The First Training Passage to Catalina
The sunset image you see above is the peaceful view looking aft aboard s/v Sea Fox after making this voyage, the first training passage to Catalina Island. As a matter of fact, it is looking straight back toward where we just were. We left Marina del Rey 9 hours ago and enjoyed a peaceful sail due south. It was a simple sail to navigate. Nevertheless, this easy day marked my first passage. This would be the first time I spend more than 3 days living aboard.
We each planned to cook one of the main meals. As a result, one of the things I was most looking forward to was my night in the galley. I planned a simple yet flavorful beef stew in a brown sugar & bourbon sauce. It would simmer for hours in my 60-plus-year old cast iron kettle. I might start an entire blog category dedicated to telling the tales of the meals cooked in this fascinating piece of iron!
A Closer Look at the Ingredients
Here you can see what went in to the stew. It’s a no-word photo recipe for ya! I cheated (a little) and the sauce was not a scratch-made adventure. Hey, I wanted to keep it simple and also focus on sailing too! Incidentally, this image is from my kitchen a few weeks earlier. I did a dress rehearsal preparation of my proposed meal on land. I also ate it all. What you see here served all 5 crew with plenty of leftovers. In my test case, however, it served one me for 4 days. I guess I eat more on land.
As you know, when making a passage the competition for refrigerator space is fierce. Because of this, the aim for this dish was to use as many ingredients as possible with “room temp” storage needs. Only the mound of beef required refrigeration. I froze it solid a few days before in order to buy us even more time and let it thaw out in the ice chest the first night. At the same time, while it was frozen it helped keep all the other things cold.
Certainly you are hungry now! It seems to me that today is the day I decide to add another blog category, something, say, with a bunch of recipes for the galley!
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each.Henry David Thoreau
This Is No Stone Soup
At last, here is that Brown Sugar Bourbon Beef Stew! Just look at her simmering happily on the stove in the galley! We were on a mooring, so cooking in the galley was easy for this one. Tune in to “making tuna salad at 8 knots” for the other side of that coin!
Actually, it was a fine and delicious spicy Chipotle Tuna Salad with crisp carrots and onions, nestled atop sharp cheddar cheese on rustic sourdough, to be exact. I made it while we were under sail en route to Emerald Bay from Avalon. In any other conditions, it would be just another tuna salad. However, this milestone preparation while underway while reaching almost 8 knots had just a little after taste of victory.
Lessons Learned on the First Passage
Because this was my first training passage, the list is long. The list of memories and new friends is even longer. Despite lacking detail, this list should give you an idea of all the incredible things we learned. Look for future articles with much more detail on all of these items!
- What a “Sneak Aboard” Is After the Hotel Loses Your Reservation
- Fore-Aft Mooring Has Less Yelling with Heaps of Communication
- Donning Your Snorkeling Gear to De-Foul a Prop Is Fun, I Swear
- Driving a Dinghy that Has ZERO Positive Flotation Is Very Wet
- What Exactly 100 Million Fish Look Like from a Paddleboard
- How it Feels to Reach Hull Speed on a Jenneau378
- Hammocks Fit Better Between Standing Rigging than Trees
- How Mr. Steven from SpaceX Catches Rocket Fairings from Space
- It’s Easy to Smile When 100 Dolphins Surface Beside You @8kts
- Cooking On-Board in the Galley ALWAYS Beats Dining Ashore
- Travel 2 Blocks Inland for 1,000,000% Less Tourist Volume
More Pics for Your Eyeballs
Finally, here are a bunch of photos from the trip arranged in no particular order. Enjoy perusing the sights and views of the first training passage and hope you feel like you are there a little bit!
