Oceanic Ventures, Inc.
The Strange Chronicles
September 2000
September 29, 2000 It's early Friday morning and I stayed up way to late last night. I haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet so I'm barely making sense even to myself. We've spent the first three days on the Rio just a couple of miles past Livingston. We're up early because we're headed further up the river, through the canyon and everyone tells us the wee hours are the most beautiful. [Per discussion with another sailor, Russell, the canyon walls rise vertically from the water and in the morning as the fog lifts up from the river, the walls of the canyon reveal themselves and glisten in the morning sunlight).
September 28, 2000 We're enjoying the area, but just got here and barely scratched the surface. The fresh water is a treat - when you get wet on a dinghy ride, you just hang your clothes up to dry without having to rinse the salt off. It's rained every night and our water tanks continue to overflow. (S/V Enchante utilizes a water catch system. The system feeds fresh water off the sun shades into a fresh water tank where it is treated and moved into the main tanks.)
Of course we have the usual cruiser's day. I went into Livingston to shop for basics. Started the trip at 7 am and made it back to the boat right at noon. In those five hours I managed to buy tomatoes, peppers, tomato sauce, toilet paper, fruit juice, a dozen eggs and a bit of coconut bread. Not a bad haul for a five hour shopping trip! Of course it involved a lot of walking, poking my head into many mysterious shops and lingering over a pineapple drink in a shady spot.
While I was in town, Karen did several loads of clothes. This is also an all day affair not just a pop it from the machine to the dryer. The boat looks like a Chinese Laundry, but then so do our neighbors.
September 26, 2000 Entering the Rio Dulce — A tropical wave, we'd been watching approach the Nicaraguan coast, started showing signs of developing into something a bit stronger with circular wind arrows and a developing low. So we left the Sapodilla Cays and headed for the Rio Dulce a day earlier than expected. We're anchored off the coast of Guatemala in a pretty little cove (15*56N / 088*36W) off the point of Cabo Tres Puntas.
The coast is lined with jungle and beach with an occasional thatched roof house. Behind the jungle, further into the country, are mountains with wet looking clouds. This being the rainy season we're bound to get some rain and cool winds this evening. The cool winds would be a treat if we didn't have to get up and run around closing hatches because of the rain. Then we steam inside the boat until the rain quits and we can open the hatches again. Of course, since the rain storm has passed, the wind is gone. Friends refer to this "jump up, close the hatches, toss and turn until the rain quits, open the hatches again" routine as their rain dance. It's a very familiar one to most cruisers. Thankfully, we're loaded with fans - eleven of them scattered strategically around the boat.
Since we're a day early, the high tide will be at 7AM not the 7:40 we'd been planning on. That means we'll get up at 5, make coffee, lift the anchor and get underway. We'll anchor off the town of Livingston and wait for the officials to come to the boat to check us in. Then we'll move further up the river, passing through a jungle canyon for five miles or so, until we find a nice place to anchor. We'll need rest, but Rebecca will have slept well and will be raring' to go. It'll be a long day, but we're looking forward to seeing this river we've read about for so long.
September 21, 2000: Beach Cookouts — We're anchored amongst a group of small islands known as the Sapodilla Cays (16*07N / 088*16W). Serious hurricane season is almost upon us but we're enjoying a few more days on the outer reefs before heading up the Rio Dulce in Guatemala to seek shelter for a couple of months.
Today we had great luck spearfishing and the three cruising boats in the anchorage have planned a beach cookout. Of course we've invited all the local population - the marine policeman, the lighthouse keeper, the army lieutenant and a local caretaker who comes complete with a family of two or three kids. The cruisers will provide a pot luck diner. It's not a bad deal for us since we have free run of a private resort island and the local officials overlook the fact that all three boats checked out of the country weeks ago and really shouldn't still be hanging around in Belize waters.
The point of this story is to share the techniques of grilling fish that have been developed during several years of cruising. I'll tell you how tonight's fish will be prepared and you can modify the technique for home grilling.
Lets start with the fish. It's relatively simple for us - troll or spearfish until you have a suitable quantity of fresh ocean fish. Tonight we're serving grouper, snapper and ocean triggerfish that were pulled out of the water about three hours before they go on the fire. None of these fish are suitable for "steaking" so they were filleted and cut into pieces roughly four inches on a side. Making serving size pieces is important since grilled fish is very tender and you don't want to tear it up flipping in on the grill. In fact, the fish should only be flipped once - the less you handle it the better. The pieces are marinated in one of the recipes shown. Only marinate fish for an hour or two.
Organize your fire by finding a clear spot of beach with a handy supply of dry driftwood and dry coconut husks. A clever location will restrict guests from the upwind side of the fire so their walking doesn't kick sand onto the food. (As an aside - do not spend much time standing under a coconut palm. A full coconut is nearly the weight of a bowling ball and falls from a height of twenty or twenty feet.) Back to the fire. Dig a shallow pit and place a couple of long coconut limbs on either side to support the grill. Cruisers are always looking for a way to dispose of trash so we use it as a fire starter. Arrange the fire in three layers - two or three bags of trash, a nice pile of small driftwood pieces and eight to ten coconut husks. Let everything burn down nicely and rake most of the fire material to one side leaving a couple of inches of beautiful, hot coconut coals for cooking.
Place the grill over the coals, announce that dinner is almost ready and start cooking the fish. It's tough to give cooking times since the thickness of fish varies. However, you must not overcook fish and, as I said earlier, you don't want to flip it a lot or it will fall apart. Let the fish cook on one side for five minutes or so watching for the edges of the pieces to start turning white. Flip the fish once, wait a few minutes and start checking for doneness by sticking each piece with a fork or poking it with a chopstick. Properly cooked the fish will flake but still be very moist on the inside.
Pile the fish on a platter, place next to the rest of the potluck dinner and enjoy. It's always nice to add a few more sticks to the fire and enjoy swapping stories as the sun goes down. Karen remembered to buy marshmallows the last time we were in a town. Those will be a big treat with the kids.
September 15, 2000 Blackened Sashimi is wonderful with tuna but the mackerel didn't have a strong enough "fish" flavor and was overwhelmed by the spices. Mackerel is much better steaked, marinated and grilled. We've been catching a lot of fish and have had it running out our ears. Tonight we joined another couple at a restaurant and had fried chicken!
I finally found NPR sharing a frequency with Armed Forces Radio. Sometimes I get gung-ho military music, or very old country and western. Other times it's "All Things Considered". Very odd format.
September 13, 2000 Caught a three foot Spanish Mackerel today. We're having blackened sashimi tonight, grilled steaks tomorrow evening and the next (unless we can find some guests). The odds and ends will be turned into a fish pate' for snacks over crackers. The Belize coast doesn't have the clearest water but we've had great luck with our fishing. Almost a matter of course that we'll catch something every time.
We're way down at the southern end of the country. We have to check out in a few days. Then we'll hang out illegally until there's a nice 2.2 foot tide at the entrance of the Rio Dulce near then end of the month. Hardly any storm activity in the Atlantic this year, but it's certainly getting to be time to act prudently and find a good hiding place.
September 5, 2000 We caught a large mahogany snapper trolling yesterday. Anchored next to a small island with a lovely beach and coconut palms. Gathered up a few old coconut husks, dug a small pit, burned our trash, and used the wonderful coconut coals to cook the fish. With a side dish from each of the three boats we made pigs of ourselves (again!) and were in bed by 10!
September 3, 2000 I've haven't been inspired to write anything for the web page. Our inland trip was wonderful and I'll certainly describe that adventure before too long. I've been spending too much time spearfishing, enjoying pot luck dinners, moving south and reading. This morning was a champagne brunch on Ayacha. We took éclairs and six of us polished off a dozen of them after eating quiche, fruit salad, potatoes, bacon, etc. Three Bloody Mary’s went down quickly also. Nice nap this afternoon however!