How Sea Spirit Shows Grace During the Thanksgiving Season

As we move closer to the end of the year, we reflect on how much we have grown as a family, business, and individuals. This season, I especially want to give thanks to my family’s continued health, our love and care for each other, and our vessels that support our beautiful services. While some families may focus on what food will be at the table every Thanksgiving dinner, we tend to concentrate on family and friends that we cherish. Through the years and like so many, we’ve lost a lot of family members; perhaps therefore our celebrations are closer knit. Our door is always open during the holiday season as we invite any and all those who can join, simply to stop by, slow down, reflect, and share our home with friends.

This time of year brings reflection and with reflection, brings tradition. For us tradition is like a security blanket. Reminding us that yes, things may have changed in the last 12 months but also things can stay the same. A few days prior to Thanksgiving, we assess the weather and ocean conditions as it is often a beautiful time in the Monterey Bay. Finding the best weather window, we head out to catch fish and crab for our dinner table. Typically the morning of thanksgiving we go to our local woods and harvest chanterelle mushrooms, which is always a fun adventure as we dodge the inevitable poison oak. Back at home, we keep the fish whole and stuff it with the chanterelles and crab we harvested which represents our turkey, and becomes a beautiful centerpiece complimented by traditional Thanksgiving sides.

Sharing food around the table and showing gratitude within our family is just a small part of what the Thanksgiving celebration means to us.  Realizing the need to give back in our local community we donate monetarily and volunteer our time to the local Valley Churches.  We choose Valley Churches because years ago, we suffered a massive fishery disaster that was our biggest financial contributor of the year, unexpectedly costing us tens of thousands of dollars.  Valley Churches stepped up to the plate and covered our food, utilities and mortgage payments for a couple months, which enabled us to concentrate on a pivot in creating a different revenue stream for Sea Spirit.  We are truly grateful for both Valley Churches and our community; we are grateful for the ability and means to give back.