Hope this email finds everyone happy, well, and filled with the holiday Spirit! We had a wonderful Christmas. It was very different without snow, and the warm temps of mid seventy. It was weird to be running around in shorts on Christmas Day!
Santa was good to all of us. Brett got a telescope and book on celestial navigation, Dylan a tackle box and lures. Santa got us all waterproof watches, and “nautical” t-shirts, and the boys a game called Oceanopoly. We decorated the boat, and Dylan picked out what has to be the world’s smallest Christmas tree, I think it is all of 8” tall! The stockings were hung, not by the chimney with care, but underneath the spot lights in the salon. I decorated with small red bows, and with our Christmas and chilli pepper lights, it looked quite festive indeed. Brett and I did some Christmas baking: Sugar Cookie cutouts, Skor shortbread, rum balls and Butterscotch Squares (the ones with peanut butter and marshmallows), yum yum!
We have had a crazy, busy couple of weeks preparing for our trip. Our ship is filled with supplies. We got a membership at Sam’s (U.S. version of Costco, although they have a Costco here as well), the $40 was well worth it. We picked up big bags of flour, sugar, flats of canned veggies, everything you can imagine. All my dried foods like flour, sugars, pasta, rice, grits, oatmeal etc. is being stored in two large clear Rubbermaid containers on the floor of the V-berth up front. The bed above is piled high with cases of toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex, and Ichiban type soup. A package costs about 15 cents, 2 packages make a meal for us. Cheap cruisers food! The canned goods, beer, pop and heavy stuff is in the aft stateroom, stacked all around. The freezer is full. Meats are chicken breasts, Jimmy Dean sausage rolls, hamburger, pork chops and a few steaks. I am also freezing margarine, butter, and cheese as there is no way I can fit this all into my fridge. We picked up a huge 5-day cooler at Walmart which will be filled with eggs, dairy and more meat. As we have an icemaker on board, we thought we might as well give ourselves more refrigeration space. I have been busy preparing meals for our first voyage, making batches of chilli, stew and turkey noodle soup. These I put into large ziplocks pressed flat, and have frozen them as well. This way we have meals ready to unthaw and reheat while travelling, and also, in case the galley wench gets sea sick! We have stocked up on Dramamine and wristbands, which we will all take an hour before we leave tomorrow. Here’s hoping none of us get sea sick! Greg has been busy stocking up the boat with oil, filters, paint and every kind of tool you can imagine! He has chipped and scraped away most of the rust scale on the port side of the boat. He put an undercoat on it, and did a quick spray with blue spray paint just so she won’t look so bad, until he can finish it properly. The stern of the boat is coming along nicely, we are almost done with putting the new name on her. Yesterday Greg painted the blue on, so today we can put the “Yellowknife, Northwest Territories” white lettering on the blue. Today at 5:00 the guys from the Marina are coming over for our “boat christening”. This involves a lot of champagne, unveiling of the stern with her new name and a special ceremony. Will video tape that and send you photos.
Last weekend on Friday night Greg and I along with the boys judged the boat lighting contest here at the marina. There were about a dozen boats decorated, a few of them quite spectacular. One of the boats had a table set out with finger foods that everyone brought. We had a great time, made new friends, drank too much wine (okay well I did that’s for sure!) and filled our bellies. Greg and I both picked the same boat for first prize. It was decorated with a candy theme, even the lights along the lines and sails were shaped like wrapped candies, amazing! I have attached a few pictures of the decorated boats for you, as well as few of the inside of our boat, a picture of the biscuits I made to go with the stew (just HAD to try out those new cookie cutters!), our Christmas baking, Christmas morning, and progress on the name change of the boat. Not an easy task as Greg has to work from the dinghy tied to shore. I also attached a picture of our life raft, which we got certified and re-stocked. It comes with packets of water, a fishing kit, first aid kit and supplies, flashlight, flares, oars, seasick pills, etc. We also have a “ditch bag” filled with canned food and more water, which we would take with us. We were really happy with the life raft, it is good and solid and large. They repacked it and it is amazing how they can squish all that into one neat little package that sits on the deck. I thought knowing all this might make our families breathe a little easier!
Today we are busy with last minute preparations for our trip as we leave at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. My Dad has booked a flight out to Nassau on January 10th, he will be spending ten days with us, how exciting is that! We will pick him up in Nassau and then tour around the Exhuma Islands and Eleuthera, which is supposed to be breathtakingly beautiful. I’ve also attached a copy of our sail plan that our Captain Steve made up, this is what Greg and I will have to learn to do. I hope this email sounds okay, we all took our Dramamine this morning, to see how it would make us feel. Well, I just want to lay down and sleep, I feel completely stoned! Yikes! Hope it doesn’t affect Greg like that. I am up in the lounge right now, he and Dylan are in the engine room, changing the oil in the generator. We will email you next from Fort Lauderdale if possible, if not, it will be from the Bahamas. Keep those emails coming, we treasure each and every one!
Lots of love from the exhausted, but happy Dutch Dreamers!
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