Constance Difede, anchored in the Nordenshel’da Archipelago just at the start of the Vilkitsky strait in the South Kara Sea 5 August 2016
Winter arrived. It has been four days since anyone has ventured beyond the cockpit to crush a can or add bits of rubbish to the lazarette. The view is spotted monotone whiteout. There are no windshield wipers. Occasionally the rain turns to slushy snow. It is 2C outside with a Gale 6, gusting to 38 knots. The storm has peaked. The forecast is for calm winds by Sunday. If the forecast holds, we will have Southerly winds on Tuesday. This is the most favourable wind to open up the ice. As of today, an icebreaker convoy is stopped. They dropped a freighter out of the line. We can see it on the ice charts, halfway between our position and the convoy. At least we are tucked into a sheltered cove. Who knew last Sunday we would be booking into a week’s holiday on a Siberian archipelago. We continue to work through the fresh food from Murmansk. How many ways can you cook potatoes? Tomorrow we will have a party to celebrate Denis’ birthday.
Boiled potatoes, with herring and vodka.
Constance
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Good luck. Have been following. Some ship’s chef former skipper suggestions. If ‘fresh’ herring, try a braise/fry with paprika and onions. Start with added braise water boil, let it go, then fry briefly after water gone to outside crisp the fish. Adds browned flavor to the seasoning. If pickled/salted ‘fresh’ but really lightly preserved herring, try a second desalted braise/boil with just a bit more of added onion to second braise. Discard braise sauce and onion, then lightly fry to brown outside of fish. Remember, herring are an ‘oily’ fish. Either way, hope you have some butter for the boiled potatoes, just leave skins on. A complete arctic nutrition meal. Minus vodka.
Дениска! С Днём Рождения!!! Здоровья,счастья и УДАЧИ!!! Мужества тебе и всему экипажу!…Папа,мама,братья,Ксюша.
Been checking on you most days – sounds an interesting trip. One question – do you actually do routine Met observations and send them out? As a retired Metman I’d be very interested if you could publish them on your site. BTW – I live in Spain and it’s 29 degs now and going up to around 32 later!