CHRISTMAS REPORT – dateline – DECEMBER 2022- LUNENBURG
Mes ami…
Well, we were supposed to be on our way to the Galapagos right now, but it was not to be.
So here we are in wintery gray Lunenburg, Boxing Day +1, with Christmas festivities receding, bobbing gently in the turbulence of our wake. But I am happy to relate that a pretty good time was had by us this Jul-Tide.
The ship is still high and dry at Shelburne shipyard, all painted up and done, awaiting launching, as the ship-yard works on repairs to the busted winch and hauling apparatus that has left us high and dry. We have a good-sized crowd of crew here for Christmas. A few have gone walkabout or headed home for a spell, planning to return to the ship closer to launch time.
Ships work has been set aside. Lots got done, all to the good, but we wait. So on with Christmas!
On December 13 we held a Santa Lucia day feast. This is a very Scandinavian affair. As some of crew are of Scandinavian extraction, not the least Tammy, and bearing in mind this is the first legitimate date we can conjure a recognized Jul/Christmas event allowing for festivities, seemed a good thing to do. “Festivities” often being fun, or something a lot like fun…. So, Santa Lucia was the first Chirstmassy thing to enjoy.
Santa Lucia Day has something to do with a girl or young woman dressed all in white, looking very angelic, wandering all around the house in the morning, singing, with cookies and a crown of candles in her hair. The candles are lit. Sounds pretty hazardous, no? Anyway, later on that very evening Dawson, Tammy and I hosted the Picton Castle crew to a Skandinavian Smorgasbord ‘hos os’ for a seasons get-together. “Hos Os” = chez nous – fyi. Pickled herring, cheeses, hard salami, rye bread, dill butter potatoes, roast chicken, glugg (mulled wine), pies, grapes…. And so on. All very nice and cozy (hyglig) with the wood stove chuckling, keeping us toasty.
A couple of the crew had come up to the house earlier and helped us get the house ready. Window boxes outside were all done up nicely, thanks to Zoe and Sophia. All pretty nice. We had a nice long evening altogether before the crew headed back to the crew house. The crew staying on the ship 90 miles away we would see later for Christmas proper. Dirk would get them all here for the long weekend.
Onward towards Christmas.
The decision was taken that all Picton Castle crew who were around and not heading home for Christmas would convene at our home of some decades, the old (very old – 1760) Bailly House, near the docks of Lunenburg’s working waterfront, for Christmas Day. So, this we did. Midafternoon, all hands trooped in removing shoes and doffing layers of bundling clothes. It got dark soon thereafter, as it might when you are halfway to the North Poles as we are. It had been blowing a stiff gale for a couple days but the wind was starting to lay down. A bitter west breeze and cold whitecaps in the harbour, a few vessels still swinging at their moorings. Outside the weather was frightful, inside all was delightful. It actually was.
A nice Christmas tree selected by Dawson a few days ago was up in the corner of the living room near an old teak chest, and trimmed within an inch. The house was all decorated with lights and wreathes and candles everywhere. Donald had worked his magic – a saint and a magician – (roast beef, roast ham, roast turkey, avocado salad, sauces etc), Tammy made stuffing, roast carrots & beats, small potatoes, salad, Line and Tammy made cookies, Rob chipped in with a nice Brussel sprouts offering, and various other dishes showed up on the now groaning table as well. On the wood stove was a pot of spiced cider bubbling away. Tasted good. With a mug of cider in hand, anyone so moved added another bauble to the tree, already sparkly and shiny and ever so pretty.
What is there to say really? All pretty normal Christmas stuff. No doubt a few were missing home. They may have done so at sea as well. Perhaps some were hoping for snow. I know Dawson and I long for a warm balmy seagoing or island trade-wind Christmas, with bare toes on a pine deck or in the sand under a palm tree. Either one will do. But as it howled outside we had songs of the season on a boom-box I found at a second hand store. Hard to find them these days. These are certified antiques now. And particularly good for sharing music loudly. All the classics, even the annoying ones, and some excellent natty dread-lock reggae Ixmus music too.
We had plenty of warmth by the iron woodstove fire under the low hewn beams of this ancient abode. Plenty food and drink. And small gifts all around with Dawson doing the passing out as befits the youngest crew-member. And best of all, we had lovely good fellowship with our shipmates.
Stuffed to the gills a team helped clean up for the 20 people. And in due course, sweaters, jackets, shoes and boots pulled back on and off into a cold wintery night all went back to their warm bunks.
Sounds a pretty spot on for Christmas to me.