Boat Drinks

4-14-13 – Isla Coronados, Bahia California Sur, Mexico 

E finding some shade on our motor to Isla Coronado

Back to Isla Coronados again.  Yes, it’s hard to believe we are back to a place we left yesterday, but we are.  A quick overnighter up to San Juanico and here we are again.  I have a feeling we are getting anxious as the deadlines approach.  At least we made it to San Juanico to place our momento with all the others at the cruisers tree.  

Momentos left at the cruisers tree in San Juanico

Our contribution to the cruisers tree

A fitting gesture to conclude our Northbound journey in the Sea of Cortez.  Somehow, since we have nothing else to worry about right now, we have decided to haul the boat and have the bottom painted in Puerto Escondido.  The price seems right, Mexican bottom paint seems more toxic than what’s found in the States, and Autumn Wind could use some love.  I also figure a clean bottom might give us an extra ¼ to ½ knot on the trip north.  It may not seem like much, but that equates to 15 to 30 hours less, which means 7 to 15 gallons of diesel less, not to mention the almost 1 day of motoring less.  So we have a lot going on for people with no house, kids or job; trying to squeeze the last few days out of our cruising adventures and planning for the trip North.

Elizabeth has pointed out that we have a lot of pictures of Autumn Wind sitting pretty in a beautiful anchorage with turquoise water and a perfect crescent shaped sand beach.  So I will not bore you with any more of that nonsense.  Yeah, it’s pretty, the water is clear, you can take endless pictures of your boat in such places, and it’s impossible to describe what it’s like until you are here; and all that nonsense.  Now let’s get down to what counts.

AW at Honeymoon Cove - Isla Dazante

AW is the left boat in the triangle - from the top of Isla Coronado

(OK I lied, there are a couple more pics.  Like pictures of babies, the people you show them to may not care but we love 'em)

Everyone knows that the most important part of any day on a boat it the cocktail hour/sunset drink/anchor down.  (as you can tell, us boater/yachtista types can come up with a reason for a cocktail for just about anything)  What most non-cruiser folks don’t understand is what this cocktail really entails and what it really means, at least for people of moderate boat size. 

For a proper cocktail you need ice.  Having ice is in itself a whole set of decisions one made months ago having to do with refrigeration, cold plates, power to keep said things cold and sources to store said power.  Autumn Wind came equipped with a cocktail ice maker and all we had to do was add 170 watts of solar panels and $400 dollars worth of batteries to make sure it was always functioning.  So now you have power to keep things cold.  Now you need to realize that unless the thing you want to freeze is actually touching the cold plate that all that power is keeping cold, it will only make very cold water in little cubes.  

Our freezer - Ice trays on the bottom

Yes our “freezer” is about ½ the size of your microwave and everything in it must stack vertically.  Now following the logic, cocktails are the only reason we really have boats, cocktails must have ice, to make ice the water must be touching the cold plate, our freezer stacks vertically; you come to the conclusion that the ice trays must be on the bottom.  Underneath anything else you may want to keep more than averagely cold/frozen.  We procured our little red Teflon ice trays in Petaluma from a designer hardware store for a price that seemed huge at the time, but they work, and remember you can’t put a price on ice in your cocktails.  We didn’t have room for a sledge hammer so the big metal vertical trays are stowed somewhere out of sight. (if you have these things you know what I mean)  We can make two mini trays of ice per day, just enough for two cocktails.  Good planning if you ask me since there are two of us.  So now you have ice.

Can you believe all that stuff has to come out of the freezer
just to get to the ice trays.  That's dedication!

Next you need booze.  Booze comes in glass bottles.  Glass breaks, sailboats tip a lot, you can see where I’m going with this.  A “real” yacht would have a nice booze cabinet with little circles cut out of some plywood to set their various bottles in to keep them upright and from rolling around.  Instead of all that silliness we bought a 48 pack of white tube socks.  Each bottle gets a sock.  Then they can roll around all they want and not clank or break.  You can only hope to run out of socks before you run out of wine and booze bottles to put in them!  So now you have found yourself in Mexico with something other than a good Tequila (which there are many of), it isn’t broken and after searching thru your sock inventory you find what you want.

Look what I found in this sock!

If you need some fruit to ward off scurvy, I suggest a little Mexican lime, aptly called a limon in Mexico.  Why Mexican limes are 1/3 the size of limes in the US is beyond me.  But they all are.   Now we use our cutting board that covers the stove when not in use, or generally rolls around the floor when the stove is in use to cut this little thing in half.  Just perfect for 2 cocktails, I’m sure this is why they have genetically engineered these limes, called limons, to be so small.  Washing the cutting board would be a waste of water so just be careful not to make a mess when cutting your fruit.  Then put the cutting board back on the floor where you found it.

Frankly if you made it that far I would be happy.  Add anything you have to whatever booze you have; or don’t.  You have ice, booze and a garnish, what else do you need?  Sit in the cockpit and enjoy the scenery or watch the sunset; this is what it’s all about.  Just don’t forget to refill those ice trays or you will be very disappointed tomorrow!

The most important job of the day