Happy Thanksgiving

November 28, 2008—We have been pretty busy for the past week, but our boat projects are coming along nicely. Our sails are being cleaned, our chain plates are being replaced, the mast is all sanded down (there were four coats of paint on it), our large port lights will be replaced, and Steve will finish the anchor locker tomorrow.

The car that we purchased—I never thought we would own a Mercedes-- has made life easier when hauling heavy items or grocery shopping. It is still a challenge to drive on the left side of the road, but we are getting better at it. It has been raining pretty heavily for the past two days, so having the car has been really nice. We promised ourselves, however, that we would continue to walk to town as much as possible in order to get some exercise.

Chris, Marcia, and I had a very nice day shopping this week. We found a store named Farmers that is similar to Macy’s. Everything was on sale, and we found some nice items to buy. We also went to The Warehouse, which is similar to Target, and a store that is very much like Linens and Things. We enjoyed a Subway sandwich for lunch. By the time we returned to the boats, we were pretty much “shopped out.”

On Wednesday we attended a “Meet and Greet” held at the Whangarei Cruising Club and hosted by the local marine businesses. Door prizes were given out, and we won two white t-shirts from Doyle Sails. The buffet dinner was excellent plus we once again had a chance to visit with the cruisers who are staying at Opua.

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Alan from sv Charisma, Jack and Marcia from sv Tracen J, and Jamie and Chris from sv Morning Light. We had the traditional turkey (pretty expensive here), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry, gravy, green bean casserole, and cole slaw. I baked dinner rolls and an apple pie, and Marcia baked a pumpkin pie. We all met at the BBQ area at 5 o’clock to share the meal and reminisce about our sailing season. Since today is Thanksgiving Day in the states, we wish all of you a wonderful holiday with your families.