Christmas at Big Major and Staniel Cay

Christmas Eve was another pretty day, and Cecelia and Patrick headed to shore in the morning to clean the three giant conch that Patrick had picked off the seabed the day before. (The conch had spent the night hanging from lines off our stern so they were still alive and in the water.) Levi from 3 Lil Birds joined in the fun as well.

Once they had cleaned it all up, Patrick made some conch salad (with a ceviche approach), using a bell pepper, some jalapeno, onion, and lime juice. That went into the fridge to “cook” and we headed out with 3 Lil Birds to the Thunderball Grotto for some snorkeling. A few folks, had done it the day before but it was worth another trip! We totally forgot the GoPro, ugh! It was pretty cool, not just because it was in a James Bond movie (obviously!), but also because it is pretty neat to swim into a tiny hole under a low overhang and then have the whole thing open up into a giant cave. There were tons of fish, turtles, and coral all around, both inside the grotto and outside along the edges of the rock formations. Totally worth checking out! If we happen to go back on our way headed north in the spring, I’ll post some photos. ๐Ÿ™‚

Cecelia and Patrick had met a boy named Jacob that morning on the beach, and he came by with his dad to invite Cecelia over to play XBox, so she went over to their boat (Exile) for that, and then her friend Leanne on Lucky came by asking Cecelia if she wanted to go to the beach, so Jacob and Cecelia cut their video game short to go have a beach adventure with the kids from Lucky.

Later in the day, we invited all the boats we’d met over to the beach for an impromptu bonfire.

It was nice to relax and enjoy sundowners on the beach. Not the kind of Christmas Eve I can say I’ve ever had before!

The next morning, of course, was Christmas! Santa didn’t forget about us down here in the warm weather, which was a relief. We made coffee, opened gifts, and had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. We called all the grandparents and then just enjoyed a relaxing morning.

We all thought it was a pretty fun Christmas morning.

That afternoon, one of the other cruisers in the harbor had organized for everyone to hit the beach for a pot luck and another bonfire. The kids swam until they were prunes, and we all enjoyed holiday music, delicious food (pumpkin cheesecake?! It’s been so long since I’ve had that!) and good times.

For dinner that night we went back to Staniel Cay Yacht Club for Christmas dinner. Mike took a family photo for us, which I posted at the top of this entry. We left with full bellies and lots of good memories of a different kind of Christmas this year!

2 Replies to “Christmas at Big Major and Staniel Cay”

  1. Melissa,

    This experience of Christmas aboard was absolutely wonderful to see and learn about. The pot luck! The throng of sailors having a Merry Christmas! Awesome!

    The legos look like they are going to free up some valuable storage space.

    Thank you so much for allowing us to follow along with your eloquent, descriptive writing and photos. Iโ€™ve been following religiously – and will continue to do so!

    1. Mike, it’s so nice to hear from you! I hope you and the family are doing well. Glad you are enjoying the blog, and we’ll keep posting about our adventures!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *