The day finally arrived today. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived on board Leu Cat. Of course they were dressed up in disguises. They looked just like Mary and Greg but I knew better. After all, they came bearing all kinds of goodies and gifts!

One of the many benefits of having friends come to our boat is that they bring all kinds of goodies from the US for us. It is usually such things that we just cannot find or buy wherever we are anchored. In this case, I am referring to Namibia and before that, South Africa. Whenever this occurs, it feels like Christmas time to us.

I had driven out to the airport with Michael, my local taxi cab driver. When we arrive, about 15 minutes before the plane was supposed to arrive, we discovered that it had already landed and we saw people leaving the small terminal and loading their bags into cars. I guess the airline was trying to make up for being two days late!

As Michael stopped the car I spied Mary and Greg hauling a large load of bags. As I later discovered, a few bags had their clothes but the really big bags were load with the various goodies we had ordered.

It was so good to see them and it seemed like it took no time at all to arrive at the waterfront, load up our little dinghy and whisked them away from the dock. When Mary Margaret greeted them on Leu Cat we were all smiles….they had finally made it!

The afternoon seemed to fly by between unpacking, looking over the various goodies they brought for us, and talking, talking and talking. It was great. We did all of this over some smoke fish dip I made which paired well with the homemade seed crackers that Mary Margaret had made and the bubbly that we uncorked for the celebration. Right before dinner, Greg and I retired to the Florida Room (our enclosed stern cockpit) where we each enjoyed a nice Cuban and a glass of bourbon. Ah, now this is the cruiser life!

Soon, Mary Margaret was calling us in for dinner. She had ladled up some nice large plates of her wonderful beef stew, while Mary served the salad. We had a blue cheese dressing to go with the salad that was homemade from the wheel of Gorgonzola we had bought in Franschhoek while back in South Africa. The dinner was paired with a bottle of Pinotage that we had bought while at the Groot wine farm, near Cape Town. Life is good, especially being a foody onboard Leu Cat!

The meal ended with Mary Margaret presenting her Pots of Gold dessert. This is one of her many specialties. It is a very heavy, rich chocolate mousse. I had challenged everyone to see if they could finish their portion because it is so rich. To my surprise, they all did and they were all proud of making that achievement.

The rest of the evening was spent with Greg trying to get the Iridium Go that he had brought for us to work. I am sorry to report that it will take at least another evening of work on that front to be successful. While he was able to get us connected, the darn thing was not downloading the weather information we had requested. This stuff can be so frustrating at times, especially when we are isolated in remote Luderitz.

Tomorrow we hope to go on tour to see the old diamond mine ghost town and then the coast line, including Point Dias. It may be a bit windy which will cause the sands of the sand dunes to blow. We shall see…