Well it's day 8 at this beautiful anchorage. The last few days have been laid back, particularly after all the motor boats (we counted 10) left on Sunday afternoon. We had a night where there was only us & one other boat here. We were snorkelling the day before yesterday on a reef around a little island that has 3 palm trees and saw a couple of sharks. I was snorkelling and pulling the dingy and spotted 2 sharks cruise underneath me. One was about 6ft & the other about 5ft and they were being accompanied by a large fish of some sort. I must admit i didn't take much notice of the fish as i was trying to attract John's attention and keep an eye on the sharks. Weren't sure what they were, but probably Grey Reef sharks, which are supposed to be non aggressive but being the big brave person i am, i got back in the dingy. John, on the other hand watched them for awhile. We have millions of tiny iridescent green/blue fish around the boat, which attract the Jack's (similar to a Dart) and the water just boils as the Jack's work. Mind you we can't catch them as they ignore our lures. A pod of 7 Dolphins came past a couple of days ago. The Kuna kids on the nearest Island were as excited as we were at seeing them and ran along the beach whistling to the Dolphins. I have finally had success at making bread, and not a packet mix, but from scratch. I am so pleased with myself. I think John is stunned and amazed, as the last loaf i attempted would have made an extremely good anchor. We had Crab Bisque last night and it was yummy so i have included the recipe below. This came from Connie on 'Better Days' as did the bread recipe. We think we will move from here on Friday before the weekend power boat invasion and go across to Green Island.
John & Sue
Connie's Crab Bisque S/V Better Days
First boil & mash 2 med. sized potatoes with 3 Tablespoons (Tsp) milk ... set aside
Melt 2 Tsp or more of butter
Saute 2 diced carrots, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 med. onion diced, 1/2 cup Celery (I used Choko)
Add 1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour to become pasty
Add 2 cups of Chicken bouillon (stock) stirring constantly
Add 2 cups of Milk
Add 4 Tsp Fish Sauce (i used 2 Tsp of Oyster sauce)
Add mashed potatoes
Take out about 200ml of the soup mixture and put into a separate bowl. Melt 4oz of Cream Cheese in this soup mixture.
When this is dissolved, add to soup
Season with salt, pepper, basil, lemon pepper and paprika and your favourite spices (I used paprika, tarragon, oregano)
2-3 dashes of Tabasco sauce (or other hot sauce)
2 Tsp Sweet Chilli sauce
Add 1/4 cup white wine
Add 1-2 cups of crab meat
Cook for an hour.
I also made dumplings
Combine 1 cup All Purpose (Plain) flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder & 1/4 teaspoon salt
Cut (rub) in 2 Tsp of butter or shortening to make the mixture crumbly
Add 1/2 cup milk all at once.
Stir to mix thoroughly & make a soft dough
Knead gently with floured hands about 5 times until smooth
With floured hands, shape dough into 1 inch balls and drop into hot soup. Cover pot and simmer for 15 mins. Don't peek during cooking
From "An Embarrassment of Mangoes' - Ann Vanderhoof
