Sea-sun's Greetings!

Well, Santa found us alright.  The cookies were gobbled, the milk was gulped, and the reindeer made a mess of the cockpit with their messy carrot chewing.  There was a definite water theme this Christmas.  Santa always seems to know what is needed. 

Munyon Island fun

We had a great day relaxing and not doing any work at all.  Scott didn't even fix anything (although, I know he wanted to).  We ended up moving  anchor to North Palm Beach on Christmas Eve day to escape some bad weather that was coming out of the North (probably from Maine, eh?).   I know I shouldn't be talking to most of you folks about bad weather...  Sorry.  It was just a little windy.  No snow.  No ice.  Just a very stiff warm breeze.  Our new location was within a short dinghy ride/walk to a Publix supermarket , so we were able to stock up on all the holiday trimmings.  It was the first year I ever "bought" pies (apple and mince).  It was also the first year we had a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken (steamed to re-heat it) for Christmas dinner.  Our oven is not working right now (it's on Scott's list, but we decided it's not a high priority item), so baking pies and a turkey was out of the question.  It turned out to be a great meal.  I think I'm onto something!  There was much discussion about what we should do for a Christmas tree.  At home, it's a big event to slog out to the back-forty and cut the nicest balsam fir we can find ("nice" always being relative to how cold it is outside).  It seemed strange not to do the same here.   We all agreed we had some serious space limitations on the boat so whatever we dragged home was going to have to be small.   As we walked to Publix, the girls and I had our feelers out for any appropriate vegetation.  They had their hearts set on a tiny palm tree, but all the palms were huge.  There were no "baby" palms (they surmised that palm trees must grow very fast).  There were many nice options in the plantings in front of the gated communities we wandered by, but we found the iron bars and armed guards to be a little intimidating.  We ended up purchasing (wince) a fake (gulp) little 12" tree (complete with tiny little colored ball ornaments) that was in the 50% off bin at Publix.  It was perfect!  And cheap.  I had some tiny battery operated lights stashed away that really livened it up.

The offering

The stockings were hung by the white board with care...

Christmas Eve dinner

Nama's stockings

Gifts from the Duffys

Ivie's card

Scott - Captain and breakfast chef

We spent most of Christmas day exploring nearby Munyon Island, a tiny little state park, half of which is the result of deposited dredgings from the construction of the ICW during WWII.  It's been planted with native vegetation and is like a little mini everglades.  There's a board -walk that turns into a dirt trial that winds through the dense hammocks.  Judging from the number of spiders who constructed webs across the trail, most folks turn around when the board walk ends.   

We persevered.   Having Scott lead made the most sense seeing ask he offered up the most surface area.  He accepted the challenge, armed only with a palm frond.  We followed the leader, ducking, wincing, and screaming at every near miss.  The spiders here are huge!   It was very exciting.  The millipedes are also big, and much less intimidating to hold.  

Spider dodging

Exploring the intertidal zone

Strangler fig

My turn?

Giant millipedes are so cute!

After our hike, Scott took the girls fishing, while I went for a run.  They had some luck and we were able to supplement our steamed poultry with fresh Spanish mackerel (yum!) and Corvelle Jack (yuck).  We are looking forward to catching some real game fish soon. 

Today, after a final provisioning at Publix, we sailed back to Peanut Island to prepare for a possible weather window opening up late Sunday night into Monday.  We'll keep you posted.

It has been so great hearing from you all through the blog and email.  I wish we could respond individually but internet connections are spotty and fleeting.  Perhaps the biggest limiting factor is keeping the laptop and ipad charged!  Right now I have a great connection (thanks to a pirated code to the yacht club we are anchored next to) but I only 10% battery left.  With that, I'll sign off.

Stay well, everyone.