Last night we were super tired from snorkeling and motu exploring, so sorry for the small noon report. With such a busy day yesterday we did not have a chance to cook the duck. Today our initial plan was to sail outside of Taha’a and into a southern pass of Raiatea, around the south tip along the side of giant mountain cliffs (so we’ve heard), and anchor in the south east side of Raiatea near an archaeological site. During our sail south Sara was going to cook up her duck. However, the day did not go as planned a nice squall popped just as we were headed out the pass and might have followed us to our new location. The southern end of Raiatea is hardly ever traveled because traveling along the edge of the mountains can be a bit tricky and we need really clear overhead light. We decided to detour and head to the closest marina and grab a mooring ball to go boat shopping, haha, we’re not really selling Just Drifting, but what a fun way to spend a semi rainy day. As luck would have it we happened to moor next to SV Asoese from Honolulu that even knew some of our close friends. We did get to check out three boats that were charter catamaran’s. As we only stopped by for the afternoon we let go of the mooring and moved to an anchorage a little south of town and tomorrow we’ll wake up and decide to check out fishing gear in town or a waterfall hike.
Once we were anchored and both a little hungry we decided to cook the duck. We did not want to burn two hours of propane and with the sun getting low we fired up the generator and turned on the electric cook top. Why the electric cook top you ask? We’ll it turns out according to Julia Child the best way to cook a duck is the steam method. First the duck is steamed, then flipped breast side down for braising in the oven, then flipped again for it’s final cooking and browning again in the oven. Which with the generator on we decided to use the convection oven. The best part is the boat is drying out because Wade turned on the air conditioning! The duck turned out super yummy along with a lovely gravy on the side with vegetables, but what an exhausting way to cook a duck.
We’re having fun and we hope everyone is having a safe and fun Halloween weekend!
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Position at noon: 16 degrees 44.670 minutes South and 151 degrees 25.516 minutes West
