Splicing Class

One of the things we like about sailing is that you are constantly challenged, constantly learning. In the past few years we have pushed ourselves further to learn more and expand our sailing skills. Kansas City Sailing in Lawrence KS offered for the first time a "Splicing class" last Saturday and we took it.























We learned about Rope - yes it's rope until is has a duty or role and then it becomes line. What various rope is made of, the various properties of different rope, how it's made and the applications. Then we started hands on splicing. Some was fairly easy. Some splicing is nothing short of a total mind bending exercise. Yeah, yeah...just like many other new things, practices makes perfect. I guess I know what we will be doing on Thanksgiving day in between feasting sessions.

St Bart Spicy Olives

The holidays will soon be here. This means holiday gatherings as well and holiday food. I always keep this appetizer handy in case people stop by or we invite friends to a last minute dinner. We had these on the island of St Bart's in 2008. We were on a bareboat charter with our good friends Tim and Kim. After a less than stellar mooring, we cleared in, clean up and hit the first bar ashore. They offered these spicy olives along with 1664 beer - yum! I came home and tried to re-create the recipe and I think I am pretty close.

St Bart Spicy Olives
1 jar olives - drained
1 1/2 T tomato paste - approximately
1 t olive oil - approximately
lemon zest
hot sauce -to taste (preferable something from the islands)
Mix it all together and put it back in the olive jar














*For the record - we did NOT know that the mooring field was front and back moorings. We were very prepared for a front mooring. Not so much for front and back. The good news is that we did get safely moored front and back and we did not hit any other boats. It wasn't pretty but we accomplished what we needed to do. The bad news is that Tim had to jump in the water in his last set of dry boat clothes to retrieve the floating boat hook.

Honey's Tools

Even though s/v Honey Ryder came very well equipped, we are of course making changes, upgrades and such to make her ours and prepare for the many adventures the three of us will have in the future. This includes Honey's own laptop, and numerous charts - both paper and software as well as cruising guides.