Christmas Day Antigua

In Antigua the tradition on Christmas Day is to head down to Nelson's Dockyard for some champagne. People come from all over the island to walk the docks and look at the boats while enjoying a glass of bubbly. Huge tubs of ice are filled with different types of champagne. This is not a by the glass affair. Oh no, you select the bottle of your choice. Seasoned veterans of this affair bring their own flutes from home, but as first timers we settled for the plastic cups that come with purchase. They let you stroll around with your bottle...no problem. Bill from Voyager C was supervising our progress.

Next, we gathered on board Dream Maker, along with crew from Daniell Story, Cheetah ll, and Voyager C, for the full Christmas Dinner. Kathy and Bill (Dream Maker) were denied their turkey dinner last year, so this season they were on a mission to make it happen. Of course, everyone brought enough food for three dinners. This is just the desert buffet. Apparently we all thought this was hilarious.

Along with desert, Roy decided to make the "True" rum punch for everyone.

The recipe reads: 

one part sour =  Lime

two parts sweet = Cane Syrup

three parts strong = Rum

four parts weak = Ice

Garnish with bitters and freshly grated nutmeg.

Go ahead a try this at home. It will make you happy.

Sweet Life Drags Anchor

The Le Marin anchorage in Martinique is huge. There must be over 300 boats here at anchor and over 500 in the various marinas. Amazing and a little dangerous we found out. Tuesday night we woke up to quite a strong wind gusting through the anchorage. There were a couple of quick rain showers and then the winds calmed right down. A few hours later Roy got up to have a look around up on deck and I hear him call out, Michelle, you've got to come and see this. I climbed out of bed and looked at the clock: 4 am. Up in the cockpit I could see immediately that our neighbour, Sweet Life, a 40 foot sailboat, was sitting about 8 feet off our port side. Eight feet is crazy close. They had dragged anchor in the night and had somehow not smashed into us as they came to a stop beside us. How long they had been drifting there beside us? How had they managed not to skewer themselves on our bowsprit on the way by? Many questions and "what if's" flooded through my mind. Better get out some fenders was my next thought. Roy grabbed the big million candlepower spot light and beamed the light on their deck and into the ports. Now they were drifting even closer. Roy hands me the spotlight and goes to grab a boat hook so he can maybe push them off our side if we end up touching. I call out Sweet Life! Sweet Life! Finally a woman's face appears in the forward porthole as a man surfaces in the cockpit. In true French style the guy walks up on deck, looks at the situation, and calmly asks us in French if we have dragged. We point out that he is the one with the dragging anchor! Finally he get his engine started and moves away from us to anchor in a new position. We watch this process from our cockpit and can not believe how lucky we were to have not a scratch from this extremely close call.

Pitons and Rum

Back up to St. Lucia and the fabulous Pitons!

Roy and Bill checking out the Rum in Martinique

Mt. Pelee Volcano in Martinique