2006.12.26

Feliz Navidad !!!

We found a radio station with Christmas music and this song “Feliz Navidad” seemed to be the big hit this year… I don’t recall caring that much for it in the past but it certainly has grown on us down here… must be the Latino influence…Cuba si!

We have been in Lantana, just South of West Palm Beach for a few days now… not sure how many no log keeping!

We actually went to WPB a couple of times to check out the natives and Worth Avenue which is Florida’s answer to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with Gucci etc… the natives were far more interesting than the store windows…most women had very obvious face lifts and who knows what other nip & tuck… and the men wore black leather loafers and NO SOCKS as we pointed out to Heinz… some had pink hair and they all had chichi little dogs with matching bows…. We felt as if we were in a zoo and I so wanted to take pictures but of course dared not…

The ladies, Jacqueline, Karina and I had been dropped off so we could go shopping (you all know how I love it!) but instead we ended up having lunch at “The Cheesecake Factory” which Ricki & Lonne introduced me to…I just feel like we are in California.

Yesterday was Christmas and L’Equipe outdid themselves and put together a traditional Xmas dinner… turkey breast with all the trimmings (see photos) we made a little British contribution with Xmas crackers, plum pudding and hard sauce and Karina had brought some lovely German Xmas liqueur which name I don’t recall.

We missed Andre and Louise, they have gone to the Gulf coast to spend Xmas with Lulu’s family…hope to meet up again soon and cross together.

Today, we were supposed to go to Fort Lauderdale, to check out the marinas (by car) but it looks like the skippers had a powwow and have pretty much decided that we are not going to cross from FL but from Lake Worth which is a bit North from here… so we gave FL a miss for today and Heinz having heard we were having some technical problems came to “just have a little look at it” and ended up spending half the day in our cockpit locker having brought a good part of his atelier and successfully fixed our problem, best Xmas present Soli could have had…. I could have just kissed him…in fact I think I did !!!

So that’s the story for now we will most likely stay here until after New Year…provisioning and all that good stuff.

A very happy Christmas to all our readers now from me ….! I think that Catherine has brought you up to date but I should just add a post script to confirm that Heinz did a masterful job on our holding tank problem and the macerator now runs like a charm, so we should be able to pump out by ourselves from now on. It is great to be self sufficient as we were supposed to be from Baltimore as the pump out stations are few and far between in this part of the U S East Coast and non existent in the Bahamas.

Christmas, as Catherine has said, was great fun. A swim in the morning then a little sitting in the sun followed by showers and then this magnificent meal produced in the main by the ladies of L’Equipe. We did not want for anything and had a truly marvelous feast.

Still unsure of exactly what we shall be doing for the next week between Christmas and New Year, probably resting here, doing our final provisioning. Before we leave we shall fill up with diesel – our two 5 gallon cans on deck are already filled as is our five gallon can of petrol for the dinghy engine. We shall, before leaving, also take an additional 10 gallons of fresh water in jerry cans – all of which will be stowed on deck, lashed to the life lines.

For those of you who are interested it seems that our average consumption of water on a daily basis is roughly around 12 gallons, which includes showers, cooking, dishes etc. The boat’s average diesel consumption is between 0.9/1.00 gallons per hour at revs for 7 knots. If we increase the rpm for 8 knots which actually is the boat’s best cruising speed (but our traveling companions cannot keep up) the consumption goes up to about 1.25 gallons per hour. Our fresh water capacity is 96 gallons in three tanks plus the 10 gallons on deck whilst our diesel capacity is 56 gallons plus the 10 gallons on deck so now you can figure out how long we can be completely self sufficient.

Think that’s all from me this evening – again a very happy Christmas to all our readers. Binow.