Beth swings through the party people in Boddum

Put a bunch of yachties together and someone is sure to come up with an idea for something other than fishing! The get togethers were varied, be it a TGIF (on any day) at the beach camp at sunset, a special holiday, or occasion to celebrate. Let the good times roll...

My birthday. It's in March, and we had celebrated it 2YA with dinner aboard Sunflower. Gary and Genni were the only other boat in Peros Banhos at the time; Genni baked me a wonderful chocolate cake--on the beach on an open campfire!

This birthday we were again in Peros. The weather was just beginning to deteriorate from the influence of Tropical Cyclone Ikala far to the south of us. It was blowing a hoolie--steady 25 knots, but sunny skies and no threat of rain. I answered many VHF calls wishing me Happy Birthday. Al baked me a chocolate cake with--what else--Beach Comber's chocolate butter cream frosting! We invited all the 8 other boats in our anchorage over for the party. The rain very nicely didn't begin until after we'd done the singing, the candle blowing, and the finger licking on our big open foredeck. Then we all gathered under the awning in the cockpit for rum punch and dancing. Well--the dance floor was a bit small, but the frivolity level was high!

Yachties eat well in Chagos--the table of food at Berit's Birthday Party

More birthdays with 24 yachts hanging around in Peros Banhos, and another 50 over in Salomon Atoll, we could probably have had a birthday party nearly every day! It was lovely to help our old and new friends celebrate these special days in such a special place. Depending on the state of the tide we usually gathered on one of our designated "camp" beaches for pot luck and bar-b-que. With variations:

Water sports for Nick--rousing game of water polo with a dinghy at anchor for each goal. Only problem was, the ball kept bouncing out of the dinghies!

The hermit crabs were out all over the beach for Mimi's birthday, so crab races became the game of the day. Berit's big 5-oh had her all dressed up with a special crown and costume made by a fellow Swede who had just gaily celebrated her own big one--60!

After that, Elaine seemed a youngster with her 32nd, and declared a theme of the 70's for her party. Great getups, with lots of tie-dye shirts, head bands, flowery skirts, peace signs and love beads.

Easter. Lucky us; after 6 days of squally, wet, windy weather, the cyclone system cleared out. Our Easter party could be held ashore. We had to play the tides for this celebration--high enough to get across the reef to the beach, but not so high that the beach disappeared all together. Then we had to leave before the water got too low to cross the shallow sand banks and to get over the reef again. Mid afternoon would be perfect, therefore, tea and crumpets. Or whatever your interpretation of that happened to be: hot cross buns, cakes with coconut topping, cinnamon raisen rolls, quiche and even pizza!

	A group of us with Easter bonnets

Everyone was encouraged to wear their best Easter bonnet. Wonderful chapeaux appeared. We recognized many of the basic hats themselves, but tricked up with flowers, net, seashells and oddments, they overcame the ordinary. Al glued many bleached sea urchin casques to his Borneo fisherman's helmet; I added a gold foil wig and lots of curly ribbons to the top of a stiff brimmed hat. Jane had a stuffed cloth parrot jauntily perched on her hat; Allen stuck a Japanese fan into his hat band; Nick had baby coconut fronds tucked in to a cap that made him look like some sort of giant bug!

Cinco De Mayo. I know, it's a Mexican holiday, but any old excuse for a party--right? So we clued in the Aussies, the Kiwis, a few Germans and South Africans in the group at Peros and made big plans. All which came to naught because of the weather: just two days before the 5th, another tropical depression lurking in the area sent much of the Peros fleet scurrying to far flung islands for better shelter. We just barely made it to a sandy spot between Ile Grande Souer and Petite Souer with enough light. We had been there before and kept the GPS coordinates. Jim and Cheryl were following about 10 minutes behind; we guided them in with radio and lights to drop anchor near us. With iffy weather we didn't want to move to where the others were having tortillas and beans, so just the 4 of us partied--Al made the Margaritas and Cheryl did a marvelous pan of nachos to munch. Our tapes of Mexican folk music out-decibeled the wind!

The gang n Sunflower's foredeck for a Sunset-Moonrise Party. The sunset wasn't one of the great ones, but full moon rise was spectacular!

Grand Finale. The BIOT officials and the crew of the Pacific Marlin, the Fisheries Patrol boat, threw a big party aboard the ship for all the yachties. They did a bar-b-que on the deck that included steak, chicken, hot dogs, pork fillets. For once--no fish! We were hoping for salad, but with the mob aboard I think the cook had second thoughts. However, we did have a cup of pistachio ice cream--it was terrific!

The following night we did turn about and hosted the Pacific Marlin crew and BIOT guys ashore for a pot luck. A couple of the fellows went fishing that day and got some nice wahoo, dorado and yellowfin tuna. We offered fresh sashimi, freshly smoked fish and the good old standby: bar-b-que fish fillets. But we had to eat desert first--the ice cream they brought in wouldn't hold either in temperature or quantity until after dinner.

Most of us were preparing to leave during the next few weeks, sailing onward to Seychelles or Madagascar, on the way to Africa. Or like us, returning to Thailand and Malaysia. I suspect that didn't mean the parties and good times would stop in Chagos--they would just get smaller. And we could look forward to reunions with our Chagos buddies whenever we dropped anchors together. Let the good times roll...