Trish and I spent our first Xmas in over 30 years away from our kids. We missed them badly and could only speak to them

on the satellite phone as there is no mobile coverage here and definitely no Skype!

But with over 30 boats gathered for Xmas in a sheltered lagoon known as the swimming pool in East Hollandes Cays we quickly

made many new friends and gathered on one of the small islands to share a Xmas buffet that everyone contributed to, making salads, curries, breads, etc, as well as some great desserts.

One boat even cooked a huge piece of pork that he acquired from one of the local villages.

The other big event being the exchange of presents, “treasures of the bilge”  choosing your present from the pile when your number was called.

Trish had gone to great lengths to disguise one of the presents that we took along.

As well as a few Brits others came from the USA, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Ireland and one young guy from

the Lebanon.

Meeting this odd assortment of full time and part time cruisers, all interesting people with stories to tell is one of the great joys of this way of life.

I was able to share the last two cans of Guinness that we had on board with the young guy from Dublin who said that I’d saved him a 10,000 mile

Round trip to Ireland.....And there was even a prezzie for me.....