The Picton Castle crew love to celebrate the holidays – and they do it well. Preparations for the Halloween marlinspike began on October 30th. Georgie, our party planner extraordinaire, came up with the brilliant idea of having a Halloween Twister game. Using an old sheet from the linen chest she and Alex began their furious painting. Later in the evening she and Dave F took it upon themselves to make sure that there were not only tricks, but treats for everyone. By the dim galley light Dave made his famous fudge – generously allowing me to lick the bowl. The next morning, despite the heat, Alex, Joh, Dave, Sophie and Georgie were back in the galley baking chocolate chip cookies, rice krispie squares and toffee.
At 1600 on Halloween day people began emerging from their living spaces in some serious – or seriously hilarious or seriously scary – costumes. The creativity of the crew never ceases to amaze me. With limited options, being that we live on a sailing ship with no costume shop or general store, they somehow manage to create the most fantastical characters and dress up in the wildest and weirdest outfits.
This Halloween we had quite the guest list. We had a zombie, a hula dancer who died from a hula-related death, a train robber, a cowboy, a fashion designer’s worst nightmare, the corpse of a man who had died by being trampled at a zebra crossing, a 4-8 trainee, a flying monkey, a retired foosball player, three blind mice, a skeleton, a witch, a black cat, a good devil, an angel, a Nascar fan, a zombie bride, a vampire, a Pitkerner, a ski ‘bum’, a 70s intellectual on an acid trip, a man eater and a cannibal, a bag of flour, a tourist, a fortune teller, the lead cop in the instantly classic Bollywood movie “Da Bangg”, John Lennon, a mermaid, an elf, Papa Smurf, a Picton purple pumpkin, and a pirate. Yes, indeed we seemed to have it all.
Twister was a great success. Those participating had a riot and those watching were thoroughly entertained. Perhaps the funniest round saw the three-blind-mice struggling to play the game – Georgie and Alex had not thought to put braille on the sheet. Even the turtles got a turn at the game…
Cheri, Rebecca, Davey, Dave F, Niko, Robert and Liam took to the hatch to ‘thrill’ us with the choreographed dance from Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Jimmy would have been proud. After sufficiently gorging ourselves on sweets we too took to the hatch – dancing, jumping and swinging until the bell for dinner rang and it was time for this party to end. Grownups acting so silly…
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