaks and garlic together until soft and then I added the diced celery and carrots and some olive oil.  After all the ingredients were soft, I transferred the mixture to our crock pot (this wasn't part of the recipe but it seemed reasonable to me.  I added the petite diced tomatoes, tomato paste, the cooked cod, and all the spices to the mixture in the crockpot.  

Even though it was not part of the recipe, I cooked the Bermuda
Fish Chowder in our crock pot for the last several hours.

My final step was to add 1/8 cup of Goslings Black Seal Rum prior to allowing the mixture to cook on the high setting for three hours and then on the low setting for another two hours.

The photo of my Bermuda Fish Chowder may not be as attractive
as the one from the Goslings website but it was very
delicious and very spicy, just the same.

Provisioning

We have changed our provisioning philosophy this season.  We are primarily provisioning for our trip as far as Vero Beach, FL. (the first four to six weeks).  We will add to our provisions in Vero Beach for the Bahamas.  We expect to stay in Vero Beach for about a week.

Some things we are procuring for the entire trip because they have to be ordered.  Since we are both still on a low-carb diet, pasta is one of those things.  We found this pasta that is sold under the brand name Miracle Noodle.  It is traditional Japanese shirataki pasta which contains no carbs and it lasts up to a year without refrigeration!

We found this pasta that is sold under the brand name
Miracle Noodle.  It is traditional Japanese shirataki 
pasta which contains no carbs and it lasts up
to a year without refrigeration!

According to Wikipedia, shirataki noodles are thin, translucent, gelatinous Japanese noodles made from konjac yarn.  The name "shirataki" literally means "white waterfall."

The variety pack comes in six individual plastic bags--two small bags of angel hair pasta, two of rice, and two of fettuccini.  Each bag is two servings, which is perfect for our provisioning.  We purchased two six packs (as shown above) and a 12-pack of spinach angel hair pasta packets from Amazon. 

More on provisioning later...

Conclusion

I realize that this blogpost has been a little all over the place (sinking boats, making fish chowder, and some provisioning) and that's kind of how I feel right now (all over the place).  Preparing our RAINMAN desalinator will be covered in our next blogpost.

Raw sugar is being unloaded from the ship to the Domino 
Sugar Refinery in Baltimore Harbor.

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