By Suzanna Leigh
It was the summer of 1999, and we had just set the anchor in Longbranch, a little bay in the South Sound. We hadn’t taken the sails down yet when a gust of wind caught the mainsail and nearly sailed us into an odd collection of boats rafted together. The anchor held, and the anchor line stopped us six feet from a 50s style motor cruiser. The cruiser was tied up to a gaff-rigged ketch (a two-masted sailboat with the smaller mast in front of the tiller) with a whole line of dinghies tailing behind it like a string of goslings. A long banner flew from the main mast of the ketch, putting me in mind of a pirate ship.
As we took the last bites of our dinner, a man who looked to be in his late forties rowed up and offered us a small loaf of home-baked – or rather boat-baked – whole wheat bread. “Doug” told us he lived on the 30-foot sloop, From Above, anchored aft of us, and had just finished baking the bread on his stepfather’s boat, moored to our starboard. Then, he pointed across the bay to the Catalina 27 where his son lived. The pirate ship, the string of dinghies, and another sloop tied in the bundle all belong to “Cap.” Cap loves boats, collects boats, and occasionally sells a boat. He lived in the pirate ship/ketch, where the motor cruiser was visiting.
From Above was built by the owner out of plywood and fiberglass, but the owner only sailed it once before he died. The boat sat in a bayou off the Columbia River in Oregon for 20 years before Doug rescued it and restored it. I wonder how Doug even found it!
Doug lived minimally, simply. Boat living uses a lot fewer resources than living in a house – less water, less electricity, less space to heat. Doug’s staples were whole wheat, whole-grain rice, rye berries, and lentils, which he cooks in a pressure cooker. “Perfect for boat living,” he told us. “If salt water gets into it, you just dump it out and keep eating.” He eats this year around, summer and winter, buying grains and lentils in 25-50 pound bags. His goal was cheap living – and it turned out to be nutritious as well! He gave us two of his bread recipes, sans time and temperature.
Did his step dad’s boat have an oven? Doug didn’t say and I didn’t think to ask, but I suspect he did, or he would have cooked his bread on the stove top in his own boat.
Doug’s Basic Bread
- 4½ cups fresh ground whole wheat flour
- ½ cup honey
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tsp yeast
- Water (he didn’t say how much)
To make Walnut Bread, you add
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 cup raisins
- Omit the olive oil (the walnuts have enough oil)
The last time I was in Longbranch, the Cap’s boats were all gone, and From Above was nowhere to be seen. Living aboard in a small, out-of-the way bay is rather frowned upon these days, what with all the regulations. The state owns pretty much all navigable waters, and boaters are not allowed to stay on anchor in one place for more than 30 days.
Pity.
