 It was windy and rainy all day, and quite cold. It was not the tropical weather that I was expected, but it’s perfect for bread baking and reading novels inside.
I read that Robinson spent two years planting wheats with some seeds shaken out of his pockets. He drove away goats that eat seedlings and birds that eat wheats, made a grinder and a sieve by himself, built a stove, and finally made a hot bread (no yeast was used so is actually a hardtack)... I looked at the freshly baked atheist bun (hot cross bun without cross) in front of me, and was thinking this kind of food is a miracle. For dinner, I made artisan pumpkin soup to go with freshly baked bread made by J. Pumpkins are really good food to keep on boat, they last very long. They are still fresh and sweet when opened after a few weeks. The seeds can be pan fried and make snacks (learn from Robinson who does not waste food at all). The pumpkin in soup was crushed with spoon and fork by hand. I add some ginger powder, garlic powder, pepper, turmeric powder to taste, and finally folded in some milk. It tastes great when it is hot, especially suitable for this windy and rainy night (we were actually eating winter food on this tropical island). At night, the rain is getting heavier and heavier, and wind was gusty. From time to time, J checked if the boat was dragging the anchor away. The skylight was leaking a bit. J rushed out to cover it with plastic sheet, came back with dripping jacket, what he need was a cup of hot chocolate to warm up. There was a boat came in to the bay In the late afternoon before the heavy rain, and they must be happy now so they don’t have to sail on a stormy night.  8am We left the island. The in-coming tide was very strong. It took a lot of effort to pull up the anchor, mainly because one of J's fingers was still injured. Currents between these island groups could be confusing. When we chose the way out, we tried to pick the one with an out going current. We thought the north one would be the right one to take but the it turned out to be coming in current. We had to motor out slowly along the shore at a speed of about 2 knots (the closer to the shore, the weaker the current).
Went through the passage and avoided a shoal, we finally turned the bow to the northwest and set the goose wings up, traveled at a speed of 6 knots. The afternoon voyage was a bit rolly, but I was completely into reading the story of ‘Robinson Crusoe’. The reason I started reading it was that I had recently listened to a program about classics in Enlightenment Era by professor Xu Ben on the ‘Vistopia’ platform. It made me became very interested in some classics since the 17th century. I only had some basic knowledge about those famous works, but had never read them, such as this one. The main character in the novel was born in a middle-class family. He could have lived the most stable, safest, and most enviable life, but he wanted to get on ships to see the world, which was against his parents’ will. According to his father, only the poorest or richest people would take the risk to go overseas and venture out, and they themselves were in the middle class, which they considered is the best class, neither suffered from hardship nor carried the burden of ambition. Moreover, being free from disasters and illnesses can guarantee a stable and peaceful life, so he was advised to start a career and family in his own hometown, but this unsettled guy took a opportunity to jump on a ship and left hometown, starting a thrilling adventure... Although he always involved himself into disasters, and kept saying that he had regretted and wanted to go back, but I guess if he could choose again, he would still plunge into the sea adventure without hesitation. Just as a quote printed at the back of a business card given to us by an other sailor: ‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in boardside, in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, wow, what a ride!’ At 3pm, we arrived at Curlew island, a five-meter tidal change was reserved, because the full moon and no moon are the periods of biggest tide change. We sailed 32 nautical miles in total today. We had Thai curry coconut milk pumpkin pot for dinner tonight.  It was a beautiful morning when I woke up, but only little breeze in the bay. J's fingers seemed to stop bleeding. Around 8am after breakfast, we motored the boat out of the bay, and wind began to fill in the sails. It was not fast but quite stable, there were no waves, so boat was not rolling at all, then you can enjoy the picturesque coastal rocks and have a cup of tea.
Passing a water way at noon, current was rushing out, and there was a resistance of 1.6 knots. We were pushed by wind from behind but against the tide so we could not go faster. In the afternoon, near Supply Bay in Townshead, we hesitated whether to get in or move on, because the current resistance weakened and wind gradually picked up. We didn’t want to waste the pleasant condition so we decided to go to a further island ‘Marble Island’. It’ll save us 20 nautical miles tomorrow. In the evening, I cooked potato rice with the salty and spicy muddy burrito from the day before yesterday. Just sauté onion and green pepper to make fragrant, add diced potato and tomato to stir fry, then add the leftover burrito and half-cooked rice with water, cover and simmer until rice is cooked. When it was cooked, it turned into a magical result. What was brown and sticky became delicious, and it tasted a bit like curry rice. Wind gradually weakened after dinner, and it seemed to decide not helping us anymore, but fortunately, the current continued to push us forward. There was no moon but very starry with long Milky Way, so it was not totally dark, can still see the silhouette of the islands vaguely. Not far from the destination island, wind almost stopped. The tide came from the righthand side and pushed us a little bit, so we had to start the engine. There were boat lights near the island, they looked like navigation lights at night. (It was discovered the next morning that it was a house. Who would live on this remote island?) At 9:30pm we were in the bay and anchored, a five-meter tidal change to allowed for. We sailed 42 nautical miles today. |
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