An Amazing Feast and On We Go
27 November 2015 | Scipio Creek Marina, Apalachicola, FL
Jill
Yesterday is probably going to be the most unusual Thanksgiving of my life. The story unfolded to me during the event. It seems that the cruisers who had first invited Bud and me to share Thanksgiving with them had been asking around town for someone to cook a turkey for them. A man who kept his boat at the marina thought of Huen and Linda. Huen is a retired chef and a former cruiser. When they settled in Port St. Joe the first thing he put in his house was a large, five burner gas stove. Huen and Linda, Dave and Vickie and Ralph, who also has a boat at the marina, started talking about it and decided instead of just doing a turkey; they'd like to host the dinner.
Now Huen is an amazing guy. He says cooking for large groups not only calms him down, it actually lowers his blood pressure! Ralph provided the food, and Huen did the cooking. He served an appetizer of crab bisque and toast, ham, turkey, rice dressing, corn bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, peas, corn, beets, cranberry sauce and rolls. For forty-two! This is the best I could do in getting the crowd in one photo. There was another table in the dining room. Notice that we're all eating on glass plates with regular silverware!
Bud wanted me to bake pumpkin pies, so I made two and contributed them. They didn't need them. Huen had several pies, pumpkin and pecan, and at least two raspberry cakes. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well and left just before dessert. Bud, Matey and I had walked over there, but Dave volunteered to take Matey and me back to the marina. He'd brought a lot of the folks over and I think he made several more trips bringing people back. What thoughtful and generous people.
I was better this morning and we were able to leave as planned for Apalachicola. It was a pleasant trip on this section of the GCICW, about 29 statute miles. We were somewhat concerned about crossing the shallow Lake Wimico, both because of the depth and because it's reputed to have downed branches and even whole trees that can float into the channel. But we had no trouble. We crossed at low tide and never saw anything less than 9 feet of water and saw no debris at all. The channel is straight and well marked, so easy to follow.
We're now at the Scipio Creek Marina, which I wouldn't write home about (I am though, aren't I?). When we arrived there was no one here to help. We were asked to pull up to the first end of the facing dock, not a problem, except there were crab pot buoys directly in our approach. By the time we got around them we were too far up the dock and had to walk the boat back about twenty feet. That wasn't easy in the current from the tide. Two of the power boaters arrived after us. They both had twin engines and bow thrusters to help them steer, they also had the dockmaster, Bud and another young kid to handle lines. I went out there too, but was hardly needed. We single engine sailboats get no respect.