10. Deck the Hulls

So Christmas has been and gone and here we are in 2019, all ready for the off. Needless to say, Christmas was somewhat nautically themed.  First, the cake:

I know it’s not beautiful blue seas but it’s probably nearer what they’ll see. I suspect the underwater creatures are not that accurate either in such a sea. Unfortunately the colour of the sea presaged a storm:

One poor boat dismasted totally! You may note that there are only ten; the eleventh is obviously the one John is sailing in and has made it to port already. I’m happy to say that the remainder were unaffected by the storm and made it safely into our mouths, oops, into harbour.

Then the tree. Unfortunately I didn’t get a decent photo but I had bought a dozen or more (remotely) Clipper-related baubles (Santa in a boat, dolphin, anchor which I managed to break!, mermaid tail, penguins, tin of sardines etc). Here’s one:

Then the presents. First from the family there were boats:

There were books on sailing which are to be swapped between them (Team Spirit about a previous Clipper race,  the 1840 classic Two Years Before the Mast and another that seems to be a thriller along Riddle of the Sands lines but I’ve forgotten the title!). We have ALL the Swallows and Amazons (doesn’t every house?) and ROTS already. There was one useful thing (two actually if you count the pack of wet wipes):

An identical watch for both from Gill (other makes are available). I went onto http://www.boats.com and researched the best watches for sailing. Didn’t want to spend silly money as they will undergo some rough treatment, but wanted something that has a chance of lasting the incredible journey. This one has a countdown timer with sync, alarm and alerts. I’m sure they’ll be useful.

Then, a bit of a competition for them, although they didn’t get to do this over Christmas (and someone has not yet even opened the box):

Here’s the finished article which took about 2 hours I’m told.

But just to prove it wasn’t all boats, here is another present:

A clarification to the last post: there ARE three Yankee sails on a Clipper but they are only used one at a time, depending upon the size required.

Coming up next: either more landlubber guff or details of the Clipper Crew Briefing happening on Saturday 19 January. Depends when I next get some free time.