Oriole abandons the fleshpots.

Oriole
Tue 2 Jan 2007 01:31
Nonsuch Bay, Antigua  17:04.43N 61:40.41W

We sat down for Christmas dinner with the crews of 7 other yachts on Christmas Eve in a lovely beachside restaurant, and on Christmas Day a similar number gathered in the shade behind the beach for a Christmas style buffet picnic.
                                                   
 
                                               Santa's perks.  Christmas Day in Nelson's Dockyard.                                                         Sojarna shapes up for the start of the New Year's Day Race.
 
This had been preceded by the traditional Nelson's Dockyard party which starts around the middle of the day and continues until the champagne and similar brews have run out, with musical accompaniment from an enthusiastic and noisy local group. Yachties (amateur and professional) and locals mix freely with other visitors and the atmosphere in the historic dockyard is wonderful. With the festivities over and a few jobs on Oriole completed we had a stiff beat to the south-east corner of Antigua (only about 8 miles) to anchor behind the reef separating us from the Atlantic and Africa.  Any cobwebs
have been blown away.
 
Robert and Dani celebrating their engagement on New Year's Day.
 
Robert and Dani have been doing some serious snorkling while skipper and mate have been touching up the varnish ready for our next charter! Little did we know that the serious snorkling was actually a diversion and Robert was proposing marriage to Dani on a desert island - quite the thing these days.  We are delighted to report that she accepted!