Octopus, fish and lobster

The eventual squall that were predicted finally arrived and we were ready for it but all we received was about 100 drops in 30 seconds while all the other clouds parted in front us and left us between them watching them empty out over the ocean, bummer. Our daily visitor was a Turtle now and then popping up just a few feet next to the boat to get some fresh air before disappearing again under or around the boat. What beautiful creatures. The wind has been blowing above 25 knots for a while now and since we needed to clean bottom and propeller we moved back to our old spot in the second anchorage. We were surprised to find 2 boats there plus a 4th one arrived later that day. We also found a weird algae bloom which under water looked like a light green cloud of gas and over the day it spread out even more. It did not look appealing to go swim in this but we did clean the bottom. We took the dinghy to the first anchorage where a big mangrove gave way to a channel. We followed it in and were amazed how the mangroves opened up to big lagoon. The booby nests with the white fluffy little birds were abundant here and totally protected from the wind. We trolled a lure along the mangroves and bingo a big mangrove snapper followed it with his lip pierced by the hook and before we knew it we had 3 more good size mangrove snappers wanting to get the same lip piercing, we found us a fine spot for fishing and found a good place for some of the fish in our freezer. After a wonderful fish dinner and another night of the wind howling through the rigging we decided we had enough of this. The rattling of the rigging and the screaming of Maxine our wind generator for almost 3 weeks now, not being able to sleep a night through; started to get to us so we fled this anchorage and dropped the hook in the first anchorage. Wow, what a difference! Protected behind the mangroves the wind dropped down to a pleasant 10 to 15 knots instead of the 20 to 25 knots and instead of a wind chop the water was flat calm, Ahhhhhhhhhh life is good again. The fisherman after two week finally came by again, they were laid up by the wind as well and talking to them I found out that their boat to release them here was overdue since two weeks. We gave them some weather update and they are realizing that they may be stuck here over ester instead of spending it with their family home in Isla Margarita. It's funny though how cruising has changed as these five guys brought a cell phone over to be charged. We boaters are now officially cell phone battery loading stations, CPBLS LOL. They also asked for some onions, flour and onoto (food coloring) which I just so happen to have. I asked them about the lobster and just a couple of hours later we bought 8 nice lobsters for 50 bucks. Sid also helped them fix their spear gun, I had made them a bread gave them ice cold water and found out about their families at home. What a nice bunch of guys, all were in the 29 year range with 1 to 3 kids all between 8 and 19 years old. They also gave us a present: an octopus! What am I going to do with an octopus, never cleaned or cooked one before. They laughed but showed me how to clean the pulpo and then hammered it to a pulp. They told me then to boil it in water for 40 minutes and make salad out of it. I cut some pieces aside and marinated them Hawaiian style with sesame oil and hot peppers, that was tasty but octopus after all is very tough. The rest of it I cooked in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, cut it in pieces and made a marinade (red wine, vinegar, anchovy past, garlic, hot peppers, bay leave, capers) and marinated it. It actually came out very tasty. The heads of the lobster I baked in the oven first then made stock out of it and it so happened that they fishermen came by and I gave them half of the salad and soup. Can't wait to see them today to return the bowl and to find out how they like my first pulpo salad. For dinner we enjoyed cracking he lobster legs and antennas which were dipped in butter and garlic. This feels like good old time in the Sea of Cortez when we never knew what dinner was until we just came out of the water from snorkeling. Sid can't wipe the shitty grin of his face, life is good. OH Sid just announced that we did have some rain earlier, 30 Drops!!!