We are back in Portugal and our first stop is in Lisbon! When Disney was looking for inspiration for the Magic Kingdom, his people visited this castle in Sintra called the Pena Pallace.
Standing here on this fanciful turret looking out over the ocean we just crossed and down the coast we are about to sail made us stop and think about the choices we have made in our life to bring us to this very point.
What goid choices they have been!
We had a great time visiting friend and family in Maryland but we are also excited to be getting back to Wisdom in Portugal so we can resume our voyaging journey!
We have been cruising full time for two years with a “Receive Only” unit and it’s time to upgrade.
Our setup from Vesper arrived today and I can’t wait to get it installed and setup!
I have taken over managing a new website and I wanted to share it with you all here!
Yes, this does mean extra work for me, but I do enjoy writing and creating content. My job has transitioned from being a dentist on land to be a YouTuber and Blogger at anchor. The joys of this shift in profession is it lets me work from anywhere which means we are free to journey the world by sail and explore all sorts of new lands.
Doing so with our electric motor means that we have no fuel costs and we do a great job at keeping our own costs down, meaning that the meager income we make from all our creative outlets is enough to fund our travels and keep us going!
Adventures on Boats is a website that helps people get through all the stages of Boating.
There is a wonderful section that is geared towards someone who doesn’t have a boat yet. Then the next phase will be once you have a boat and need to learn how to do everything on it. The last section is for those who want to shove off from their ties to land and venture off on a cruising adventure.
Rigging Doctor is more focused on living on a sailboat and synthetic standing rigging, while Adventures on Boats is more focused on the journeys and travels that you can have on your sailboat.
Cruising allows you to visit incredible places for free, which means you can travel the world on a very small budget. One thing that even poor cruisers like to do is eat, especially eat delicious meals!
Limpets are small snails that live on hard rocks in the tidal zone. Limpets are also delicious and expensive!
Mainland Portugal is blessed with sandy beaches that contain large rocks that are encrusted with limpets. Do check with local fishing laws to make sure you are not fishing illegally! In Portugal, you can fish for shellfish between certain hours of the day, around from 10am to 2pm where we are right now, and this time happens to coincide with their low tide; and they have a 12 foot tide!
At low tide, you simply stroll out on the sandy beach and walk over to one of these large rocks. On the rock, you will find all of these limpets clutching to the stone as they await the return of the incoming tide.
To remove a limpet, you can either strike it with a stone at a low angle or pry it off with a knife. You get one try at it and you have to do it fast otherwise they will express water and clamp down onto the rock so tightly that you can not remove it without breaking the shell! If you fail, try the next one.
Keep them in a bucket of water while you fish and change the water frequently to keep them alive. You can add extra salt to the water to encourage them to expel any sand that might be in them.
Once you have all you want to eat, simply set them alive and on a tray shell down and put a lot of garlic butter on each one. The butter will keep them tender while they grill. You want to grill them just to the point where they pop off their shell, any more and they will get rubbery.
On my first time, I over cooked them and some were like rubber bands while the ones that got less fire time were AMAZING! The best part of this meal is that it is free! You can comb the beach at low tide and spend the rest of the day preparing your delicious treat for later.
