food

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Red Shanks and Conch Cleaning for Cruisers

Thursday, Jan 31; another glorious sail into Elizabeth Harbor, sadly though, officially out of the tropics once again. Another big wind event (am I sounding like a broken record or what?) was due in Friday night so we opted to try out the very protected anchorage behind Crab Cay, called Red Shanks. In reality Red Shank Cays are just two small cays off the southern tip of Crab Cay. Much of the anchoring spots are behind Crab and boats drawing less than 5 ft can get in at mid-tide or better.

In 2009 construction was halted on a 5-star resort and marina village planned for the northern portion of Crab Cay. Another Bahamian Twilight Zone episode where the plug gets pulled and the area looks like the workers will be back at it any day. An unusually lovely bridge was built connecting Great Exuma to Crab Cay and now all it does is block the way for any boat needing more than 15ft of height.

The waters may not be troubled, but the project sure bit the dust

The waters may not be troubled, but the project sure bit the dust

In town on Friday morning we ran into our friends Cort and Frank on Celise/Spirit, who according to Cort are, “batchin’ it” until Carolyn arrives next week. Fully immersed in daily beach volleyball, easy dining at Chat n’ Chill, making friends left and right, they are having a grand time. Since we left them in Nassau before Christmas – wow time sure flies- they have, “stories to tell.”

Back aboard, we received a visit from one of the handful of other boats anchored behind Crab Cay. Oh, this was looking good; a man in a drysuit with a large bucket in his sturdy, chap-covered dinghy. Guess what he loves to do and is very good at? When they have more than they need or want, the excess is given away and we were happy to receive “dinner for two” from Steve on Little Sister. He showed Russ how to separate the tail from the body; next question, “Would you like any conch?”  Well, yes, but we don’t know how to clean them- and we do know it’s a bit of a process. We’d have to pass.

Friday early evening the wind did her thing, causing several boats anchored off Volleyball Beach to drag. Tucked in tight usually without enough scope along with a change in wind direction makes those anchors pop out, sends dinghies to the rescue and hopefully you don’t get to rub fiberglass with your neighbor! Heard the wind topped out around 30kts but we never saw more than 23kts- which felt only like 15kts.

Saturday was a big baking day. We took an olive oil baguette over to Little Sister and left with “The Conch Book” and a date to learn how to clean the conch still floating in a mesh bag off their boat. Oh boy.

Sunday I worked on sanding some sea hearts, which turned out to be easier than cleaning conch!

Sanded and polished Sea Hearts- still need more work

Sanded and polished Sea Hearts- still need more work

Steve told us to bring sharp knives and large Ziplocs. Newbies at this process, we imagined it taking place on the stern, but as we approached our instructors jumped in their dinghy and off we went… to the perfect conch cleaning place and sheltered from the wind too! Fast learners- for sure our middle name. Steve explained how to determine apprx conch age then showed us how to extract the conch.

Steve explains conch basics: how to determine approx age.

Steve explains conch basics: how to determine approx age.

The next step is a bit yucky and I’ll just leave it at that. While Russ did that I removed the skin, and then when we had a few ready Steve showed me how to slice and pound the meat.

Extracting conch meat- gets messy from here

Extracting conch meat- gets messy from here

Cut like so to remove the digestive tract

Cut like so to remove the digestive tract

Pounding conch, fantastic stress reducer

Pounding conch, fantastic stress reducer

Janna stepped in to help skin and within two hours, 11 conch were processed and the meat filled a gallon Ziploc. Little Sister took a small amount and now I’ve got at least six meals in the freezer. We couldn’t have been more thrilled; learned how to clean conch (not that diving down deep for any is in our future), made new friends and have enough conch to allow me to try some new recipes. How about Conch Cakes- a take on Crab Cakes- were very tasty with Old Bay, turmeric and thyme as the seasonings.

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Hey, how about some North in the wind?

The typical winter prevailing winds in the Exumas are easterly to ESE, except during a frontal passage when the wind clocks around over the course of a few days. But nine days and counting, of E to ESE is a new one on us and made for a large bundle of boats at Blackpoint; Big Major too presumably. 15kts or less would not be a problem but when the wind kicks up to 20kts and more, the waves dance up to 5-8ft and traveling south just plain rots.
We used the time to do all our laundry- visitors note that clean sheets will be available :-), caught up on the blog and other online stuff and waited, waited for the Captain C to bring in food to the market. One evening, while I was taking a shower (this mentioned to explain the lack of a photo) a local came by in his skiff loaded with…… lobster! Russ negotiated a reduced sticker price for three and before you could say “coconut bread” the tails were off and deveined, using an antenna.
SandiBeach moved over closer to us; mostly because we had more wind and fetch protection and we spent time swapping stories. We traded a piece of Russ’s famous herb focaccia bread for brownies and a small bag of Bahamian peas accompanied by how to make peas and rice.
Lorraine’s is more than an internet café, it’s the place to meet other cruisers and talk “whatever”. A couple of boats were cruising with kids and boy I sure give them credit; 4 people on a monohull. The kids attended school during their time at Blackpoint. All the students go home for the one hour lunch break; the school looks just big enough for classrooms and no more.

The all-ages BlackPoint school

The all-ages BlackPoint school

Thursday was the BIG day. At 12:45 the Captain C arrived and by 2pm at least 15 of us had gathered near Adderley’s waiting for the boxes to be brought in via pickup truck. The system is simple; there is no system! Once the boxes were in and opened up, we were invited in and controlled chaos ensued. Cruisers are reasonably polite adults- mostly. What fresh food didn’t I need? Consult a list? If did that, all the things I wanted would be scooped up by the time I read the darn thing. I was lucky, my take was good: 2 dzn eggs, a head of iceburg (when was the last time I bought that?), a bag of carrots and celery, one tomato, a large cucumber, two limes, 3 bananas and some staples from the shelves. All for $33 which I thought wasn’t too pricey. Lemons are not as common as limes, but hey we can make do. The next day we stopped in and nothing fresh remained except limes and tomatoes. Wow- if only the store had ordered twice as much.

The line to pay for our prized purchases at the market.

The line to pay for our prized purchases at the market.

Our big haul for the day was Mom’s bread. Lorraine’s mom bakes four kinds: coconut, wheat, cinnamon/raisin and banana. For $6/loaf it’s a deal. The loaves are large and relatively heavy. We scooped up a coconut and a cinn/raisin. The coconut is fabulous; the filling homemade by Mom who has to grate fresh coconut then boil it with a sweetener to make this distinctively Bahamian coconut paste used in breads and other pastries

Mom (Lorraine's mom) bags up our cinn/raisin bread.

Mom (Lorraine’s mom) bags up our cinn/raisin bread.

. Our French toast the next morning was soooooooo delicious. I made the egg mixture with coconut rum and just a bit of nutmeg. Used cinn/raisin for French toast the day after and that was really good too. The bread’s consistency is perfect for awesome French toast.

Our Bahamian foods: coconut and raisin breads, the peas and a lobster tail.

Our Bahamian foods: coconut and raisin breads, the peas and a lobster tail.

Saturday was moving day; all of 4 miles, motoring so we could charge the batteries and make hot water for showers. Time to dump the holding tank too, not something you do in a harbor. Although we know that boats do it, so we seldom run the watermaker in a harbor. And now for the weather (WX) which was consuming way too much time and energy, but at least we had access to several sources, unlike last year. Around 8am on CH12 we hear the WX report from Staniel Cay. We also use Weather Underground, Wind Alert and the Bahamas Met office, which we get on the iPhone via apps when cell service is decent. Monday was looking like the best day, meaning best chance to sail in ENE winds and waves in Exuma Sound hopefully less than 5ft. This was a one day window in an otherwise very long stretch of “no-north”. The interesting aspect of “waiting for weather” is listening to the thoughts, ideas and wishes of other cruisers, most of whom are sailors, as we all judge the reports and figure out what’s best.
Sunday we enjoyed a brisk sail of nine miles down to Big Farmers Cay. The chart showed a good spot off a sandy beach- protected of course from SE winds-that was a mile away from Galliot Cut should we decide to leave Monday for George Town. Beach combing is always a top priority and this spot proved out better than it looked. We found lots of broken young conch shells and I gathered up all the really nice pink pieces. Found a creek at the far end of the beach, nearly dry at low with really interesting water marks left in the sand. Lots of good driftwood there too, most of which I left for someone else.

The dry creek bed looks like snow.

The dry creek bed looks like snow.

A massive cairn on the beach at Big Farmers Cay.

A massive cairn on the beach at Big Farmers Cay.

The evening’s big question was, “go or no go?” come Monday. It’ll be alright, come Monday I’ll be holding on tight. Sorry, got lost in a Buffett tune for a minute.