OK so this is my first blog. It's an example of how there is usually some new experience during every survey and one of the reasons why I enjoy my occupation so much.
On a beautiful 78 ft trawler yacht under offer in Sardinia, during October last year, 2022, I noticed a great commotion coming from the galley, while I was trying to make sense of all the electronic toys in the pilot house.
So I went to investigate. Gathered around a glass bowl there was the delightful and very clever elderly Italian owner, his delightful and rather errant slightly younger brother and their perplexed Peruvian boat boy. Blender in hand, the owner was cursing the egg yolk and oil which stubbornly refused to emulsify, while the errant brother was blaming the oil and the boat boy was looking on perplexed.
So Yacht Surveyor to the rescue! I politely asked them to step aside, fetch a clean bowl, another egg, vinegar and a fork. This was greeted with loud Italian protestations and declarations that no mayonnaise could be made with the vegetable oil at hand, and certainly not with a fork, but I persevered.
Then it was the 4 of us gathered around the new bowl, with the yacht surveyor beating an egg yolk with the fork for all he was worth, while adding the condemned oil drop by drop until an emulsion was made. What delight and disbelief was expressed in a most wonderful selection of Italian words, none of which I knew individually, but collectively were easy to understand.
There followed quite an argument about whether we should add the vinegar or some lemon, so we agreed on a good EU compromise and went 50/50. My beating by this time was failing so the fork was transferred to the Peruvian boat boy. (earlier that day after it took me a good 5 minutes to feed myself into the nearly inaccessible space outboard of the starboard engine, the Peruvian boat boy followed in about 20 seconds).
Then followed the salt and pepper, tomato purée and several other suspect ingredients that I was unable to prevent the Italian brothers from adding.
The errant brother was wearing nothing except his Speedos that were visible only when viewing him from the rear. This encapsulated the delight of this cameo scene during my survey in Sardinia.
We then had lunch which was pasta with prawns in the English Yacht Surveyor's mayonnaise.