SUMMER CHRISTMAS
’ve spent many a Christmas on board my boats, in home waters and far afield. Some quiet, others rip-roaring, but I’ve never found myself at sea for the big day. There have, however, been one or two near misses. Many years ago my wife and I arrived in Salvador, Brazil, the day before Christmas Eve after a heavy thrash down from the Canaries in a 32ft (9.8m) gaff cutter. The first part of the trip had seen us suffer a hammering from a beam-on northeast trade wind of unusual ferocity. Each successive wave picked the boat up and buried her in the trough so that her wide side decks never dried for over a week. The long boom end spent a disproportionate amount of time dragging in the water and my wife and I were both seasick. All