We invited some of our cruising friends for dinner the other night, including Stephen and Debbie from s/v Amelie (shown in this photo), Heather from s/v Crazy Daisy (her husband Bob is off island) and Maurice and Dieuwke from s/v Atmos of Amsterdam. We served chicken Marsala with a side arugula salad, and as the Brits are fond of saying, a few bits to nibble on as appetizers (goat cheese/ginger preserves on crackers, cream cheese with pomegranate chili jelly on crackers). In honor of the Dutch we served Speculoos with biscuits (cookies) for dessert, which we would have done even if we weren't in Dutch territory. The Dutch friends we've met along the way appreciate this but no one else has ever heard of it. We are grateful to friends on s/v Saralane for introducing it to us, as addictive as it is.

Dinner parties on sailboats can be challenging in the preparation although typically lots of fun when everything is put together. Without air conditioning the boat gets very hot when we're down below getting things ready, and forget it if you suddenly need to make a quick run to a grocery store for items forgotten or missing or gone bad (half the arugula wilted so the salads were smaller than they would have been--darn!), and the water consumption is far more than normal from washing everything by hand. It's a miracle when we actually find enough utensils, plates and glasses to serve a party of 7 or 8. But we pulled it off and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, as did we. We've been treated to wonderful meals on both s/v Amelie and Crazy Daisy and were pleased to reciprocate. As Luna will describe, she was beside herself with well-behaved excitement to see all those people climbing aboard her boat. She was firmly convinced they all came to visit her, which maybe they did. Poor girl needs more fun on a daily basis.