Today we decided to grill a turkey for Thanksgiving, so we headed off in the dinghy to the grocery store, leaving it at the daytime small boat dock in New River.  We have grocery shopping down to a science, using the bikes, insulated back packs, and reusable grocery bags which fit perfectly in our bike baskets.  It helps that the bikes fold, so they fit easily in the dinghy.  When we got to Publix we found a nice nine pound Butterball so we’ll give it a try on Thursday.  The Magma grill is plenty big for a much larger turkey, but not high enough.  Hopefully we’ll have plenty of leftovers.

My brother Doug invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at his house in Homosassa, FL, about a five hour drive from here.  Unfortunately, between not being comfortable leaving the boat alone for more than a day or two in the anchorage and the long trip for Doug to come here and pick us up, we regretfully declined.  Hopefully we’ll see him in Miami if we are there when they pass through on their upcoming trip to Key West.  It would have been great to be with family for Thanksgiving.

While on our way back from shopping today we passed the railroad bridge which crosses New River.  The bridge is always left in an open position until a train is scheduled to come.  We’ve seen iguanas sunning themselves on the bridge, but usually they are a dull brown, hard to see on the brown bridge. 

Today we saw a brightly colored one, about three feet long.  I believe it is a Fiji Banded Iguana, although it could be a Green Iguana.  While I don’t think iguanas can change color like a chameleon, this one certainly matched the brown and orange of its surroundings.

Oddly, earlier today we saw a Green Iguana (REALLY green) sitting on our dinghy when it was tied up to the boat.   This is the first creature we’ve ever seen on the dinghy....and hopefully the last.  Alice, aka “new” Grandma Alice, if you are reading this we cannot see an iguana without remembering how you fed them when we were at New River, even going to the extent of buying food for them at a pet store. 

Our newest addition to the boat is a hammock.  There I am on the left, talking on the phone to my son Pete yesterday.  The great thing about a hammock on a boat is that every time the boat rocks, the hammock starts swinging.  I imagine one of us will fall asleep in it some night and a comfortable place to sleep it will be. 

After almost two weeks in this anchorage, we went into the third (of three) water tank a few days ago.  When we eventually run out of water, the plan was to go to one of the nearby fuel docks, get some diesel and fill our water tanks.  Then, we remembered that we have two five gallon water jugs.  So now every time we go ashore, we get water from the marina. this is the first time we have haven’t had water available from marinas as we have traveled or stopped for fuel.   Once we leave Ft. Lauderdale and sail to Miami, we’ll start using the watermaker.  Mark installed it a year ago and we’ve never used it. We’ve either been in marinas, stopping for fuel (and free water), or not in clean enough water to use the watermaker.  The won’t be any more marinas for quite awhile but the water will be clean.