Happy Holidays, Everyone!  Winter has arrived in Egg Harbor and we are making the rounds of some terrific holiday parties.  In fact, we have four this week!  We will have to try hard not to over-eat, as our friends are all great cooks, and so the offerings are usually hard to avoid.  I think we’re up to the challenge, but we’ll see.

The boats are wrapped up for the winter and the only boating news is that we’ve sent our sails (our second set) off to SailCare in Pennsylvania for a good cleaning, new telltales, and a proper Quickstep insignia.  When we purchased this set the sailmaker didn’t quite get the “Q” correct and I decided that the boat had to start its second 25 years with the correct insignia on the sail.  Pure vanity, I know.  Our current sailmaker, Dorsal Sails (www.doorsail.com) in Sturgeon Bay tells me that he’s had several customers use SailCare and they expressed complete satisfaction with the firm.  We didn’t need any repairs and aside from missing telltales the sails are in pretty good shape.  I hope the good cleaning will help us get a few more years out of them.  When they arrive, I let you know how SailCare did.

As you can see, Egg Harbor is beginning to freeze over and soon we’ll see ice fishermen out on the bay.  Yesterday I snapped a few photos of the marina and the Egg Harbor public beach and noticed a Bald Eagle watching me from a nearby tree.  As soon as I pointed my camera his way, he took off.  I managed to get him anyway, even if it was from behind.  (click on any photo to enlarge it)

As I said above, I hope you have happy holidays and that you get to spend time with your families and friends.  I also hope you’ll continue to be part of our Quickstep group in the coming year.  Any time you want to contribute, either with an article or some photos, just send your news along to me at Quickstep21@gmail.com.  I’d like to share your news with the rest of our Quickstep family.  Cheers!