Never. Give. Up.

We have been galavanting around enjoying the sunshine and clean air.  Good food, Good wine, and Good times.  The Captain's 38th birthday has come and gone, and it goes to show ya, that just showing up is half the battle.  Most people don't even muster.  Cheers to his 38 years of mustering!  May he have at least 38 more!

The boom worked perfectly.

"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."  Robin Lee Graham

Today is the Reason We Live in Morro Bay

Today is the reason we live in Morro Bay: 75 degrees, warm offshore breezes. 

Truman helped with the race committee at the Yacht club for the day-sailor race today. We are happy to announce that we are officially yacht club members.  I know I will have yacht club responsibilities at some point, but today was too beautiful and I was very selfish.  I went running on the beach.  Then I cruised down to the local coffee shop to meet a friend a'la photo-tour of the sunny day.

Right before sunset, Truman and I rode over to a new wine bar called STAX.  I would highly recommend it!  The day was so picturesque and I wish that sunset wasn't so early.  We both rode our bicycles all day!

Anniversary

We celebrated the end of our Anniversary Week by riding our beach cruisers to the Yacht club for Friday Night Social.  I met lots of nice people, most of whom the Captain has already met or sailed with.  One lady, Judy, is the coordinator for the Writer's conference that we are attending in September.  It was nice to get the inside scoop on the conference. I can't wait! We also saw a couple who have a catamaran.  They want to sail to Catalina--a 3day sail--but they had trouble finding a crew for the 10 day trip. I told my Captain to crew for them, but they had already downsized to a couple 3 day trips in the area. The Captain was tentative about the whole ten days but will probably join them on one of the short trips.

I really hope that Truman can sail with them.  It would be such a wonderful learning experience.  I would have to stay at home to work, but he would have such a memorable time!  At any rate, we are happy and healthy here on the waterfront.  It is a blessing to be able to be here.  Clean water, clean air, healthy living and good loving.  I cannot ask for more!  Thank you, Lord!

Novel Sunday

Watching the video of the whale crashing on the sailboat made me want to read Moby Dick!  I've never read this classic novel!  I am ashamed to admit it.  Well, I looked in my bookshelf and confirmed what I suspected to be true: I don't own Moby Dick.  But, I do own Mutiny on the Bounty!

So, I started reading this seft-proclaimed "greatest sea story of all time" after making the pate yesterday.  I am only on page 33 and it has pulled me in!  I am enthralled!  It is the story of a young man from Wales who is recruited on a 90 foot boat with 40 other men to travel to Tahiti and collect breadfruit and write a Tahitian-English dictionary.  The story takes place only a couple years after Captain Cook has made his famous journey to the South Seas. 

I'm rivetted!  This is a whole other level of poetry and depth to the sailor's life....well, to the First Mate's life more precisely!  What book will be next?  Old Man and the Sea?  Robinson Crusoe?  There are so many sailing themed classics worth reading!

It is time to make a pot of coffee on this gloomy Sunday morning and hunker down with my book and the Captain's Star Trek Snuggie!

Pâté Saturday!

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred,
I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is probably nothing better than a glass of red wine and a slice of French bread with homemade Pâté! This may be one of the most romantic combinations of food available on the face of Estero Bay! Fodder for poetry, just begging for a breathtaking sunset accompaniment . . . Hemingway would be jealous!

Red wine contains many wonderful antioxidants. For women, one glass a day is all that you need. More than one glass a day increases your risk for heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer, and any number of horrible ailments. For healthy wine drinking, I refer to a culturally appropriate book, French Women Never Get Fat. The author describes the French effort of conscious consumption, taste awareness, and sensual appreciation.  And French bread is not hard to celebrate! There is some wonderful bread available locally: La Parisienne, Carlock’s Bakery, and the Old Cayucos Bakery and Deli to name a few!

Pâté may be harder to find, harder to understand the celebration if you’ve never tried it, but certainly worth the effort. Pâté usually includes chicken liver cooked with mushrooms and herbs then pureed and chilled into a sliceable and spreadable constitution. Liver, an organ meat, is extremely rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K, essential fatty acids, and trace minerals, copper, zinc, and iron. Clearly, it is best to buy organic, free range, grass fed liver as to avoid any stored toxic substances that the liver may harbor.

Unfortunately, pâté is not sold in any store around here. Trader Joe’s carries it on the winter season only. So, I made my own today!

Not a bad snack! Bring a notepad and pen because this meal is sure to have you hearing La Vie En Rose, smelling three different varieties of fresh ocean air, and falling in love with your taste buds all over again!

Original Drink Recipe: “Sex on the Boat”

This is an original drink recipe created by yours truly, The First Mate!
Sex on the Boat
Blend Together:
¾ Cherimoya flesh
2 cups ice
1 cup coconut milk
½ banana
¾ cup rum
Garnish with slice of orange, drizzle of dark rum, and umbrella

Makes 2 drinks.
The Cherimoya, also known as custard apple or sherbert fruit, is a large tropical fruit about the size of a grapefruit. It has juicy white flesh and large black seeds. It tastes like a combination of papaya, mango, pineapple, and vanilla. This cherimoya came in our CSA box!

Enjoy!

Losing Sight of the Shore: Mindfulness Exercises

I am totally consumed by the concept of living mindfully.  I buy everything on the subject: books, ipod meditations, local food from sustainable sources, even a sailboat!  I blog. Self-help is my favorite genre.  I try to live peacefully.  I try to be emotionally present.  I try to be an engaged listener.  I try to maintain my boundaries.  I try to do what I have been taught is good.  I try to do what is right. 

I know there is value in this way of living.  I know that these thoughts are worthy of my attention.  I cannot live otherwise, but today...I am exhausted.  I remember hearing an appropriate line from a movie:  “Too much thinking wears down your batteries.” Lois Lane to Clark Kent, in the original Superman.

At any rate, I would like to share a little of the sentence completion exercises from Taking Responsibility: Self-Reliance and the Accountable Life.  This book was phenomenal!  I highly recommend it.  The author has about 30 sets of these sentence completion prompts; here are a few.  Basically, you just finish the sentence with as many endings as come naturally to you.  Don't over-think it.  Just blurt or write out the answer.

If I pay more attention to my inner signals today—
If I am more truthful in my dealings with people today—
If I am 5% more self-accepting today—
If I am self-accepting even when I make mistakes—
If these ideas start working in my subconscious mind—

If I disown what I am thinking and feeling—
If I place other people’s thoughts above my own—
When I look at what I do to impress people—
If I face who I am to make myself “likeable”—
I am beginning to suspect—

More on Vitamin D: Argh, Stay Back June Gloom!

I am sitting here eating my overnight oats which seems like perfect sailor food to me and . . .

Me thinks that Vitamin D has been getting a lot of coverage lately.

As for Vitamin D preventing cancer? Hmm. Well, there are other health benefits to be had. There was actually a recent article that showed that people with high Vitamin D levels had an increase in skin cancers. This is probably due to habitual sun over-exposure.

Perhaps the "old reference ranges" used in laboratories past were much lower than they are now, but that is probably because they were based on the idea of preventing rickets. It looks like the newer ranges are based on studies in "native populations" (non-westernized) which probably get more Vitamin D from both diet and sun exposure.

Vitamin D can only be produced by our bodies when we are exposed to UVB rays, and not UVA. Most UVB rays only occur between 10am-2pm in United States (except the southern tip of Florida) and that for 2-6 months of the year there are not enough UVB rays to stimulate Vitamin D production, i.e. during the winter, and more so the further north you go.

Tanning beds are a mix of UVA and UVB, though the newer ones (i.e. high pressure) seem to be just UVA, and hence would not stimulate Vitamin D production.

Nautical Knots!

I bought this book-kit at Border's for the Captain.  He has been doing some pretty impressive stuff!  Hours of endless fun for about $5!  I was tickled pink to come home from work and see decorative knots hanging from every door knob! 

It really comes in handy on the boat too!  Look at some of the beautiful knots that he has made!  Nautical knot-tying is one of the arts of traditional sailing!

 

TGIF Sunset BBQ

Thanks to the good Captain, we had planned to take the boat on the Bay for BBQ Filet Mignon, photography, and local Sauvignon Blanc!  I was so grateful to have this evening cruise on the schedule, because it has been a super long busy crazy week!  And, I've been reading The Motion of the Ocean!  This is Janna Cawrse Esarey's book fully entitled: The Motion of the Ocean: 1 Small Boat, 2 Average Lovers, and a Woman's Search for the Meaning of Wife.

So, I had planned to present the B-HAG concept to my Captain: Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  This is Janna and Graeme's grand concept, a'la stimulus package!  Basically, come up with a goal that is bigger than life, create a stategy for accomplishing it, and then throw caution to the wind and take a deep, cleansing breath, and go for it!!!!!!

If you have a big Goal . . . . would you dare even say it out loud? Would you share it with anyone? Would you keep it silent, secret and let it build momentum inside like a 2 Liter bottle of Pop shaken up? What do you think?

TGIF!  We had a wonderful sunset BBQ cruise!

Sea Salt: The Salt of the Earth

The Cayucos sisters at the Brown Butter Cookie Company are on to something good! They just appeared on the Rachel Ray Show!!! But, by featuring real sea salt on their cookies, they’ve not only added taste, but nutrients that many of us may rarely encounter elsewhere. If you haven’t gotten on the sea salt train, let me entice you to come aboard!

Almost all traditional cultures use some salt. Salt provides sodium and chloride which aid in proper functioning of many organ systems, especially the brain. The chloride component activates amylases which work in the stomach and intestine to digest carbohydrates. Excessive intake of salt can be harmful, but complete deprivation of salt is equally disruptive to the system.

Why use sea salt? Sun dried sea salt is naturally occurring, comes in many colors, and appears wet. It contains traces of marine life, organic forms of iodine, magnesium salts, and nearly 80 other trace minerals. The best source comes from the Celtic Sea, is harvested according to ancient methods, and appears grey. But, most of all, it tastes better, richer, and “more complex”, to borrow from the vintner’s vernacular.

Sea salt has a dual nature in Eastern cultures. Its yin nature brings a person “down to earth”; it strengthens digestion and secretion. It is cooling, directing energy inward and lower. Salt is also thought to purify, cleanse, and counteract poisoning from poor-quality foods and unhealthy food combinations. It is thought to soften some areas of the body and tighten others. It is a “contractive” element rather than expansive.

What is wrong with table salt? Table salt is highly refined and altered to create the appearance of dryness, whiteness, and uniformity. The magnesium is removed; aluminum compounds are added. To replace the natural iodine salts, potassium iodide is added. Sea salt is truly a thing of great worth and reliability. It is good for cooking and seasoning. Try something new! It is an adventure! Once you try it, you’ll never go back.

When I asked one of the sisters at the Little Market why they used Sea Salt on their cookies and not table salt or kosher salt, she said, “Because we like the taste!”

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. Matthew 5:13 (NAS)

Sources: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford

One California Girl’s Ode to Sunshine: Fighting Coastal Vitamin D Deficiency

Despite the rain and foggy marine layer, we’ve managed to get a lot of sunshine in recent weekends. Ahhh! Sunlight!!! Oh, the perfect contentedness that only comes from basking in warm sunshine! I can’t live without it!

Exposing ourselves to sunlight is the best way to ensure that our bodies make enough vitamin D. UV rays trigger our skin to make vitamin D. In fact, any dietary vitamin supplement is second-rate compared to the ability of the skin to manufacture vitamin D for us. Thick cloud cover, industrial pollution, sunscreen, and shade can reduce our skin’s ability to produce it by 60%.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause emotional dreariness, muscle aches, bone pain, and vague abdominal pain, and ultimately lead to bone loss, osteoporosis, and rickets. We’ve done such a good job of avoiding the sun and protecting ourselves from skin cancer, that we run the real risk of vitamin D deficiency. If fact, 90% of the patients I’ve tested are deficient!

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin found in cod liver oil, salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, milk, eggs, and fortified foods. Vitamin D also comes in many capsule forms, suspended in oil. It makes sense that if taking it in a pill form, one should take it with some form of oil or fat in order to encourage the greatest amount of absorption. Vitamin D stores only last for 3 months in the body. So, we need lots of sunshiny days to fill up regularly! Just what the doctor ordered!