A bunch of us were sitting around a cockpit, sipping a sundowner, and agreeing we had just had a marvelous "cruising" Christmas. As opposed to the "home with your family" type that we had all left behind. As glasses were refilled, the memories were shared.

John and De, sailing SOTALIA out of Australia, have been cruising for 18 years, including a circumnavigation in their first boat, INNISFREE, claim that their Christmas at the Zululand Yacht Club, in South Africa had been quite memorable. Why? "Just different," De said. "A barbecue, different music, different accents surrounding us. Lots of friendship offered by the yacht club members to us waifs and strays of the cruising life."

Dave and Ziggy have a unique memory of being all alone one Christmas, anchored in Mexico at Isla San Fernando, with the shadows of Mount Natividad providing appropriate shelter. They are Americans sailing KIANA; they have been sailing 12 years, much of which was spent aboard an earlier 24-footer.

For Dan and Donna, circumnavigators and still sailing their INVICTUS after 15 years, it was sharing a Christmas in the company of yacht SILVER HEELS in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The foursome started out the day with gin fizzes at brunch, "and just kept on eating the good things that came out of both galleys all day long" relates Dan. We had met both these boats in Cyprus, in 1989. Dan and Donna, Al and I paused in a moment of reflection, then lifted our glasses to the memory of Bill and Kathy, cruelly murdered in a Caribbean incident some years back.

What about us? Al and I both agree that Christmas in Durban, South Africa, in 1968 rates high in our collection of holiday memories. All the long-distance sailors (We weren't "cruisers" then!) were forced south because of the closing of Suez after the 1967 Israeli War. A Point Yacht Club member, Hamish Campbell, took us all under his wing, offering his beach house for group activities. Al talked Hamish into cooking a pig--in the ground, Polynesian style. The resultant feast was shared by 67 people from 24 boats, representing 13 different nationalities and ages from 2 years to 70-something!

A pig was also the focal point of another Christmas memory, this one 10 years later in Madang, Papua New Guinea. Brian invited all the yachts in the harbor to his bayfront home; he would get a pig. We brought all the "go withs" and all took turns at the handle of the spit, rotating and basting the succulent roast porker to perfection. We still are close to many of the cruisers in attendance that day; their Holiday Greetings brighten SUNFLOWER'S cabin each Christmas.

Now let's skip to 1989. No pigs this time. We were in Cyprus, at the Sheraton Limassol Marina for the Mediterranean winter. I cooked a turkey Christmas Eve to be shared with our new Australian friends Bill and Megan from yacht BELLE. The various liveaboards (perhaps 30?) all gathered at a local restaurant for feasting and funny gifts on Christmas Day. And on Boxing Day (the 26th) about 12 of us went for a walk in the nearby hills, picnicking on turkey leftovers washed down with excellent Cyprus wine, gathering handfuls of wildflowers from the trailside as we made our way back to the Marina. As a Post Script to this: BELLE continued its circumnavigation, Bill and Megan built a new BELLE which they then sailed to Guam in order to have Christmas with us there in 1996!

In 1998 we were again together with BELLE for our first Christmas in Langkawi. This time our group of Christmas cruisers included Nick and Jan, of YAWARRA, also Australians, whom we had first met in 1978 in Papua New Guinea when they were off on their first sailing adventure in a smaller boat, WARLOCK. Our long-time friends Peter and Sandy, yacht RAI REVA, were there, having just crossed the Indian Ocean for the 6th time! Al and I have shared many Christmases with Peter and Sandy, whom we first met in Guam over 25 years ago!

So you can see that the cruising community develops close relationships. Now we know that where ever we are, our Christmas will always be a "home with the family" type celebration--our cruising family.