Thanksgiving

Position: 36° 48′ 51″N 2° 33′ 40″ W

The origin of modern Thanksgiving in America is probably apocryphal. As schoolchildren Americans are taught that the Pilgrims celebrated their deliverance to the New World in harmony with an indigenous people. A people who would fall victim to colonialist genocide a couple of hundred years later.

President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a Hallmark holiday in 1863. My mother treated any Hallmark occasion with skepticism at best, and with derision the rest of the time. Today, Thanksgiving elides between those two money spinning holidays Halloween and Christmas. But lest I sound cynical, as a family we celebrated Thanksgiving with what we believed was the spirit of the occasion.

On the third Thursday in November we would gather around a long formal dining table dressed in white linens and silver napkin rings to set aside our differences long enough to stuff ourselves senseless. My father would convene the gathering, taking his cue from the head cook, my mother. She would emerge from the kitchen bearing a gigantic roast turkey on a platter encircled by new potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Dropping the bird in front of her husband, she would wipe the sweat from her brow and assume her place at the opposite end of the table, a safe distance from the sparks glinting off the sharpening steel as my father prepared his carving knife.

Before we ate, though, at our father’s request, we would in turn relate something we were thankful for. Be it a memory from the last year, a favor received, or something more abstract and ethereal, like sunshine or daisies. Coherence mostly depended on the speaker’s prior intake of alcohol, THC, or tobacco. Or not.

It is in those spirits, we offer thanks for the following:

Tai and Keeley: Thank you for joining our epic Atlantic crossing. We could never have done it without your good humor and willingness to stand watch. Tai – thank you also for dog sitting. Marlon says, ‘arf arf yap bark yap!’

Baxter: Your good grace and willingness to host Marlon as his peoples goofed off reflects shiningly on your temperament, breeding and good looks. Please thank Katie and Aron for us, too!

Harrison and Alice: Thank you both for taking over from Tai before she was excommunicated from the EU. And for taking care of Marlon and Aleta while Carol and I were traveling in the States. It was clear by the time we returned that Marlon had adopted you both. Lastly, hearty congratulations for surviving your first overnight sail in lumpy two-meter seas.

Felicity and David: Without your support and help, I’m not sure how Aleta would ever have left the dock. Thank you for storing our spares, taking us in, and supporting our adventure.

Patricia: Thank you for being my step-mum and for loving my dad and bringing joy to his life.

Ken, Vicky and Yves on Huskabean, Louise and Chris on Gem: Thanks for being our cohorts across the Atlantic.

Lauren and Wade: We can’t wait for you to sail with us and let us repay your endless generosity!

Natalie and Myles: Besides rescuing our children from the long arms of the law, you’ve been a safe harbor in all weather.

Unk and Mark: Thank you for being there!

No list like this can ever do justice to all the help we receive on an adventure such as ours. Your continued support is always appreciated. Oh, and please pass the cranberry sauce!