Saturday, April 16, 2011

Pie and what does it have to do with sailing?

Pies of all sorts seem to be the new food trend in North America, so I thought I would share my favourite pie recipe, just for the hell of it!  I didn't provide a pastry recipe as everyone has their favourite, if you would like a recipe, send me a note.

Sour Cherry Passion Fruit Pie

Filling:

1 lb fresh sour cherries, pitted OR 1 lb frozen sour cherries
1 tsp. grated ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 cup passion fruit puree

Cook cherries and sugar until thick.  Add remaining ingredients.  Pour into pie shell and cover with pastry.  Brush with egg wash or with heavy cream (gives a glossy sheen to the pastry)

Bake in a 350 oven until crust is brown, about 40 minutes.

You could wimp out and buy cherry pie filling but I promise you, once you have made this recipe from scratch, you will NEVER EVER want to buy cherry pie filling EVER AGAIN!

So what does this have to do with sailing?  NOTHING.  But cherry pie is my favourite pie and sailing is my favourite pass time.  2 weeks until splash down and the weather this weekend is frightful.  It's cold, rainy and windy - that's the forecast for the next three days.

What, do most non-boat owners want to know, do boaters need to do to get ready for launch?  Well here's my list just for this year, some years it's shorter, some years it's WAY longer:

Power wash hull and deck
Go home and change into dry clothes
Sand bottom
Paint bottom
Resand bottom after realizing your hair was dragging behind you in the fresh paint
Touch up bottom paint
Wax and buff hull
Power wash deck again as the seagulls have used your deck as target practice
Cut out rotten deck bits and fill with epoxy
Reinstall lifelines
See if motor will start
Take motor to fix it guy
Install motor
Scrub out interior of mildew
Hang rudder, attach tiller
Unscrew tiller and reattach pointing into the boat
Install man-overboard pole
Uncover mast
Attach side stays to mast (the lines that hold up the mast)
Purchase new side stays to replace the worn out broken ones (very important that the mast doesn't fall down)
Find the little pieces of plastic that hold the boom on - damn French system!
Find all those little split rings that attach the sidestays to the boat, thus holding up the mast

When the boat is in the water, and the mast is safely standing, here's the next to do list:

Hang boom on those damn French little pieces of plastic
Put on the main sail and realize you forgot all the battens at home
Drive home to get battens
Take off main sail and insert battens
Put main sail back on
Look for sail cover
Go to car to retrieve sail cover
Cover main sail with sail cover
Open fridge and find left over beer from last year, crack the tab, warm but okay, drink
Install all lines, including pole down, cunningham, outhaul etc., which requires a screw driver
Go to Dollar Store to buy new screw driver as the other one rolled off the deck into the lake
Install all split rings on front and back stay, curse that you didn't replenish first aid kit as you need a bandage desperately to stop bleeding after cutting oneself with those *&^^ split rings
Attach boom vang, unattach boomvang, turn it over the correct way and reattach
Attach main sheet, this takes the most time, usually a good hour as one can never remember how those damn lines go through which pulley which way
Spend 2 hours tuning the rig and 30 minutes going back to the dollar store for a pair of needle nose pliers and more bandaids

Now the boat is ready to go!  14 days and counting!  woo hoo.

1 comment:

  1. You've got more detail on your list than mine. I don't usually write down the bits about the hair and screwdrivers and bandaids, but you're right. Been there, done that. Most years! Mine also includes finding a big guy to help me put the motor on as Frank sometimes is working when I want to put it on, and finding a picnic table so we can lift it a bit at a time. My list sometimes includes breaking the weather vane and having to get a new one.

    ReplyDelete