Thanksgiving '10

We have had a very busy few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. It started with meeting lots of friends at the SSCA West coast GAM in Punta Gorda. A very informative session of several talks and presentations followed by a lovely evening meal. We thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was a real treat to also see so many friends returning this year. Then a few weeks later we were at the SSCA Annual GAM in Melbourne. Again lots of folks from St Petersburg drove across and we all had a great time. Liz and I especially enjoyed dinner with Chris & Anne of s/v Mr Mac and Steve & Lynn of s/v Celebration. We all had dinner together on Friday night whilst Liz and I enjoyed hearing all their stories of their first year cruising. Boy what a steep learning curve it sounded like but they are all looking fantastically relaxed and extremely happy.


We have been very busy on Moosetracks these last few weeks with lots of boat projects. We have a new Chart plotter and Radar to fit and the old one to remove. Also we had a cabinet maker down to our boat to build out some spaces with cabinets in the main cabin and master berth. They look really great and add a huge amount of new storage which should be much more stable in a seaway. We are planning a few other alterations to the fridge/freezer for a better lid and some new electronics to control the temperature and energy consumption. Then we bought a new windlass and need to plan the upgrade to new ground tackle with new all chain rode and Rocna anchor.

We wanted Thanksgiving this year on Moosetracks as we have no been out for a while due to Liz having knee surgery. Well since Liz was healing very well, it was a go and so we contacted friends to see if they wanted to join us again this year. Greg and Terri from s/v Priority were quick to respond and we arranged to meet at up in the Manatee river anchorage as we have several times before. We all had several days off of work so a 4 day weekend was in store.

The journey down on Thursday was very still so we motored the whole way. We were pretty fortunate with tides and although it was dead low we made it over the Skyway channel marks 2-3 without touching, always a good thing. We were across the lower reaches of Tampa bay and at anchor to start cooking before midday. The weather was warm and sunny so we relaxed while the side dishes cooked and we got ready for a few days or R&R. We misjudged the timing on the cooking due to changes of propane tanks but still it's called cruising so no big deal and time was not pressing. We ferried the food over in the dinghy to Priority for our Thanksgiving dinner just before sunset. We had a a very traditional Turkey dinner with lots of side dishes and pumpkin pie to finish. What a feast and mostly following Devin's "south beach" diet so not too much guilt to swallow with dinner.

Friday was a little windier so a nice chop built up in the river. We had to work off some calories so a decided to walk in the park on Snead island was in order. A quick call to Priority and we co-opted a straggler to join us. We had a very wet ride over to Snead Island and got thoroughly soaked by the build up of chop as we crossed the river. Still it was warm and sunny for November so it wasn't too unpleasant. We docked the dinghy at the floating dock and let the painter out on the windward side to avoid to dinghy from constantly rubbing against the dock. We manged a few miles with Liz taking a bit of a rest for her injured leg. The ride back was a little easier as I managed to plan the wave approach angle and lessen the splash into the dinghy. The rest of the day was spent reading books and chilling out like good R&R should be. We spent the night reading as we had forgotten to re-stow the DVD's since having new cabinets fitted the week before. Devin read Chris' "Weapon of Flesh" that he bought at the SSCA GAM and couldn't put it down, finishing it in 1 day.

On Saturday s/v Tiki-Hut came into the Manatee river on their way to Bradenton Yacht club and we hailed them on the VHF. We were invited over the the BYC for drinks & to watch the Sunday football game but the weather looked a little "iffy" so we decided to see how it went. Unfortunately with the 2 mile dinghy ride we felt it would be pretty awful sitting in a bar in soaking wet clothes so we passed it up. We also had a short chat with Rick on s/v Believe and wished each other happy Thanksgiving.

Richard and Rene from s/v Sea Tryst an Island Packet IP38 came by in their dingy. We chatted for a short while and arranged for them to stop by for drinks later. Richard had remembered my LED lighting was new and asked for a boat tour. We spent some time below looking around Moosetracks at the various LED lights we had changed out and gave them lots to think about. They also really liked our new cabinets so we exchanged details of our cabinet maker and passed on lots of other IP knowledge. We finished off the night with a good game of farkel, with Devin winning with a shut-out.

On Sunday we wanted to have a lie in so we planned a late departure which also coincided with rising tides. We left just before mid-day and had reasonable N-NE winds forward of the starboard beam and a good sail from the Manatee river all the way to Pass-a-Grille inlet. A very nice return home and some nice sailing for 4 hours.

We hope everyone had a great time with Friends and Family over Thanksgiving.

Fair Winds
Devin & Liz