Christmas at Sea

On Saturday, we left “The Donut” and finally had decent Wi-Fi! The next day my dad, mom, Mark, Terry  and Aeriss (from SV Stargazer), and I went into Nassau for the day. We visited some of the historical sites like The Queen’s Staircase, one of their many forts, a pirate museum, and the Parliament building. My favorite site was The Queen’s Staircase. It’s a huge staircase of 65 steps, not the best after walking for a few miles but it was still beautiful. At the top of the stairs was one of their forts.  I was able to pick up a pretty bracelet for my mom that was at a booth next to the fort and she loved it. The pirate museum was especially cool because it was all about the life and adventures of pirates. We read about some of the most famous pirates and how they lived. We also read about their codes and punishments for actions.  Did you know that walking the plank wasn’t a thing? The Parliament building was a pretty pink color and at the front of the building was a large statue of Christopher Columbus. I got a really nice photo in front of it. After we saw those historical sites my mom, Mark, and Terry got in a cab and headed back to the boat, leaving Aeriss and me with my dad. We spent the rest of our time in Nassau shopping for last-minute Christmas presents. My dad really needed to shop. He hadn’t gotten anything for my mom yet! We started our trek back to the boat with a special-made lotion for my mom from my dad and presents for me from Aeriss.
 Aeriss and I were extremely grumpy that my dad insisted we walk though we were both happy with that decision when we learned he was bringing us to a bakery we had walked past on the way to The Queen’s Staircase. One bite of the bread made the entire walk worth it. We walked a little further until we were able to flag down a cab. We ended up at the marina’s restaurant, The Poop Deck, and had wings, conch fritters, virgin daiquiris, and calamari. The rest of our group joined us to eat all of the food.  After everyone ate we headed back to the anchorage at Rose Island.
I spent the rest of the day working on bracelets and wrapping up presents. On Christmas Eve we had a hearty breakfast then everyone wrapped and placed their presents around our tree to open later that night. We ate a yummy breakfast then went out for a snorkel. We spent almost an hour finding conchs (that were too small to eat) and watching pretty fish swim in the reef.  At about 4:00, we started our Christmas game night. We always play about 4 games and have prizes for the people who do well. The four games we had this year were Scattegories, PIT, Dixit, and Clue. After the first game I was in last place, Mark was in third, my dad in second, and my mom in first. We had some time to ourselves while my mom prepped dinner. We began our second game while food was in the oven, I won this game (PIT). Before we started our next game we opened all the presents from each other. We began playing Dixit while our food continued to cook. Before we could start our final game, my mom got a migraine and had to go to bed, so my dad finished dinner. We ate our food then played Clue with just the three of us. I won and as a result I won the game night, my mom got second, my dad got third, and Mark was in last place. We opened our prizes and I received a miniature bag toss, my mom got a movie, my dad got a portable light, and Mark got hot sauce.
 On Christmas morning, we all opened our stockings after having a delicious breakfast. We got back to the boat and checked the winds to find that we had a very nice weather window to go further south, and that’s what we did. We sailed Southeast in very windy weather and I may have gotten a tad seasick. We reached our destination on the west side of Highborne Cay and we all had a nice good rest, except me I was binging movies I got for Christmas.

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