We arrived in Peck Lake, Hobe Sound on Thursday afternoon (2/11/16).
On Friday, we decided to stay, and did a little maintenance. I worked on bills
and income tax prep, while Chuck cleaned the barnacles off of the dinghy. Then
he relaunched the dinghy while I swept all of the barnacle detritus off of the deck.
We took a quick trip over to the beach, with no camera, and just walked. A lot
of people were on the beach; a small ferry brings them over from nearby. We
decided we like it here.
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| Beach at Hobe Sound |
So today, we visited the beach again. This time with camera
and gathering bags. I like to hunt for shells, especially the pretty, well-formed
ones, with a natural hole in them. I keep thinking someday I will get inspired to
actually make something with them, like necklaces or earrings. There are a lot
of nice shells here. This beach is pretty clean, but I also saw a few lost flip
flops and two more containers of “Capri Sun”. Tons of this kid drink, along
with coffee, wine, bottles of oil, detergent and other household goods, were
found here and elsewhere along the FL coast since December, when cargo
containers fell from a 340 ft barge that was being towed by the 136 ft ship Capt.
Latham.
And to my great surprise, I finally found a sea bean! It’s
rather large, and heart shaped, which is sweet since tomorrow is Valentine’s
Day. We also each found one of another type of sea bean known as a “hamburger”
since it really looks like a tiny little slider. It’s surprising to me that we’d
both find sea beans in FL since we looked all over the Abacos last year and
never found a single one.
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| Heart shaped sea bean |
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| "Hamburger" sea bean is the little one in front |
While we were walking along, Chuck chatted with some locals
who were fishing, and gathered the intel he needed. We went back to the boat
for lunch, and he couldn’t wait to get back to the beach to do some fishing. He
caught 4 yellow jacks (Jack Cravalle) and one bluefish. I did more walking and hunting,
but didn’t pick up much more, I have enough shells.
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| Chuck landing a fish |
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| Surf casting |
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| Filleting the fish, in our cockpit |
When we got back to the boat, he filleted the fish, while I
searched online for recipes. I made a NY Times recipe, “Fast Vietnamese Caramel
Bluefish” which really was fast! And we had most of the ingredients. It uses
fresh ginger, lemon grass or fresh lemon zest, soy sauce, Vietnamese Fish Sauce
and brown sugar. I added crushed red pepper flakes in lieu of jalapenos, and
skipped the optional decorations (scallions, fresh cilantro and chopped
jalapenos). Chuck said, “It smells like we have a dog.” I said, “That’s the
fish sauce.” I love the smell, but it is definitely a little funky; it’s made
from fermented fish. I explained that it’s like cheese. It doesn’t all smell
good, but it always tastes good. The fish was good too. Really good.
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| Making the caramel sauce |
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| "Fast Vietnamese Caramel Bluefish" with brown basmati rice and carrots |
We are both reading the same book, “The Girls Guide to
Hunting and Fishing” by Melissa Bank. I hurriedly grabbed it off the “Free” bookshelf
in Vero Beach one day, thinking that I could use it to learn a little more about
fishing. Turns out it’s not a guide book, rather it’s a fiction of linked short
stories, and a great one. Published in 2000, it was a NY Times bestseller. I
started reading it, and one night while I was cooking Chuck picked it up, after
having heard me laughing out loud while reading. He soon caught up to my place,
and on our trip to Hobe Sound from Vero, I continued reading it out loud for
both of us, while he piloted the boat. I finished it today, and he’s almost
finished too. I still don’t know any more about hunting or fishing. But I only
hunt for shells, and he’s already pretty darn good at fishing!
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| Happy Valentine's Day! |
Cool beans!
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