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New Years Eve, Wednesday, December 31, 1997
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New Year's Eve at sea was spent like our other days at sea as there are no holidays on a clipper ship when she is sailing. I imagine we would have been a bit more inventive had we been ashore. But we were a pretty ordinary bunch doing what needed to be done to make our way to Panama. The 8 pm to midnight watch is reported to have blown party whistles into the wind and brought the New Year in approximately 70 miles off the coast of Colombia. Otherwise, all watches worked and slept a full cycle before we all agreed it was 1998.
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New Year's Day, however, was special for several reasons. My watch, the 4 to 8 pm crew, did not have to set or strike sails before dinner! Yes, that meant we could go to dinner shortly after 8 o'clock AND we were having mashed potatoes and gravy! It gets better. It was my day for a shower! AND we decided to break the watch, eat, sleep routine with a video. I'll never forget New Year's Day 1998. Never has early dinner, a shower, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a video been so great. I doubt that you enjoyed your New Years as much as I!
Friday, January 2, 1998
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My fourth grade class at St. Paul's is reading In The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, so they will understand what I mean when I say, "The ocean has been acting like a dragon with hot peppers up its nose." The height of the waves has been incredible, up to 15 feet and coming from many directions all at once, slamming into the hull. It has been an unbelievable and an unforgettable sail from Puerto Rico to Panama, a sail of over 1,000 nautical miles.
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It has been 48 hours of standing watch and observing in quiet admiration as the crew hauls on lines to set and strike many sails day and night to meet the changing demands of wind and waves on Pride II and her occupants. Tomorrow we anchor outside the Panama Canal and await our turn to move through the locks leaving the Atlantic and entering the Pacific Ocean. I'm really looking forward to that experience - I'm told it's fantastic.
Happy New Year!
Your faithful sub,
Dee Shugert
YOUR THOUGHTS
- "I doubt you enjoyed your New Year's as much as I." Write a log entry describing how you spent your New Year's Day. What special customs Do you and your family celebrate that make it a special day?
- The passage from Puerto Rico to Panama was sailed in rough, high seas. Would you prefer that kind of voyage, or a calmer one? Compare your preference with a friend.
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