more gorge trips

The absence of new posts in the last week were due to my love fest short trips with Tatyana in our never-ending honeymoon. While I have broadband with my iPAD writing an engaging blog is a royal pain with it and I simply would not do it. My biggest mistake with the iPAD is not go with Verizon which has wifi hot spot function and AT&T crippled it. att - i hate you! I chosen the AT&T version because it is more compatible with overseas spectrums/modulations.

7/18/12 was a relatively mellow day around Hood River, OR. It was a very good day for me trying to get back into shape after a 7-year hiatus from boardsailing.

tatyana scored a prime real estate - in the shade and a nice breeze; with the homemade sun shade deployed

when i realized how close the high top came to hitting the might oak tree's upper trunk i realized i was really being careless

i was busy sailing most of the day, catching a siesta after lunch so all the pictures were taken in last afternoon when the wind diminished somewhat

looking upwind towards direction of portland, or (60 miles away)

there are many small eagles stalking the fish in the water - this looks like a bald eagle

this lady is rowing up river and down wind at a brisk pace

the parking lot was getting empty just before 6pm

while after camping 1 night and 1 day the batteries still have plenty of charge, i tested the generator with it set to half-power (about 150w). it was very quiet and just nicely loading the generator and it's inverter so did not cause the annoying hunting (variation of rpm as the governor adjusts the engine rpm to suit the load)

7/19/12 making morning glory with fermented shrimp paste for an early lunch; i found this very nice korean (made in) mini butane stove a few years ago and was saving it for use like this; note the wind shield also made in korea - a must even cooking in the slightest of breeze

you see just how small the stove really is; the windshield is stored in the compact red plastic enclosure

7/20/12 friday was shaping up to be a great sailing day at roosevelt, wa (120 miles east of portland, or)

by the time we arrived the parking was full - i found a nice spot by the corner; the army corp staffs are very nice and understanding here and they never gave another any trouble as long as you acts considerate in everyone's interests; love this park

it was a nice spot with tatyana front facing the west which minimize the furface area exposed to the sun; i just opened the less windy side of the top wing and the stock bath vent for cross flow ventulation. even with the outside temperatures in the mid 80s with full sun the internal temperature rise was minimal. the breeze in the parking lot was quite stiff as it is always here i could not deploy the outside sunshade. i put up the factory front cabin curtain and augmented it with a too-smal-to-fit reflective sun screen in front of it.

i counted 4 baby swifts in the net; they were pinky size last time I came just a week ago; did i mention this park has abundance of birds of all sorts netting and rearing their youngs; always love to watch the adults hunt with their acrobatic flights.

i rigged a 3.4 sq m sail and used it all day - my size 11 flipflops dwarf the 7.5 ft board; i sailed about 4 hours and was quite happy that i much regained some of my stamina; my rubber universal point developed major cracks so I was careful not to stay too much near the Oregon shore which is about 1/2 miles across

a canadian from saskatchewan recognize tatyana is the james cook he so admired from reading it on the web. he asked to see the inside and later also his friends

i bought these thai pepper before i decided on the trip - they get moldy very fast so i bought them along to dice them up and preserve in soy sauce; still haven't watch the 2 dvd movies i bought along; listening to my recordings of live at the concertgebouw is enough to keep me entertained; I now store them in a usb thumbdrive

salmon sashimi as snack - i am running low on my food supply as I didn't plan on camping this many days

my wine cellar has no more wine nor beer - had to run to the only local store for this beer, either this pedestraia henry's at microbrew price, or deuchutes mirror pond which I hate; henry's it was the choice; it is really not bad compared to those from national brands

searing a piece of salmon belly

a very plain dish for dinner as i was totally out of all vegetable

sun setting to the west- it would turn out to be a very nice cool camping evening in the pacific northwest

found a spot not to be encroached by huge RVs with their 3-feet extended sides (the slide outs) that have become a RV buying "check-off item" in this country

7/20/12 twilight next morning - the air is crisp and fresh; i love golden pacific northwest mornings like this. i headed home to replenish my supplies

bounty from the river; i bought 2 salmons from an indian village in this trip - riding tatyana alone into their village i was unafraid of being scalped (in the modern sense); they could not be friendlier

this is the remaining one filet of the large one

i saved the belly and sear them with pepper and salt

so delicious and buttery

the indian gave me this smaller one because he didn't have $10 change he due me

i filet it myself

not too shabby a job for a heck

more to come - returning to the gorge again with enough supply to starve out an entrenched greek army

7/22/12 i went home and replenish my supplies and returned back to western gorge expecting a mellow day of sailing. i had brought enough food supply to starve out an entrenched greek army. I also repaired the cracked rubber universal joint and brought a spare sailing harness when I found hairline crack on the stainless steel spread bar. It takes the sailboarding community decades to realize SS is a very lousy metal for stressful sports application. I now have 4-5 spread bar that developed this corrosion and welding induced stress cracks. One women I know had her snapped almost in half this weekend.

a light breakfast

well the anticipated wind didn't pan out - time for lunch and a bit of indulgence

i use this hand made coffee grinder for camping. before i educated myself about coffee i would not have invested in such "pricy" manual grinder. short of it's bigger brother or an electric burr grinder costing over $550 ($550 is just the starting point) there is nothing out there that comes close in yielding very nice grind particles. i now roast my coffee. it amazed me how much effort it take to turn the crank to grind enough for 1 cup, and for drip this grinder takes 60+ turns. You almost have to be fit to grind enough for 1 cup without pausing.

i had wanted to capture this barge for a long time and today on this very light wind day here it sailed by. it is the columbia river gorge's fish hatcheries that transport juvenile salmons from above the dams to down the last dams so they are spared from being pulverized by the dam's (damn) turbines. they used to put up huge banners that read "juvenile fish"

a relatively big meal as i did not anticipate the wind to improve quickly, if at all

clay pot rice with salmon, chinese pork sausage, and cabbage

7/23/12 monday morning - waking up to this scenery outside of tatyana's sliding door; it is shaping up to be a good medium windy day near hood river, or. i looked forward to it because I can sail many hours and further regain my stamina.

and sail i did. i paced myself and sailed a total of ~6 hours on a 3.9 sq m. bigger men are on 4.2 sq m typically while women on as small as 3.2 sq m. it was an extremely good day and i had my work out

need a sizable meal - more salmon. i found this cute fly tent while in san francisco. good to keep the flies away while you finish cooking other ingredients. it folds up like an umbrella

i wanted something a bit decadent so i use smoked bacon to fry the cabbage - i know the omega 3 good fat from the salmon would easily negate the bad saturated fat from the pork

i love napa cabbage - it is so versatile and keep so long in the fridge (the sweetness improves with time too)

yum!

at the end of the day i went home. the forecast for the next few days are quite static sunny - not good if you like high wind sailing.

i am thankful it did not blow the next 2 days as my body really need time to recover. most of my muscles would be sore the next 2 days as they repair themselves.