We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. It began with the overnight highlight of a meteor that Peter reported had at least a 30 second tail.  The clear starry moonlit night dawned on a gorgeous sunny day. We had clear skies, warm water, and (unfortunately) light winds. The swells have subsided somewhat and we’re carrying the main and staysail as riding sails, which helps stabilize the ride as we motor. When the sun set Peter saw a green flash. And now we once again have a totally clear sky with such a bright moon that it is difficult to see the stars.

Unfortunately we didn’t catch any fish. We didn’t even have a bite. There was much reeling in of the lines as we motored through sargasso weed, but all we caught was “salad”. Kim and I had a bit of a laugh first thing in the morning when the fishermen let out the lines and then went off to bed, leaving the two of us fisherwomen to tend the lines. We decided we could handle whatever happened, and as it turned out we did, because absolutely nothing happened! Therefore the score remains Peter 1, Jake 0, fish 0, and only one tuna flag flies from the starboard halyard.

The highlight of our day was our Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, cranberry relish, apple sauce and black olives with apple crisp for dessert! Everyone sat outside around the cockpit table for the meal, where we had set up a tray that would keep the side dishes from sliding to the floor in the swells; Leo said a lovely blessing, and we honored the day in the usual manner–by eating way too much! Following our dinner we took a group photo which should be somewhere near this post. The characters, all in fresh avalanche t-shirts, are from left to right: Jake Jacobsen, Peter Vaiciulis, Kim Hapgood, Marnie Jacobsen, and Leo Bontiff.

Now, just in case all this sounds very normal or ordinary, it was and it wasn’t. As Kim pointed out in understatement later in the day, cooking at sea is always a challenge. Because of the motion of the boat everything always has to be held down or secured behind a rail or on a gimbled surface; certainly the swells we’ve had have made such precautions imperative. While I was heating all the food for our dinner I had 2 large pans in the oven, the turkey on the bottom shelf and the stuffing on the top shelf, which isn’t the full depth of the oven. Early in the process I checked the oven, but could see only one pan through the window. When I opened the door I found that the stuffing pan had slid off the back of its shelf and was lying against the back wall of the oven with the juices pooling on the floor of the oven and bits of apple, bread and sausage scattered in the back corners. What a mess! Since the stove is gimbaled I had to have Leo help me open the door and get out one pan while keeping the other pan inside and the pots on top bubbling away. (Whenever the door is opened it changes the balance of the stove, which then swings. If there is only one pan it’s simple, grab it and close the door. But if there are 2 pans both want to come out at once. You must have one hand on the door and that leaves only one for grabbing whatever is flying out. And, of course, the oven is 350 degrees. So it took both Leo and me to handle the door, restrain one pan and grab the other.) We were able to get the stuffing pan upright and out without loosing more than about a cup of stuffing. We did a bit of digging out and mopping up and put everything back in (this time with a cookie sheet to extend the depth of the top shelf). Apparently we had rolled in a swell that, although not identified by the crew as super huge, actually was. The gimbled stove must have swung far over, which allowed the stuffing pan to slide to the back of the shelf and topple off landing against the back wall (which at that point would have been inclined more toward horizontal than vertical). The stove also suffered a pulled out electric ignition wire at the same time, so we know it had to be a major swing. As I said, it was a normal Thanksgiving dinner, and the working conditions in a galley at sea were normal, but if I told any woman ashore that she had to deal with upside down stuffing she wouldn’t say it was normal.

Meanwhile, we have gotten to 33 degrees 17 minutes North latitude, 65 degrees 59 minutes West longitude, only 88 miles from Bermuda (click me!), where the computer now predicts we will arrive at 0800 tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving from the sated crew of Avalanche, looking forward to Bermuda tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 10:12 pm and is filed under 2007 Trip South. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.