Monday, October 21

Good morning, Dear Readers. Yes, I know it may not be morning when you read this. But, for me, it is 6:37 AM somewhere in the Bahamas. The rest of the crew sleeps on, but I couldn't stay in bed any longer. When I look out behind the boat, the full moon is still shining bright.

But, when I look to the starboard side, the sun is working on getting up this morning.

She appears to be taking it slowly. Could that be because she worked so hard to make a spectacular sunset for us last night?

It was a glorious end to a lovely day on the water. We made it to the Bahamas by 3 PM, and anchored. We celebrated our arrival with the first frozen drink of this trip. It was a lovely peach drink made with frozen peaches, peach schnapps, and peach juice. We also had a lovely cheese board with a selection of cheeses and crackers as well as some hummus and carrots.

Most of the crew then spent quality time staring at the water or their pillow. Terry went off exploring in the dingy.

For dinner, we had a shrimp and broccoli stir fry served over Carolina gold rice. My latest personal discovery is that precooked and totally peeled shrimp are so great to use on a boat. As any boater will tell you, trash is one of the top five issues. But, in today's world, most everything comes over-packaged. Now, shrimp solve that problem for the seafood houses by coming with a shell. Instant packaging at no extra cost. But, I still have to dispose of that stuff. Not easy to do when you might not be in port for a day or two. So, I am experimenting with precooked shrimp with no shells or tails. To date, my experiments appear to be unqualified successes. Last night, for instance, all the stir fry disappeared in no time at all.

Wait...attention span happening... I was distracted by the water. It is so many shades and colors right now at the edge of sunrise.

It's just amazing.

Anyway, back to the shrimp.... Another great thing about using the cooked shrimp is that it obviously also cuts down on the cooking time. I used fresh broccoli, so it started cooking first. Then, I added a bag of frozen Asian vegetables. Finally, I added the frozen shrimp. I had given them a shot a water in the sink to get them into individual shrimp instead of one massive shrimp ball, so they entered the stir fry as happy singles. As soon as they were hot, dinner was ready. And, no stinky leftover shrimp shells!

And, we also celebrated pumpkin cheesecake day! We had the best cookies from Pepperidge Farms. Yes, they were pumpkin cheesecake cookies! Boy, were they good!

I appear to have blogged just long enough. All members of the crew are on deck. And, they are beginning to make noises about breakfast. It's been too warm to bake, so today we will use muffin mix to make pancakes. Hope it's as yummy as it sounds. We'll let you know.