Merry Christmas

Christmas in the Bahamas --- temps in the high 70's and a little cloudy but all in all a great day!  Ed and I started out our morning by attending the St. Stephen Anglican Church 10:00am service and much to our surprise there were only seven (7) people in attendance and that included us!  We had later inquired and found that all parishioners attend the midnight mass and then attend a "souse" (a type of soup, mainly fish) breakfast.  The most wanted christmas gift this year were bicycles as we saw no less than 10-12 kids riding brand new shiny ones in the streets.  And much to our surprise, several stores were open, including the grocery and clothing store!  Most families order in a ham or turkey from the states for the traditional meal. Eva and I are both amazed that every single person we have seen on the streets have wished us a good day and Merry Christmas!  We took a walk to the beach and the water looked calm and later saw 3 boats - 2 power and 1 sail pull into the marinas.

 DECEMBER 26: Boxing Day, is celebrated on Dec. 26th, the day after Christmas.  It was a way for people to make contributions of cash or goods to those less fortunate.  It was also when the servants who had to continue with their normal work and so, in effect, missed out on the celebrations on Christmas Day.  To compensate for this, families would set aside Dec.26th as the time for their servants Christmas.  The term "Boxing Day" refers to the gift that the family gave to each servant, wrapped in a box. Usually, Bimini has a junkanoo, but they have moved it to Sunday. Saw several of the 12 sailboats that were able to cross from Florida last night as the weather was good.  Captain Ed has checked the current weather and it looks like we will get Makai ready to head to Nassau tomorrow morning.