A nightmare before Christmas

Its Christmas on our boat and we have been getting into the Christmassie mood, last night we danced away to pop Xmas songs until bed time.

The lights are flashing prettily up the mast and over the boat. All our goodies have been bought and we were ready, everything we needed to make chocolate sweets and nut roast, and cook our beef etc etc.

Getting the lights up the mast

 All well until 11.30 pm the night before Christmas eve Lorenzo woke up calling me, I went into the back cabin to find him naked on the floor with the whole bed covered in sick.....Yes loads of it pasta and chocolate was his last meal so you can imagine!!!
  We got him warmed, covered and laid down in the saloon while we cleared up and moved poor sleepy Arthur over who, amazingly escaped the sick patch but hes a dead weight and refused to wake up so Dave was called to help move him over, as I pulled the dirty sheets from underneath him.
  Fat Sam Lolly s toy got dropped into the water while I tried to shake out the lumpy sick sheets, so here I am in the dark in my P,J's with a small fishing net in hand trying to hook it out in the dark while Lorenzo is being sick all over the saloon. So now we have bed sheet, and mattress, blankets and saloon seats all in need of cleaning with hardly any water.
luckily we knew there was a laundrette near by!!
   Now the whole boat is in disarray. The hardest part was the fact that we had just done all our washing and Dave had just got over his sick tummy and diarrhea, were we all going to go down with it, I swallowed a bit of garlic to help prevent it, but getting the boys to do the same wasn't going to happen. I put a small tiny bit in a glass of water and then got them to drink it, they didn't even know it was there.
  I sat up with Lorenzo all night he was sick every hour until 6am, but getting better ever since. But now the wind has picked up and we are bobbing about.    Dave moved us around the other side of pontoon where the wind wasn't pushing and crashing on to the pontoon.

  By the evening the boat was thrashing about like a wild beast, the wind howling and the waves splashing and spraying through the wooden pontoon, i started to hang on tight and get very nervous as our 12 ton boat yanked hard on the ropes pulling at the wooden pontoon. I wondered if we were going to get pulled apart.
 Gale force winds so Dave eased off the mooring lines so the boat would be kept off the pontoon and sit with her stern into the wind which was much more comfy as the bow lines were snatching and I thought the deck cleats would pull out! I had 2 bow lines, 2 stern lines and for an aft springs were both doubled as well! 



Dave put a breast line on from one of the sheet winches so he could get close enough to the pontoon to get ashore and collect the Christmas presents which were in the car. He got very wet! It went on all through the night. We didn't get much sleep, poor Dave slept with his boots on so to be ready for any problems. This was the second night without much sleep for me. And it was still dark when i finally fell into a deep sleep to be woken by Arthur saying Santa had come. Oh my god my eye were glued together and gravity had got heavier!!!!

The calm after the storm Christmas day was unbelievably calm warm sunny beautiful day, We heard the storm was coming back tomorrow so we moved the boat early to a sheltered small marina Bouzigues, ( don't ask me to pronounce that)!!

I drove the car round and watched Lady Bear silhouetted coming through the hazy sunny morning along the now calm water. 

Tucked in safe in the marina,
Dave got the beef on for dinner and we went to play with Arthur's new helicopter and gun and Lorenzo's new tag along bike.

 Played games back on the boat. Dinner was amazing tasty with nut roast, beef, roast potatoes cabbage and carrots.

 Movie of Men In Black while Lorenzo listen to his new french song CD.   Perfect end to a perfect Day! Merry Christmas everyone and heres to a Great New Year to all!!!