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.