Marigot Bay St Martin (4)

Oh Christmas Tree….

On the morning of Monday 23 December we discovered that we hadn’t been quite as careful in the course of our engine servicing as we had thought.  In the course of starting and stopping the engine the previous day we had left the battery selector on ‘1’ (the engine start bank) rather than on ‘2’ (the domestic bank).  So by early Monday morning our engine start battery was showing just 7.5V, a voltage far lower than anything we have ever seen before on a 12V system!!  Convinced we had totally destroyed our engine start battery, we started the engine (using the domestic bank) and ran it and then the generator for a time to start to try build up the charge again, more in hope than in realistic expectation of achieving anything.  Happily, luck was on our side and we successfully recharged the battery and, over the course of the next few days, found that it maintained its charge too.  Lars also gave us an old, simple, solar panel regulator so we are now able to put our 2 small, moveable solar panels on deck and use them to trickle charge the engine start battery when we are at anchor for an extended period [Ed: the main 4 solar panels are wired in to charge just the domestic batteries].

Even without the battery faff, the day was going to be a busy one.  We had agreed with Lars and Susan a few days previously to celebrate a Swedish Christmas with them on Sea Wind on 24 December and then to reciprocate with a British Christmas on BV on the 25^th.  With the arrival of Johan and Maria on Samantha, we each extended the invitation to include them, so on the 23^rd we had a lot of shopping to do on both side of the border, as some of the items we planned to serve (custard, for example) were only available on the Dutch side.

Christmas Eve welcome aboard Sea Wind

We spent Christmas Eve morning madly cooking blinis and a mincemeat streusel for the next day before heading to Sea Wind in the middle of the afternoon for Christmas #1.

Toasting a Swedish Christmas aboard Sea Wind (left to right): Susan (Sea Wind), Johan and Maria (Samantha), Nicky, Lars (Sea Wind)

We had a fabulous day with a traditional Swedish buffet lunch – pickled herring (sil), cold meats and smoked salmon, potatoes cooked with onions, cream and anchovies, beetroot salad, cheeses.

A fabulous buffet spread – strange to tell we went back for seconds and thirds!

We ate far too much, and then they brought out the schnapps (to help the digestion!?)……  And when we had talked and sung ourselves hungry again [Ed: was that really possible?], Susan persuaded Lars to light the barbecue for kebabs.  It’s safe to say that we were replete when we left and I’m not sure that anyone felt we needed another Christmas meal just the next day but….

Dressed overall to celebrate

….the 25^th dawned and Nicky and I swung into cooking mode, though we had planned a late meal to make things a bit easier for us all.  We started the day by dressing BV overall – an easy task and one we could then relax and admire with a cup of tea and a light breakfast.  After all the usual preparations (table laying, spud bashing, veg chopping, etc) we were in good order by the time our guests arrived at 1500hrs.

We started in the cockpit with fizz and smoked salmon blinis followed by garlic prawns.

And now toasting a British Christmas on board BV (left to right):  Johan and Maria (Samantha) Lars and Susan (Sea Wind) and Nicky

Dinner we served below, making best use of all our new fans and our 4-way windscoop on the forehatch (thankfully it didn’t rain all day) to keep the air moving and the temperature down.  We’d started the roast chickens off in the oven but moved them to the barbecue to make room to roast the potatoes and rolls of bacon.  We steamed broccoli, beans and carrots, cooked up some bread sauce and, as is Nicky’s way, produced lashings of gravy (which we served in a plastic measuring jug for want of a gravy boat).  Dessert was the warmed mincemeat streusel with custard.  And then there was cheese.  And coffee and chocolates.  Though we say so ourselves it was a good spread and a tasty feast.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, having not ‘done’ a traditional British Christmas for some years and everyone seemed to leave stuffed and very happy.

Marigot Bay, St Martin