Race 5 - Day 11
Crew Diary - Santa Claude
01 January
Hi there! My name is Santa Claude and I’m a cuddly Christmas Tree living on the good ship Dare to Lead. I belong to the great family of Christmas Trees with a wide variety of relatives all around the world. Some of us are pine trees, some plastic and some are made of soft cuddly velvet – I belong to the latter species. Our most important job is to put a happy smile on everybody’s face. Without exaggeration I’d say I do a perfect job here!
My journey started out in China (that’s whats the tag says on my bottom), somehow I ended up in a shop in Fremantle. A guy called JimJimJimJim bought me – most confusingly he has several names i.e. Jimothy, Jimbo, Jimmy bear...I’m not sure whether this is really all one person?!
I live on the galley bench, securely fastened with bungee cords so I’m not toppling over. Unfortunately, some crew mates don’t regard me as equal crew member and just sit on me and squeeze my little pointy star – ouch! However, there are others who then take care of me, put me back onto my seat and cuddle me gently. That’s what I like!
At the beginning, I was just called the ‘cuddly Christmas tree’ however, one day our skipper decided that I definitely belong to the crew and need a proper name – what an honour! Numerous suggestions were made but Guy then finally decided to baptize me ‘Claude’ and as I’m a Christmas Tree it’s ‘Santa Claude’. You can’t imagine how proud this made me.
Since that time, I’m striving even more to be the best cuddly Christmas Tree ever! As a fully accredited crew member, I also keep all boat secrets. What happens on the boat stays on the boat I’m told. I not allowed to spread word about who is roaming in the middle of the night the cookies or the peanuts, who is using more than one hook in the wet locker, who takes the last role of toilet paper without restocking, who knows where the secret stash of chocolate lives (except for Michelle)...I’m certainly not going to tell. I swear by my shining star!
Happy New Year to all our followers and loved ones!!!
The Sailing Austrian – Ghostwriter
[Santa Claude]