Carols, wine and mulled socks
Editor’s note: After numerous complaints about the lack of a blog so far
this year, and few dodgy comments about what the writer should do to the editor
(a subject best left alone as there may be children reading), the Editor has
allowed the up-loading of this first missive of
2009. TDS There was a big build up to Christmas here on
CAPE, starting in November to get the
The The Christmas
Committee There were 23 liveaboards planning to be around for Christmas. We were split into teams – the girls planned the menu, did the shopping and tried to organize the boys, while the boys made the party hats and crackers, sorted the tables and music, and avoided being organized. In true committee style, we girlies met once to discuss the menu, and then again to change our minds (something to do with forgetting the entire meat course!). Lynne (MOYA) did the table decorations, helped by Bethany, and Lynne, Julia (WILD OATS) and Bethany and Bryn decorated the bar. Each boat was allocated a couple of items from the menu to actually prepare and deliver hot to the bar by 14:00 on Christmas Day. Yes, on Christmas Day we were mashing mash for 23! Carols, mulled wine and
socks Christmas Eve saw us having a drink with
Christmas Day Bearing in mind that David and I got to bed at
02:00, Christmas Day started early – 04:00 to be precise – when the children
discovered that Father Christmas had not only managed to track us from
Opening Christmas presents. The children were delighted with their presents, both from friends and family, and from Father Christmas. Father Christmas has a wicked sense of humour – he gave them Heinz Baked Beans (too expensive out here normally) and washing up gloves (because the washing up is one of their boat chores) amongst other things in their stockings.
Moosie opening his present from Bryn – a hand knitted scarf with tassels (perfect for the freezing Sardinian winter). We had a traditional Christmas Day breakfast of Bucks Fizz (for the adults anyway) and chocolate, and then got on with the mash and the famous Bourne chestnut sauce for 23. At 14:00 we all sat down for a full traditional Christmas dinner – including sprouts. Remember that we were a mixed party of Brits, Swedes, Germans, French and Americans, so ‘traditional’ was international. We had German soup with dumplings to start, followed by turkey, beef, and pork, two types of nut roast, stuffing, potatoes (mashed and roasted), carrots, sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli in cheese sauce, chestnut sauce, and gravy. For those who had room, there was a variety of cheesecakes to choose from for pud. We had handmade place names, crackers and hats, and a Secret Santa present.
Christmas dinner, liveaboard style in
David modelling the handmade fez-style Christmas hats and an empty plate.
A rare photo of me, taken against a wintry backdrop.
The German–Swedish contingent – note the excellent artwork adorning the windows.
The American delegation – complete with wondrous star. We had so much food left over we did it all again on Boxing Day (don't you just love leftovers?), followed by charades and Who's in the Bag? We dug out the octave of whistles from the Christmas crackers that Jackie and Stu’ gave us last year and had a riotous hour tooting carols and having hysterics.
Tooting Jingle Bells. We went into hibernation between Christmas and New Year, catching up on sleep, DVDs, reading and chocolate. We got through Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and well into The Thieves of Ostia in Listen with Mother mode. We used money that we were given for Christmas on a 21" TV screen and DVD player, so were able to watch DVDs in comfort (prior to this we squished four of us around my laptop). New Year New Year’s Eve started with a meal of roast pork prepared by Max and Antonello, followed by a big dancey party. I think it was about 05:00 when we finally got to bed we were so busy dancing (my feet were killing me the next day – new boots – I should have known better and worn my Crocs).
Seeing the New Year in by dancing ‘til we couldn’t walk. Moving swiftly on Since New Year the weather has been mainly cool
but sunny, and the sunshine has got everyone out doing jobs on their boats. I
have been up to my old tricks – emptying and repacking lockers – and have
finally thrown away some of the stuff that we have been carrying with us since
we left and have never used. (I couldn’t throw all the potential junk out,
though – what would I do when I felt the urge for a bit of locker
rationalization in the future?) We have settled back into a proper school and
work routine, and have started to plan the rest of the year. In the guitar
department, Sailing is coming on
nicely and the cords for Yellow
Submarine are emerging slowly from On the food front (I know that you’re all fascinated with what we eat and drink), we invited Les and Lynne (MOYA) over for refried bean and turkey wraps, followed by apple and gooseberry crumble (using a tin of vintage gooseberries that we bought in Kwiksave when there was a Kwiksave in Llangollen – one of the more useful discoveries from my recent locker rationalization). We’ve also been to WANDERING DRAGON for excellent burgers with buns, relish and sweetcorn fritters, meringuey-thingy roulade and sticky toffee pudding – and a tad too much port for the adults (I was going to say grown-ups, but that suggested some sort of mature approach to drinking). After all the engine trouble we have had since
leaving the Lies, damn lies and
statistics To distract myself from the thought of lots of work and living on the hard for a while, I had a sneaky look at the blog for this time last year, to remind myself of our ‘vital statistics’ for last year. Since leaving Aberystwyth in April 2007, by New Year 2007/2008, we had: ·
visited 3 new countries – · explored 27 ports, marinas and anchorages · spent 306 hours 58 minutes at sea · sailed or motored 1543 miles · done all of this at an average speed of 5.0 knots. Statistically speaking, our position at New Year 2008/2009 is as follows. Since leaving Portimão on 1 April 2008 we have: ·
visited 2 new countries – · explored 35 different ports, marinas and anchorages · spent 290 hours 38 minutes at sea (equating to 12 days 6 hours and 35 minutes) · sailed or motored 1591 miles · done all of this at an average speed of 5.47 knots. Not bad considering we were laid up with engine trouble for about 8 weeks in total! So, overall, since leaving the ·
visited 5 different countries ( · explored 62 different ports, marinas or anchorages · spent 597 hours 36 minutes at sea (equating to 24 days 21 hours and 36 minutes) · sailed or motored 3134 miles · done all this at an average speed of 5.23 knots. Looking back, my New Year resolutions for 2008
were to stop calling people by their boat names (as they have real names and
David says I must use these instead), and not to overuse and misuse ellipses (…)
in this blog… So after failing miserably with these resolutions, I have decided
that my resolution this year is not to make any. I wonder where we will be this
time next year? (We might of course, still be on the hard here in |