Chicken burger for lunch, yes please!

A very simple dish, perfectly suitable for moderate conditions on the sea is - the burger. Burger of any sort really (can't wait for Alex to catch some fish so I can make it a fish burger), but this is one of our favorites.

Let me present to you the super easy* chicken burger. (*because life aboard is all about making things easy, no?)

Take a couple of hamburger buns. Throw them into oven to grill for some minutes. You want them to get warm and crispy, but never too burnt so watch out.

Take a few pieces of grilled chicken fillet. You can either heat up some left overs from last nights chicken meal or simply use some hot and ready parts from a grilled chicken from your local chicken butcher, or make it hard for yourself and pan fry/grill a couple of fresh fillets yourself. The latter is as great as time consuming so I recommend one of the first two options because sometimes it is OK to be lazy.  Whatever piece of chicken you decide to go for, make sure it gets soaked up in some nice flavors. I would suggest salt, pepper, ground chili powder, soya and perhaps some garlic powder, in case there wasn't enough spices already.

When the chicken's ready, sprinkle some mayonnaise on the bread. Or why not try the delightful Cesar dressing that you can find almost anywhere nowadays. This is to be followed by some leaves of fresh rucola, some slices of a tasteful cheese, (I used the amazing Swiss cheese Appenzeller.. oh lord how glorious it is), finalize the deal with some red garlic and some red pepper. Sprinkle some fresh ground pepper of preferred kind and over with the top. Voilà! This is too good to be true - and so incredibly easy to execute. Perfect for a quiet day on the sea when you feel like enjoying the sun and the beautiful surroundings, rather than spending too long time below in the galley.

/Taru

After rain ...

... comes sunshine. The air seems to be a bit warmer today than the other night. The engine seems happier with a new thermostat*, the windpilot from Sailomat is installed again and is working perfectly, we're on our way again and we have only one more cape to round today before we can head straight to the West to eventually get out of the Mediterranean in the beginning of next week. We feel ultimately happy and blessed for having this opportunity to do what we are doing and to be able to follow our dreams - and despite some smaller technical or mechanical problems that occurs some times in between, it is all so worth it in the end. Thank you universe for this beautiful life we have been given! /T

*still need to replace the head gasket in Gibraltar though - hoping that this will make it enough for the engine for this time.

SPOT/MESS

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Clip from SPOT's FAQ site.

Clip from SPOT's FAQ site.
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Holy goddamn shit how we've been running around this stretch of coast to localize lithium batteries, as the SPOT trackers says (in big letters in the back of the machine) that this is the only type of batteries that can be used with it. When we have been searching in three cities for three days and even took a turn through Cartagena and ten nm extra sailing - only to search for batteries and still we couldn't find any - we just found out that SPOT only "recommends" the Energizer lithium batteries because they have a deal with Energizer and that actually the Alkaline batteries (from any brand) would have worked perfectly fine all the way... but "only in emergency situations" as they call it. We lost three days and peace of mind because of this bs.

End of this story now. We'll keep on with the tracker and our alkaline batteries (which were the only ones we could find) until we'll find a better and easier solution to track our position. Or until SPOT decides to sponsor us with their new SPOT communicator and free batteries for our tour around the world.

Until we announce anything else, you can now again find us here (with a strange turn through the country while we've been in search of lithium batteries.

By the way it is interesting to see that our world tour is the third most tracked tour in the world, according to SPOTWALLA's top ten trip list. /Taru

Winter weather

Wow it is really cold over here now. As a cold front is sweeping through Spain, we have not much more than 15°C (59°F) to look forward to in the nights. Brrr. Totally not what we find enjoyable, so similar to Scandinavian weather and that is exactly what I'm trying to run away from! Hoping that our journey around Cabo de Gata tomorrow will bring us one step warmer in direction. Here's some cold photos for you, it looks like winter doesn't it? We spotted a couple of large black Cormorants yesterday before arriving to Mazzarón, or at least we think they are cormorants. They were approximately 1,5 m (4,7 foot) between wings. And another large white bird that looked like a penguin of some sort, although we understand that here are no such things as penguins in Southern Spain, in case they didn't flew in wrong with the terrible cold front from Antarctis... (penguins don't fly, I know) Any bird lovers maybe can tell us what species we've seen here? Thanks.

Mazzarón is by the way where we still are and will be sailing away from in a couple of hours. (Find exact location here.) The stupid SPOT tracker requires by the way Lithium batteries only, not Alkaline. Alkaline batteries in size AAA are for your information very easy to find, so are not the ones made of Lithium... They are simply nowhere and in no town of Spain to find so no tracking until we eventually find what we're looking for. Hopefully they have them in Gibraltar at least.

/Taru

Good morning love

One of my duties in life, as far as I am concerned, is to be a good wife* to my man and try making him as happy as I can. And if he says he will miss excellent coffee on our world tour, I must find a way to deliver it to him. Just like any good wives would have done. So after trying out a couple of different brands and styles, I've found one that is  good enough for my discerning captain. Here served with hot milk, a little bit of brown sugar and breakfast of his choice. Freshly baked bread with butter and clementine marmalade from Corsica.

*No we're not married, we just love the word wife instead of the silly epithet girlfriend. I have a strong feeling that a marriage is not the best way to go to be able to keep the love alive and long lasting. Real, profound love is the key word in my vocabulary rather than social institutions, a ring on the finger and printed words on a paper. We'll see about this later on, might be I have to change my beliefs just because of having the opportunity to get to be called wife by the person I love most. (This is very unlikely though, I rather borrow that title now and then.) Any name suggestions other than soulmate, partner and gf/bf, are very welcome. /Taru

P.S: We still have no new batteries in the SPOT, but we're now on our way towards Cartagena FYI.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 45: Piscator

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Last night

Danish Havarti cheese, some grapes, Spanish delicacies and a cheap bottle of the traditional Mediterranean wine, René Barbier - the best appetizer for calm nights like last night. (I didn't drink it all don't worry. We had to leave way too early this morning for me to be able to cope with a headache today..) /T