It was a leisurely day, we finally could enjoy calmness in the bay while eating juicy canned peaches.
We caught two bigger fish last night, one got on hook in less than a minute since I started, and the bigger one was caught by J in five minutes. I have never seen so many fish of this size attracted by our boat lights.
Every time I steam fish, I put three large bolts in the wok as a steaming rack (couldn’t find it anywhere in QLD shops), it works but the plate would slip in the wok. Today I made a DIY steaming rack with copper wire and had some improvement on it. I added three small ears to hold the plate so it won’t slip when the boat is rolling. I tied a thread to each ear and thread them together with a loop. So it could be hung on the edge of the wok, and when the food is ready, you can pull the rope to lift the steaming rack with the plate to dining table.
In the evening, the fish was steamed with miso and black bean. Since the fish is larger than the previous one, the steaming time was not enough. It needs to be re-streamed, and the two fish need different time to be cooked, so the smaller one was overdone and the bigger one is not cooked yet… Anyway my steaming rack passed the test and was very successful so I am proud.
24/07/2020
We set off before 7:30 in the morning, started the engine, pulled up the anchor, and sailed out of the bay. The wind was quite strong. There were 20 knots and there was no rain. The weather was much better than yesterday. At the beginning, the boat was rolling a lot. It took us great effort to prop up the spinnaker pole and spread the goose wings. The main sail was set on the left and the jib was on the right. But it didn’t take long before we had to jibe. This time we had a gentle granny tack. That is, instead of jibing directly, just head to the wind and then continue to circle around until the boat tacks around. Before and after this, it took a lot of effort to re-arrange. We had to remove the boom holding rope, roll in the jib, lower the pole, move it to the other side, hoist it up, unfold the jib, and fix the boom in position again. While unfolding the jib, it was stuck, so J had to be in front of the boat and pull it hard to make it come out. It is not easy in strong wind and big waves. You must wear a life jacket with tie on a safety rope.
After a while, the clouds started to clear, and finally I was able to soak in tropical sunlight.
Passing on the southwest side of Prudhoe Island, the boat began to go with the current at a speed of 6 knots, and not rolling very much (but only for a while). J said, “The rough makes you appreciate the calm more.”
We passed this island and two nearby rocks at noon, and we jibed again, but this time it was easier.
J was steering most of the time, because the auto-pilot was not doing well today, it always made the boat out of course, then the jib started flapping and boat slowed down, and it became rollier. Lots of things in the cabin were falling on the floor even we tried to secure them before we set off. Fortunately, we don’t get seasick, so we can still jump up and down making tea and meals.
The afternoon sailing reached a speed of 7 knots, and it felt very pleasant to go up and down with the waves. You can imagine yourself as a surfing dolphin.
3pm, we got close to today’s destination Scawfell Island, the island is quite big, the highest point is nearly 400 meters. We planned to anchor in the bay on the northwest side of the island, which is a good shelter for southeast wind. As soon as we turned into that side of the island, wind dropped a lot. Some spots were as flat as a mirror on the sea surface, while other spots were turbulent like washing machine. We tack the boat several times and sailed into the bay, picked up a public mooring rope (a facility in the national park), and it was almost five o’clock. We sailed 52 nautical miles today.
At sunset, a luxury catamaran anchored near us. They started playing ‘Last Post’ first, then the national anthem, after that they played ‘the great southern land’. Don’t understand why people came all the way here to perform patriotism, disturbing the quietness of other people and animals around…
We had Singapore noodles tonight, it was nice!
23/07/2020
It was another stormy day. I finished reading ‘Robinson Crusoe’ by this little deserted island. It is very interesting to read this book as a novel of wilderness survival, although it is full of fables and incorrectness, such as hunting beasts just for fun; instead of learning the local language, he insisted teaching ‘Friday’ to speak English; being very self-righteous to sell his belief to ‘barbaric and uncivilized people’; long-winded religious discussions, but it is nothing more than being grateful to God just after every survival from disasters; condemning the cannibals but he himself was killing other people with weapons… The ending is also quite disappointing, his investment in the colony allowed him to become a rich man after returning to civilisation, so he was back to upper-middle class which he once despised. After all, it is a novel of the Enlightenment period with many limitations. From a modern point of view, Robinson’s story is actually the epitome of the Europe colonization to overseas, and it also reflects the destiny of human beings to develop agriculture and privatisation due to their natural hoarding habit. For the works of the same period, I would like to read Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” next, to see how he boldly and honestly satirizes the gloom of human nature. It is said that he did not like Defoe at all, even calling him “the man in pillory” instead of his name.
Tonight, we continue to eat winter food in the tropics. J made pumpkin cheese hot pie, with lard and butter in the crust, which is very delicious. The leftover pastry dough was used creativity to make pumpkin crispbread. After St. Helena biscuits, Curlew Island crispbread was born.
Sea Journal 