The Blue View - An Edible Knot

 

I've referred to The Ashley Book of Knots in previous Blue View Blogs. Of his 3,854 knots, my very favorite is his knot #169. It is difficult to untie, jams easily and is not very strong. The only thing going for it is that it tastes great.

Since today is National Pretzel Day, it only seemed fitting to talk about pretzels in today's blog. I like big, soft pretzels right out of the oven, slathered with mustard. I have my own recipe for pretzels, and I've made these on long passages and more than once on a cold, rainy afternoon in a remote anchorage. And of course, I use Ashley's knot #169, the Pretzel Knot to form the pretzels.

I boil the pretzels before baking. I think it adds to the flavor and gives them a softer, firmer skin. The time they are allowed to boil is important. If they aren't boiled long enough, they will be too soft, while boiling them too long makes them tough.

Edible Knots

Recipe Type: Snack

Author: David Lynn

Ingredients

• For 1 dozen pretzels
• 1 tbsp (15 grams)yeast
• 1 tbsp (12 grams) sugar
• 1 tsp (5 grams) salt
• 2 tbsp (30 grams) soft butter or margarine
• 1 cup (250 ml) warm water
• 3 cups (300 grams) flour
• 2 tbsp (30 grams) coarse sea salt to sprinkle on Pretzels before baking
• 2 tbsp (25 grams) baking soda mixed in 4 cups (1 liter) water in a saucepan (non-aluminum).
• Greased cookie sheet

Instructions

1. Put yeast, sugar, salt, butter or margarine, water and 1/3 of the flour into a medium mixing bowl. Stir mixture until it is smooth. When the yeast starts to bubble, add the remaining flour. Stir the mixture until it is too stiff, then begin kneading. Knead the dough until it is smooth and no longer sticky. Cover the bowl, set it in a warm place and allow the dough to rise until it doubles in size, about an hour.
2. When the dough has risen enough, punch it down, and knead for a minute or so. Divide into 12 equal parts and roll each with your hands into 12-15-inch long ropes. Use the photos or Ashley's Book of Knots #169 to form each into a pretzel knot. While the pretzels rest for a few minutes, grease the cookie sheet and bring the the baking soda/water mixture to a boil on stove. Preheat oven to 475 F (250 C).
3. Boil them for 1 minute on one side, then flip them over with a slotted spoon and boil one minute on the other side. When each pretzel is done, remove from the water and let it drip for a few seconds before placing on the cookie sheet.
4. Sprinkle the pretzels with the coarse sea salt and bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
5. Serve with mustard – either the basic yellow type or a spicy brown mustard.
6. If they aren't eaten right away, they can be refrigerated and reheated at 250 F (120 C) for a few minutes.
7. We're pretty sure this works, but we usually eat them so fast, there are none to re-heat.

3.2.1275

The Blue View - Love to be Snubbed

 

When we were first learning how to sail, we took a “bareboat chartering” class in San Diego. It was a fun class, and we got to live aboard our classroom, a 36' Hunter, for the three days of the class to give us a taste of what was to come. On completion, we were supposedly qualified to charter a boat on our own. We were taught such things as checking the engine oil, the basics of anchoring and maneuvering a sailboat.

The sailboat we were on had an anchor with a short section of chain, and then a hundred feet or so of rope rode. Our instructor, who had sailed a bit in the Pacific, told us that this was fine for the San Diego area. Once we were in rocky or coral strewn areas, however, we would probably use all chain rode, and that the anchoring technique with chain was different than rope rode. We would use something called a “snubber”.

Well, it turns out that he was right. Cups has all chain rode, and we never anchor without using a snubber, a stretchy nylon line attached between a strong point on the boat (in our case a very large cleat) and the anchor chain. In strong winds, the anchor chain will stretch out almost straight, and as the wind and waves cause the boat to buck and jerk, there is no give in the chain, causing tremendous stress on the boat - not a good thing. Even worse, the sudden jerks on the anchor can cause it to break free from the bottom – even less of a good thing. The elasticity of the rope snubber reduces the sudden tugs on the anchor and the stress on the windlass and chain stopper.

Over the years we've gone through dozens of snubbers. We tried smaller diameter line, but found that these would snap when the weather got rough. We tried heavier line, but this didn't have enough stretch. For Cups, the perfect size is 5/8” three-strand line. Now we have two. One is about 25 feet long, and we use it in most conditions. The other is 60 feet long and is our heavy duty snubber for “batten the hatches, lash everything down, take the seasick medicine” kind of weather.

The biggest learning curve for us was how to attach the snubber to the anchor chain. We tried regular hooks, but occasionally they would fall off the chain. We tried a hook with a special retainer that was supposed to hold it in place. It worked well until one particularly bad night. In the morning, when we tried to raise anchor, the retainer had become jammed and it took half an hour with a hammer and pry bar to get it loose. We tried a rolling hitch, but sometimes after a bad blow it would jam, and then take several minutes with a screwdriver to get it free.

Then my old friend, Clifford Ashley, came to the rescue. I discovered an alternate version of the rolling hitch in The Ashley Book of Knots.

It's his knot #1735, and it's never failed us.

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National Anthem Day

Written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, the national anthem officially became our national song on March 3, 1931. Play it, hum it, sing it today. Here's some help with the lyrics, just in case. My favorite rendition? Whitney Houston.

The Blue View: Knots

Knots hold a real fascination for me. I particularly appreciate a well-tied knot that is perfect for a specific application. There are a handful of knots that most sailors know and use frequently...the bowline (BO-lin), the reef knot, and the clove hitch come to mind. Marcie knows the basic knots, and in fact, can tie a bowline faster than anyone I know. But beyond these, and maybe tying a bow in her shoelaces, she quickly loses interest in knots.

I have several books aboard that show how to tie a number of useful knots, but to my knowledge, the absolute best reference is The Ashley Book of Knots. If you've ever read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, you might remember that each chapter begins with an excerpt from Clifford Ashley's book. He spent his life not only identifying and cataloging knots, but researching their uses and history. It took him eleven years to compile them in his book, which describes 3,854 knots. While the majority of the knots are intended for the sailor, there are knots for every purpose imaginable. Want to secure a bale of cotton? Knot #2073 is the one to use. Want to hoist a horse aboard your boat? Knot #2192 is the one for you. Want to make a snare? You might look at Knot #477.

A couple of decades ago, Marcie bought me a copy of Ashley's for my birthday. It is now falling apart from heavy use. It's water stained from a dousing it endured a few years ago. The dust cover has long since left this world. It still remains one of my favorite books.

One of my many uses for it is to identify a knot I've encountered somewhere. In a recent blog post, Marcie wrote about visiting the bell ringers at St. David's Cathedral. Something I noticed was that all 12 bell ropes were secured in nice coils using the exact same knot. I asked the bell ringer whether this knot had a name and whether all bell ropes were secured in this fashion. He didn't know if it had a name, but he said that that was the knot he was taught to use. When we returned to Cups, I looked through Clifford's book, and sure enough, knot #172 is the Bell Ringer knot. Knot #173 is an alternative that is used if the bell rope is extra long or heavy.

While we were traveling in the interior of Ecuador once, we happened onto a farmers' market. All sorts of local animals, including dozens of pigs were being taken to the market for sale. I noticed that each of the pigs was being led by a rope using the same unusual knot. All the farmers seemed to know and use this knot for their pigs. It was a three-loop harness, one loop going around the pig's neck, and the other two loops going around the pig's front legs. I later found this exact knot in Ashley's. It was Knot #1110, a knot originating in South America and used widely as a hackamore or emergency bridle. Apparently, it is also the preferred knot to lead a pig to market.

Ashley invented a number of knots as well. He was a modest man and never named them after himself, but over the years, many were given his name. My favorite of his knots is called the Ashley Bend. A bend is a type of knot used to unite two ropes or the ends of the same rope. The Ashley Bend, only referred to as Knot #1452 in his book, is easy to tie, is strong, but never jams or slips. I find it particularly good for tying bungee cord into a loop. The following photos show how to make it.

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Days and Ways to Celebrate Them

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

Bird Day

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