THE SKINNY ON DOCKING AND DIPPING

We went sailing on the lake a few days ago.  The wind was light, but there was enough to actually sail.  It was a very peaceful day, few people on the lake, the water was smooth and it wasn’t ghastly hot.  Coming back into the dock provided a bit of excitement.  I had decided to come in under sail, tricky sometimes at best.  The trick is, you have to use the sails to keep moving but at a certain point you have to douse the sails and the momentum of the boat will carry it to the dock.  First, you drop the foresail and keep the mainsail up.  Then, when you judge that the momentum of the boat will just carry it to the dock, you release the mainsheet, the line that controls the main.  Then, the wind will carry the sail to a downwind position and will no longer drive the boat.  It’s kind of like letting go of the string when you fly a kite.  At any rate, I had forgotten that I had tied a line to the boom for something.  That line kept the boom from swinging away from the wind and the sail continued to drive the boat.  OK, go around, drop the sail.  That really didn’t work, the sail refused to fall!  OK, pull the sail down and start the motor.  Aaagh!  The ancient beast refused to start.  Even with the sail down, we were being driven toward the shore and the trees and and other nasty stuff.  (The first rule of boating is, “Don’t hit anything hard!)  Finally, at the last minute the motor fires up.  Then, when we were on the way to the dock, it died.  Oh, no!  Here we go again.  Now, it wouldn’t start at all.  I pulled off my pants, jumped into the water with a line and started swimming toward the dock.  I figured that if I could reach the dock before we drifted too far, I could pull the boat to safety.  Much to my surprise, I was able to pull the boat while swimming.  Wow!  My scrawny 150 lbs pulling 2500 pounds of boat!  I really hadn’t planned on going swimming (especially not in the buff!) but we finally got the boat tied up.  I found the problem with the motor was a leaky line to the carburetor.  While we were enjoying a pleasant sail, all the fuel in the tank leaked out.  The only fuel left was the tiny amount in the float bowl on the carburetor, just enough to run for about half a minute.  As I like to say, “A bad day on the water is better than a good day anywhere else.”

                       

A few days earlier, we cooked for the monthly meeting of the Port Oliver Yacht Club.  We opted to cook Chicken Kabobs with Moroccan spices and a dewishus yogurt-mint dipping sauce.

CHICKEN KABOBS W/MOROCCAN SPICES

For the chicken:

1 ½ pounds chicken thighs, boneless, skinless, cut into 1 inch pieces (about 40)

2 lemons, juiced

2 t ground coriander

2t ground cumin

1 t salt

1 ½ T oregano

1 t ground black pepper

1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

40 seedless red grapes

For the yoghurt sauce:

1/3 cup plain yoghurt

1 lemon, zested

1 T lemon juice

½ t cumin

3 T fresh mint, chopped

½ t salt

¼ t black pepper

Combine chicken, lemon juice, coriander, cumin, salt, oregano, pepper and EVOO.  Marinate

Combine yoghurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, cumin, mint, s & p.  Refrigerate

Alternate grapes and chicken on skewers, grill.

Serves 4