My first hot Christmas

Christmas to me is a tradition. I'm not religious but I freely admit when Christmas comes around, I join the throngs of Western people that worship the material god. And I love it. Take away the Christmas music thrumming in the shops, take away the media that starts as early as September getting into the hype, take away family and friends, take away Ebay, Amazon, hell...the internet in general, take away the shelves and shelves of special Christmas produce (actually just take away shops...period), take away the bitter Winter chill and it leaves me at a loss for things to do when the festive season comes around. It was this exact situation that I faced when spending my first ever Christmas in the tropics, on a boat in the San Blas.

Ok so there were no shops, no snow, no music, no familiar faces but I was determined to make Christmas Day feel a little xmassy and had a few tricks up my sleeve to compromise.

Christmas music ~ ipod Christmas playlist

Christmas media ~ when in the UK back in October I stocked up on cheap, small decorations and collected Christmas cards from my well organised family so we had something to open on the day. Family and friends ~ arranged to meet up with two other boats we have called our 'cruising family' so we did have familiar faces to spend the day with.

No internet ~ homemade presents instead

Special Christmas produce ~ San Blas equivalent, a whole chicken which having being involuntary vegetarians for the past year, was by far a better treat than the usual Christmas dinner. Also rather than buying everything, I had to make everything from scratch. This included a gingerbread house!

Winter chill ~ not a lot we could do about that, instead we sweated the day away changing outfits every time we changed course.

My first hot Christmas just wasn't the same but I still had a great day and it made me realise that when we get back to land, one of my requirements is that in the month of December, the temperature is below 30 degrees, preferably with snow! Here's how we spent the day for those interested in what on earth you do on a boat, in the middle of nowhere:

7:00 – Awoke and attempted to swat a fly that had dared enter the v berth.

7:15 – Presented Dylan with his homemade Christmas present. A hand stitched pair of tight white speedos that he loves so much on the French. On the front it says 'I LOVE THE FRENCH' and on the back is the French flag. Due to the lack of material on the front (my inaccurate guesstimate) I doubt these will ever be worn in public!

7:30 – Dylan made us tea and coffee.

8:00 – Put 2 mugs and 2 plates into a bag and headed off for breakfast on Waka Irie. We had decided to do a Come Dine With Me Christmas where each course was eaten on a different boat. Tomato and cheese pancakes were consumed followed by vanilla and nut roll and then a second dessert course of fudge. All washed down with a cup of tea, quite a start to the day and a sign for things to come.

10:00 – Back to Orion where I enlisted the help of Dylan to glue (with icing sugar) my gingerbread house together that I had made the previous day. Thinking ahead I had to purchase the ingredients back in Colombia as no way I could have bought anything in the San Blas apart from bananas, fish and grapefruit.

13:00 – Dinghied to Cypraea where we had lunch. Homemade sushi to start with wasabi that made the eyes water, seafood chowder (we had sourced the seafood the day before on an epic speargun /lobster tickling adventure), 2 whole chickens, potato and aubergine side, gravy, cranberry sauce and smoked turkey, washed down with red wine and beer. Again, all this was thought of in advance apart from the chickens that were purchased from a Kuna who got them from the mainland.

16:00 – Starting to feel a little sick, we dinghied back to our boat for dessert. Tosca Tart, Gingerbread House, Vanilla Cheesecake and Chocolate Log, washed down with rum punch. By that point we were all uncomfortably full, the feeling you only get once a year when you feel obliged to partake in a food eating contest.

17:30 – We all dinghied to a nearby island where the rest of the anchorage had done a pot luck. It was such a hot day with no wind so it felt amazing to dip in the sea.

19:30 – Headed home where we walked straight past the huge pile of dirty dishes.

20:00 – Bed time, food induced!