shell fishes - lot of them

Taking a reprieve from a week-long boardsailing in which the body was taking a toll from the war wounds, I returned home. En route home I stopped by my Asian fish monger. I bought live mussels, clams, and oysters to be used for the next few days at home. Like the saying goes, a well laid plan does not always work out.

After a day at home the weather forecast all of a sudden looked quite good for boardsailing for the next few days. My equipment at the mean time also in dire need of maintenance so I shook a leg, as the old timers would say, to get ready for the next tour of duty in the Gorge. Emergency time called for war time measures to summon up the needed resources.

gluing the foam on the helmet

almost as good as new - definitely got my money's worth on this helmet

scavenged still-serviceable footstraps from other sailboards

the perpetual water enters the leaky hull - not so shipshape as I would like

it turned out this screw hole for the mast step is one main source of leak even though I plugged it with silicon

What to do with the shell fishes?
i force fed myself with these 12 oysters

i ate the smaller ones raw and broiled the rest

I packed up and headed back into the Gorge on Aug 25 Saturday night, bring with me the live mussels and clams. I kept them in the warming side of the refrigerator so not to kill them.

on Aug 26 morning I decided to cook all the clams first as they are not in their prime to begin with

sorted out the good ones

discarded the not too good ones - you can tell from the thingies sticking out; i would eat these if banished to the Soviet Gulag but not living in this land of plenty

for breakfast i made a clam noodle soup with linguine

small pot to make the noodle soup meal; big pot holding all the clams too much for a meal

watercress - always has a vegetable for each meal if you can help it

a one-bowl wholesome breakfast

got the carbohydrate and protein i need for half a day of sailing

While the forecast called for a medium windy day, Sunday turned out to be very windy day. I sailed with a 3.9 sq m sail all day. I could have used a smaller 3.4 sq m. I sailed many hours and was having too much fun to take any pictures.

i had this bloody blister a few days ago and took care not to burst it - i just have to be mindful not to pinch it while holding to the boom

on sunday sailing in very strong wind it finally burst - fortunately a layer of thin skin has formed underneath the collected blood so it was not painful

the chaffing wound near the little toe caused by worn out foot straps is not to bad

While killing time waiting for wind to get stronger I removed the pull strap of the upper berth slide out bedboard. I have been wanting to do this a while and just never got around to it.

this modification is total reversible

i just prefer the cleaner look without it - and the strap does obscure watching tv in bed

The truth is with an iPAD and access to so much free streaming music I have yet watch TV once while camping. I can stream both News Hour and Nightly Business Report now.

pan seared steelhead with saute watercress with lots of garlic

I am getting a lot of envies from fellow sailors with my less-than-roughing-it camping meals and I sometimes embarrassed.

young coconut water as refreshment

the meat as a nice snack

still draining the remaining water from the hull

i collected some blackberry from the brushes; it was very thin picking but i took advantage of the low river level to get to the lower one by the water

breakfast with blackberry

steelhead and blackberry for a light lunch - both the bounty of the gorge

It is worth mentioning camping out with Tatyana is luxury living like you never leave home. She deliveries so much amenities in style in such a compact size. I love the very firm seats and bed cushions as with my daily driver mini which one always expect in a Mercedes. I have yet to camp with shore power and utility. Even with 4 days and 4 nights the batteries has never run down. I routinely play music many hours very loud in a day as well as keeping the personal electronics (iDevices) charged. It attested to my view, for my camping needs, does not warrant messing with solar panels or replace the factory halogen lighting (except reduced the bulb wattage by half). I carry a miniature generator just for a peace of mind (to recharge should I ran down the starting battery which the audio system is powered by).

miniature generator

I cook most meals and with a few months of ownership the propane level is just down less than 1/4 tank. All summer I had never need to turn on the fuel-hungry generator and the coach air conditioner installed by Airstream.


I continue to be surprised by how fast I squander the fresh water supply camping a few days.

After camping out 4 nights in the gorge I returned home when the wind eases for the next few days. I went shopping at the nearby Korean grocery store. I wanted to buy a few young coconuts and the ingredients for Korean hot plate barbeque. While there I decide to purchase this man powered vacuum cleaner.


man powered "vacuum cleaner"

In recent months I have been shopping here regularly. It has good assortment of fruits and vegetable and often on sale on top of the already very reasonable prices.

i bought 3 kinds of mushrooms and this shimeji is among them

All Asian cultures I know has some versions of cook-while-you-eat dish and Korean has many. In most food streets in Korea you walking down the street it is quite common to see a few different forms of barbeque filling the length of the avenue with more than one can shake a stick at. And you would think with so many shops serving similar food some would have little business, but no they are all jam packed with customers.

On occasions that you don't feel like cooking a cook-while-you-eat meal is perfect - instant gratification with easy cleanup.

sliced beef sirloin, sliced beef brisket, sliced garlic, twister pepper, enoki mushroom, king mushroom, shimeji mushroom, perilla leaves, a dipping sauce of my own concoction of home made thai chili, soy sauce, and sesame paste, and kimchi on the side

brisket takes no time to cook

sirloin is a bit thicker

this is how i build the wrap with a piece of perilla leaf

wrap it tight and just bite in - for me two mouthfuls of complex, rich, and spicy goodness; spanish red wine typically pares well with spicy food

ran out of perilla leaf

the teflon coated hot plate is very easy to clean - note the small bowl catches the excess grease drained from a small hole on the edge