Boat Life Larks - SV Dulcinea

We departed Warderick Wells and terrified ourselves on the north approach to Cambridge Cay; we had to cuddle a rock to avoid grounding on a shoal while fighting a current. What larks!

Cambridge Cay is also part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, and has 14 moorings. Unfortunately, there were no moorings available, so we began anchoring but were yelled at by aggressive people in a dinghy. Hastings loves to do an arrival pee on deck, so I hope they thought this was a statement directed at them.

We finally anchored, and then settled in to watch the high tide surge show, which caused all the boats to swing wildly and in different directions, while rolling very uncomfortably. We started to feel a little depressed about leaving Wardericks Wells heaven just to be in Cambridge Cay hell.

Overnight, a cold front pushed through, the wind picked up, and I stayed up most of the night on anchor watch, glaring at the boats that all seemed too close and wondering what we were going to do if we had to re-anchor in the pitch black, in the rain, with rocks on one hand, boats on the other, and a sand bar to complete the doom circle. Thank goodness we didn't have to find out!

First sunset

It always seems like a miracle when the sun rises after a nightmare, but like clockwork, it always does. And, Cambridge Cay was so beautiful it totally redeemed itself! We never had the high tide surge again, the yeller left, we took their open mooring, and the winds died down.

Next to the moorings, there's a great beach that stretches out for forever at low tide. It was like being on the moon.

Low Tide beach

A trail marked with conch shells leads from the banks beach to the sound beach.

Conch shell trail

Exuma Sound Beach

Our favorite beach was the sand bar beach. It was stunning!

Sand bar beach

Sand bar beach and moorings

Sand bar beach and moorings

We just can't get enough of this sand bar!

Hastings loves all the beaches!

Hastings and Lucy

Cambridge Cay beach and moorings, Exuma Land and Sea Park

Sand bar beach

Have you ever had a quick turn from heaven to hell or from a nightmare to a dream?

Next time on the blog - Cambridge Cay: The Sea - paddle board and underwater photos.

Matt’s Magnificent Mouthwatering Morsels on Monday:

Dehydrated Veggies and Freeze Dried Fruit

A Bahamas Provisioning Win

I honestly am not sure how we would’ve survived this long in the Bahamas without our stocking up on these great dehydrated veggies from Harmony House. They’ve allowed us to extend out cruising almost indefinitely without worry of starvation or even culinary boredom. When mixed with the few fresh things that we do find at markets here and there, it’s like we’re a floating gourmet restaurant.

Enough fruit and veggies to survive the zombie apocalypse. Because eating brains alone is not a balanced meal.

We purchased the Vegetable Pantry Stuffer and the Deluxe Fruit Sampler. The Veggie Pantry Stuffer was about $140 and contains 16 quart sized containers of diced veggies. Included are:

Broccoli Flowerets
Green Cabbage
Diced Carrots
Sliced Celery
Whole Sweet Corn
Green Beans
Fancy Sliced Mushrooms
Jalapeno Dices
Tangy Green & White Leeks
Chopped White Onions
Green Sweet Peas
Red & Green Bell Pepper Mix
Diced Potatoes
Spinach Flakes
Tomato Dices
Tomato Powder

The Deluxe Fruit Sampler was $60 and contains 12 quart sized containers of freeze dried fruit. One of the best things about these fruits is that they are not sweetened at all…so forget about the sort of fruit you get in cereals or trail mixes from the supermarket. These are perfect for cooking. Lucy got addicted to munching on the pineapple, papaya and mangoes right out of the bag, and those stocks got low quickly. She had to be cut off and it wasn't pretty! Included in the sampler are:

Apple Dices
Apricot Dices
Banana Slices
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Mango Dices
Papaya Dices
Peach Dices
Pineapple Chunks
Raspberries
Strawberries

The Good:

The fruit is amazing to have on board. We made a chocolate cake and whipped together a simple raspberry sauce in minutes. It took about 8-10 raspberries, chopped, a teaspoon of sugar and about 3 tablespoons of water. I mixed it together and let it sit about 20 minutes. It was a-maz-ing!

How about triple berry scones, just like ~~mom~~ Panera used to make. Before mixing the scones, grab 1/2 cup of mixed blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Soak in 1/2 cup warm water (1:1 ratio for the fruit). Make the scones and add the (drained) fruit at the end. You can use the juice to substitute for the water/milk/juice called for in the recipe.

Say you are making jambalaya (a staple on Independence). I may or my not have a fresh onion around these days. I haven’t had fresh celery or bell peppers since Miami. So I go to my pantry stuffer, and I pour out what I want in my jambalaya. I fill up 1 - 1.5 cups worth of bell pepper, celery, carrot, peas, green beans, and maybe even a few of those jalapeños!. I put these in the pot over medium heat and add 1.5x as much water as veggies (i.e. 1 cup of veggies to 1.5 cups water). It will simmer quickly, and once the water is absorbed and the veggies soft, you can add olive oil and any fresh veggies (like that onion I might have) and let it saute with a little salt. Then you can proceed on with the recipe…ham, sausage, rice, yada yada yada...deliciousness. We’ve learned to use caution with those jalapeños, though.

Wow! Where did you find gourmet Mango-Pineapple Salsa out here in the Out Islands? Nope, that boring Pace (from a huge bargain Wal-Mart jug, no less!) made extraordinary with freeze dried mangoes and pineapple.

Here’s another great one: hash browns (sort of). The recipe came with the pantry stuffer and its a winner. Take 1 cup of the potatoes, 1/4 cup of the onions and hydrate in 2 cups of water over medium heat in a skillet. Once the water is absorbed, add oil, salt and pepper and brown. Toss in the pan to brown the other side. Yum.

The tomato powder is very neat too. It has basically replaced any tomato paste or plain tomato sauce need in our galley. Simply mix with enough water to get it to the consistency you want it (paste, sauce, whatever). I made pizza sauce one night by mixing tomato powder, garlic powder, brown sugar and salt and pepper with just a little water. No cooking or simmering or anything. No one ever knew…mu-ha-ha-ha!

The Bad:

Some go quicker than others! After we saw how awesome they were, we quickly ordered a second quart of the onions, potatoes and bell peppers before we left. The bell peppers were the first empty.

The containers they come with are not very air tight, though they are adequate even for the Bahamas. The fruit is all now slightly soft as it has absorbed water from the humidity in the air. We tried ziplocks, but this yielded about the same results. To really keep it crisp, I think you would need to do zip locks inside a very good air-tight container.

Some of the veggies are not winners…but I guess they are nice to have aboard. The broccoli is cut too small. It’s fine for broccoli cheddar soup, but you won’t be putting this in a stir-fry. I wouldn’t use the word “flowerets” to describe it. The leeks are not my favorite either…they just don’t seem to hydrate as well as the other options and wind up being chewy. The apples seem a bit flavorless to me…and obviously none of these things are like eating the item fresh. This stuff is for cooking, not munching…though some of the fruit is yummy in its own way. Those bananas were amazing when they were still crunchy!

So, in closing, these things rock. How many of you could whip something up right now and pull out of your pantry jalapeños, papayas, mangoes, bell peppers…the list goes on and on! And I’m in the middle of nowhere man! So cool! And while carrying around the entire pantry works for us, I could also totally dig premixing the ingredients into smaller packages for camping, hiking or kayaking trips!

Matt’s Dehydrated (“Don’t Worry, This Is All Fresh”) Chili

At a particularly low point, at a location far from good markets on a day far removed from mailboat day, we were out of everything fresh. So I made chili. Here’s what I did:

Prepare 1 can of red beans or pinto beans. You can use a can, drained and rinsed, or prepare dry beans on the stove or in a thermos (this is our favorite method on board).

From your extensive dehydrated pantry:

Get about 1.5 cups full of stuff you want in chili. Pour in onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, jalapeno, and tomato dices for sure. Anything else at your culinary discretion.

If you have 1/2 pound of ground beef, that would be good. If you want to go vegetarian, vegan, or just don’t have the beef to spare, replace it with another tin of beans (perhaps a different kind) and maybe some mushrooms (you guessed it, dehydrated!!)

Chili and cornbread, Bahamas style! Who left that wrench on the table?

Ingredients:

1 tin of beans

1.5 cups dehydrated veggies

1/2 lbs ground beef

1 tablespoon beef stock concentrate

chili powder

garlic powder

cumin

dried thyme

salt and pepper

In your large pot, mix the veggies with 1.5x as much water. Bring to a simmer, and allow all the water to get absorbed. Once it has, add a little olive oil and simmer for a few minutes. Add the beef and allow to begin to brown. Add the beans. Cover with enough water to cover (probably about 2 cups) and add stock concentrate and spices. Measures aren’t given for the spices because that’s not how you make chili. Just guess…start with a teaspoon of each and add more if you desire. Something else in your pantry…add it in! I may or may not be leaving out my secret ingredients 😉 If you want more heat, add some cayenne pepper or hot sauce.

Pan made corn bread recipe pending...standby!

Warderick Wells is criss-crossed with trails. Maps are available at the office, but on a such a small island it is hard to get too lost - just follow the sound of the waves and you'll find Exuma Sound and then you can head north or south. Most pick up the trail system at the office, but for us in slumville (Emerald Rock), we would paddle to the beach and pick up the trails from there.

"The wall" to Exuma Sound

From Beryl's Beach there is a wall from the Banks side to the Sound side (about 3 minutes walk). It seems like a lot of effort to pile up these rocks in the hot sun!

The wall overlooking Beryl's Beach and the Great Bahama Bank

According to the park, the Hutia is a plump, round rabbit sized rodent; the only mammal that is native to the Bahamas. They were thought to be extinct until discovered on East Plana Cay. Several hutias were moved to Warderick Wells to increase their chance of survival. We saw a few scurrying in the bushes and found lots of hutia tracks. Hastings wasn't allowed on trails to preserve their habitat and he spent a lot of time longingly looking at the "no dogs on trails" signs.

Hutia footprints!

Hutia's aren't the only life on the island. We saw plenty of fat curly tailed lizards; they seemed to enjoy hanging out on cairns and signs!

Lizard!

Occasionally, a snake would join the party. We also saw white tailed tropicbirds with long tail feathers. Very beautiful!

Snake!

Some colonists in the 1700s didn't want to be American and wanted to stay loyal to the British flag, so they left the U.S. and settled in the Bahamas, including on Warderick Wells. There wasn't much left other than the wall.

Loyalist Ruins

Exuma Sound

The landscape is really neat: it's not just a sandy island! The limestone has a lot of dissolved patches - watch your step!

Limestone landscape: watch your step!

There is a neat mini Sahara Desert: flat sand with a few struggling bushes.

Flats

Walking the "hutia highway" I found this ladder going into a cave. I was tempted to go down, but since I was totally alone decided to stay above ground.

Ladder to the cave

Cool bridge thingy Matt found on the Sound side. Not sure how (it's not a big island!) but I missed this on my walks.

Natural bridge, Exuma Sound

Tidal Stream and mangroves

At the top of the ridge, cruisers make a sign out of driftwood and add it to the enormous pile of other offerings. There are ghosts or gods to appease.

Our sign (the blue one) at Boo Boo Hill

Sunshine Causeway

Sunshine Causeway Bridge and the last photo my Sony took.

Warderick Wells is a great place for all seasons- in windy weather you can get off the boat and walk the trails while enjoying great views and solitude.

Enjoy this 1:30 video!

Have you ever been surprised by an unexpected creature while hiking?

Big Major's Spot

Cambridge Cay: The Sea

Cambridge Cay: The Beaches

Dehydrated Vegetables (and a recipe or two too!)

Warderick Wells Trails

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