The end of the year is approaching, and with it comes the festive season. As yachties we have to make some sacrifices for the love of the job. One of those sacrifices is that we often miss family holidays. Whether you're spending this winter in the yard or you're finding warmer pastures, the festive season can make us miss home a little bit extra. In today's post I'm going to share some ideas on how to make the most of your winter yard period, keep spirits up and if you have guests on, how to make it an unforgettable experience for them.
Winter Yard Period
If you find yourself in a cold and wet shipyard this winter, don't despair. While it's not the ideal for most of us sun loving yachties, it does provide an opportunity for us to slow down. A winter yard period gives us an opportunity to get into a routine, and live more of a 'normal' life. We can find local fitness classes to attend, a regular coffee shop or bar, maybe even meet some new friends in the area.
Spending an extended period of time in one place, with an established routine also gives us an opportunity to learn new skills. You could find something in the area : like painting classes, pottery, carpentry, or even learning a new language. Get a few crew members involved and it could be really fun and 6 months later you may have found a new lifetime hobby, or be able to speak another language. If there are no in person courses in the area, find something online. There are an abundance of online courses, you could literally learn anything. Check out Masterclass or Udemy which are some of my favourites. If you don't feel like paying, Youtube also has a ton of valuable information.
You could also spend time doing yachting courses, there are a few online yachting courses. For those working on deck it is always a good idea to brush up on colregs or work on your training record book (TRB). Make sure all your sea time is up to date after the season and that you are counting those yard days. Trust me, as someone who has just gone through the process of verifying all my sea time, it would have been a lot easier if I had been more on top of it continuously.
Merry Christmas
Christmas is approaching and unfortunately as yachties we miss a lot of Christmas's back home. It can be difficult to be away from family during this time of year, especially if it is your first Christmas away from home. Be especially considerate to others around this time, since they could be longing home more than usual.
It's not all doom and gloom though, now that the family aren't around you can have an awesome Christmas with your yachting family. This being said, not everyone celebrates Christmas, respect this, but that doesn't mean you can't have a good time together. Put effort into your onboard festive season, decorate the crew mess and put up a Christmas tree. You could even get an advent calendar going where the watch-keeper for the day gets to eat the daily chocolate.
Organising a Secret Santa is a fun way to share gifts without having to buy for every crew member. There are two ways you can do it (well, probably many more): The first is to draw names out of a hat, and everyone has to buy a gift for that person - within a set budget. Another way to do it is more like a game, the game is called Yankee Swap according to Google, although I've never heard of it being called that. It involves everyone buying a gift , at the set price, and wrapping the gift. On Christmas day you draw numbers, whoever draws number 1 can select any of the wrapped gifts (except your own), and open it. Whoever draws number 2, can select any of the remaining gifts , open it, and decide whether they want to swap with number 1 or keep their gift. It keeps going like this until everyone has opened a gift, and decided whether they want to swap or not.Then number 1 can decide whether they want to swap with anyone in the room or keep the gift they currently have. Whichever gift you end up with, is yours to keep. Bartering and deal making are encouraged.
Guests on? Merry Christmas!
If you are going to have guests on for Christmas this year, things will look a little different. I would still encourage you to decorate the crew mess and do some kind of Secret Santa game. However it is unlikely that you will be getting stuck into the mulled wine as the priority is the guests of course. If your guests celebrate Christmas this is a great opportunity for you to surprise them with an amazing Christmas holiday.
Guests with children will be forever grateful if you can keep the kids entertained and having fun. This is easy because kids love Christmas! You could play up the whole Santa visit: as it gets closer and closer to Christmas day keep dropping hints to the kids about how Santa will arrive onboard and deliver gifts. On Christmas eve you could make it look like Santa has visited the boat, place half eaten cookies around, maybe some snow boot marks somewhere, get creative. Someone could even dress as Santa on Christmas day and really get the Christmas cheer going.
If there are no children onboard, you can still decorate the boat to emphasise the festive season. Put fairy lights everywhere. I've even seen a boat with a Christmas Tree shaped lighting display on their mast. I'm not sure what the ColRegs say about those light signals, but it looked festive from across the bay. You could organise movie nights onboard with classic Christmas movies combined with delicious hot drinks and candy canes - this will certainly get everyone in the Christmas spirit.
If you have guests onboard over the festive season, it is likely that you are in the Caribbean, or at least somewhere warm. On Christmas day, what could be better than a braai (BBQ) on the beach? My northern hemisphere friends may disagree, but coming from the Southern Hemisphere, where Christmas is always midsummer, there is nothing better than a braai and a swim on Christmas day. Get the Webers out, get the umbrellas out, get the ball games out and make an awesome beach setup for the guests. Get creative with games and create some kind of Christmas Olympics where crew and guests compete in multiple teams, for the ultimate prize - a year of bragging rights!
Conclusion
Whether you're in a cold shipyard or out in the Caribbean, spending the festive season away from family can be difficult. Don't let that get you down, get creative and put effort into making your onboard festive season as much fun as possible. Your yacht crew are your second family, so enjoy the time with them. Share stories among the crew, everyone has at least one funny family Christmas story that they could share. If you're passionate about giving your guests an amazing holiday, the festive season is the best time to do something different and a little special. Make the most of it and watch their faces light up.