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We've had a really lovely Christmas in Langkawi this year. I baked cookies -- my yearly labor of love. We decked the halls -- only a little as we are still moving around the anchorages and my Christmas tree is definitely a stay at home proposition. We hung up last year's Christmas cards though. Never seem to get most of them until about February anyway, so I always save last year's batch to use for the following Christmas! We joined yachting friends for Christmas Eve dinner at a local hotel, then I produced a pumpkin pie for the potluck feed with 4 other boats Christmas Day in the anchorage.

The watchword among the cruising community in this area is "Phuket for Christmas and New Year." I didn't want to do it. I didn't have a very good time the one Christmas we spent in Phuket in 1991. I didn't feel I had to be a sheep with the herd. I feel Christmas is a personal holiday, not dependent on venue for success. But New Year's is a different story, especially this one with its Millennium Celebration. Patong Beach in Phuket is renowned for its craziness and the fireworks at New Year. Since many of our good friends had gone to Phuket for the holidays and would be there, I bit the bullet. We packed away some of the tinsel, stowed the boat, and had a FAST overnight sail to Phuket, Thailand.

We sat in the cockpit under the dodger, hiding from the occasional spray, and recalling other places we had been and other New Year's Eves we had celebrated during our cruising years. Our very first one, aboard BACCHUS in 1966, was certainly memorable, but not for any high jinks or parties. After a long day negotiating shallow channels on the Intracoastal Waterway, we were too tired to stay up. We simply went to sleep in one year and woke up in the next!

Another top of the list New Year's memory from the BACCHUS days took place in the Caribbean. We spent Christmas in Antigua at Nelson's dockyard. Just before the holiday, the 108 foot schooner PANDA nearly sunk at the dock due to some faulty welding. The newly arrived charter party freaked. To make a long story short, in order to salvage the charter the company hired us and BACCHUS to accompany Panda as a "chase" boat! What a laugh -- nobody thought about the discrepancy in speeds between the two boats. We'd sail away at the crack of dawn to the next appointed island on the charter itinerary, while the folks aboard PANDA leisurely had breakfast and did their water sports things. About the time we were struggling towards the destination and sweating it out if to make it by nightfall, PANDA would surge past us in her full sail glory! Actually it was kind of neat. We were earning some desperately needed money chartering without the hassle of having any guests aboard!

Anyway, it turned out we were in Nevis on New Year's Eve. The charter guests -- 4 couples from New York City, invited us to share their splendid dinner on PANDA. The ladies had given me quite a fashion parade over the previous few days; Al and I flushed out our most reputable pairs of white trousers, and our least wrinkled and moldy shirts to try and match the occasion. About 10 PM we all went ashore to the local "Jump Up" dance - it may have been held at the school. Or maybe in the pool hall with the pool tables pushed up against the wall. Had a heck of a good time -- horns and whistles for the New Year and all that. We left shortly thereafter. We had to get up early and be off at the crack of dawn -- again! Sigh.........

SUNFLOWER was launched in June, 1976. We sailed her back to Guam for the rest of her commissioning. In December it was "ready or not, here we go", and sailed off to Palau, where we had a planned rendezvous for Christmas with our good friends Peter and Sandy Oehmen -- yacht FREJYA, and Rowdy Taliaferro -- yacht ALLEGRA, both of who sailed in from Papua New Guinea. By New Year's Eve the group had the Rock Islands of Palau reverberating with songs of the season and good ole rock and roll! Over the intervening years we have kept in touch and managed to meet up with either Peter and Sandy, or with Rowdy in other ports along the way, but not all of us at the same time. We have all kept up with one another via ham radio though.

In 1991 we sailed down the Red Sea to Kenya to join Peter and Sandy and see their new (but 9 years old by then!) boat RAI REVA. We then both crossed the Indian Ocean and found ourselves in Phuket for Christmas -- with Rowdy too! He was still aboard ALLEGRA. Our three boats became the nucleus of a memorable Christmas Day progressive dinner. Then we all reformed the flotilla for a rousing good New Year's Eve together at Patong Beach.

It wasn't until I started writing this piece that I realized that this would again be another New Year's Eve shared with Peter and Sandy, and Rowdy -- and again in Patong! When the fireworks crackled and champagne corks popped at midnight, we knew that the "Auld Lang Syne" sung 23 years ago had worked its magic on this group at least. And hopefully for more memorable New Year's Eves together -- somewhere -- for many more to come.

1 January 2000 - AULD LANG SYNES