Will you be spending Christmas day onboard?

Yes I will be onboard. The cabin will be decorated and the Christmas lights will be up on the dodger much to the delight of the ships cat as he sees many new playthings.

Christmas dinner will be a potluck on the beach with someone responsible for bringing enough turkey to feed the crowd.
 
And at Lat 32S we will as usual have a big hot Christmas Dinner (lunch) at home regardless of the weather. After dinner perhaps I can rustle up enough who want t go for a short sail. Or as often happens just a swim around the boat. Much depends on the weather. Either very mild perhaps 30 degrees or possibly stinking hot at 40 degreees. We note quite a few club members go sailing as a protest against Christmas tradition or because they have no extended family. (UK migrants) olewill
 
Not Christmas Day as it's a work day in the ME. Boxing Day I will be on a friends mobo heading out to one of the islands off Abu Dhabi for a picnic while we all sit in the water to keep cool. More likely to be cold pork based than hot turkey as that is more of a luxury here. I would prefer to be on my own boat, even in the UK weather, it's just not the same out here.Cooked full traditional dinner before and the Eber is quiet and makes it very cosy
 
Seajet said:
Pete,

I found the noise from the Epershacer on a Gib Sea 42 in winter terrible, and the heating effect - mind it might have been a poor installation and there was ice on the pontoons - very weak, hardly worth the effort of turning the thing on, so snuggling in one's sleeping bag was the answer.
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It must indeed have been a poor installation, or a buggered heater, as i've sat on a previous boat of sinilar dimensions I owned with snow falling in a howling gale, and had to open the hatch as it was so hot down below with the Eber running.. agree that they are unreliable little sods though!
 
Phoenix of Hamble said:
It must indeed have been a poor installation, or a buggered heater, as i've sat on a previous boat of sinilar dimensions I owned with snow falling in a howling gale, and had to open the hatch as it was so hot down below with the Eber running.. agree that they are unreliable little sods though!
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+1 - we've been on our boat with 6" snow on the decks and sitting in shorts down below with our Webasto chugging away - managed 24 degrees inside when -4 outside... (we're not normally this extravagant but it was a new installation so we were testing to see how toasty we could get it). :o
 
Yes. We have had Christmas Day afloat every year for the last 10 years. It saves the argument about whose children, relations etc. We have a roast duck - the oven is a bit small for a turkey. Some Christmases we have been at anchor somewhere, some back on the home berth, depending on the weather. Once we called Thames coastguard from 10 miles offshore to wish them a happy Christmas, and another time got a very cheerful blast of recorded carols from one of the windfarm boats. Usually no one else is sailing at all!

One tip - use propane, not butane, to cook with. It takes an awfully long time to roast a duck if you have to keep shaking the butane cylinder to persuade the gas to flow.
 
Fantasie 19 said:
+1! (Boats in the club yard waiting for next spring :D)
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Fantasie 19, Really ?!

I happen to know you have projects in mind, though nothing like the list I have !

I have found to my cost that the run-up to Christmas is the time to get things done, Spring is usually horrible with icy gales and no place for mortals...
 
The offspring, aided and abetted by SWMBO, seem to think Christmas is a good time to come and empty our pantry and drinks cupboard. Christmas on board could save a fortune as you simply can't get 8 (plus hangers on) round the table on a Snapdragon!
 
Stemar said:
The offspring, aided and abetted by SWMBO, seem to think Christmas is a good time to come and empty our pantry and drinks cupboard. Christmas on board could save a fortune as you simply can't get 8 (plus hangers on) round the table on a Snapdragon!
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Good idea, and Darwin should take care of sponging loiterers on the side decks ! :)
 
We have often spent Christmas aboard our little boat, and may well do this year. When we lived nearer the boat we tended to just go out for the day, and our traditional Xmas dinner aboard then used to be frankfurter rolls! I remember being out in the Solent and only seeing two other boats (both mobos) all day.

Our catalytic gas heater is a real boon, and transforms winter boating. Yes, a coal, charcoal, or diesel heater would be better, but space and budget limitations preclude them. Yes, catalytic heaters give off some moisture, but it hasn't been any great problem in practice.
 
Seajet said:
Spring is usually horrible with icy gales and no place for mortals...
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It is usually horrible, but some of us must brave it anyway.

I find these a great help:

images


Pete
 
Not this year. But previously we have spent many Christmases aboard, Mid Atlantic with canned turkey lunch and prezzies on Christmas Eve as a big storm was forecast for the actual day( and it did blow!).Cartagena in Colombia 12 for full turkey lunch with all the trimmings. Anchored behind the reef in the San Blas islands, Panama- freshly made crab cakes and bbq lobster swilled down with fine port. A quiet steak aboard in Colon, Panama waiting for a weather window. Bobbing with the manatees on the Rio Dulce in the jungle.Anchored in the ICW with a broken engine, chowing our way through a massive turkey between open-heart surgery on the fuel injectors. Tied up in the marina in Portugal. I could go on....................!
Always a sit down meal with the decorations retrieved from the deepest cupboard- our tiny tree has travelled with us for over a decade now-still with the same string of lights!
 
There are times when I feel for you people, winter and dinner on board indeed.

Last Christmas here in Oz was plurry hot and humid we ended up parking the cat on sand bank and all got between the hulls under cat with our feet in the wet sand and hulls acting a wind tunnel to give a breeze.

34*C and humidity 98% not a cloud in the sky.

Plenty of ice in the tub and cold beers all day.

Good luck and fair winds, you deserve it...
 
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