Christmas at sea

[phanakapan]

Just about to leave Gran Canaria for the Cape Verdes or (beyond to Barbados if we manage to miss them!). It will be our longest passage so far, and we have healthy 5's and 6's forecast...

We will probably have Christmas at sea, I am well stocked with canned brussell sprouts, but I'm worried that we'll run out of gas because I have to start boiling them today

 

[Baggy]

Good luck chaps..

Ps the first 5 days at sea are the worst....

 

[Carmel2]

Brussell Sprouts in a confined area!! I hope your gas detector is off!

Fair winds!

 

[Nostrodamus]

It was good to meet you in Brighton, even for a short while.
Have a safe Journey and where ever you are may the wind be in your sails rather than from the Brussel sprouts.
Have a safe Christmas and wonderful New Year.

 

[jonic]

We had an unexpected Christmas at sea once, due to a narrow weather window, on passage from the USA to Nassau Bahamas and it was absolutely magical.

I put out a VHF call at Midnight GMT wishing any Brits in the area a happy Christmas and got several equally happy replies. Then we all raised Christmas lights up the mast and you could see this little stretched out fleet of Christmas passage makers. I'll never forget it.

Here's us on Christmas Morning.

Enjoy and have a good sail.

 

[wazza]

Jonic.. I can understand you being at sea wearing that shirt

phanakapan, good luck & fair winds to you and anyone else who's lucky enough to be sailing somewhere warm during Christmas & beyond...

 

[jonic]

Jonic.. I can understand you being at sea wearing that shirt
.

Luckily I can't get into it anymore

 

[phanakapan]

Every year someone posts this poem, my turn this year...
I'm glad we are just going to have wind- (and it's just been raining hence we're still in port for a few more hours) and not frost sleet and snow!


"CHRISTMAS AT SEA"

The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seamen scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.

They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.

All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.

We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.

The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.

The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.

O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,
Go dancing round the china-plates that stand upon the shelves.

And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day.

They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.
"All hands to loose topgallant sails," I heard the captain call.
"By the Lord, she'll never stand it," our first mate Jackson, cried.
..."It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson," he replied.

She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,
We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.

And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94).

 

[AndrewB]

We will probably have Christmas at sea, I am well stocked with canned brussell sprouts, but I'm worried that we'll run out of gas because I have to start boiling them today

This is going to be your most hassle-free Christmas since you wore long pants, so enjoy!

One Christmas Day in mid-Atlantic we were becalmed and visited by a pod of playful pilot whales. They amused themselves by one diving under the yacht and then, when I peered over the side to see what was happening, breeching suddenly and squirting me with smelly, fishy spray. The squeaks and chirps that ran round the pod sounded for all the world like laughter.

Too late for you this time, but I can strongly recommend a canned whole duck in orange from one of the better French supermarkets.