On the Pulse

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Mon 16 Oct 2017 22:58
23:11.78S 178:27.31W

Before we set out from the UK one of the books we came across was "Cruising on a Budget" or some such by Annie Hall. She and her then husband cruised the Atlantic on their home built yacht and she wrote about their incredibly frugal approach. Sails were home made, clothes knitted or sewn as required, no engine (and therefore no fuel or repairs required) and so forth. Every few years they would stop and earn enough money to keep them going for another period. I admired but was not prepared to emulate their approach - with one exception. The mainstay of their diet was dried pulses; light, long lasting and nutritious and I, as a baked bean addict, was really inspired by this. With a pressure cooker they are easy to prepare - just add vegetables (fresh or tinned), stock and whatever meat or fish is to hand (again fresh or tinned) and there you have a delicious and healthy meal. Each time we have visited a supermarket en route I have lobbed a packet or two into the trolley for good measure. Sadly, Annie and I don't see eye to eye on pulses. They have been accumulating rather faster than consumed but when embarking on a passage I have sometimes prepared a large pulse casserole that can be spun out over three or four days. A hot bowlful at sunset is wonderful comfort food and the options for flavour tweaks are almost endless. Chorizo sausage is particularly good.
The New Zealand economy is heavily dependent on agriculture to the extent that an outbreak of, say, foot and mouth disease could be devastating. There are strict import controls in place to prevent this and unless your food is in an unopened tin you are unlikely to get it past the customs inspection, pulses included. This means that we have quite a backlog to consume. At the same time we have a special reserve of tinned foods that are intended to keep us alive when nothing fresh is available. Buying them was easy but eating less so. Again there is a conflict of interest here because I adore, for example, corned beef whilst Annie still has a childhood phobia. It's weird, she doesn't like rice pudding either. Anyway, some of these tins have been on board for quite a while and we do not want to leave them rusting for another six months while Vega is out of the water. They must be eaten. I was able to include a tin of turkey luncheon meat with this passage casserole and I salivate at the thought of the huge corned beef hash we will need to eat. Incidentally, corned beef appears to be a staple of the modern Polynesian diet, it is sold everywhere and in tins larger than I have ever seen before. In Palmerston we were given corned beef fried with onion with rice plus corned beef sandwiches for lunch, followed by corned beef on crackers for a mid afternoon snack.
Apart from being nutritious pulses are extremely good for digestion and keeping the gut in fine working order. I can report great success on this front for both of us.
Today we are keen to get the Minerva Reef before nightfall. Unfortunately the wind has dropped to less than 10kts and so we have opted to use some of our precious fuel to get there in daylight rather than heave to for the night. We can motor for up to six days if required but there is a large area of no wind we will have to get through over the coming weekend and we may need a lot of fuel...................
(Picture courtesy of Annie who used it to email a slightly differing perspective)

image1.JPG



















Regards
Hugh

SY Vega