When you read this we'll be en route and setting sail for Lopez Island, our first stop, on this boat above on our San Juan Islands sailing trip. The past several weeks have been a confluence pretty much of two things -- book events and boat readying.
Early this summer my boyfriend and I decided that at the end of summer/beginning of fall we'd finally take our 19-foot, 1970s O'Day sailboat out for a real spin and, of course, take a much needed vacation.
We bought the boat with our neighbors last summer and have been up and down the Columbia where it's been moored ever since. This will be the first big journey -- ten days sailing around the San Juan Islands.
There's been a lot of preparation including getting it out of the water, scrubbing it, decking it out with more down-below storage, purchasing a dinghy, barbecue, lights and then some. We're in the last leg though now since we leave on the first day of autumn -- September 23rd.
To be honest, my boyfriend has done the bulk of the work but my job is important. I'm stocking and setting up the galley. Well, we don't actually have a galley so it's more setting up the makeshift galley.
I looked at some books at Powell's on galley cooking and got some good ideas but didn't feel like any were worth buying. Really, I think the most important thing to galley cooking is planning ahead, just like camp cooking. Learning to work with your small cooking space, stocking up with minimal and long lasting ingredients and some full-flavor tricks up your sleeve are all important. Having a food dehydrator doesn't hurt.
We'll be stopping at a lot of markets and farmers markets (my friend Rachel's mom is the editor of the publication that I just linked to here) during the trip to stock the larder and we'll also be checking out the local cuisine. Here's some of what I've cooked up for the trip...
I turned these Brooks plums from our front yard tree...
Into dehydrated plums.
And I turned these backyard Gravensteins...
Into dehydrated apples.
I made a big batch of spicy beef jerky.
Stocking up...