At sea
Early morning and the Tristan da Cunha Group is somewhere behind us, well beyond our wake, well below the horizon. The sea is calm and a very pretty blue where the sun reaches it through layers of scattered clouds: streets of low cumulus and wisps of high stratus. The air is warm and a bit humid, tempered with a pleasant breeze as we head north towards the tropics. Tristan da Cunha is gone, but certainly not forgotten!
This morning there is a demonstration on fish filleting on the foredeck by Head Chef Torbjörn (scant hair) and Baker Michael (more hair). Mmmm, that’s right, fresh fish from the Tristan group, yellowtail amber jack! How fresh? They were swimming yesterday at Nightingale Island where Hotel Manager Patrik and our moonlighting baker Michael took out a Zodiac and in just a couple of hours returned triumphantly with dinner for all 100 plus of us! Yellowtail amber jack, they are sleek, fast swimming fish related to tuna. They occur in huge numbers here. The ones that Patrik and Michael caught ranged from about 26 to 33 pounds, but they can get much larger than that! And they are highly esteemed for their fight as well as their taste.
Now we just have to wait for dinner, but that is not too hard, lots going on, lots of catching up to do, lots of reading and looking at the sea to be done as well, no, not too hard at all.
So, how does it taste, yellowtail? Simply fried, the fillet was firm like tuna with a little more oil in the taste, something between mackerel and tuna, just delicious! And what goes well with tuna? Torbjörn and Patrik decided that baked Tristan Crayfish would be just perfect as an appetizer. The Tristan Crayfish is a small lobster, very abundant around Tristan da Cunha, providing a nice little export for the islanders. They are caught in pots and the flesh is sweet and delicate. The ones in the picture just came out of the oven and are not yet garnished. Tristan Crayfish are great for dinner and probably excellent for a party… it was Chef Torbjörn’s birthday after all! I hope there were at least a few of the crayfish left over, but I really doubt it. Thank you and ‘Happy Birthday’ Torbjörn! We hope that rascal, the baker, did not put a fish in your cake!
Early morning and the Tristan da Cunha Group is somewhere behind us, well beyond our wake, well below the horizon. The sea is calm and a very pretty blue where the sun reaches it through layers of scattered clouds: streets of low cumulus and wisps of high stratus. The air is warm and a bit humid, tempered with a pleasant breeze as we head north towards the tropics. Tristan da Cunha is gone, but certainly not forgotten!
This morning there is a demonstration on fish filleting on the foredeck by Head Chef Torbjörn (scant hair) and Baker Michael (more hair). Mmmm, that’s right, fresh fish from the Tristan group, yellowtail amber jack! How fresh? They were swimming yesterday at Nightingale Island where Hotel Manager Patrik and our moonlighting baker Michael took out a Zodiac and in just a couple of hours returned triumphantly with dinner for all 100 plus of us! Yellowtail amber jack, they are sleek, fast swimming fish related to tuna. They occur in huge numbers here. The ones that Patrik and Michael caught ranged from about 26 to 33 pounds, but they can get much larger than that! And they are highly esteemed for their fight as well as their taste.
Now we just have to wait for dinner, but that is not too hard, lots going on, lots of catching up to do, lots of reading and looking at the sea to be done as well, no, not too hard at all.
So, how does it taste, yellowtail? Simply fried, the fillet was firm like tuna with a little more oil in the taste, something between mackerel and tuna, just delicious! And what goes well with tuna? Torbjörn and Patrik decided that baked Tristan Crayfish would be just perfect as an appetizer. The Tristan Crayfish is a small lobster, very abundant around Tristan da Cunha, providing a nice little export for the islanders. They are caught in pots and the flesh is sweet and delicate. The ones in the picture just came out of the oven and are not yet garnished. Tristan Crayfish are great for dinner and probably excellent for a party… it was Chef Torbjörn’s birthday after all! I hope there were at least a few of the crayfish left over, but I really doubt it. Thank you and ‘Happy Birthday’ Torbjörn! We hope that rascal, the baker, did not put a fish in your cake!
