Turkey Tour (Day Six). Digesting.

After celebrating a successful Thanksgiving Day at anchor we thought we'd actually sail instead of motor back to our marina (No God Awful Black Friday Shopping for us).  And since NOAA (remember my interpretation of that particular acronym; Not On At All) predicted strong continuing North winds for the next three days we were all het up!!! That is until the North winds died during the night and we awoke to no wind at all and the water surrounding us was glassy smooth.

So we decided we may as well enjoy another day at anchor and OH MY GOD deploy our dinghy which has been languishing on our foredeck for over a year, in order to go ashore.  The only reason we haven't used our dinghy before this is because of how much fun it isn't for us to drop our horribly heavy 8 HP motor onto it.  

Remember that we're basically middle aged old farts. 

Hans fills our generator with gas so we have 4 more hours of power.

Sunset at anchor

Our dinghy hasn't been in the water in over a year

After many discussions and remembrances of how we got our dinghy and dinghy motor going during our stay in the Bahamas we actually managed to get ashore without any casualties.

Wilbur has a zoomy

Just watching Wilbur run with such exuberance was well worth our efforts.  I was hesitant about taking him ashore but since the whole shore was empty and I didn't see any signs prohibiting dogs on the particular shoreline we landed on, we threw caution to the wind.

Wilbur went bonkers and ran about like a wild man.  The only downside was his finding a dead bird that he felt the need to gnaw on (completely gross and I told him there'd be no pitty kisses for at least two hours).

We were back on our boat before noon which happened to be good timing.  After that many motor boats beached for a day on the bar and I'm not sure they  would have been thrilled to encounter our very happy pit bull.

Turkey Tour (Day Five), the Grand Finale

We were very fortunate that there was a restaurant at our marina that was open today otherwise we would have left the dock with no ice. I have an ice maker on board but it certainly doesn't churn out enough in a few hours to fill our coolers for two days.  One of the waitresses told us they had more than they needed and I think we ended up with about 20 pounds.

Once underway Hans started playing the 'I wonder if we should anchor somewhere else' game. This went on for awhile and then I reminded him that I had a Thanksgiving dinner to prepare and he'd better get us to Three Rooker Bar like we'd planned.

Or else.

He got us there.

So here's a confession.  I've never cooked a turkey in my life. All of the 'turkey' holidays of my past have been spent at my parents' house and last year at a friend's house. Wouldn't you know I'd wait until I'm living on a boat with a 2 burner stove to try to pull off my first Thanksgiving dinner.  

And just so you know, Wilbur gave our holiday dinner his seal of approval.  

How do I know this?

I'd unwrapped, rinsed, and dried our 5 pound turkey breast and placed it atop our refrigerator (which just happens to be right beside the companionway steps to the cockpit).  I should have known better.  I'd only turned away for a moment and when I turned back, Wilbur (who's known these days as Wilbur GetOffTheRefrigerator instead of Wilbur GetOutOfTheGarbage) had one fore paw on the steps, one on the fridge, and was wildly running his tongue a mile a minute over the turkey skin.

I jerked it away from him and rinsed it again. Since I'm not one to worry about dog germs (or I'd be dead by now) I'm pretty sure a hot oven will kill even the most nasty ones.

A watched turkey never cooks

Hans (through the to-go window) relaxing while SOMEONE ELSE slaves over the stove

Wilbur is in danger of fading away if that damn turkey doesn't get done soon

Let's eat!!

All is good

I nearly placed a Rest In Peace wreath on that turkey before I stuck it in the oven because I surely knew there was no way it was going to be able to cook it all the way through.
But it did!
And my mashed potatoes were great. Not gummy or pasty at all.

But best of all, Wilbur got to lick out all kinds of pots, pans, dishes (a huge aid to me when it comes to dish washing), and had his own helping of turkey. He disappeared into our berth right after dinner and is now fast asleep under our quilt.

I called home and talked to my family and made sure everyone got enough to eat (family joke as my mother is the best cook in the world and could feed a small nation with her leftovers), and to brag that we didn't have to grill hot dogs for dinner.

We are very fortunate and this has been a great Thanksgiving. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone else could say the same.