“Better late than never;” “If not now, when?” “Now or Never!” The Fort Pierce Christmas Boat Parade finally took place this weekend. Boats lit up like Las Vegas, decorated with Santa Clauses on surf boards, and sporting sound systems designed for communication with lunar stations paraded past the dock. Every kind of boat was represented from small fishing skiffs to tug boats to sailboats whose masts provided the perfect support for strings of lights. The parade was a good excuse for a waterfront party, as if an excuse were ever needed. We accompanied some of the Dock 6 Bubba and Bubbette club to Cracker Boy Boatworks where we joined Rich and Cindy on “s/v Shapa-ay” (gateway to the stars) and about 30 other people for smoked ham, beer-soaked brats and an assortment of other dishes. You can have your white Christmas; palm trees, warm breezes and beautifully decorated boats almost turned this Scrooge into a believer.

A couple of nights prior to the parade, we took in the “son et lumière” at the waterfront park. Multi-colored lights affixed to every surface were synched to Christmas music. The park was filled with people and children chased each other with squeals of delight. The whole scene, illuminated as it was with the lights and surrounded by music was truly magical. I must say, Fort Pierce knows how to do Christmas.

Yesterday was Sunday—all you can eat champagne brunch at Mangrove Mattie’s. We heard that they had “all you can eat” oysters on the half shell. We knew we could get our money’s worth; we can put away a lot of raw oysters. Five and a half dozen each is our record, but we know we can do better! So we figured we’d work on a new record. Wow! What a brunch buffet; salads, lox with capers, a whole smoked salmon, roast beef, salmon and grouper poached in cream sauce, raw oysters, steamed mussels, pastries, waffles, omelettes cooked to order. All of this was served with bottomless glasses of champagne (or Mimosas if you are inclined to desecrate a perfectly good glass of champagne with orange juice!). The shear variety of food soon enticed us to abandon our search for a new record and we stopped after two dozen each.

The “Spartite” is finally poured around the mast where it passes through the deck. I think it will finally solve the problem of leaks and will definitely keep the mast in place. The next project will be to install a new roller furler and then adjust all the stays. The work will be finished before Christmas and we can be on our way. However, we will stay until after Christmas in Fort Pierce where we have friends.