Lobster – from Sea to Plate to Tummies!

We awoke to a rainy Monday morning. Water is precious here in the islands and we will pay around 20 –  50 cents per gallon to fill our tanks. We don’t have a water maker onboard because they are VERY expensive to purchase and install, and frankly seem to be more trouble than they are worth. So, as the rained poured down, Al took advantage of our sun shade and placed a tub under it. During the shower, we accumulated an extra 10 gallons. Hooray!

The afternoon was dry, but a little overcast. Not to be deterred from an adventure, Dan and Marcia led us outside to a reef near John’s Cay and offshore of northern Elbow Cay.

We used our homemade “look bucket” for the first time. A “look bucket” is simply a bucket with a see-through bottom. You put the bucket in the water and look through it.  Unless the water is really muddy you can see below the surface. In clear waters you can see far down, even to the bottom. I was amazed at how clearly you can see below the surface. It’s like snorkeling without getting wet. It can help to scout out possible snorkeling locations before getting all of your gear on.

The snorkeling was pretty good for a cloudy day. We saw fan coral and lots of tropical fish including my favorite parrot fish.

Dan is the ultimate lobster guy, in our opinion. Truthfully, he is part fish or perhaps a “merman.” He snorkels, dives, and then spears the lobster in its hidey hole under the coral. Today was our introduction to spearing lobsters with the hope that someday Al might catch our dinner! Dan caught a good sized lobster. Caribbean lobster is different from the Maine lobsters – it has no claws and is not quite as sweet and tender. But, it is very tasty , as you will soon see.

Our dinner became a group effort. Marcia steamed the lobster tail on Cutting Class and brought it over to Kindred Spirit. I had some leftover homemade sauce, mozzarella cheese,  and fresh herbs; but I have no yeast onboard because I do not intend to bake in my little oven with my limited CNG fuel. Aahhh! But I do have some flour and we have beer! Beer has yeast, so I made beer flatbread. The recipe is pretty simple:

Beer Flatbread

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup beer

Mix it all together in one bowl with your hands and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then roll each piece out (no rolling pin so Marcia and I just stretched it out.) Brush with olive oil and put it on the grill. We used a pan on the grill. Flip it over. Remove and top with whatever you want. Return to grill to melt it all together.

We made a “pure and simple” pizza of sauce, cheese, spinach, then a sauce and lobster pizza, and finally a white pizza with mozzarella, blue cheese and spinach topped with lobster. We had so much fun and the pizza was delicious!!