Christmas in the Caribbean!

Or, at least, in the Bahamas! Merry Christmas, one and all!! It was a rainy, windy, rock-n-rolling in the slip kind of night, with strong gusts out of the south. You could hear the wind moaning in the rigging of the nearby sailboats, and when we awoke in the early morning hours, it was just pouring like crazy. Thankfully though, the day cleared up somewhat by 1:00, when the Cruisers' Christmas Potluck started. Ron made a killer batch of chili, along with some hot crescent rolls, and more than one person ran up to Karyn and asked if she was the "chili woman who made that great chili"? She corrected everyone, giving all the kudos to Ron, as he has the "Art of Chili" down pat!! Despite some spitting, brief rain showers, the potluck was a great success. Sid's Groceries donated lots of paper goods, cups, plastic spoons, forks, and knives, Brendal supplied a couple jugs of his signature Rum punch (as well as the yard behind the dive shop), there was wine from one of the liquor stores in New Plymouth, and everyone pitched in with amazing dishes from turkey, ham, lobster stew, gumbo, deviled eggs, salads, mac-n-cheese to all sorts of desserts. Everyone ate until they were totally sated -- a good time was had by all, and as always, it was great fun to meet new kindred spirits from various and different ports of call!

Getting set up for the Cruisers' Potluck

There was a showing of Captain Ron in the lounge of the Green Turtle Club, just prior to Happy Hour (courtesy of Equinox, as we had the DVD) but while that was going on, the real Captain Ron was in Equinox's amidship bilge, repairing the A/C pump to keep it from leaking around the face plate seal. One of the screws was clearly stripped and after a thorough search of the various and sundry machine screws we had onboard, we found one that fit well. Along with a new seal of silicone gasket material and a new coat of silicone on the o-ring, the repair seems to have done the trick. Otherwise...the replacement pump is waiting in the wings, but we wanted to actually try the simpler fix first. (A first for us, actually!)

The replacement A/C pump waiting front and center amongst tools and the bin of assorted machine screws while Ron was in the bilge re-sealing the leaking face plate on the old A/C pump

Afterwards, our crew gathered aboard the boat for a late Christmas dinner of roast turkey, Daphne's sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, stuffing, maple-glazed salmon, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce, (courtesy of Karyn, who prepared it all while Capt. Ron was deep in the bilge). But, also indirectly courtesy of Ron, who repaired the stove last week! :) Regardless, we had a lovely dinner, and we are happy to be together!