A little bit of "This Old House" and a bit of "The Cooking Channel"

 Short update from the mooring field in Prickly Bay:

The bad news is that when we sailed from the boatyard to the mooring location, we found out our roller furler (that furls the headsail) was frozen. 

The good news is that we wouldn't have been able to sail anyway since we're not approved by insurance to sail by ourselves until we are officially checked-out by a qualified captain, which is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday this coming week. This gave us two days at the mooring ball before we (read: Steve) to trouble-shoot and fix the issue, with a little bit of assistance from his first mate. The issue, as we both suspected, was that grit from the constant sandblasting that was going on at the boatyard had caused the bushing to seize.  Getting to the bushing in order to flush it and lubricate it was a multi-step process, requiring the patience of a saint.  Thankfully, it's cleaned, rotating, and reassembled for our sail tomorrow!

While Steve was working on the furler issue, I spent time setting up our sailing log and trying out another one of the local fruits: soursop.  I didn't know it when I cut it open, but it's also known as "custard apple".  This is because, when ripe, the white flesh is infused with a kind of creamy liquid.  The texture definitely isn't appealing to me but I liked the flavor. I also learned that it's a kind of "super-food"...high in a lot of vitamins and anti-oxidants so I decided to make it into a sorbet or sorts.  I found a recipe for soursop ice cream which doesn't require an ice cream churn so next time we're provisioning, I'm planning to pick up some condensed milk and cream.  I think it will be awesome!

Steve's foray into the kitchen, taking advantage of local product, included homemade conch fritters!  Very tasty indeed :-)

Stay tuned for our next episode, where we will actually get to SAIL!!