November 27 Thanksgiving in Clarke's Court

We remain in Clarke’s Court this week. It is still rainy season here and while usually sunshiney, some days live up to the season. We spent Tuesday beset by rain squalls.
Now you see it...now you don't.

















Kitty and Donn of SV Falcon decided to host a southern Thanksgiving feast at Clarke’s Court Bay Marina, doing all the cooking and prepping themselves. By the sign-up cut-off time, 42 cruisers responded. Several of us pitched in to help in the kitchen. Have you ever cooked for 42 people? Me neither! The day before Thanksgiving, we arrived at the marina kitchen around 0900. It is pretty small for a commercial kitchen. Chopping commenced. I stayed until 6pm and did the following: peeled, cut and boiled pounds and pounds of potatoes, fried 2 pounds of sausage and 4 pounds of bacon. Should have given away Craig’s Lipitor as party favors. Steamed and glazed 12 cups of carrots. Boiled 4 dozen eggs. Steamed and glazed a 15 pound squash. Cut up 6 packages of celery. Sauteed celery with an almost equal quantity of onion. Plus some other things that I forgot. Everyone worked very hard. Donn cooked the turkeys. I was a tired girl. Craig picked me up and made cocktails and dinner.











On Thanksgiving morning, I went back over to the kitchen around 11am. Kitty was furiously baking pies and one last turkey breast. Charles (SV Margaret Sharon) and I got busy trying to warm everything up on 6 gas burners and a large gas grill. Others set up the dining room at the club. As it turned out, and with only a minimal amount of buffet-police interference, it was quite a wonderful feast with plenty for all.
We served on time at 2:30 and had turkey, cornbread/sausage dressing, turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled egg salad, apple/pecan salad, cranberry salad, glazed carrots, glazed squash and dinner rolls. Then there was pie madness: apple pie, pecan pie, key lime pie, toasted coconut pie and mystery squash wanna-be pumpkin pie. I should have tried mystery squash pie but having spent a good part of the prior day up to my elbows in squash, I was over squash. A note about the eggs. I have told you about egg weirdness down here, mainly that they are impossible to peel. Ice baths, vinegar, other kinky tricks…none of that works. I would do anything to not get on egg duty so I took the bacon job. More egg weirdness. Of all the eggs, not one boiled with the yolk in the center…they were so off that you could not make a proper deviled egg out of any of them. Jean of SV Olive, a former caterer from South Africa, had an inspired thought and ultimately made a giant deviled egg thing on an oval platter, putting the yolk mixture in the center (she used horseradish in hers…tasty) with the chopped up egg whites all around it and some capers and cherry tomatoes to make it look pretty.



























This afternoon, we are relaxing after a very busy morning of going to the big grocery store for a major provisioning run. We are moving the boat around to the north in the morning to go to the main fuel dock and check out one more anchorage before it is time to go to Prickly Bay to pick up Skip and head to St Vincent and the Grenadines. A French-flagged cat anchored in front of us this afternoon while we were gone. Three couples on board, prancing about in various stages of undress and attending to personal grooming right on the back pontoon. As usual, the ones who should not be nekkid, are. They are not close enough to chase away but are stupid enough to be right on top of our anchor. If they are not gone in the morning, then they will have to move their boat so that we can get our anchor up....

Follow-up note to life in the islands. Kitty scoured, and I mean scoured, this entire island trying to find canned sweet potatoes and pumpkin for weeks in advance but especially on her final shopping day on Tuesday. Got some song and dance at the big store that there were sweet potatoes in the warehouse but that those could not be had for several weeks due to some duty issue. That is why we did all that squash. Today, TODAY I tell you, there were 3 cases on display at the end of the canned veggie aisle. I'm so glad she did not make this run. Donn bought a can to give her later.....