Forests are not common in this part of Portugal.  Pine trees are scarce.  So the Portuguese decorate artificial trees for Christmas. There are plenty of these.  In malls, they have artificial trees four stories high!  In homes, offices and in stores,  we have seen artificial trees that look real, and  some that are shiny silver, pink, white, tall, skinny, short and fat. But all artificial. Nothing real.

So when our new friend Eric told us about a place in the town of Perede that sells live cut trees, we were excited!  Eric offered to take us there in the marina’s new shiny NIssan 4 door pick up, a perfect truck to haul our new tree!!

   We bought this current boat in 2001. And although I’ve always had a live cut tree in my studio, we never had one inside any our boats.  When my Dad was alive, it was a ritual, he and I would  go to what ever Christmas Tree Lot he’d pick, and we’d do the classic thing of shaking the trees, standing back, checking them out and then picking the perfect tree for our house.

Robert and I  have been continuing this tradition for over 20 years, either buying a tree for our first apartment, or whatever studio I was working in.

    But the year 2001 was the first year we actually bought a tree for inside the boat.  It was hardly a tree. Just a little thing. A “Charlie Brown” tree. But it was a real cut tree, that had a trunk and smelled like pine.  It was small enough to put on a shelf in the boat, on top of built-in cabinetry. We strung lights on it and it was beautiful! Then the next year we spotted again a perfect little boat tree, along with the big and tall studio tree, and brought them home. Only the boat tree was too big for the shelf spot.  So we made room in the corner of the cabin floor and put it up.  Amazingly, there was still room to move about the cabin!  And so it started, the live cut tree inside the boat. Each year it got a bit taller. and a bit fuller,  until we knew exactly how to pick out the perfect size.

     We tried all different kinds of pines, loving each one. The collection of tree ornaments grew.  Last year’s tree was spectacular! Full of lights and ornaments! Even the cats treated it with respect.  Barely knocking off more than 3 balls. 

   When we seriously talked about where we would spend the “Winter After The Ocean Crossing”, our main concern was  boat safety.  A good protected marina with a seawall,  protected harbor, or river was on the top of the list.  But so was Christmas.  I suggested that we stay in a Christian country, like somewhere in  Europe, as opposed to, say, Morocco,  so that we could have a “normal” Christmas. Even though it wouldn’t be at home in Annapolis.  But we could at least get a Christmas tree!!!

    And here we are, December already!!  And we’ve chosen Oeiras Marina for our Christmas stay due to several things. One being the friendly people here, and two being they let me use a spare room to paint.  We had some engine work done back in Amora, that took over 30 days to complete, largely due to finding parts and shipping. Then we stopped here in Oeiras on our way south, and we discovered that our bronze steering arm , the one that snapped like a pencil in the now famous  “Tornado Of Virginia”, was so severely twisted, that is would have been foolish to go off shore as it was. It was a time bomb that could either last years, or snap again at any time!

     We found the most wonderful welder, Paulo Fonseca, of Ocean Steel, in Cascais, who said he could make a new one out of solid stainless steel.   The best part was Paulo liked my paintings so much he offered to trade his work for  a painting.  But the canvas he brought  to the boat was too big to even fit in the companionway!!    It was the marina staff who suggested we call Paulo in the first place, and so there was not even a hesitation when I asked about borrowing space to paint, and they set me up in a terrific room!

The painting took some time. And during this time, we’ve come to really like the people here. We liked the people in Amora too, but this is a better place to be living on a boat. Lisbon is 30 minutes away and a beautiful city this time of year. Cascais is even closer, and my heart skips a beat every time I go there. It was the first landfall on the main continent. A huge deal for me!!  Sailing all the way across the Atlantic, from our dock in Annapolis, to the Marina de Cascais!  What a thrill! And Cascais is also beautiful this time of year. Less tourists , and all lit up for Christmas!  When I saw all the lights, I got so homesick for Annapolis, I nearly cried.  But we are in a good place here!

We’ve been doing a little shopping, and we shipped off gifts for family. I’ve pulled out all the decorations for the boat and put a bunch of Christmas CD’s in the CD player.  But we still didn’t know what to do about the tree.  We really didn’t want to spend money on a fake tree, not just because of tradition, but where would we store it?   So when Eric told us about the place in Perede that sells real trees, we were estatic and ready to buy our boat tree!!

Perede is a sweet little town. A mix of old and new. Some winding street, some hills, and close to the beach.  I felt like a kid in the back seat of the Nissan, peering out the window looking for the trees for sale!  I was looking for the string of lights around perhaps a section of a parking lot, or a giant  inflatable Frosty the Snowman, next to a grassy lot full of trees!!!!!

   But Eric pulled up and parked next to what I swear is the tiniest RV trailer I’ve ever seen, with maybe 6 or so cut branches on the ground next to it.

????????????????????????

These were branches!!  I suppose if you squint, use your imagination, and maybe put down a couple of bottles of wine, they might begin to “resemble” a tree.  But these were in fact branches. No trunks in sight. 

But we bought one anyway.  We put our Christmas Branch in the back of the Nissan and headed back to the boat, with me sitting in the back seat longing for the string of lights around  Frosty and the lot, and the mandatory tree shaking, trunk cutting and net wrapping tradition.

Our branch is sitting in a bucket of water in the cockpit, waiting for us to get its corner ready, where we will make every attempt to decorate it, and maybe it will look like a tree.  Maybe. Wine will be needed.  (plenty of THAT here)

So Merry Christmas to all!   Happy New Year!     And if you have a tree,  hug it for me!!!!