These Crusty Travelers Make Dough

Last heard from, Larry and Lin Pardey, maritime authors on a world cruise, were at New Zealand, having digested, I suspect, many loaves of Lin’s nourishing ship-baked bread.

A couple of years ago, before they launched their sailing cutter at Lido Shipyard in Newport Beach, Lin offered her recipe for bread.

Simplicity is a necessity when you’re baking in a cramped, little galley being rocked about on the high seas. Lin is a no-nonsense, toss-it-in-the-bowl bread maker. While watching her bake one day, I insisted that she translate her slapdash method into measurements while I jotted them down. Here’s the result, which I intend to try aboard my sailboat.

She stirred in three packets of dried yeast to four cups of warm water in a bowl. Then, she put in 5 tablespoons of sugar, 6 ounces of wheat germ, 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 12 cups of flour.

“Mix it,” she directed, with her hands in the bowl, “until it doesn’t stick to your fingers, until it feels kind of silky.” The dough requires no kneading.

She set the dough aside in a ball for it to rise. “You can tell when it has risen enough to go in the oven by touching it lightly with your finger,” she said. “When it springs back, it’s ready.”

When the weather is cold, Lin advises adding another packet of yeast. Now and then Lin makes “twisted” or braided” bread, accomplished by letting the dough rise twice and punching it down after the first rise. Then she forms the dough into ropes, with floured hands, and twists them into loaves before baking.

The cutter’s galley has an oven, but Lin’s bread also can be made on a stove’s top burner. Place the bread to bake on a rack in the Dutch oven, cover with its lid and bake over a low flame.

Sailing Notes

Misuse of VHF-FM Channel 16 (156.8MHZ), the international distress and calling frequency for vessels, is becoming an increasing problem, Coast Guard officials said. Superfluous and illegal transmissions have disrupted the channel’s safety and distress function, they said. The National Coalition for Marine Conservation will hold its annual “Fish for the Future” barbecue to help with the development of a kelp bass hatchery project. The barbecue will begin at 5 p.m. Nov. 15 in Sea World’s Nautilus Pavilion at San Diego. The public is invited. A donation of $25 will be requested.

Last year, the group donated more than $9,000 to develop a hatchery program in conjunction with Hubbs Marine Research Institute. The coalition has since received matching funds and pledges of more than $36,000 for the project.

Sponsored by the Los Angeles Yacht Club, the first Los Angeles-Cabo San Lucas Race will start Nov. 8. The 870-mile race replaces the club’s 1,100-mile Los Angeles to Mazatlan Race, which was discontinued in 1984.

Dr. William Evans, a founder and director of the San Diego Ocean’s Foundation, has been named director of the federal National Marine Fisheries Service. Evans will be responsible for the management and enforcement of fishery resources in the 200-mile wide U.S. fishery conservation zone, as well as for the protection and conservation of threatened and endangered marine animals.