The photos...

It's a lot of work, but we had fun. My neck and shoulders are aching this morning, from craning to keep an eye on all the boats swirling around in the small harbor area prior to judging, and then trying to see over the lights on our own bow along the parade route. We've learned to not put white lights on the bow , and set up the bow lights on a separate circuit that we can unplug from the helm. With all the wind last night, there was a lot of dodging and rotating.

We do use that cooler from a few years ago - not for ice, but it's great storage and another place to sit. When we got first place in the small sailboat division years ago, we received $100 cash and some prizes. There were no "big" prizes this year, but lots of $25 gift certificates, overnight stays in hotels on the beach, etc, booze and champagne, etc.

Here's the winner in our class...


Yes, all the photos we took look like that. We were moving, they were moving, and the shutter speeds had to be kinda slow; definitely easier to get photos when you are on shore and not trying to steer a boat.

A few more images...



And the grand prize winner...


Not easy to see in that image, but the red lighted boat in the front is towing Santa's sleigh behind. I was thinking, "That's going to be a real challenge in this wind," but the boat doing the towing is one of the parasail operators... and, they left Santa's sleigh behind when we went into open water for the parade route. It was really well done. One of the commercial operators set off fireworks as they pulled up in front of the judging area. The large excursion boats were packed with people - smart: take paying passengers IN the parade.

Even the Coast Guard boat leading the parade was decorated. I really appreciated their sense of humor - the gift packages on top of the boat had yellow Caution tape on there as the ribbon. And one of the CG guys had green makeup on and was dressed as the Grinch.


I took that photo before the parade started. Check out the palm trees in the background to give you an idea of the wind. Oh, and look at the white lights on their boat around the windshield... and, they put the Santa on top over their rotating spotlight - good thing they had a handheld spotlight onboard.

Wild Blue found some skinny water just outside the small channel on the way home after the awards. In the true Christmas spirit, there was the exchange of pleasantries, like "Any idea where the channel is, dumas?" No harm, no foul, we all survived, one of us said the annual, "I am NOT doing that again - it's too much work!" salutation.

The toughest part of the evening was the 2 1/2 mile slog across the Laguna in a small channel with the wind and waves on the beam. The funniest part of the evening was when the guy leading the crew on the parasail boat went up to get his prizes... you would have thought he won the Academy Award!

Tomorrow, the lights come off... and I think that may be more work than putting them up - I put a gazillion tie-wraps on there to try to keep everything in place. The star on top of Wild Blue wasn't as tacky as a big ol' inflatable display, but it allowed the wind to blow through it and didn't come apart.

Happy Holidays!
Jim