I’m on a boat

I’m on a boat.  I got my flippy-floppies.

Actually, I’m wearing sneakers, but that’s beside the point.  I’m in the UK for work and one of British colleagues offered up the fantastic opportunity of going for an evening sail off the coast of Portsmouth.  Turns out her boss is boat-sitting for a guy that has been stationed in Cypress for the year and didn’t want to take his sailboat with him.  Apparently, he “has a few boats down there already.”  I have no idea what someone that fantastically wealthy is doing in the military, but I’m glad he is, because it gave me the opportunity to sail on his boat.  And what a boat it was!  It was definitely the fanciest private sailboat I’ve ever been on (the polish tall ship the Dar Młodzieży doesn’t count) with a huge “steering wheel” instead of a simple rudder and a complex winch and pulley system that managed the sails practically for you.

Our meetings ran a little late and so WGCDR Heycock only gave us six minutes to run up to our hotel rooms, change and grab everything we needed for the evening.  In addition, I had to figure out how to make my dinner and make it back down to the lobby within those six minutes.  Our host was being exceedingly kind enough to bring dinner for everyone, but of course, turkey sandwiches weren’t going to cut it for me.

I grabbed a bunch of stuff from the fridge, threw it in a bag and ran out the door.

Quickest Dinner Ever – Black Bean Avocado Salad
Suitable both on and off sailboats

– 1 can black beans, drained but not rinsed
– 1 avocado
– handful grape tomatoes
– one green onion
– half mini-red onion
– couple large pieces dill
– tablespoon olive oil infused with basil
– juice of a quarter lemon
– salt, pepper and seaweed gomasio (mixture of sesame seeds, sea vegetables and sea salt) to taste

Chop everything, mix it all together and enjoy!

Caveat: When sailing, this is of course easiest to make below decks in a kitchen, if you’re on a boat with such facilities.  Be careful though, the seasickness can really creep up on you when you’re down below chopping.  A word to the wise!

This is yummy enough that I’m going to make it a lot more often, even when dockside.  It reminds me of a coarse black bean guacamole.  I give it 4/5 happy monkeys.