Fiji to NZ - Day 6 - 16 Nov - Pumpkin Pie and Vangs !

Hello,

Pumpkin Pie at Sea - note the harness on Victoria so she can come up the cockpit for fresh air

It was tempting to skip writing this evening, as the boat is rollicking along in 17-20 kts of wind, the bioluminescence is surging around the hull, and we are anticipating a front (weather) before morning ... but Victoria baked a pumpkin pie today from scratch, and I forgot to mention that Max fixed the vang yesterday, and this needs reporting!

Yesterday morning, I woke at 5:55 to hear Debbie asking Max to come to the cockpit. A pin had just jumped out of some where, and she had heard it when it landed on the deck (thank goodness). It turned out to be the pin that held the boom vang to the boom. They managed to maneuver the vang back into place, re-insert the pin, and re-wrap it with seizing wire to keep it secure. This could have gone very badly if the pin had fallen overboard or Debbie hadn't heard it fall. We have lots of spare pins, but that one is a special size, and we didn't have more like it. (The whole piece is on the refresh list for NZ, as it looks like the rolly seas have caused something about it to warp or twist, which has put unusual loads where the pin goes) ... This is my low-tech description of what Max did .. he may add more to the blog about it. I do not always feel grateful in this cruising life, but it is these small things that I hang onto when that is the case - daylight not darkness at 0600, smart crew, pins landing on decks instead of in the sea, and a clever husband who could put it all back together. Suffice to say I was very happy as I tucked back in beside Benjamin!

Now onto today ... it was a lovely day of sailing. We gybed in the morning, and our new point of sail was more comfortable - the waves were just rolling under Fluenta instead of rolling us from side to side. Sky and water were both deep shades of blue. The sun was shining. It is days like this that I look forward to :)

Victoria has been scouring my old Fanny Farmer cookbook for several days, looking for something she could bake to pass the time. When she would ask what I would like her to bake, I wasn't very enthusiastic, but finally I told her that, since we had a pumpkin that needed to be used, she could try a pumpkin pie. She found the pie and pastry recipes, and I found a recipe for evaporated milk based on milk powder in my Boat Galley cookbook. The only proviso on the whole operation was that I was not going to help her any more than necessary.

This morning, she made the pie crust (no-fail, with an egg) by herself, and put it into the fridge. Following this, she put the pumpkin into the oven to soften before cutting it, but it was rolling around so much that I took pity on her and cut it into chunks with the big knife. After the pumpkin was roasted and cooled, she scraped it into the Magic Bullet jar and pureed it. By this time, I was heading off watch, and she was on her own ... she mixed the pumpkin, egg, milk powder and a small bit of water together with the spices, rolled out her pastry, lined the Paderno frying pan she was using (given that we have no pie tins onboard), and set her pie to bake. After a quick consult, she used a pot lid for the early stage of cooking so that all the filling would not slop out onto the oven when the boat rolled, and by the time I woke to come on watch again, a pie was cooling on the stove :)

Dinner was lasagne that Debbie made in Fiji and has been biding its time in our freezer, followed by Victoria's delicious pie. She will be allowed to bake again. There wasn't even any mess to speak of when she was finished :)

More news tomorrow night,

Love to all,
Elizabeth
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At 11/16/2015 7:51 AM (utc) SV Fluenta was 30°28.35'S 172°54.21'E
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At 11/17/2015 7:51 AM (utc) SV Fluenta was 31°40.72'S 173°10.63'E

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