African Chicken/ Plum Basil

I participated in a cooking contest during the boat show... and I'm still not sure how I placed. We were in the middle of preparing the boat for out first charter and didn't make it to the party where they announced how everyone placed. BUT I did make in onto the official CD of contest photos. I made my African Chicken Peanut Soup and Plum Basil Salad. Most people can't even repeat the name of the soup so I was sure it would be the only one of its kind. (and it was)

African Chicken Peanut Soup
(serves 4)
2 cooked chicken boobs, diced
3/4 c. white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. dark sesame oil
2 t. yellow curry powder
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
4 c. chicken stock (2 cans)
1/4 c. tomato paste
1 can whole stewed tomatoes, drained
4 T. chunky peanut butter

In a large pot saute chicken, onion, and garlic in sesame oil for about 10 minutes- until onion is tender. Add curry powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Saute for 1 minute. Use scissors to cut stewed tomatoes into bite size pieces. Add stock, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, and peanut butter. Stir until well combined. Heat almost to a boil and serve with crusty bread or salad.

Plum Basil Salad
2 T. olive oil
2 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. fresh orange juice
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 t. grated orange zest
1 t. grated lime zest
pink sea salt
coarse black pepper
10 oz. baby spinach
2 c. basil leaves, torn
2 black or red plums

In a small bowl whisk together oil, lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar, and zests. Season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl toss the basil and spinach -add dressing and coat well. Top with sliced plums, salt, pepper, and any extra zest for color.

Swimmin with Dolphins

Location: Secret Cove, BVI

If you didn't already hate us because of our totally cool job, you can start now. We pulled into one of our favorite secret spots this afternoon with our current charter. Just after we set the anchor a dolphin swam right up to the boat. I instantly grabbed my mask and jumped in after it. Our guests followed suit and it didn't even phase our little friend. He continued swimming around the boat with us. Sasha started some water sports with the kids and the dolphin loved it! He swam with the dingy all afternoon! Our guests loved it (especially the girl who's afraid of all things that swim).

Busy!

Just finished a wonderful charter and we are busy preparing for what we hope will be another great one!  Pictures and stories soon...

Amazin' Flamin' Dinners

Current Location: The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Lat/Lon: 18°25.89' N 64°26.74' W

Air Temp: 79°F Sea Temp: 79°F

Weather: Sunny, Clear

Last night's dinner was quite an event.  The captain helped out by making his famous Columbian/French/Puerto-Rican Rice & Beans while Tara broiled some local Red Snapper, which all looked and tasted amazing!  Tara finished by with her famous flaming coffee (without setting herself or the boat on fire)!!  Everyone was pleased and impressed.

 

Vacation is over, time to go on vacation

Current Location: Diamond Cay, JVD

Lat/Lon: 18°27.03' N 65°43.43' W

Air Temp: 79°F Sea Temp: 79°F

Weather: Cool, Clear

Brrrrrr!  Winter must be here.  Water temp PLUNGED into the low upper 70's.

Today's post has one photo of me actually doing work!  I wiped down the hulls as a preemptive strike against marine growth and to renew the antifouling paint.  

Then we went to the bubbly pool on the north face of Jost Van Dyke, and there was a good swell running.  That pool was BUBBLY!

Then Tara took me surfing!!!  TOW INS AT JOST!!

Now we are back on charter, but still sending you warmth and love.  (Just not as much warmth, it's getting cold here!)

More Pictures

Here are some pictures from the last week or so.  We accomplished a lot (in no particular order): changed the oil in the Volvos, caught and ate lobster in St. Croix, installed a new (plastic-coated) cable to lock the dinghy and engine, visited the Gold Coast Catamaran factory in Salt River, St. Croix (with Capt. Kirk, and yes that is a 67' long, 15' tall catamaran in the background), visited the Annaberg Sugar Mill ruin in St. John (they used live coral as a building material!), scrubbed the dingy, cleaned and oiled the teak (note before and after in photos, and how the teak shines now!), and scraped and re-painted the big windows.  We also had a feline visitor who saw how nice the boat looked and decided to hop on and say "hi".  Sasha: "Can we keep him?"  Tara: "No."

More Work

Current Location: Francis Bay, St. John
Lat/Lon: 18°21.85' N 65°44.76' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Breezy, Cool, Clear

Again, proof that Tara does all the work around here. She is unstoppable! It took three computers and a few tips from me to design this PVC wine rack, and Tara built it all herself! Looks good!

Ahoy St. Croix

Hope your holiday season is going as well as ours!! We just heard our first Christmas carols on the radio this past week and realized that it's finally that time of year again. The big debate now is whether or not to start playing carols on the boat. What do you think?
We just made it back from St. Croix-- averaged 8.75 kts for the entire 35 miles up to St. Thomas. It only took us about 5 hours which was a great surprise as we were not sure what to expect. I manned the fishing pole and 4 hours later again realized why the call it fishing and not catching. Not one single bite :( Sasha and I did some diving with a friend of Capt. Monk's while in St. Croix. Dr. Bob is an Animal Science Researcher who has been working/diving on St. Croix for 15 years and was a great scuba guide!! There are very loose regulations on lobstering so we caught some dinner while we were down. The diving was great because there were walls that drop from 30 to 10,000 ft with amazing relief and swim throughs. Sasha had fun swimming around with a mohawk-- he thought it might make him look more like a fish. In reality it just made his head feel cold faster. We had planned to spend a few more days down in St. Croix, but our window of small seas and east wind came today so we went with it!

Culebra Days and Nights

Current Location: Ensenada Honda, Culebra, PR
Lat/Lon: 18°18.6' N 65°17.5' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Clear, Light NE Breeze

Continuing our trend of working harder while on our vacation, we sailed down to Culebra to "relax" for a few days. Here is an abbreviated list of things we accomplished while here:
- Removed dinghy engine
- Beached, flipped, scraped, washed, scrubbed, and sanded the dinghy
- Applied three coats of antifouling paint to dinghy bottom
- Tara scrubbed all the teak on Hypnautic
- Installed a ventilation fan in the cockpit fridge cabinet
- Installed two waterproof GFCI-protected 120VAC outlets in the cockpit
- Ate a Barbara Rosa's, a local culinary institution
- Hung out at the Dinghy Dock
- I even cooked dinner tonight
This does not include the two hours spent stirring the gallon of bottom paint (all the copper clumped up at the bottom). Many thanks to Kirk and Pam for their help and advice, loaning us tools, letting us shower off the paint at their house, and for helping us flip and scrub the dinghy!

Also, Tara is probably entirely correct about how awesome it was to finally be on vacation. Getting some more surf at Sandy Spit was awesome!!!

Here are some pics, Tara scrubbing Teak, Sasha Surfing

Vacation

Here are pictures from our vacation so far. We're having fun and getting lots of work done around here! We spent one morning at Sandy Spit surfing, playing in the sand, and swimming. We were entertaining enough that other tourists were asking to have their picture taken with us. I'd never been buried in sand before so Sasha did his best-- ? Later that evening after dinner Sasha mentioned that he'd never buzzed his hair before so I did my best -- :) There are a few more "hair pictures" to come. I has been quite the progression.

SURF AT LAST!

Current Location: Sandy Spit, JVD
Lat/Lon: 18°26.9' N 64°42.7' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Calm

Yes we anchored in Apple Bay on Tortola, just in front of the famous Bomba's Shack, so I could catch some surf!! It was awesome!!! We dropped the hook around 4pm and there was no more than ten people in the water and I caught a bunch of waves. While surfing I ran into a friend who gives massages, which we desperately need! Moved over to Sandy Spit for the night, and visited with the owners of our sister ship, Catatonic, for margaritas and homemade guac (both delicious). Now Tara has some steak on the grill.

Marinas

Current Location: Village Cay Marina, Tortola
Lat/Lon: 18°25.4' N 64°37.03' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Calm

Marinas suck. For one, they are crowded. Second, they are sheltered, which means there is no breeze and they are hot. Third the water is gross so no swimming! Also, marinas mean work -- when we are in port we like to get things done -- repairs, shopping, etc.

So, marinas are also good. They provide services - fuel, water, electricity, supplies, access to repairs, as well as shelter from the elements. We ran some errands, Tara went shopping, Issac from Wickham's Cay II Rigging installed a new halyard, and Junior from Doyle Sails dropped off our repaired gennaker and measured for cockpit shades.

So yet another very busy day of vacation. I can't wait for the vacation to actually start! Almost seems like we do less when we are on charter!

Lots of Cake

Our last charter was a birthday celebration for the entire family. Four people = four cakes?!? My first thought was to make one huge cake and call it quits. BUT if you know me, you know that I could not be that lame when it came to birthday cakes! So, every afternoon I could find a way to kick our guests off the boat while I worked on another surprise cake I went for it. The Dad had German Chocolate (his favorite), Mom had Pavlova (thank you Allison), older brother had Funnel Cakes and Ice Cream, and younger brother had my trademark Pirate Cake. The baking tested my "new to me" oven as much as my nerves. But I've learned that I can turn out a cake in just under 2 hours. (We're never even trying a roast on this boat.)

New Mailing Address

Current Location: Great Harbor, JVD
Lat/Lon: 18°26.45' N 64°45.0' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Cool & Clear

What a busy couple of days have passed, especially considering that we are allegedly on vacation! We rented a car and did all sorts of food and parts provisioning for the things we discovered the boat was missing over the last couple of weeks. Also got a PO Box in the US of A so you can mail us stuff now!!!

The address is:

Alexander Bouis or Tara Chaille (as applicable)
6501 Red Hook Plaza
Suite 201
St. Thomas, VI 00802-1306

ANTS in me PLANTS!

A month of offering a fresh punch of flavor to our meals and I had to beg Sasha not to toss my little herb garden off the boat. A few days ago he noticed a lone ant trooping across the cockpit and wondered where it had come from. As it turns out my garden is harboring the little guys--- a whole village of them!! After filling my head with thoughts of ants infesting the entire galley and eating everything from loaves of bread to onions hiding under the sink, Sasha suggested we somehow create a mote around the plants to keep the ants in one spot until we have time to "deal" with them. I had nightmares about it all. Now Sasha is spraying bleach all over the bases of the pots and the deck they are sitting on to kill anything that dares venture out in the night. Any better suggestions out there?

Finally!

Current Location: The Lagoon, St. Thomas
Lat/Lon: 18°18.76' N 64°52.1' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Windy, Partly Cloudy

We are finally off charter!!! It was a busy, eventful, and fun few weeks, but it is nice to have the boat to ourselves for a change. We found a sheltered cove that is the namesake of our yachtmaker, and we are hunkered down here for the night. Tomorrow we rent a car and do some shopping in St. Thomas!

Sunrise over Ginger Island

Current Location: The Baths, Virgin Gorda
Lat/Lon: 18°25.75' N 64°26.8' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Sunny

All this automation leaves my hands free to capture images like this gorgeous sunrise over Ginger Island on the way to The Baths.

All in the TOES!

Oh how wonderful our beloved Capt. Sasha is. He can do just about anything around the boat.... with the push of a button! I was telling my dad the other day about our awesome electric winches on board when it dawned on me that Sasha may be taking waaay too much credit for the work around this little boat of ours. She sails like a dream, but can leave you with a bit of a foot cramp. It's all in the TOES! Check out the photo of Sasha hoisting the main single handed. The hardest part of the job is figuring out where to sit during the whole operation. In all reality this little luxery is probably saving my butt more than anyone else!!

Wonderful Weather Underground

Current Location: Cooper Island Beach Club
Lat/Lon: 18°23.15' N 64°30.9' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Starry Skies

So as you may already know, I LOVE to track the weather, and one of my favorite sites is The Weather Underground. Well, it was annoying to me that the BVIs did not appear on the weather radar page, so I emailed them, and less then a day later, lo and behold, there they are! AWESOME!! Great work guys.

I also like Weather Underground co-founder Dr. Jeff Masters' weather blog. During the tropical season, that and Rob Lightbown's Tropical Discussion pages are invaluable resources. In addition, I rely on the local NOAA forecasts as well as other great Caribbean weather sites such as CaribWX, and WeatherCarib.

Finally, I have always relied upon the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) Wave Watch 3 (WW3) models to predict swell events for surfing both back in New York and down here in the Caribbean. In fact, we have some swell heading our way tomorrow, so we are going to try to avoid it since we have guests on board. I hope sometime soon I will get to use my surfboard!!!

SCUBA diving is fun

Current Location: Sandy Spit, E of Jost
Lat/Lon: 18°27.03' N 64°42.6' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Isolated Showers

Here is a picture from our last charter. The honeymoon couple loved scuba diving so we dove as much as possible, up to three times a day! Here is a great pic of them having fun:

What's the Third time??

Cut me once, shame on you. Cut me twice shame on me. And third times the charm?!? Just sent my knives to be sharpened before coming down this way. I'm rethinking that so called great idea as I find myself chopping under sail or mid conversation with guests. Either way I'm usually only able to keep one eye on the knife and the other... not. Today was the third good one. Three fingers and one amazing wash cloth later I'm still learning. As he ran to get the Bactine and bandages today Sasha asked me to "please stop cutting myself". I told him I'd do my best. Ps. Mom, I'm setting up a PO Box next week-- please send more washcloths, at this rate I might make it till Christmas.

Second Charter

Second time around-- you'd assume it would be similar to the first, but this time they brought the whole famdamily. Mom, Dad, and 2 boys ages 14 and 8. The parents are originally from Kentucky but are raising the boys on the east coast now. Great people so far (aka. they LOVE my cooking). We are anchored in Francis Bay off of St. John and as soon as everyone is up and we do a little breakfast we'll be off to Jost Van Dyke to check into the BVIs and say hello to Foxy. I'm excited to work with the kids over the next few days, they are really into the ocean and all it's creatures. We bought fish ID cards for snorkle time and hope to begin naming fish this afternoon! The excitment over the underwater world is refreshing and a great reminder as to how special this place really is.

Gorgeous sunrise over St. John

Current Location: Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°21.86' N 64°44.8' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Partly Cloudy

.

Current Location: Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
Lat/Lon: 18°21.86' N 64°44.8' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Scattered Showers

What a long day! Wake up in Village Cay Marina (after dropping off our guests, doing laundry, provisioning, cleaning the boat, and servicing the generator yesterday), sail 15 miles downwind to Redhook, St. Thomas, anchor outside because our slip isn't ready, end up picking up our new guests at the fuel dock, get them moved in, tour the boat, motor out to St. John, eat lunch, snorkel, kayak, unwrap the dinghy painter from the propeller (yes, it even happens to professionals like me), grab a mooring in Francis Bay, re-splice the dinghy painter, cook dinner, and, finally, go to bed. We are sure to sleep well tonight!!!!!

Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay

Current Location: Trellis Bay
Lat/Lon: 18°26.88' N 64°31.9' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: FULL MOON

Howlin' at the moon, fireballs in the water, steel drum band on the beach, and our first full moon party at Trellis Bay! Pics soon, busy day of diving tomorrow.

Boat Photo

Here are some more photos of the boat. (Top Left: Crew Cabin, Top Right: State Room, Bottom Left: Master Suite, Bottom Right: Salon) These were taken during the boat show so they give you an idea of how good it can look when no one is allowed to touch anything! ! Sasha and I have been enjoying the first charter-- these people are up around 6:30 every morning wanting to dive. We love it!

Amazing diving today

Current Location: Cooper Island Beach Club
Lat/Lon: 18°23.06' N 64°30.85' W
Air Temp: 80°F Sea Temp: 80°F
Weather: Almost a full moon!!!

We dove Angelfish Reef and the Indians today and it was awesome. We saw turtles, sharks, barracuda, tarpon, and countless other fish, as well as corals, pirate caves, etc. Check out this Flamingo Tongue.