My Favorite
Christmases
Three
Straight Christmases on a Deserted Island
Ron
Alexander
With about 20
students on board for our Marine Science under Sail, we celebrated our third
straight on a beautiful deserted Cay called Little San Salvador. It lies only about 25 miles South of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Little San Salvador has a large anchorage with
turquoise clear water and a large pink sandy beach. At the Southern tip is a
orange, green, red, blue coral reef loaded with a sparkling rainbow-colored
marine life plus edible fish & lots of
lobster and conch.
I enjoyed
being away from stores and the
heightened commercialization of the holiday. Our celebration was simple. The
nearby reef was an abundant hunting ground, and we captains and crew caught and
cooked a sumptuous feast – lobster, grouper, and the versatile conch – conch
salad, conch fritters, & fried conch for the Christmas Day Dinner.
Early on Christmas day we drew names for gifts.
Only one gift per person, and with nowhere to make a purchase, it would require
some ingenuity and creativity. I will never forget the sweetness and humor
provided by these simple gifts handed out after dinner on Christmas day. A nice
little manger scene crafted from pieces of
coral found on beach was my favorite gift. A funny little poem composed
especially for the recipient was a welcomed frequent read during the after
dinner exchange. I usually gave a nice shell
I found while hunting underwater or sometimes a specially prepared (sautéed
with ginger sauce) lobster tail for an addition to the meal. Singing Carols
after dinner, what could be better?
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