Gourmet Galley
Location: Pacific Ocean - 9°21'21.21"S, 116°57'35.94"W
My task - to gather provisions while visiting Isabella Island and Santa Cruz so that lunches, suppers, teas, coffees, other beverages and snacks can be provided for Walrus’ four crew members during the 24 day crossing from the Galápagos Islands to the Marquesas.
I sought recommendations from the WARC fleet crew members who were in charge of the galley on other boats, some professional, others self-appointed. Some had a 20 day plus meal plan, others had planned way ahead and had prepared meals for most of the crossing and stored these in the sealed onboard freezer - sealed by the authorities for the duration of the stay on the Galápagos Islands to prevent potential infiltration of foreign bacteria.
Every morsel of information was digested. Meat, fish and veg could be purchased from a small supermarket on Isabella Island; the bakery in the main square was excellent for sugary, cinnamon breakfast buns and bread, too. The constraints, a kilometre walk to the quay from where there were intermittent, somewhat erratic in terms of timing (think English village bus) water taxi departures. Add in a nerve-wracking, leap of faith from a water taxi bouncing around in a not insignificant swell to Walrus also bobbing up and down and rolling from side to side, not necessarily synchronised with the ups and downs of the taxi and you’ll get a sense that provisioning on Isabella Island was a little exciting and a far cry from a quick drive to Sainsbury’s on Saturday morning.
Santa Cruz had a market where locals sold their produce on Saturdays and Tuesday, early in the morning… how early was debated. The water taxi service more frequent, on demand and less daunting and the proximity of our stay to Walrus’ date of departure, Wednesday 5th March, made Santa Cruz the main source of provisions.
I met Clare and Alex from Fruition in passing, in the market at 8.00am on Tuesday and compared notes. We agreed, the small round green citrus fruit were as close as you’d get to oranges and the even smaller and greener fruit, a cross between lemons and limes. Keen to avoid scurvy and in anticipation of fresh fish at sea, I stocked up. I bought the basics, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and onions and added in some exotic fruit and unidentified items for good measure.
I was wary of meat purchases after a grim experience of market purchased ‘black, gone-off-after-three -days’ mince at the bottom of the fridge. I limited us to chicken (roast chicken and potatoes always go down well at the end of a day’s sailing) and some indeterminate beef, which looked as though it might make a tasty casserole lasting a couple of days.
I expected to get four evening meals from these supplies and purchased 3 dozen eggs to supplement protein later in the passage. There was no room in the fridge for the eggs, previously they’d kept well under the seat in the saloon. This was not to be on this occasion and two dozen eggs ended up being slung into the brink a week into the voyage.
All this brings me to the Monday menu main course… once the meat ran out, in my mind I had started planning lentil-this and tinned chickpea-that… when Gerald’s fishing line quivered and the next four days menu planning was resolved.
Main course - Wahoo Delicious
Earlier in our travels, on a return taxi ride from a shopping trip in Colon, talk turned to the animal life observed along the roadside. The taxi driver’s response was memorable for his single word repeated refrain… when the subject of a recently spotted crocodile was discussed the taxi driver interjected with… “delicious”. When I asked for help identifying the cute stripy-tailed, small furry creatures grazing at the side of the road… the taxi driver’s response…. “delicious”, and so it went on.
If the subject of wahoo fish had been raised, I think I would have been the first to exclaim… ‘delicious’. Once prepared for culinary purposes the fish was so fresh and bone free it needed little addition or preparation.
Ingredients
4 Wahoo steaks - about 2cms thick
Olive oil
Juice of 2 lemon/limes
Salt and pepper to taste
I pan fried the wahoo steaks for approximately 4 minutes a side - varying according to the preference of individual crew members for rare or well done fish steak. Served with a scattering of chopped flat leaf parsley.
On the side
New potatoes (boiled and tossed in garlic butter with a generous grind of black pepper and salt)
Fresh, crunchy salad (red and white cabbage shredded, apple, carrot, red onion chopped and sparingly sprinkled). Dressing of mayo and natural yoghurt, lime juice, salt and pepper.
Dessert - Vanilla and Chocolate Swirl Cake with Fruit
Ingredients
Vanilla and chocolate swirl cake mix (Betty Crocker or similar)
Water - 135 ml
Vegetable oil - 120 ml
3 eggs - replaced by 100ml natural yoghurt (eggs having been thrown overboard some days ago)
Method
Mix above ingredients and bake in an 8 inch (20 cm) lined round cake tin. In Walrus gimballed oven, with no thermostat control the cake took 22 minutes to bake. In a regular oven, I’m guessing a little longer at a lower temperature might work better.
Leave to cool in the tin.
I served slices of vanilla and chocolate swirl cake with our last fresh apple cut into small chunks and a tin of mixed fruit cocktail (the sort my grandmother served on Sundays when we went to visit).
To add the ‘je ne sais qua’ that makes a dessert hit the spot, I poured a cap full of spiced rum over each slice of cake, added a squeeze of guava jam and a slosh of coconut yoghurt for good measure.
Just what was needed at the end of a challenging day’s sailing across the Pacific.
Keeping fingers crossed for a catch of yellow fin tuna in the not too distant future.