December 24, 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011     CHRISTMAS EVE

Anchor up and we are on our way to Nassau, in the mix of other boaters heading for the same direction.  The weather allowed the sun to  wink at us at sunrise but only enough to let us know it was Christmas eve.  Weather threatened us during the entire stretch except when we began approaching Nassau, way in the distance.  Stasia never came out from under the seat at the helm.  The hand line was out and Fred said “Well, Sweetie, if you don’t catch anything today I will take you out to dinner”.  Sounded like a plan. spent pretty much of the day hanging on to anything I could .  The swells were pretty high.  We would sink into one trough so all I could see in front of me was a wall of dark blue water.   Suddenly we were on top of the ocean. And could see for miles.  The seas were active and at one point we took a pretty hard hit into one which actually came over Casa Mare all the way back to the cockpit.  Gliding up and hitting hard on the return  reminded me of being in one of those exercise machines that a belt around your waist would shake excess “whatever” off.  It was comforting to know I was getting something out of this anyway.  A few cruisers were beginning to catch fish and I was reasonably certain dinner would be on the boat tonight.  One hooked a Marlin, another a Dolphin fish which also escaped  before getting it to the boat and then Dinner was caught.  A 3 ’ dolphin, although it wasn’t on my hand line.  It was so hard to go below.  I had to synchronize with the swells and waves as timing was the essence of getting below in one graceful step.   I had to pee so bad but just didn’t want to fight my way down and actually thought about just going in the cockpit, but knew that would be just as hard.  At least the head was about a 2’x 2’ tube, not leaving much room to be thrown around...once I got there.  I could tell without looking up that we were close to Nassau because boats were coming in from all directions, sea planes and private planes swooped over us.  The water was changing from sapphire blue to lighter green.  There she was...cruise ships all lined in a row like soldiers, colorful buildings and  people on the beach on the Nassau side.  The port side was Paradise Island, Atlantis was full of coral colored buildings less inhabited but still thousands since it was a resort.  Each side was separated by the lighthouse at the harbor entrance.  Fred and I were not sure if we would be here for a day or three.  This was our last civilized spot for awhile so we knew we had to make good use of the facilities here.  Filled up with diesel, which by the was came in handy because the wind was coming straight at us on our way over and it was too much a fight in that foul weather to fight with the sails so we motored all the way.  Filled the diesel and water tanks and found anchorage and dropped the anchor.  I think about everyone else took a slip at the marina. But we wanted to be alone.  Since it was Christmas eve, we knew we better hurry to the grocery store, not knowing what time they would close on Christmas eve.   We hopped into the dinghy and speed off to the Marina where our fellow cruisers were and tied up to Rhapsody.  The grocery store was right across the street so the hike was really short,  I could not believe the prices.  I had to talk Fred out of buying a box of “cheese its” for $7.00.  An apple was over a dollar each.  What an eye opener.  It was clear this was the beginning of living frugal.  When we returned to “Rhapsody” with our goods we grabbed the dinghy and headed over to Casa Mare’.  Just as we were leaving they invited us for Christmas eve dinner.  Everyone was to bring a side dish and they planned to make dinner out of their prized catch of the day.  We opted not to.  I am sure it would have been fun but we were pretty worn out.  We had a problem back on the boat anyway.  Somehow, in all those high seas, water soaked the cushions in the V Berth, the sheets and the spread.  SOAKED!  I prayed for a hot day on Christmas so we could throw the cushions, sheets and spread over the railing to dry.  Homesick started to set in.  I was missing  my parents, who for the past many years we have always been together.  I left like a little girl wanting my Mommy and Daddy.  It wasn’t the tree, it wasn’t the presents under it, it wasn’t the parties...it was the tradition of gathering together celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.  This was one of the major reasons  I was thinking about not making this trip early on.  Family.  But I knew they were thinking of me just as I was thinking of them.  Although felling separation one must have felt back in the pioneer days, it wasn’t all about me, at all.  It is about the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  My eyes started to well up, in disbelief of what God went through  giving us his son, all in the plan that Jesus would also die for us.  WOW!  I slipped into a nap on the settee while Fred tried to get online.  He woke me up and we hopped on the dinghy to the Green Parrot.  Only a handful of people were there.  I was glad to be there with Fred to.  I fell asleep on the settee again, on the eve of Christmas Day.  I prayed and thanked God for everything I could think of, including the rough seas and to especially be with the ones who were felling alone this night.