To The Lighthouse

An advantage of living aboard at sea is the occasional ability to quit the vessel and explore a remote shore on foot.

Stuart Island in the northern San Juans lies disturbingly close to the forbidden Canadian Border, and Jupiter is anchored here in commodious Prevost Harbour where access to the Stuart Island Marine State Park is easily attained by navigating our tender to a trailhead float.

The park occupies a large portion of the island and offers several miles of woodland trails with onward connections to quiet country roads. The hilly, rocky terrain is deeply forested with immense ancient Redcedars and Bigleaf Maples. Multi-formed Madronas thrive on rocky shoreline hills, leaning out like littoral voyeurs.

Everything now appears in bloom, and the shadowy forest floor lights up with inflorescence. Tree trunks rise straight and bare to a high flung canopy that filters the sky, containing serenity within.

There are sundry points of interest along our rustic path, including the community’s tiny historic school house, now a library, adjacent to the one room “Teacherage” where enlisted educators resided, now an evocative micro-museum. There is a grass field airstrip so steep and narrow as to prohibit all but the most adept pilots wearing sure-footed leggy aircraft.

Best of all, and three and a half miles distant from our trailhead, is the Turn Point Light Station. The now automated light and fog signals are sighted to guide mariners, but also to keep a weather eye trained on our country’s turbulent water border using a robust array of video cameras and sensors.

“Walking away the hasty morning dew, mossy stone-stepping gloom with skies crowded with mistakes of our making, we squandered them a second time, tempered with bitterness, insouciance, and the sea-ware of sorcery soured, making charts for no one’s compass rose. Is it now the seasoned few who recover odes of predilection for destinations of archipelagos and oceans dirempt? They have had their visions.”

Virginia Woolf ~ To The Lighthouse

Jupiter’s Jentacular Eggs

Heat the oven to 350°. Blanch a small bunch of fresh spinach until tender, drain and squeeze out water. Chop a cooked sausage or two into small pieces, and the spinach, a handful of chives and any tender veggies. Whisk several eggs together with a little cream and season well with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and sriracha or other warming sauce to taste. Grate sharp cheddar, preferably smoked.

Stir the spinach into the egg mixture along with half the grated cheese. Fill well-greased or non-stick muffin cups half full with chopped sausage, chives and veggies then ladle egg mixture into each cup until nearly full. Top with remaining grated cheese.

Bake until puffed and golden, about twenty-five minutes. Eggs will begin to settle as soon as they leave the oven, but they keep well for several days, easily reheated. Serve with fresh micro-greens drizzled with balsamic vinegar.


10 comments

  1. Karen says:

    Might need to make a stop at Risingsign Farm for provisions! ❤️ Happy you are back out in the water and I get to imagine all of it through your beautiful words.

  2. Diane Pawlowicz says:

    So nice to savor the words and pictures in Jupiter’s Way again. Keep those cards and letters coming!

  3. Sally Seymour says:

    It wouldn’t take much to turn your words into poetry. Another lovely adventure … and recipe. Hello from foggy Maine. We might see the sun for the Fourth, but that will be the only form of celebration. All activities have been cancelled. We can only hope for a more normal time next year.
    All the best. A & S

  4. Dana Starr says:

    Hey Guys – Love your BLOG. Pictures and narrative are very cool. Kathy & I will surely try the eggs. She’s a spinach lover. Thanks, stay safe, and keep up the skillful documentation of your adventures.
    We’re just chilling and relaxing as much as possible.
    Cheers and safe travels,
    Dana & Kathy

  5. Charlie Claggett says:

    So fun to vicariously enjoy your adventures once more, especially this self quarantined summer. So beautiful. So envious.

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