Happy Thanksgiving! - MW Morpheus Log Day 2 -11/22 4:00 PM Ship Time

Miles Traveled (over water): 315
Miles Traveled (as the crow flies):269
Miles To Go (to Antigua): 2,325
Heading: 220
Average Speed: 10 knots heeling to Port on a Starboard tack
Fastest Ride: Kim with 13.7 knots during a squall on an overnight watch
Butter Indicator: Not Melted

Captain Jim suggested we add a couple more benchmarks to the daily post. The leader for fastest speed, and the Butter Indicator.

This last requires some explanation. The navigation rule of thumb for this transit is to drive south until the butter melts, then turn right. The butter is on the counter in the galley and has not melted yet. Stay tuned.

It's Thanksgiving and we enjoyed an extraordinary feast on board that must be seen to be believed.

To appreciate, you'll just have to wait until I can post pictures and until then be satisfied with my description.

 The roasted turkey breast and drumsticks were perfectly done and accompanied by a corn bread stuffing and butternut squash with leeks and garlic. So good. Deb and Kim are miracle workers in the galley.

Normally, Morpheus is a dry boat (literally and figuratively) on extended passages. Given this is Thanksgiving, Captain Jim authorized a cocktail hour before dinner. It was a good decision.

Thoughts of the Day: What are we thankful for?

1. Friends with Boats
2. Otto the Autopilot makes standing watch a breeze.
3. Our spouses who tolerate us going on these adventures while tending to the home fires..
4. The boat is NOT sinking
5. No Trump Tweets

Double reef after dinner to provide a smoother overnight passage.

We hope everyone at home enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as we did on board. - mw

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My intent is to cross-post daily logs to MW Mobile Blog and Jim & Deb's Morpheus Sailing Blog from SailMail while en-route. Due to the technology limitations, these will be short, text-only posts. I'll backfill pictures and video once I am home again. Eventually.

PostScript - As a courtesy I give all on-board an opportunity to add comments here on the bottom of post prior to transmission if they so desire:

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Sent via SailMail, http://www.sailmail.com

A Season to Remember

We rang out the old and toasted the new in fine form with old friends at Bix - a San Francisco institution and one of our favorite eateries.

It was a little bittersweet, as Lee, Joanne and company are moving out of our Northern California neighborhood to a strange and foreign land - Southern California. Very brave of them. I wish them the best, but I don't think they even speak the language.

We'll miss them, but it was a fitting finish to our most socially active holiday seasons EVAH! Not sure what it was about this season, but Sigrid and I felt like a couple of socialite swells flitting from one party to another.  Lots of friends, lots of good food and lots of good cheer. Some might suggest all of this holiday celebration was needed to distract us from current events, but in retrospect - if you ignore the politics - 2017 was really a pretty good year, with fantastic travel, astronomical extravaganzas, milestones, great fishing, diving and of course - bad golf.

With the holiday celebrations sprinkled amid other responsibilities and projects, this blog was sadly neglected. But we didn't want the good feelings to pass without marking the memories. So without further ado - one big compilation post of too much fun. We'll start at the official beginning of the holiday season...

Thanksgiving with Paul, Sandy and Abigail...

December  6 - The Landsmen Dinner at St. Francis Yacht Club with Lee, Joe, and Don

December 8 - Christmas Party with Paul, Sandy, Lee, Joanne, Mary, Michael and Harlan

[For reasons that I cannot explain, there were no photos taken at this event. Lesson learned: Never listen to your host when they say no postings.]

December 10 - Big Band Bash at The Great American Music Hall with Roy, Sharon and Kristin

December 13 -  Summit HOA Holiday Party with the neighbors.

[Another one where I didn't get any pictures. No excuses. My bad.]

December 17 - Hanukkah at the Summit with Juliet and Leonard

December 21 - Holiday Whiskey Tasting with Bo at the Embarcadero

December 24 - A quiet Christmas eve at home with caviar and champagne.

December 25 - Christmas and Boxing Day with Lee, Joanne, Joan, Chris, Rod

 And that brings us back to New Years (Return to the top of the post and play again). We're grateful for our friends, family and the life we've found here. Looking forward to a great 2018, as soon as I finish my diet and get out of detox.

Thanksgiving and New Old Traditions

 For the first time in recent memory, we decided to forgo the usual bird on Thanksgiving and go with a local holiday tradition - dungeness crab.  The local fishwrap accommodated with an easy recipe for Roast Garlic Crab:

Adapted from “The Tra Vigne Cookbook,” by Michael Chiarello (Chronicle Books, 1999).

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
1 tablespoon minced garlic 
2 Dungeness crabs, about 1¼ pounds each, cooked, cleaned and cracked 
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 
1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 450-500 degrees. Heat the butter and olive oil in a very large ovenproof skillet over medium heat until hot. Add the garlic and crab, season to taste with salt and pepper, and toss well. Transfer to the oven and roast until the garlic turns light brown and the crab is heated through, about 6-10 minutes, stirring once halfway through.Pour the contents of the skillet into a large serving bowl, add the lemon juice and parsley and toss well. Serve at once.

Accompanied by artichokes, Sigrid's secret dipping sauce, seasoned rice and plenty of chardonnay. The crab is a little harder to eat than the turkey but way easier to prepare.

I love new traditions.

Thanksgiving Day at Nechsar National Park and Lake Chamo

Itinerary Day 20: Thanksgiving at Arbaminch-Nechsar National Park - Lake Chamo 

In the morning, will have a game drive around the Nechsar National Park. This national park, with thrilling landscapes of mountains and lakes is one of the most attractive parks in the country. We will have the chance to see different mammals which inhabit the park including, the endemic antelope, Swayne’s Hartebeest, Gerenuk, Grants Gazelle, and Burchele Zebra. In the afternoon, we will have a boat cruise over Lake Chamo to see some of the biggest African crocodiles. Hippopotamus, and many beautiful aquatic birds including the lovely Kingfisher and African Fish Eagle.

Journal:  As I write this the blog is hopelessly behind, due primarily to the absence of adequate internet for much of the trip.   Decided to leap ahead and post our Thanksgiving Day now, and will continue to fill in the sizable journal gaps as time and internet availability permits.

Awoke on Thanksgiving Day thinking about the great Thanksgiving Day feasts we've enjoyed with friends and family in the bay area and in Chicago.  We'll miss the meal and the camaraderie,and the meal, and the meal.  But... we still had a great day in store.

The plan was to pick up a boat captain and a "Scout" (always required in the National Parks - think armed park ranger), drive to Lake Chamo, take a boat tour across the lake, a nature hike in the park on the other side, and see what there was to see.  As it turns out - there was a lot to see.

 On the drive over we saw these Guinea Fowl by the side of the road.

All I could think was how they would look roasted and stuffed in lieu of a turkey. On arrival at Lake Chamo we found our boat and the captain poled us out.

I forgot what the captain's real name was....

... we all called him "Captain Obama".

First stop - Crocodile Cove

There be monsters here.

We're told this where you find the largest crocs in Africa, and I've no reason to doubt it. They're the biggest I've ever seen by far. Some looked as long as the boat. Still... I was thinking... tastes like chicken... maybe - instead of turkey... stuffed croc kinda sounds good.

More sightings on the cruise across...

Fish Eagle

We watched him snatch a fish but didn't get a great shot

Hippo

Pelicans

Pelican air ballet

Giant Monitor Lizard

On the other side we disembarked and hiked up over a dry hot rridge. Then it got even better.

We found the herd of Burchelles Zebra we hoped to see. They strolled right by us. We watched and walked with them for almost an hour.

click to biggify

Sigrid could not get enough...

I don't know how many hundred of pictures she shot. This is just a sampling.

All in all, it was pretty frggin' amazing...

 ... and a truly great day.

But I still missed my traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

Roasted chicken legs, processed mashed potatoes and a side of spaghetti was as close as I could get. 

I know...



Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Ethiopian adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Since we will not have internet access for most of the trip, my hope is this will make it easier to add some pics and journal commentary if and when we run across an internet connection. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. We'll see how it goes.