Florida: Carabelle (Day 2)

Day 155

No travel today

Happy Thanksgiving! 

We made sure to arrive in Carabelle yesterday so that we would not be traveling or showing up at a marina on the holiday. The marina hosted a pot luck dinner and invited us to join them.  Today was a somewhat lazy day as we hung out and waited for dinner at 2:00. Clark says today was a holiday so he and his camera were on vacation.  He took no pictures to share today.

We had zero eggs left in the refrigerator after breakfast this morning, and we knew IGA would be open until 1:00, so we decided to stroll over there to buy some. As we walked down the street we saw the sign for The Moorings Marina. Since we knew at least one boat there, Plane 2 Sea, we decided to walk there before going to the store as we did not want to carry eggs all around with us.

When we got to The Moorings marina, we could not find any looper boats and wondered where they might be hiding. We finally found them on the far side of the marina.  We stopped and had a chat with One Bay at a Time who are boaters from Petersborough, Canada that we first met at Du Sable in Chicago. Their boat was just a couple of slips down from Plane 2 Sea so we got to talk with them as well. We met Plane 2 Sea at Heritage Harbor in Ottawa, Illinois. Their history is interesting because they went from living in a converted airplane hangar to being full-time live-aboards on their boat thus the plane to sea name of their boat. They are from Fort Worth, Texas.

Kay from Plane 2 Sea invited us to join their pot luck gathering for Thanksgiving, but we had already signed up to bring vegetables to the pot luck at our marina so we declined the invite. I am not sure who planned to attend their pot luck. We did not ask if it was a looper-organized event or one planned by the marina.

While waiting for the pot luck dinner to begin, I stripped the bed and washed all the sheets and towels. Then, while the laundry was drying, I set to and cooked up my contribution to the pot luck dinner consisting of assorted vegetables. I decided to make a zucchini / broccoli vegetable medley as well as cooked carrots. I guess all my activity made Clark tired because when I looked over at him, he was passed out sleeping on the sofa and this was before he had turkey for dinner!

Nap Time on Holiday!

Just after 2:00 we walked up with our food to the gathering.  Although it was not a very large group of people, we had a very large amount of food to choose from.  Besides turkey and ham and the vegetables I brought, we had corn casserole made with Jalapenos (too spicy hot for me), two types of stuffing (one made with pecans baked in), deviled eggs, yams with marshmallows, cranberries and gravy, and lots of desserts including pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake, and eclairs.

I found our pot luck gathering to be interesting because locals attended. I like listening to their accents and I like their stories. I heard more details on the horror story regarding the Mainship 34 that tried within the last two weeks to make the Gulf crossing. They did not make it across. Apparently they lost power on the high seas and had to radio for help. 

As I understand it, from what I heard today, the boaters deployed their anchor since they had no power.  Their anchor line consisted of 200 feet of chain and no nylon line. (In comparison, we have 20 feet of chain and 200 feet of line.) The high waves caused a constant yanking on the anchor rode and, with no stretch in the all-chain rode, the anchor pulpit broke right off the bow of the boat and fell into the Gulf.  After which, they had no means to anchor the boat from the bow, so they dropped a stern anchor.

Tow Boat U.S. tried to make it out to them but failed and had to return with a damaged vessel of their own (we heard Russell’s tale yesterday). Tow Boat U.S. radioed the Coast Guard and told them they could not make it out there. Eventually the Coast Guard pulled the people off the disabled boat. Speculation during the discussion today is that the boat probably sank due to the stern anchor. Since we are also loopers with a similar-sized vessel of the same manufacturer (we have a Mainship 350), this was a very sobering discussion to say the least. I was relieved when the conversation turned to stories of childhood pranks and such.

I guess all that food energized Clark because when the party broke up around 4:00, he decided to take our microwave down and try to fix the growling noise it makes when I am using it. By the time I came back to the boat he already had pieces of the microwave spread all over the salon and was lubricating something or other. Although it did cross my mind briefly, I long ago gave up worrying about whether he could reassemble things he takes apart. He has not failed me yet. I did wonder a bit, however, when he held up a chunk of plastic and said he had no idea where it came from or where it went. The microwave is back installed in the wall again and, at last check, still growling. He confirmed it still works by heating up a cup of hot water for me to drink – one of my favorite beverages is steaming hot water. I know, weird right?

In addition to the microwave job, he worked on our TV reception. On the way back to the boat from the pot luck dinner, he spied another cable TV connector that he could try. He had connected to one last night that gave us zero channels, so then he tried using digital and came up with one PBS station and two unknowns – all of which had jitter. Apparently this alternate cable connection provides channels; however, they are very snowy. So it looks like we have jittery TV, snowy TV, or no TV for as long as we stay here in Carabelle. Ah well, who needs TV anyway!?