Thanksgiving…. and Christmas came early

Even though its almost summer we are getting more of a winter experience down here in the fjords! Monday we headed to Caleta Olla, due to predicted bad weather. It was also the day that we had declared as Thankgiving. On a boat, with limited references to the outside world, why not declare Thanksgiving a few days early. One of the main reasons for the early holiday was so that we could decorate for Christmas and enjoy christmas songs before leaving Quijote for Buenos Aires and then work. As we entered the cove, it was late in the day and often what happens is we all get involved in securing the boat, come back in side, hungry, wet and tired and then have to start preparing dinner. This time we thought we were smart and Tesia stayed below while we placed the anchor and mooring lines, which was not 100% straight forward due to the wind direction. Tesia cooked an amazing thanksgiving dinner, complete with her imported Cranberry sauce, which is impossible to find in Argentina. We had mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and roasted beef for dinner followed by pumpkin pie. The first time to eat Pumpkin pie for our two Buenos Aires friends visiting. The next day we were able to decorate the limited space that we have for christmas. We have a string of stockings and a foldable “christmas globe”. It was a grey day and we got in a hike. Santa though surprised us the next day with a FULL day on contasnt snow AND wind blowing nearly constantly between 25 and 30 knots and gusting up to 45!!! We were suddently INSIDE the snow globe. Horizontal snow ALL day. In the morning we made Norwegian christmas Santa’s (Jule nisse’s) and in the afternoon we all ventured out on a hike to enjoy the gusty, gloomy, Winter weather (again, despite being nearly at the end of Spring!) The hike was fantastic – we went up a hill that overlooks the Beagle, so we got the full force of the wind! We then continued walking along the beach, which was more protected. Along the Hike, Tesia managed to invent numerous games, including a baseball game, and a bocce-like rock throwing game. And for any Outdoor Action readers, at the top of the hill, we managed to “Go Bananas”. Once back, we zipped over to a fishing boat anchored in the same cove and we traded a liter box of wine, a box of milk, and 2 packets of cookies for a large fresh fish (its a white fish that we are still determing the name of in English). So tonight instead of the planned lentil stew – its FISH stew!! ***You can send FREE text messages to us at http://messaging.iridium.com number: 881631529272