A penguin dominated Xmas

Poor Patrick has been a little ignored recently. He has been left as a guard penguin whilst we were going back and forth to Norfolk and he hasn't starred in this blog for a while either. Well, we didn't help his ego by forgetting to buy him a Xmas present. He had previously missed out on getting first birthday presents too (that was on the 23rd) and so he was quite sniffy all day. He turned his back on us, grabbed the remote control and watched trash TV and using the laptop as a bum warmer. Actually most Xmas TV is trash of course so that wasn't too hard for him to find :

No matter what, we will have to work hard to win him around in the next few days. Sharing a small boat with a snifffy penguin is no fun. We will keep you updated on this most important topic.

Xmas in Penarth was great. Not because June's parents decided not to join us (wind and rain) but because the weather was very kind. A nice walk in the sun to prepare for the traditional monster dinner really helped. We even had a small Xmas tree on board so it felt a little festive:

The marina held an illuminated boat contest, the winner gets a watercolour painting of their boat by a local artist. Every entrant gets a £5 electricity supply credit too. We reckon this was simply a money making scheme seeing how many fairy lights were festooned around the place and how much power they must be burning:

Stuart the marina manager asked if we were going to take part, then immediately realised it would cost a small fortune to dress a tall Nordhavn overall in lights and that fitting them would be a major health and safety challenge. Frankly, if we had a ladder tall enough to get to the top of the fibreglass stack, we would simply wash off the green goo that has accumulated on the satellite domes, not mess about with lights. Xmas; bah humbug!

The recent storms didn't have much impact on us here. The marina is very well sheltered and a few cm of water really doesn't make a difference here! Actually, thinking about it, the rain did - we went for a trip out during the week and had to lock out of the marina upwards as the water level in the bay was higher than normal - usually there is a permanent free flow and the gates just open for us. Not a huge issue to be fair.

Some very good news for regular readers of this drivel. You probably saw the pictures about the BA 747 which had a small collision with a building in South Africa whilst taxiing (not knowing the full details, we still guess the building was not to blame):

The excellent news is that Coleen, our transvestite BA 747 Captain friend was not steering the thing. That could have seriously damaged not just the plane but also his pension prospects. He looked suitably relieved:

Again, regular readers will spot that he seems to have undergone a little corrective surgery and hair colouring since we last showed a picture of him/her in September. He/she also seems rather close to the other lady (or man??) in the picture. We get more and more concerned about his behaviour now.