Position: 14:04:49N 60:56:98W

“Nutmeg” under full sail on day 10 of the Transat, 1000 miles from land – captured by another ARC boat “Chandelle”, an Ovni 435 who passed close behind

After the end of the ARC, things returned to the friendly, sociable community spirit between the boats still remaining in Rodney Bay.  The girls decorated the boat with Christmas decorations, there were lots of people always stopping by to chat, and it was generally a lovely way to run up to Christmas.  No hairing round the shops in a last-minute panic to buy up heaps of stuff that no-one needs, or bulk-buying just in case you happen to run out of anything whilst the shops are shut for 48hrs (heaven forbid). 

The girls doing Christmas decorations

The girls trying coconut milk

We had a pontoon party on Christmas Eve and had a lovely time chatting and drinking to the various crews.  Eric (“Saeftinghe”) and I managed to work our way through a bottle of rum by the end of the evening.  We have also made good friends with “Vaiva”, a Sweden 39 owned by Mark and Karen who are berthed next to us and have been very kind to us.  The kids are bestest friends with James and Jack, two boys from “Seraphim”, a Moody 38, whose parents are Jon and Nicola.

Nutmeg pontoon party

Impromptu kids party

We had a lovely Christmas Day.  After pressies in bed, we had a double breakfast of pancakes followed by bacon & egg (more due to hungover impulse-eating than anything more organized) then flew the girl’s kites that Uncle Will and Aunty Ouisa had given them.  The girls took a bit of time to work out that you need to walk away from the kite if it is about to fall in the water, to pull it up in the air…

Flying kites with a hangover on Christmas morning

Sarah opening her glam pressies

We headed in the dinghy round to the beach where around 40 of us had arranged to go to the Bay Gardens Hotel for Christmas lunch.  The hotel had managed to seat us all together on a couple of long tables so we had a fantastic buffet lunch with wonderful food and no washing up!

Heading to Christmas Dinner

After lunch we managed to drag ourselves to the pool and the hot tub and lazed the rest of the day away.  In the late afternoon we reconvened for cocktails at the bar.  I realized, after I had waited 10 minutes for my cocktail, that if the only thing to complain about was how long it took for your cocktail to arrive, then life was pretty good.  Then, the waiter gave me a free beer as compensation for the wait!!  Heaven is here.

However, all good things need to come to an end, and on Sunday 28^th December, we decided it was time to leave.  With a crowd on the pontoon to help us off and say goodbye, we left our little spot and motored out of the lagoon.  Emilia cried for half an hour because she missed Jack, her new friend.  It is hard for the kids as there is little continuity in their friendships, however the great thing about cruising is the many reunions, and the kids have loved seeing friends that they haven’t seen for a few days or weeks.

Ollie, Sarah, Emilia & Jemima