Morning Coffee | Random Thoughts & Oddities

Paul at Lat43 does these hysterical Morning Tea blog posts which are a brain dump of whatever pops into his head while he's writing them. I decided to steal his idea. Except, I'm drinking coffee while I write this and he drinks tea, so it isn't really stealing, is it?

So, here we go - all of the random nonsense floating through my head while I sip on my morning coffee.

• My legs are always covered with bruises from banging into things on the boat. Scott never bruises, but he always seems to be cutting himself. He’s completely oblivious to the fact that there’s blood running down his arm or leg. “Uh, dude, there’s blood dripping on the floor.” He’ll look down, shrug his shoulders and grab a paper towel to stop the bleeding. Does this happen with other couples – one person bruises and the other bleeds?

 

• We’ve been carrying trash around in our v-berth for three weeks now. It’s starting to smell despite the lavender-scented garbage bags I used. Seriously, who knew you could get scented garbage bags? What will they think of next? By the way, the combination of lavender and rotting trash, not so good.

 

• I finally used the butternut squash that’s been stored in our v-berth for months. It was still good and made a nutritious addition to some chipotle lentil and red pepper soup I was making. The trash could learn a lot from the squash about how to put up with being stored in the v-berth without making a big stink about it. 

 

• The weather has been great while we’ve been cruising in the Exumas. I probably shouldn’t have said that. The weather gods have heard me and are probably hatching up evil plans having to do with high winds and torrential downpours. Quick, find some wood to knock on before I completely jinx us. Come on everyone, all at the same time - knock, knock, knock. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

• We snorkeled over a sunken plane the other day. I thought the fish swimming around inside it and the coral growing on top of it was pretty neat until Scott told me that there was a shark nearby. To my credit, I didn’t do my usual flapping around and screaming routine. I guess that’s some sort of progress in the whole shark paranoia thing I have going on. Although, in my books, sharks = justifiable paranoia. 

 

• Some friends of ours had a rat swim over and board their boat during a big squall up in the Abacos. That would be my worst nightmare. No, actually, my worst nightmare would be a shark giving a ride on his back to a rat and ferrying him over to our boat. 

 

• I only have two books left to read on board. I need to find a book exchange pronto and trade out some of my paperbacks for new ones. 

 

• I love our wind scoop. It was a gift from some friends. One of the best gifts ever. {For those not in the know, and why should you be, I didn’t know what a wind scoop was until we got into boating, a wind scoop is made out of nylon fabric which you tie up over your hatch and which directs the wind down and into your cabin and keeps you from getting hot, sweaty and cranky at night when you’re trying to sleep.}

 

• We’ve gotten a little blasé about homemade bread. Who would have thought that freshly baked bread would become so routine?

 

• We’re out of crackers. 

 

• If you take a can of chicken salad, doctor it up with minced onion, garlic and curry powder, Scott will eat it. He’s not a big chicken salad fan, so I consider this a victory. It’s good on crackers.

 

• Did I mention that we’re out of crackers?

 

• Someone underestimated how many crackers we would go through.

 

• On the bright side, we have more than enough coffee to last us for the next few months. Coffee is probably more important than crackers.

 

• Speaking of which, it’s time for a coffee refill, so I’ll leave you with one last thought…buy more crackers than you think you’ll need. 
  

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Killing Time In Marsh Harbour, Bahamas

How do you kill time when you’re waiting for something? Do you twiddle your thumbs? Do you stare out the window? Do you binge watch TV? Do you take a lot of long naps? Do you read? Do you make treats?

We did all of the above while we waited in Marsh Harbour in the hopes of getting our broken dinghy davit sorted. Well, except the thumb twiddling. I never did get the point of that. It’s a lot like thumb wrestling, except without the satisfaction of winning something. Or the distraction of getting your thumb squashed.

It’s fair to say that Marsh Harbour isn’t our favorite spot in the Abacos. It’s a great place to stock up on groceries, propane, supplies and, theoretically, get some welding done. But other than that, there aren’t a lot of distractions, especially when the weather is crappy.

So we binge watched some Lost, read some books, stared at other boats and took naps when the excitement of it all got too overwhelming.

Those of you who live on land probably binge watch TV without a care in the world. You press a button on the remote and the TV comes on. Occasionally, you press the pause button and go to the fridge to get a snack. You watch episode after episode without worrying about whether electricity is going to stop flowing from the plug to the TV.

It’s a little different on our sailboat. When we watch TV shows, we have to check out battery monitor periodically to make sure we have enough power to watch the next episode and find out whether Kate chooses Jack or Sawyer.

When the sun is shining and our solar panel is mounted on our dinghy davit, we gets lots of juicy amps flowing freely to our batteries. We get up from time to time to adjust the angle of the panel to follow the sun as it moves from east to west.

Sadly, with our broken dinghy davit, we had to temporarily mount our solar panel on top of our aft cabin.

Two problems with this:

1 - It covered the hatch which meant we couldn’t get air freely flowing into the cabin. Heat makes some of us cranky.

2 - We couldn’t angle the panel to get maximum sun exposure. Less juicy amps flowing in meant making difficult choices – run the fridge or watch Lost.

Then things got worse. The clouds and rain moved in and cut off our supply of sunshine. This was getting serious. Were we going to be stuck with a fridge full of warm beer and rotting meat and never find out why Desmond kept pushing that button?!

Fortunately, our handy Honda generator came to the rescue.

We got it this year for exactly this reason. We knew a day would come when the sun would stop shining. We plugged it in to our shore power and charged our batteries. More Lost! More cold beer! Less chance of dying from eating tainted meat! It’s the little things that count.

****

Cruising Log | Saturday, 22 April 2017 – Tuesday, 25 April 2017
 
22 APRIL
Dropped my breakfast burrito on the floor. Had to settle for a granola bar instead. Did some baking. Limited solar power, so ran generator for a while. Nautical miles = Nil. Engine hours = Nil. Spending = Nil.

23 APRIL
Rained all day. Read and binge watched Lost. Had to run generator again. Made soup and bread. The soup was awful. The bread wasn’t awful. Big squall came through late at night. Gusts around 50 knots. Turned on engine and prepared to take action if we dragged anchor. Nautical miles = Nil. Engine hours = 2.75. Spending = Nil.

24 APRIL
Contacted welder and Kato Marine regarding broken dinghy davit. Watched a guy get his bitch wings on while someone anchored next to them. Nautical miles = Nil. Engine hours = Nil. Spending = Nil.

25 APRIL
Figured out way to put solar panel back up on broken davit. So nice to be able to get lots of juicy amps from the sun. More emails about davit. Checked out an Asian market run by a guy names Johnny Cash. Went to Maxwell’s. Tried to make Bahamian mac n’cheese. Failed experiment. Very disappointing. Got an email from a blog follower anchored next to us. Made plans to meet up. Nautical miles = Nil. Engine hours = Nil. Spending = $18.04 (ground beef, carrots, cheese, tonic water, milk)

Do you ever worry about having enough power for your needs? What’s the last show you binge watched? Do you like thumb wrestling?

Internet connection has been really scarce lately while we've been cruising in the Bahamas, so apologies if it takes a while before we're able to respond to your comments and/or visit your blog.
 

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Simon The Time Traveling Cat Plays Monopoly | IWSG

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a place to share and encourage, where writers can express their doubts and concerns without appearing foolish or weak. It's a great place to mingle with like minded people each month during IWSG day.

Every month there's an optional question which may prompt folks to share advice, insights, a personal experience or story. Some folks answer the question in their IWSG blog post or let it inspire them if they're struggling with what to say.

This month's question is:

"Did you ever say 'I quit'? If so, what happened to make you come back to writing?"

Check out how people have answered this month's question, as well as the other insecurities and writing topics they may have shared by visiting the IWSG sign-up list here. If you want to see how I answered the question, have a look below.

****

Simon the Time Traveling Cat batted at the dice with his large gray paws and pushed them off of the table. He peered down at the floor waiting for me to pick them up.

“Looks like you rolled a seven,” I said as I placed the dice back on the table next to Monopoly board.
Simon growled. “Lady, you’re blind as a bat. I rolled an eight.”

“Simon, it was not a eight,” I said firmly. “You’re trying to cheat again. Go on, move the wheelbarrow seven places.”

“How’d I get stuck with this stupid wheelbarrow anyway,” Simon said. “You knew I wanted the top hat, but no, you had to go and grab it first.”

“It’s not my problem you were busy lapping up milk while I was setting up the board,” I said as I watched Simon nudge the wheelbarrow down the board towards Park Place and Boardwalk. I just happened to own both properties, complete with three hotels each.

Simon’s tail started to swish back and forth furiously as he realized the wheelbarrow was about to land on Boardwalk.

I rubbed my hands together. “Excellent. That’ll be…”

Before I could finish, Simon shoved the hotels onto the floor and then lay in the middle of the board glaring at me.

“There’s no way, I’m paying you another dime, lady” he hissed. “I quit!”

“Hey, calm down Simon. It’s just a game. Nobody likes a quitter.”

Simon stared at me coldly. “Go get me some more milk, lady. And make it full-fat. No more of that stupid skim milk crap you keep trying to make me drink.”

As I rummaged through the fridge, Simon furiously sharpened his claws on the board, scattering Monopoly money around the room in the process.

“Sorry, Simon, two percent is the best I can do,” I said carefully placing a saucer in front of him. “Are you sure you want to quit? Why don’t we set the board up again and play?”

“You’re the quitter, lady, not me.” Simon sniffed at the milk with disdain. “You’re constantly quitting working on that book of yours.”

“I’m not quitting writing it,” I said. “I just take breaks from time to time when I get writer’s block.”
Simon started to shove the saucer towards the edge of the table. I grabbed it before it could land on the floor with the rest of the Monopoly pieces.

“Is that what we’re calling it - taking a break?” he snarled. “Face it, you’re a quitter.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“No, I’m not!”

“Well then, prove it. Open up that stupid laptop of yours and start writing again.” Simon turned his back to me and started washing behind his ears.

There’s nothing worse than knowing a cat might be right about something. They get so smug about that sort of thing. But was it possible that taking a break was the same thing as quitting?

I sighed and opened up my laptop. I suppose I might as well try to do some writing since Monopoly was out of the question.

Before I could open up the file, Simon landed with a plop on the keyboard.

“Haven’t you forgotten something, lady?” he asked as he rolled onto his back. “You need to go to the store and get some full-fat milk, pronto. Then you can get back to your writing. That is if you don’t quit again by the time you get back.”

****

Have you ever quit working on something? Did it start out as just taking a break, but then you never ended up going back to it? What’s your favorite board game?

Internet connection has been really scarce lately while we've been cruising in the Bahamas, so apologies if it takes a while before I'm able to respond to your comments and/or visit your blog.
 
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May In Numbers

Clockwise from upper left: (1) Tickety Boo back at Indiantown Marina for repairs; (2) Our new water pump; (3) Our friends on Wind Spirit, anchored at Peck Lake; (4) Anchored at Ginn sur Mer in the Abacos waiting out weather; (5) Relaxing over sundowners; (6) Tickety Boo anchored in the Berry Islands.

It's time for our monthly recap by the numbers. We crossed back from the Bahamas at the beginning of the month in order to replace our broken dinghy davit. We ended up spending a lot longer than we hoped back at Indiantown Marina when we discovered that our water pump needed to be replaced. It took a bit of time to source the part, have it delivered and install it. We left Indiantown on May 20th and crossed back to the Bahamas on May 22nd. We hopped our way down from the Abacos, to the Berry Islands, over to the Nassau area and then to the Exuma Islands, where we plan on spending most of June.

Here's some tidbits about how the month went by the numbers:

• 12 – Number of nights we spent in a slip at Indiantown Marina fixing things and waiting for parts to arrive.

• $144.45 – Cost of a new water pump for our Thornycroft diesel engine (including shipping and handling). We had to order this from a tractor supply business. Our engine is based on the Mitsubishi K4D block, which is also used in tractors.

• 5 – Number of tostadas we had during Taco Tuesday at JR’s Saloon in Indiantown. We were joined by the crews of Radio Waves, Wind Spirit and Blue Wing. Fun and yummy.

• $16.41 – Our average cost per night during May, which we calculate based upon how much we spend on marina slips or mooring balls (anchoring is free). This is up dramatically from April (we anchored every night so our average cost was $0.00) because of the time we spent at Indiantown Marina. Let’s hope we can get it back down during June.

• 496 – Number of nautical miles covered during May.

• 4 – Number of areas of the Bahamas we cruised in – Abacos, Berry Islands, Nassau area and the Exuma Islands.

• 1 – Number of buddy boats we had.

• 2 – Number of days we had a buddy boat. Unfortunately, the crew of Wind Spirit had to delay their crossing to the Bahamas, so we parted ways in Lake Worth.

• 6 – Number of days we spent without getting off of our boat after we left Indiantown to head back to the Bahamas. We finally dropped the dinghy and put the outboard motor on at Hoffman’s Cay in the Berry Island.

• 2 - Number of times we swam at the Blue Hole on Hoffman's Cay. We liked it so much the first time, we went back again the next day. 

• 14 – Number of sharks hanging out at Highbourne Cay Marina. I asked the fuel dock attendant what kind they were and he told me that I had to jump in, tickle them under their chins until they opened their mouths and then I’d be able to tell by their teeth. Needless to say, I didn’t follow his suggestion. 

• $4.38 - Cost per gallon of diesel fuel at Highbourne Cay Marina. We bought 20 gallons. That seemed pricey to me. There was a big boat ahead of us taking on 400 gallons of fuel. I can't even begin to imagine spending that much on fuel.

 In case you missed them, here are some of our favorite posts from last month:

Good Luck, Bad Luck, Coulda-Been-Worse Luck
Cost of Cruising in the Bahamas & Florida
Tickety Boo, Tickety Boo, Barracuda Bob


How did last month go for you? What are you looking forward to this month?

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Wordless Wednesday | Low Water At Indiantown Marina

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be about posting a photo(s) without any words. But, I'm a rule breaker, so here are a few words:

1 - When we were at Indiantown Marina fixing our dinghy davit and water pump the water level was really, really low.

2 - See those poles? The top white part normally sits at the waterline. See that dock finger? Normally, the deck of your boat is higher than it and you have to step down onto the dock. When we were there, I had to do some gymnastic like moves to climb up onto it.

3 - People were grounding coming in and out of the marina. Fortunately, its soft mud.

4 - This place sure could do with some rain.

   
What words does this picture(s) bring to your mind when you look at it?

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, click here. 

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Bad Luck, Good Luck, Coulda-Been-Worse Luck | Matt Lowe's Cay, Bahamas

I've been thinking about luck lately. When you live and cruise on a sailboat, you experience some real highs and lows. There are days when you have good luck and everything goes to plan, even better than plan. Then there are those days where a cloud of bad luck hovers over you and things go very wrong.

After you have a chance to reflect on those bad luck days, sometimes you realize it wasn't bad luck you experienced as much as it was coulda-been-a-heck-of-a-lot-worse luck. 

Let me tell you about our time anchored at Matt Lowe's Cay so you'll see what I mean.

****

It was a beautiful day. Scott decided to take the dinghy (who I affectionately call Boo Boo) and go snorkeling off of a reef on the north side of the island. I'm not sure why I stayed on the boat. I probably had something important to do like read books and eat cookies.

I popped out into the cockpit after a while and saw Boo Boo anchored off of the reef and assumed Scott was snorkeling nearby. I went down below in search of more cookies. I popped back up after a little nap (too many cookies make one sleepy) and noticed that Boo Boo seemed to be anchored pretty far off of the reef. That's odd, I thought to myself. 

After searching for some more cookies, I came back up and noticed the dinghy wasn't anchored as much as she was drifting off across the water towards Treasure Cay. I looked around and saw Scott swimming near the reef. 

I screamed and waved to get his attention and pointed at the dinghy. He yelled back for me to start the engine and started to swim back to the boat.

All of a sudden, a little boat came out of nowhere with two men on it who remarked on the fact that our dinghy seemed to be going off on an adventure without us. They offered to go get it and bring it back to Scott.

Bad luck when the dinghy drug anchor and started drifting away, but good luck when those to guys rescued our dinghy for us. {Thank you mysterious guardian angels.}

Poor Scott. He had actually had the dinghy anchored further up on the reef when he noticed it drifting off. He swam furiously to try to catch it, but Boo Boo is faster than she would lead you to believe.

****

The next day we had what I would characterize as really bad luck. One might even call it holy-crap-can-you-believe-that-happened luck. 

There are ferries that go back and forth between the islands in the Abacos. They go pretty fast, even in anchorages, so when they pass by you can usually expect some sort of wake. Your boat rocks back and forth, but it isn't too bad and you just deal with it.

Then there's the ferry that passed through Matt Lowe's Cay that morning. This wasn't an ordinary ferry wake, this was like a tsunami wake. Important stuff went flying across the cabin, like freshly brewed coffee. 

Scott said a few naughty words and cleaned everything up. Then he went into the cockpit and saw this.

In case you're wondering what this is, it's one of our dinghy davits. They're basically a support system so that you can raise your dinghy out of the water, which is helpful on many fronts - no growth on the bottom of your dinghy, you don't have to worry about it getting swamped or turning over if you tow it behind your boat and less chance someone will steal it at night. We also have our solar panel mounted on top of the davits. 

Actually, this isn't what he saw. What he saw was our dinghy and solar panel hanging off of the broken dinghy davit. We were worried that the whole thing was going to collapse and our dinghy and solar panel would crash into the water. That would not have been good.

We rushed around like crazy to drop the dinghy and remove the solar panel before the next ferry and its tsunami-like wake came through the anchorage.

Much easier said than done. Much, much easier said than done.

We both ended up getting cut. Blood dripped everywhere. Scott probably needed stitches, but we had to keep working. 

Finally, we got everything off the dinghy davits, wiped up the blood and bandaged up Scott's hand, using some handy Gorilla tape to keep the bandage on.

We motored over to nearby Marsh Harbour to try to figure out our next steps. (Marsh Harbour is a relatively large town in the Abacos with all sorts of services.) We rigged up the solar panel temporarily over our aft cabin. Not an ideal solution as we couldn't tilt the panel to get full coverage during the day. But some power is better than no power. Alas, we had to say goodbye to cool sea breezes at night in our aft cabin where we sleep since the hatch was closed.

We walked into town to track down a welder that had been recommended by folks on the Women Who Sail Facebook group. It sounded promising (turns out it wasn't, but that's a sad story for another day) and we went back to the boat kind of hopeful we might be able to get the davit fixed and get the heck out of the Abacos and head down to Eleuthera. 

Later, after a drink or two in the cockpit, we started talking about what had happened and how it coulda-been-so-much-worse. Imagine if this had happened while we were on passage, at night, in high winds with huge waves? What if this had happened when we were anchored at some remote island without any services? 

I'm not sure it made us feel any better about what happened, but it was helpful to try to shift our frame of reference just a tiny bit and think about how our bad luck was maybe coulda-of-been-worse luck.

Cruising Log | Thursday 20, April 2017 - Friday, 21 April 2017

20 APRIL
Scott went snorkeling with the dinghy. The dinghy got bored, decided to ditch Scott and go out exploring on it’s own. Rescued by two guardian angels. Anchor up at 2:30 PM. Went out for a sail. Checked out anchorage at Man O’War Cay, but too crowded. Headed back to Matt Lowe’s Cay. Anchor down 5:15 PM. Nautical miles = 9. Engine = 1 hr 15 mins. Spending = Nil.

21 APRIL
“The Day of All Days.” After a massive wake by one of the ferries, one of the dinghy davits broke. Nightmare to drop dinghy and remove solar panel while hoping another ferry didn’t wake us.. Cut ourselves. Dripped blood everywhere. No time for first aid. Secured solar panel on deck. Headed to Marsh Habour to figure out next steps. Anchor up at 1:30 PM. Anchor down at 2:30 PM. Set up makeshift solar panel station on top of aft cabin. Limited amps coming in due to not being able to rotate panel, but better than nothing. Walked to the Marsh Habour Boat Yard and found a welder nearby after getting attached by a pack of feral dogs. Nautical miles = 4. Engine = 1 hr 30 mins. Spending = Nil.

Do you believe in luck?  When's the last time you had really good luck and/or back luck?

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Flashback Friday | Cruising In Ethiopia

Today is Michael d’Agostino’s Flashback Friday. The idea is to republish an old post of yours that maybe didn't get enough attention, or that you're really proud of, or you think is still relevant etc. We started this blog three years ago and have lots more followers now then we did back then (thank you all!) so many folks may not have seen some of our earlier blog posts. 

I originally wrote this post when we were living in New Zealand and had just gone out for Ethiopian food. We love Ethiopian food! While we try to keep from eating out too often, we do make an exception for checking out local Ethiopian restaurants when we travel.

We're currently cruising in the Bahamas and thoughts of doro wat keep dancing through my head, but I'm guessing we won't find an Ethiopian restaurant on any of the islands here.

{This post was originally published in April 2014. You can find the original post here.}

****

We've eaten Ethiopian food in a few cities around the world including Oslo, Rome, Ann Arbor, Portland, The Hague, London, Toronto and Washington D.C. Once, we even walked 3-1/2 miles in a torrential downpour in Athens in search of an Ethiopian restaurant the guidebook promised us. Unfortunately, it had closed down so we had gyros instead, but that will give you a sense of our love of Ethiopian food.

We can now add Auckland to our list having now eaten at Cafe Abyssinia in Mt. Roskill. Mt. Roskill is a really interesting part of Auckland and one we hadn't been to before. Not only can you get Ethiopian food there, but you can also stock up on your favorite kind of taro, whether it be from Tonga, Samoa or Fiji.

The Fijian consulate is also nearby. It is conveniently located within a jewelry store so you can sort out your visa issues and buy something sparkly at the same time. Handy!

It was well worth the effort to head down to Mt. Roskill as Cafe Abyssinia is hands down the best Ethiopian restaurant in New Zealand. Well it is actually the only Ethiopian restaurant in New Zealand that we know of, but it was pretty darn tasty! But, if you want to go to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant in the world, head over to Jarra's in the Hawthorne district of Portland. Order the doro wat and the miser wat, one with A and one with B (it will make sense when you see the menu). Also, get a glass of Widmer Hefeweizen beer and tell Mr. Jarra we sent you. If you haven't had Ethiopian food before, it is delicious. You use your hand (right one only please) to scoop up delicious stew like concoctions with injera (Ethiopian bread).

So while we were enjoying our meal at Cafe Abyssinia, I started wondering in my head: "I wonder what it would be like to cruise in Ethiopia? Wouldn't it be great to step off of your boat and eat Ethiopian food right in the heart of the motherland?"

Okay, stop and rewind. What is wrong with this sentence - "I wonder what it would be like to cruise in Ethiopia?" Here is what's wrong - Ethiopia is LANDLOCKED. That's right, LANDLOCKED. You cannot cruise right up to the local Addis Ababa marina and get some doro wat to go. Yes, I am American. You can tell from my ignorance of world geography.

And although I have a passport, in which John Kerry (the current US Secretary of State) kindly requests immigration officers around the world (in three languages no less) to "permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection", clearly I am not qualified to use said passport due to my woeful lack of geographical knowledge. Immigration officers around the world shake their heads every time they see American tourists making their way towards them clutching their blue passports in their hands. They think to themselves, "Do we really have to let them in?" But then, they read Secretary Kerry's politely worded request and consider all of the tourist dollars we might spend and they reluctantly let us in. Well into most countries anyway.

I also have an Irish passport which I try to use to enter foreign countries whenever possible. I find this works much more smoothly. Immigration officers smile and greet you with open arms when you're clutching an Irish passport in your hands. The think to themselves, "The Irish are here! Yeah! Maybe they have some Guinness in their backpack to share with us!" They never even bother to look at an Irish passport to see if the Minister of Foreign Affairs is kindly requesting entry for the passport holder. They're just happy to see the Irish and let them straight in.

So realizing that embracing a cruising lifestyle requires not only learning about sailing but also about geography, I've done some quick research on the best way to cruise near to Ethiopia. From there, hopefully, we can hitchhike or something from the port to Addis Ababa. I thought I would share my planned route with you in case you too want to go cruising not in, but nearby Ethiopia.

The first step is to look at the handy map of Ethiopia they have hanging up in Cafe Abyssinia. You can see clearly that Ethiopia is LANDLOCKED. Our best bet is to try to sail up to Eritrea, Djibouti or Somalia and then make our way inland to Ethiopia.

So taking each potential landfall in turn, let's see what we can find out:

1.  Djibouti

I read on one website that "Djibouti is popular among sailors of all levels." This website is targeted at captains of super yachts, so I wonder if that is a polite way of saying the riff-raff of the sailing world also hang out in Djibouti? (I think we would be considered riff-raff.) The website does mention that Djibouti is a convenient refueling stop between the Persian Gulf and the Seychelles, Maldives and India. So it looks like we can get diesel there, but it doesn't mention anything about Ethiopian food. After doing some more research, I find out that the Port of Djibouti is the main port for imports and exports to and from Ethiopia. So, if we can't get to Addis Ababa ourselves, perhaps we can crack open one of the containers in the port and find the ingredients to make our own meal.

2.  Eritrea  

According to Noonsite, there are two ports in Eritrea at either end of the country - Massawa and Assab. The daysailing sounds quite pleasant with countless anchorages and offshore islands to explore. (You're not supposed to sail at night as there is a serious lack of navigation aids.) There is also a guy named Mike in Massawa who can help you out with laundry and provisioning. Maybe Mike can also help get us to Addis Ababa to get ourselves some Ethiopian food?

3.  Somalia 

Since Noonsite was so informative about Eritrea, I checked out their section on Somalia. Here is what they said: "Sailing to Somalia is considered far too hazardous in the present circumstances and anyone intending to sail anywhere near Somalia should obtain the latest information on the internal situation before venturing anywhere near a Somali port. Only major ports should be approached and only in serious emergencies." Hmm, I'm not sure that looking for some Ethiopian food constitutes a serious emergency, so I think we'll stick to making our landfall in Djibouti or Eritrea.

But something is niggling away at me about this plan. I can't quite put my finger on it...oh yeah, that's it - pirates! And not the Johnny Depp kind of pirates either. These are the mean kind of pirates who brandish some serious firepower and which even big freighter ships are wary of. They've given the place a bad name. The Gulf of Aden is even known as Pirate Alley. 

So I am now rethinking our plan about sailing near Ethiopia in search of Ethiopian food. Unless I can persuade Harry Potter to lend us his invisibility cloak so that we can sneak through the Gulf of Aden without being spotted by the pirates, I think we'll have to stick to having Ethiopian food in places like Auckland and Portland.

Have you ever had Ethiopian food? Did you like it? If not, would you ever want to try it? Do you know of any Ethiopian restaurants in the Bahamas?

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