Race 5 included our transition from cold weather to hot weather, Christmas, and New years along with our second win!
This transition gave me a taste of the next two races to come… and I became aware of how much I love cold weather sailing over hot… I am looking forward to leg 6 where we will be back in cold weather conditions but need to keep my head in the game (even if it is hot) for the next couple of races.
As far as Christmas goes, we started planning our Christmas celebration a few days before we left port in Fremantle, Australia. I sent out a text on WhatsApp. It read,‘Ho ho ho! Christmas is just around the corner. You are cordially invited to the 2023 Ha Long Bay, VietNam Christmas Party on December 25, 2023! Please take some time in the next couple of days in Fremantle to pick up a present for our White Elephant Gift exchange! Presents should be $30AUD or less. The rules of the game are enclosed.’
It was an interesting feeling setting out to celebrate Christmas when it was so warm and I was so far away from home.
After the text went out, I set out to gather decorations and a gift. I picked up some tinsel, some battery-operated Christmas lights, and a small Christmas tree. I also came across a particularly perfect elf costume that included a top, hat, and booties that fit over my Musto boots!! I was worried about balancing enough decorations to make it feel Christmas-y but not too much because it is a small space that already feels a bit cluttered. I didn’t realize that Clipper was also sending a care package with some more tinsel, candy canes, some decorative hats and glasses, and various Christmas treats! I stored most of the Christmas decorations in my cave locker but didn’t have room for the ‘Christmas Crackers’ which I thought were actual crackers so I stored them with our snacks and hoped no one would eat them before Christmas… Ella stored all the presents in her upper bunk.
A few days before Christmas, I received the green light to decorate! Every handrail was adorned with tinsel in an array of colors: silver, red, gold, and green. I wrapped the two poles at the aft end of the galley with the battery powered lights, one white and one red. I put the candy canes in the netting on the cave lockers in the saloon and set the Christmas tree out. Our stuffed animal frog with a custom knitted Christmas jumper was also put out on display.
On Christmas day, we had the most amazing Christmas lunch prepared for us by Vicki who also happens to be a professional chef. Not sure if this was coincidence or planned to have the professional in the galley on Christmas but it was a welcomed and appreciated treat! We had ham, rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes and onions, cabbage, honey and thyme carrots, courgette (aka zucchini), and home-made cranberry sauce along with various desserts.
Anyone who had brought Christmas outfits wore them to our party. Josh and Ella gave personalized Christmas cards to each crew member.
As we talked about the rules of the White Elephant Gift Exchange, the crew voiced that they would prefer to play the game of picking presents without opening them and then open them all at the end. So we each drew our numbers and either picked from the pile or stole a present based purely on packaging or who we wanted to steal from. Then we opened them in order from smallest to largest number. There were plenty of sweets, some useful multi tools, sharpies, a disposable camera, water bottle, mug, drinks, socks, shirts, hats, games to play on board, and plenty of laughs. Most people ended up getting a gift that was actually quite fitting, ironically. I have had trouble keeping track of my mug and lost one overboard just a few days into Race 4 and happened to receive a new one in my favorite color! Mark who collects caps received a cap and Ross who was light on snacks received plenty of snacks. Vicki received a collection of items including some pretty adorable koala socks that she was so excited to wear. Paddy received some coca cola and an ugly Christmas shirt that I think he planned on keeping (I would have re-gifted it or thrown it out). Our head of engineering received a multi tool. The array of wrapping jobs also lent itself some laughs.
We concluded with the Christmas Crackers which I learned are not edible crackers. They are three tubes fixed together by perforated sections with the middle tube containing a small plastic toy, a joke, and a tissue paper crown. A person pulls each end of the cracker ripping it at one of the perforated sections and the person that gets the middle tube, gets the contents of the cracker!
This Christmas felt much different than back home. I must confess, I haven’t made it to Christmas dinner with my family in quite a few years. I have been caught up with work and travel and my own life. Celebrating Christmas onboard gives a different perspective. I haven’t recalled feeling homesick or wishing I was with my family for Christmas in previous years, but it was at the forefront of my mind this year as I celebrated with my team. Something about being committed to this race and not necessarily having the option to go home for the holidays makes it much more appealing.
This will always be a Christmas that I will remember but I am looking forward to spending the next one with my family again.
A week later was New Years. My watch was off when we crossed into the New Year according to boat time but I remember being vaguely woken by the countdown that I heard on deck along with the cheering. There are numerous quotes about time and how we spend our time here experiencing life in these awesome human bodies. I am moved by a lot of them. But somewhere in my contemplations as we sailed into the New Year, I had some old memories drift back to the forefront of my thoughts of how we choose to live our lives and what to focus on with our time here.
I remember hearing a concept from a friend years ago. And it has been expressed to me in a few different ways. I had one friend that would ask himself 3 questions to make a decision, Do I honestly love this? Does this make me money? Am I serving someone else? If the answer wasn’t yes to one of these, he wouldn’t do it. If it was no to all three, he would decline the activity. How many times do we find ourselves doing activities that we are not passionate about and that don’t serve who we are and what we want… I have heard of families making a mission statement about what is important for them to focus on. The print and have it posted in their home to reflect on often.
I made an attempt to write a life mantra a while back. I jotted down what success would look like for me and broke it down by areas in life: money, travel, time, friendships. After some contemplation here is what I came up with, “I am on a mission to experience all that this beautiful world has to offer. I live to be inspired and hope to inspire others. I believe in taking risks, chasing dreams, loving people, exploring, learning as much as possible, and constantly reminding myself that life is meant to be an adventure in itself.” I can admittedly say it is a bit long winded and still needs work. What I realized though, is that when I have been in survival mode, this hasn’t even crossed my mind. I didn’t have room in my head to focus on inspiring others or loving others because I was consumed with myself. It is in this race, that I realize I forgot the perspective that I wanted to live my life from. Maybe I can start taking some baby steps to being patient and loving and working to grow and help others grow again
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