Day 31, Year 5: Thanksgiving Dinner on Windbird
Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day with Blue Skies
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
We had a full day today from Penang in the early morning to Kuah, Langkawi, mid-day, and then back to Rebak Marina to Windbird. We were very lucky with our connections and made it back to Rebak on the 12:30 pm ferry. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon preparing a traditional (as traditional as you can get here) American Thanksgiving dinner. It didn’t go without hitches, but the end result was great. I started by making a pumpkin pie. I opened one can of Libby’s pumpkin and it was obviously bad. So Mark dug in and found one more can and it was good. Then I opened the first can of Carnation Evaporated Milk. Not good. So we dug down and found another. Not good. So I dug into another cabinet and found UHT packaged cream and it was good. Okay so far. I found the cinnamon, the ground ginger, and the ground cloves. Still good. I made the pie crust and mixed the pumpkin pie ingredients. Oops. Just as I was putting the pie into the oven, I realized I had forgotten to add the ground cloves. So the pie was back on the counter and I did my best to mix in the cloves. An hour later, we had pumpkin pie. In the meantime, I prepared the turkey for baking and the stuffing. Before we left, we sliced and toasted bread of three varieties to make our own version of Pepperidge Farm Country Style Stuffing. I used the last of the sage that I bought somewhere French, cooked the sweet potatoes and fresh green beans.
Robert of Shirena and Carolyn and Fatty Goodlander of Wild Card were our dinner guests. It was just a great evening. Mark carved the turkey and Fatty entertained us with his stories. He is every bit as entertaining in person as he is when you read his articles-even more so. His life story is quite compelling and Carolyn is obviously his anchor in life. They are a great couple and we had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner together. But now we are thinking of all our friends and family back home as you gather ’round the dinner table. We miss being with you but hope that you enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner as much as we did.
Prior to dinner, we had some serious discussion about our plans for heading to the Med through the Red Sea. Shirena, Wild Card, and Windbird are currently headed that way. But there have been current articles written discouraging sailors from heading that way. Fatty and Carolyn know the authors of these stories and find them to be people that panic easily and that are not always reputable. Pirate activity on cargo ships has really increased in the past month, so this is something that we must watch carefully. And we will. We will keep you posted of our current thinking as we go through this decision process-Red Sea or South Africa. We are keeping both plans open.
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| 091126 Day 31 Malaysia–Thanksgiving at Rebak Marina |
