I am one of those slaves of tradition when it comes to Christmas, but this year I somehow have managed to put aside everything about Christmas. Of course, the people here in Caribbean also celebrates Christmas, but apparently without Christmas tree and so far I haven't seen Santa Claus. Doing a sort of halfway Christmas celebration is nothing for me, I am all or nothing, so I decided to celebrate more traditional next year, and follow the chill Caribbean Christmas style this year.

Christmas Eve was celebrated on the beach together with grilled chicken and our sailor friends, simply another kind of Christmas. As a slave of Christmas tradition I am big fan of Christmas food and I really miss Grandma's, for Christmas special made meatballs, but I must admit that waking up on Christmas Day not feeling sick in your stomach due to too much eating, was rather nice. Instead of continuing eating leftovers as usually on Christmas Day, we went on a little trip to the eastern side of Bequia, called Friendship Bay. The taxi ride there was one of those interesting ones upon an open platform of a pickup. All due respect to air-conditioning, but riding a pickup is the best cooling you can get in these tropic areas where the temperature in both air and water is constantly around 30 degrees C. Friendship Bay mostly consist of a nice beach and a chill restaurant where we had ice creams while overlooking the bay.

One Christmas tradition was actually kept, the one occurring on the night of Christmas Day when all old friends who have returned back to their parent's home get together and have a catch up party. The only difference this time was the fact that the party consisted of new friends rather than old friends. I think we had as much fun as you guys back home, but I miss all my old friends very much and I send you a special greeting in this!

After having celebrated Christmas and enjoyed the chill atmosphere in Bequia, we continued further south the day after Christmas Day. We ended up at anchor outside an island called Canouan about 20 miles from Bequia, where we were warm welcomed on the VHF by the two Norwegian boats Duffen and Trollwind. Except free wifi, a stunning beach and tasty drinks, Canouan didn't have much else to offer. Consequently we had seen it all in one day and continued the next day, the day of Helena's birthday. We sailed to an island called Mayreau and anchored in Saltwhistle Bay. Mayreau is a small, beautiful island with no airport and hardly any roads making it very quiet and chill. This is a kind of paradise island where you can stroll down your own beach, climb up in a palm tree and take those typical paradise pictures: it's just wonderful out here! We celebrated Helena at the beach restaurant and had a lovely night.

Yesterday I and the crew of Safari took a walk in to the little village in Mayreau, a 20 minutes walk up and down the hills. When we arrived up on the top of the island we had a wonderful view and could see the famous Tobago Cays, an island chain we soon will visit. Our intention was to find food, fresh fruits and vegetables in the village, but since the supply ferry hadn't shown up that day, the stores were almost empty. Instead of fruits we found some restaurants and bars and among them a typical Rastafarian restaurant with a true Bob Marley feeling, where the manager looked like Bob himself. Christianity is dominant around the islands here in St Vincent and the Grenadines, but Rastas can be find here and there. However, very few really practice the Rasta religion when it comes to faith, they are more focused on the other parts of the religion, as for instance music, weed and fashion. After having imbibed the Rasta spirit we continued home and later the Cantare kitchen served a tasty orange and garlic fried tuna.

Today it is another sunny, hot day in paradise and on the agenda is planning New Years Eve. What to do and what not to do? Party with the celebrities on Mustique or chilling on the boat that is the question. At the moment we think it will be some kind of combination… /First Mate