We arrived in Demopolis, Alabama on the 27th of November. This is where we shipped our Mast to from Chicago. We hope it arrived and we can be a real sailboat again. We are tired of people calling us the Gunrunner boat, or the Stealth boat. We have discovered a RV park with a huge grass area next to the boat yard – so of course, we have to go and play with Jackie Dog until she is so tired that we don’t feel guilty anymore about her being on the boat all the time.
We have great neighbors at the dock. Mike and Wally; Mike (SHE) is a 69 years and super fit – Wally, we have never asked how old he is, but he is sure a fit spring chicken himself. We admired them for being so fit and flexible – Mike jumped on the dock on all four to rescue a ball Jackie Dog dropped in front of her in an attempt to get Mike to play ball with her. Mike and Wally helped us to get to know Demopolis, to find a metal fabricator, a grocery store, the liquor store and which restaurant to go to and which not. They drove us around for a whole day to show us some great American history. They showed us a wonderful church build entirely by slaves. The inside of the church was stained with tobacco juice. We spend some time reading the headstones on the graves – we talk about the stories that lie behind them, yellow fever, child birth death, Civil War dead and too much hard work to tend the cotton fields.
The mast arrived about 6 weeks before us – so much for traveling with the speed of light – about 7 miles an hour – all looks fine and we scheduled with the boat yard to have the mast put back on. A week went by and we still don’t have a mast, but there is no hurry – everything is a little slower in Alabama, and good things take a while, right! We had three people from the boatyard, a crane and ourselves to put our 47 feet mast back on. There were moments I had to close my eyes because I was afraid the mast is airborne, or somebody gets buried under it. But at the end the mast was up, we got lifted back in the water and we were half a sailboat again. The task of putting all the rigging and sails back on was up to us. Great, since neither of have ever done – but not to worry – we made pictures in Chicago – we are all set! After another three days or so she was all put back together – in all her glory, flags and everything. We are so proud of us and Lucky Star.
The weekend before Christmas we rented a car and drove about 250 miles to Atlanta, GA to visit our very good friends Tom and Chris. As luck will, they have their Christmas party that weekend and we are invited. A real party, with more than four people (I guess their galley fits more than ours) – we were excited. I got a haircut and was very happy about the result. Chris got a haircut by the famous coiffeur “Margit” a week before and I cut his sideburns totally off. He was not too happy, but he said he will give it another try later. (It’s a month later now, and he doesn’t even let me get near him with a pair of scissors.) Tom and Chris went out of their way to entertain us and we had a wonderful time. Dinner at a Korean BBQ place was OUTSTANDING and the waitresses insider tip of where to by Korean food was marvelous. We went to a produce store as big as downtown Demopolis – we bought wonderful food such as Tamarinds, Korean BBQ sauce to marinate rips and the freshest veggies. I am jealous of not having a store like this close, but I don’t think it would fit on Lucky Star.
We also did a Costco trip – how wonderful that was, I was in heaven. The liquor store had a box of wine and Champagne that needed to be bought and drank by us – the bottles had some age on them and needed to be eliminated; we were happy to help out. I believe we went over our budget for December, oh well.
When we arrived back in Demopolis it had rained for two days and the water level went up thirteen feet?! So we had to wait since we are a real sailboat now, we didn’t fit under the bridges anymore.
December 20th – we decided to stay and have Christmas in Demopolis since we bought all these wonderful goodies that had to be eaten. I could not wait until Christmas to cook up a storm. In the meantime I baked cookies to have a “real” Christmas. Chris and I agreed that these coconut cookies where great.
Macaroon cookies
1/3 cup of butter softened, 3 oz of cream cheese softened, ¾ cups of sugar, 1 egg yolk, 2 teaspoons of orange juice, 1 teaspoon orange extract (or almond), 1 ¼ cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt and 3 cups of sweetened coconut flakes (more to role the cookies in).
Beat butter, cream cheese, sugar until well blended, add egg yolk, orange juice and orange extract. Mix the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in 3 cups of coconut flakes and refrigerate for at least an hour or until firm.
Make 1 inch balls and roll them in coconut flakes, bake in preheated 350 degree oven 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack completely. Yummy ….
Alabama is the Pecan capitol of the US, they still charge US$ 7.00 a pound in the store, so we did what everybody else does , we picked them up from under the many pecan trees growing along the river. Trees are everywhere and we needed the exercise after all the food we have bought in Atlanta. Mike and Wally had a great recipe for spicy roasted pecans, which we loved.
Savory Southern Pecans
¼ cup butter, 1 ½ Teaspoons ground cumin, ¼ teaspoon ground read chilly peppers, 3 ½ cups pecan halves, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon salt.
Melt the butter in large sauce pan add cumin and red pepper and cook for one minute. Add pecans, sugar and stir to coat. Spread pecans in a single layer in a oven pan and bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Stir occasionally and serve at room temperature. We like them also cold (stored in a Tupperware dish, even for weeks) because the nuts get crunchier.
We have met a lovely couple Jervais and Kaye, with their poodle woody. Jackie dog fell in love with Woody and that was that. She acted very strange around him and tried to impress him with all sorts of things. Jackie really pissed Woody off when his attempt of trying to catch the ball before her failed every single time. She is still the fasted dog after all. All six of us went on our bicycles (the dogs in the back packs) for a picnic – it was wonderful. Jervais introduced us to Tom Collins which we liked, so the sweet and sour mix is now apart of Lucky Star’s liquor stock!
Speaking of bicycles, after having tried some bikes from other people, we decided we loved the idea of having bikes ourselves – so we bought our Christmas presents, which of course ruined the budged for the month again, oh well.
We bought the Mercedes version of the Mariners fold up “push bikes” (as Chris calls them). All beautiful aluminum, which is very light and supposedly should not rust in salt water and they come with 8 gears – state of the art, after having to walk everywhere.
We are sooooo happy. The best thing since sliced bread; absolutely fabulous. Ok, they are just bikes, but our standard of luxury are different since we are Citizens of the World and don’t go to an office every day anymore.
We have also bought a bag for Jackie to sit in, it goes in the front, Chris carries it, and so we call it the Kangaroo pack. She sort of likes it; at least she can come, too. The first day out, we go for a three hour trip (to our butt, it felt like 10 hours the next day). It was very nice and Chris turned around to show me a very impressive quarry and touched the front back brake while doing so. There they went, straight on the ground Chris with the dog in the bag both rolled along the concrete. Chris is a real boy, so up he went, cleaned his pants and he was as good as new. The bike suffered a little, but hey, that’s why we bought the rugged version.
The next fall was not far away; “you went down like a bag of shit”. That’s what Chris said after I fell down in an attempt of crossing the rail road tracks. I know I did not go parallel, something else must have happened. EVERYBODY knows NOT to go parallel with the tracks. The good thing was again, that we got the rugged version.
We did several trips to the post office to mail off some Christmas cards, we went to the grocery store once (makes one appreciate food so much more after carrying it on your back for five miles) – we are independent with our new “Mercedes” and we love it.
We have been on the Demopolis newspaper’s front-page on December 24th - An article about different people spending their Christmas in Demopolis – I am glad we spent Christmas in a town where news like us makes the front-page.
Our Christmas dinner was on the 24th like we Austrians always do it, and we had an excuse to have another Australian dinner on the 25th. We had some Foie Gras and white toast with a nice bottle of Champagne. Venison with a fabulous sauce I made from Venison bones a week before with Austrian bread dumplings, white Asparagus with Sauce Hollandaise with a bottle of 1988 Chateau Trimoulet Grand Cru Classic, Saint Emilion. (Just outstanding with the venison, thank you Doris!). For desert, cream Brule and a glass of Johnny Walker Blue (thanks Joe!). We went to bed at 11:00 p.m. full and happy with our first Christmas on Lucky Star.
On the 25th we had a boater’s pot luck dinner with lots of goodies and lots of “boat talk”. We are a little new in this boat talk, but we had one or two stories to tell.
