Merry Christmas

Hello Everyone, we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas on the boat at the marina in Nassau with three couples- two from Canada and one from Texas. We had a great time. Bob ventured into using the Convection/Microwave oven to bake a turkey. He measured the oven and then took his tape measure to the store - height, width, and depth determined the size of the turkey this year - as opposed to "pounds per person." It turned out great, despite the fact that he had no instructions in the book that came with the oven on using it to cook a turkey - but leave it to the engineer to figure it out. The hardest part was that we did not have a glass pan that would hold the turkey and the instructions said to not use any metal, even though we were using the convection oven, not the microwave. That meant he had to open the oven frequently and scoop out the juice with a cup - you see we didn't think of bringing a turkey baster with us.

We had all types of boats used for cruising the Bahamas represented by those attending the dinner. Ed and Dee from Canada on a mono hull sailboat, Rita Kay and Clay from Texas in a mono hull American Tug, Fran and Laurie from Canada on a sailing catamaran he built himself, and us on a power catamaran.


Fran and Rita Kay


Laurie and Dee


Clay and Ed

Everyone brought the side dishes and wine to add to the turkey. Bob said he couldn't have done the entire meal on the boat due to the small size of the galley, but doing the turkey, gravy, and dressing worked out just fine.


Bob's traditional photo stabbing the turkey


Dee's beautiful vegetable dish decorated with tree


Rita Kay's decorated salad

Ed brought Plum Pudding, an English tradition, and Fran made a rum cake. Both were rich and delicious for dessert.

Here are some photos we took on a walk across the bridge to Paradise Island the other day. It was a gray and very windy day.


Fish and Lobster for sale at Potters Cay under the bridge.


View of the Marina from the bridge. Pretty Penny is to the left of the large boat in photo.


View of Mailboats being loaded. Mailboats are the main travel means for Bahamians to go between islands and for goods to be delivered. They are the lifeline for commerce in the country.


Bob with hair flying in the wind atop the bridge.


View of Atlantis from the bridge

If you had to be exiled, there are worse places to be.


Crew member hanging in bosun's chair working on electronics of the boat.


Carriage available for hire in Nassau

Oh by the way, today is the 26th of December, known as "Boxing Day" here in the Bahamas when slaves were given their Christmas presents and exchanged among themselves. Junkanoo started at 4 in the morning which was a bit too early for Bob and I.

We expect to be in Nassau till Monday, when the winds will die down and be in our favor. We will then move on to Normans Cay.