11/27/2008, Dewees Creek SC

Happy Thanksgiving everyone & Thank you for the call Nate. I got your message and I hope you had a terrific one too - and yes we did have turkey... Actually turkey breast - there's no way I could fit a whole turkey in our little 10 x 15 x 8.5 inch oven LOL - but it was gooood so thanks for asking! Mrs A made turkey, stuffing, corn & yams and we had cranberry sauce and my infamous pumpkin pie I made yesterday for today's dinner. It tasted good - even though half the filling sloshed out and burned all over the oven after that big powerboat "waked" (rolled) us - what remained was yummy. Some greens and crescent rolls would have made it perfect but we'd have been to full so it was satisfying as it was.

Cooking and watching the Lions lose - a traditional Thanksgiving day but did they have to lose with such gusto!?!? Our reception here is amazing - it was picture perfect T.V. and temps during the day were in the 60s.

It was kind of funny because while I was in the galley cooking I was watching the tide get lower from the galley window and a small boat pulled up next to the swamp grass. A woman dressed in rubber boots, gloves, broad brimmed hat and armed with some tools started sifting through the tidal area and started filling up a bushel and bucket with what I assume were oysters and crabs. She continued doing this for a good part of the morning and afternoon so I can only assume that this area is quite fruitful as far as shellfishing. Her "traditional" Thanksgiving day (I'm assuming) was more fruitful than our watching our poor lions lose.

Seemed strange today to be making out Christmas cards on the boat. I don't have all the addresses that I need and my student addresses that I wanted to send cards to are at home too (can I get another recking frekin smecker!?!?) Ali & Nate if you could help me out and email me I'd appreciate it!

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11/26/2008, Minim Creek to Dewees Creek SC (32 50.207 x –79 43.805)

Several boats came whizzing by us in the wee early hours of the morning (3-5 am). Woke us up each time. I couldn't figure out what was with all the boat traffic here this late/early. Then Before 7am, you could hear gun fire going off all around us. The early boat traffic made sense when I heard all the guns, then later saw lots of small boats with men and dogs in them all up and down the creeks - Opening day for water fowl...

Travel day today and pie baking day too since I need my oven tomorrow for turkey... Navigated most of the day, then decided that if I was going to have pie tomorrow that I needed to get that done before dinner and before dark so left Wayne up top and went to the galley to put together my pie. The water's had been fairly quiet so it seemed like time to get the job done. As I finished it up and put it in the oven and went back up top, I saw a large mega-yacht bearing down on us and thought oh no... Well timing is everything and my gimbaled stove did not move fast enough. As his wake hit us we couldn't maneuver to prevent rolling and when I went below to check the oven I could see pumpkin bubbling all over the oven window... Recking, frecking, smecker (to coin a favorite swear phrase)! All day, not a sign of wave activity until I put the pie in the oven, then not another wave or wake after that! I cleaned the window as best as I could but couldn't do anything about the bottom and sides of the oven (to hot). The pie, while losing 1/3 of the filling, will hopefully still be tasty I must say though that the boat smelled wonderful all evening. The temperature regulation was a bit tricky so the part that sloshed out burned on the pan and some of the crust was a tad "dark". We'll see how it tastes tomorrow...

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11/25/2008, Bull Creek to Minim Creek SC (33 11.509 x -79 16.761)

Pretty uneventful travel day other than sighting some deer a duck blind boat passed us today - it looked like a pile of grass and hay came whizzing by us. The water depths are pretty skinny in this area and I ran aground making a turn to another part of the ICW. Some crab boats passed us by as I was trying to get ungrounded and one turned around and came back to see if we needed help. I said yes - Please! We tossed them a line and they pulled our nose out to the deeper water. I asked what they had in the bushels - they had a couple of bushels of blue crab, then we thanked them and they went on their way. I don't know if people realize what a hard life they have to catch the crabs that they get, and then, I don't think they make all that much doing it either. Whenever the tide is up or down the crabbers are out there checking their crab traps, throwing the small ones back that probably ate all their bait, and resetting them in hopes of catching ones of saleable size. They do this in all sorts of weather too...

Anyhow - thank you for helping us guys - May your bushels be full for the holidays!

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