For most of my sailing life, while I was racing, I always said, “Winning a sailboat race was the most fun you could have – with your clothes on.” There was performance sailing. There were all your friends. There were other boats against which to race. There was beer. Now that I’m a cruising sailor, let me tell you about a perfect day on the water.
The first stop on my retirement cruise was Cape Canaveral, Fla, which was an 860-mile non-stop passage from New York. I chose Cape Canaveral because it is close to my brother’s home in Orlando, Fla. Stopping there allowed me to spend several weeks with my brother and his family. It was a good chance to catch up, including with my nephew, Matt Loory, and his new wife, Shakira.
November 21st provided one of those memories that will last for a long time. The day started out with an early morning rocket launch — the fourth since I’ve been at Cape Canaveral. Around lunch time my brother Josh and Shakira came for a visit. We were supposed to go for a sail, but a strong northerly was hard blowing hard out of the north and it was whistling through the rigging; a daysail was going to be a too sporty. Shakira had never sailed before and my older brother is not as nimble as he used to be. Instead, we put the cooking talents of Josh and Shakira to work for a shipboard lunch.
We christened the boat’s the pressure cooker with a chicken, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and pasta dish that I found in a basic pressure cooker cookbook. The pressure cooker speeds up cooking times and saves propane. Josh and Shakira modified the book’s recipe by adding more spice to make lunch tastier. Josh even improved my shrimp scampi leftovers (Shakira ate the shrimp since she is not a fan of artichokes). Dessert was a fruit salad with a rum and honey sauce.
Chatting while we chopped, sautéed, stirred and seasoned the main course, made for a great visit. We talked about cooking, politics, life in Florida, Shakira’s upcoming surgery, cruising, and more. Josh needed this distraction as his wife is seriously ill with cancer and he’s her primary caregiver. Even if not underway, being aboard a boat for a visit, a meal, a quiet cocktail, or just to say “Hi” can be very therapeutic. We must have been entertaining as Shakira got out her phone and started videoing the two brothers cooking.
Lunch was served in the cockpit on my custom, foldable, stowable, and rotatable cockpit table. I’ll write more about the table in a future post, but this is precisely the kind of entertaining I had envisioned when installing the table. Afterall, the cockpit on a cruising is the boat’s living room.
After getting cleaned up we went for a harbor tour under power and even poked our bow out into the Atlantic Ocean, which had calmed down significantly as the wind shifted from the north to the west. In the morning, boats coming in reported 5-6-foot waves, but the waves disappeared in the afternoon.
This was a perfect day on many levels despite not even raising a sail. Most importantly, it was a chance for quality family time. Living in New York, I hardly ever get to see my brother. While on the boat cooking and eating, we were much more relaxed and intimate than we would be at a family event like a wedding. Also, I love being able to use the boat for cooking, entertaining, a family get together, and an alfresco dining experience. In the past, using the boat consisted of going out for a few hours to race, then getting in the car to rush to the party at the host yacht club, where we would perform “sailing Karate” and pay too much for drinks.
Don’t tell my sailing friends I’m saying this, but maybe powerboaters aren’t so crazy as we see them sitting on their boats all day just “visiting.” I’m not ready to give up sailing, but using the boat as a purely social venue is not bad, and provided Josh, Shakira, and me with a memorable day.
Wow!