I need to pause here to include a snippet of news that you will find most interesting:
Waz has just told me that Texas is THE most DRILLED place on earth, for oil. The oil wells in Texas, USA, outnumber Saudi Arabia, 1,000/1. Can you believe that??
Back to Thanksgiving!
Americans have a love affair with Marshmallows, and Thanksgiving food is covered and mixed with these things, so here.... for your reading pleasure, is the genesis of Marshmallow.
Marshmallow probably came first into being as amedicinal substance, since the mucilaginous extracts come from the root of the marshmallow plant, Althaea officinalis, which were used as a remedy for sore throats. Concoctions of other parts of the marshmallow plant had medical purposes as well.[2] The root has been used since Egyptian antiquity in a honey-sweetened confection useful in the treatment of sore throat.[1] The later French version of the recipe, called pâte de guimauve (or "guimauve" for short), included an egg white meringue and was often flavored with rose water.
The use of marshmallow to make a sweet dates back to ancient Egypt, where the recipe called for extracting sap from the plant and mixing it with nuts and honey. Another pre-modern recipe uses the pith of the marshmallow plant, rather than the sap. The stem was peeled back to reveal the soft and spongy pith, which was boiled in sugar syrup and dried to produce a soft, chewy confection.[2] Confectioners in early 19th century France made the innovation of whipping up the marshmallow sap and sweetening it, to make a confection similar to modern marshmallow. The confection was made locally, however, by the owners of small sweet shops. They would extract the sap from the mallow plant's root, and whip it themselves. The candy was very popular, but its manufacture was labour-intensive. In the late 19th century, French manufacturers thought of using egg whites or gelatin, combined with modified corn starch, to create the chewy base. This avoided the labour-intensive extraction process, but it did require industrial methods to combine the gelatin and corn starch in the right way.[2][3]
Another milestone in the development of the modern marshmallow was the extrusion process by the American Alex Doumak in 1948. This invention allowed marshmallows to be manufactured in a fully automated way. The method produced the cylindrical shape that is now associated with marshmallows. The process involves running the ingredients through tubes and then extruding the finished product as a soft cylinder, which is then cut into sections and rolled in a mixture of finely powdered cornstarch and confectioner's sugar.[3]
Marshmallows, like most sweets, are sweetened with sucrose. They are currently prepared by the aeration of mixtures of sucrose and proteins to a final density of about 0.5 g/ml. The viscosity of the mixture, owing to the proteins, gelatin or egg albumin, prevents collapse of the air-filled cells.[4]
Thanks to Wikipedia for that....They have the most succinct presentation of this information, which is backed up elsewhere.
What a stunning day, after a stunning day yesterday, but not the day before:) Water like glass!
As I have said (didn't I?) the day dawned cold and clear and with very little wind. It has been like a millpond in the confines of the Marina itself and beyond.
We were up around 7.30am, after a nice lie-in and snuggles to keep warm. I did allow Waz to turn on the heater in the bedroom when the temp was around 60F. It was 57F yesterday when we turned it on!
I got up and turned on the Salon heater and went back to bed. I also opened the door to the bathroom so that some of the heat would go through there and make it nice and toasty for when I had my shower:) It didn't exactly make it toasty, but did take the edge off somewhat.
A few photos...
Well, I did have to have some fun with the reflections first!
Millpond conditions!
...and we took the back and port side curtains down to allow the sun to creep in on the cockpit deck. Oh look! a view!:)
Just gorgeous!
So, as it was such a gorgeous day, and because we are planning to leave the safety of this marina tomorrow morning...we had to have a good clean up.
Even though we had done laundry a few days ago, we decided to do another load today. On the day that you need the drier to work overtime, it didn't...leaving us with clothes that were 90% dry. This is what we have a laundry line above the cockpit deck for!!
I have to interrupt this broadcast to tell you about the Osprey I spied flying low past the boat, while we were eating breakfast. In it's talons it was carrying a large fish. We spied the bird with it's prey draped over the top of one of the Marina poles, ripping into it for breakfast. The gulls were circling and trying to invade. They were quick to swoop on any stray morsels. Unfortunately, Father Christmas has not seen fit to deliver a telephoto lens YET. So there are no photos of the bird. We had to enjoy the spectacle without cameras:(
We did take a lotto ticket yesterday for last night's $60 Million Florida State Lottery...so perhaps we have won something? We also took a Friday ticket for the Florida $230 million lottery. Good luck on those, huh? :) That is to say, if we win, a telephoto lens will be the first prize for us!
With all the cold weather and the lack of 'coat cupboard', the clothing tends to get thrown on one chair...you know how that goes, right?
Please note the hat and gloves bottom right! I used them yesterday (remember the HAT HAIR?)
The red rug has been over my knees at night.
...and this morning's mess which was cleaned up.
It is very easy to make a mess in a small place. It doesn't take much extra 'stuff' out of place to clutter.
So, that too was on today's agenda.
With the moving on to Apalachacola tomorrow, and then Sunday the Gulf crossing, we have to have our boat in order. No good having things all over the place that might fall down and break or just make a greater mess. It does feel good to have everything clean and tidy though.
We accomplished the laundry and clean and de-clutter before lunch. Yay!
It was so lovely and warm upstairs on the flydeck that we ate our lunch up there and luxuriated in the sunshine coming through the Eisenglas. We have a great view from up there an observed our now seemingly full Osprey perched on the antenna of one of the nearby Tugs.
Finding ourselves with nothing much to do as last minute things go for departure...and waz had already pumped up the dinghy...we decided to make a last trek up the bridge that spans the West Bay. We love standing on the top watching Dolphin feeding and playing in the water below us. It is a good invigorating walk, and somewhat cool at the top..wind chill not too bad today...and we saw a small pod of Dolphin with young ones. Magical:)
No management around the marina today, being THE holiday, and no activity that we can discern from other boaters (there being a few liveaboards here).
We are going to fill up the boat here in the morning..cant be before 8am, as the office doesn't open before then, so we will be away from Panama City by 9am , hopefully.
We have 7 hours of motoring tomorrow to get us to Apalachacola where we are to meet up with Dave and Robyn and their 50ft vessel now tied up at the public dock at the bottom of the main street there. Remember the photos of the Shrimp boats with the crows? Down next to them. I hope the crows stay away from US!
The weather is looking very favorable for Sunday afternoon/night/Monday morning for our Gulf crossing accompanied by Dave and Robyn. We will no doubt see other boats doing the crossing, but we will stick close to D and R for the duration. It is good to have a 'buddy' or three or more while doing this. The more the merrier.
This is the general exodus of the Loopers who have come down the rivers through Mobile, Alabama, and now making their way to the wintering grounds of Florida and the Bahamas until the new year.
Keep your collective fingers crossed for a safe and uneventful night time crossing, for all of us.
Though it is only 4.30, the sun is nearly down and there are ice crystals evident in the clouds outside. Lovely! It is going to be a FREEEEEZing night, after a lovely day.
I am about to pull the drapes and keep us toasty. I can feel the cool creeping in already.
Waz just went outside to replace the winch cover (the red one) up front, and found that one of the domes has come out of the deck. He has just gone back out to replace that, in the cold!
Lets hope the temps are a bit higher in Port Charlotte, our destination.
Ciao for today. It might be another two or even four days before I post again, but I will make sure to take verbal notes on the digital recorder each day.
Take a look at the tricky and shallow path we have to take down the ICW inside the Barrier Islands along the Sth West coast of Florida.
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