Garrucha

Well here's a tale for you. Yesterday afternoon we sailed into Garrucha harbour. We passed a very large container ship being loaded with Gypsum, passed the tugs, passed the fishing fleet. Moored up, had a cup of tea, dealt with the usual paperwork. Greg plugged into the electricity supply on the pontoon and within a nano-second there was a BANG and smoke in the boat. Disconnected from mains supply in a nano-second ( as you would) and checked to make sure there was no fire onboard - accrid smell - no flames. To cut  a very long story short, the units in this part of the pontoon were throwing out 415 volts! As a result our boat battery charger was burnt out, the ipad charger and laptop charger were burnt out. Suddenly our boat had several visitors including: Marineros, Port administrators, two dogs, a few onlookers and thankfully one brilliant marine electrician who couldn't believe what he was seeing! He was not responsible for the problem - outside contractors ( Cowboys) had put the units in. We moved the boat onto another pontoon where the Voltage is 240. Today all the chargers have been replaced with new and the main ring system and appliances thoroughly checked. We could not have asked for a quicker response from the staff here. All is well. One bonus, the boat battery charger replacement is much quieter than our other one!

 

This is Johan, our electrician, pointing out the burnt bit inside the battery charger...

 

Whilst all this was going on I went off to the mercado and bought a few veggies, peppers, spinach and early garlic...

Rustle up dinner recipe : Lentil, Garbanzo and Spinach Pot with Rice

Ingredients:

Onion - chopped
Small red pepper - chopped
As much garlic as you like - chopped
1 heaped tsp ground Cumin powder
As many chilli flakes as you like
2 cups of lentils ( or 2 cups garbanzos - chick peas)
4 cups water or stock
Torn leaves of spinach
Splosh of tomato sauce
Coriander leaves and quartered lemons to serve
Serve with rice or cous cous

Method -

Saute onion in oil for few minutes until transluscent.
Add garlic, fry for another minute.
Add cumin, chilli flakes, lentils and water/stock, simmer until lentils are soft ( approx 35 mins).
Add spinach - add splosh of tomato sauce - cook till spinach soft

Serve with rice, coriander and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Simple and delicious!