The
other day I was rummaging around among the bound volumes of old Nor'westing
magazines that we kept when we sold the publication nearly 10 years
ago, and I noted two already well-established Christmas traditions our
boating friends continue to maintain through the years, although now
one is under different management.
The cover of one December issue featured
Chet Gibson's Hilma III, which for many years was Seattle's Christmas
ship. Chet, a member of Queen City Yacht Club and the Seattle Power
Squadron, owned an outfit in the Fremont area that rented sound equipment
and giant searchlights. So he and a group from his boating organizations
had the means to decorate and equip his 40-foot cruiser to be Seattle's
first Christmas ship, gaily trimmed with decorations and blaring Christmas
songs as it cruised Lake Union and Lake Washington for three evenings
each Christmas season.
It
became a tradition for other members of Chet's organizations to decorate
their own boats and follow along, creating a boat parade that included
everyone who wanted to tag along.
Over the years it became a tradition for other members of Chet's organizations
to decorate their own boats and follow along, creating a boat parade
that included everyone who wanted to tag along. The Queen City Yacht
Club continues the Chet Gibson Memorial Lighted Boat Parade, brightening
the Seattle scene each Christmas season. The idea has been picked up
by many other yacht clubs throughout Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.
The other tradition is the Special Peoples'
Holiday Cruise, also carried on during the Christmas season. This great
event was the brainchild of the Yarrow Bay Yacht Club, and it has since
been taken over by Seattle Seafair. Originally, Yarrow Bay boats would
gather at Tom Taylor's North Star Marina near the Fremont Bridge and
load aboard mentally or physically handicapped youngsters who were brought
to the dock by the Cerebral Palsy Association. They would be equipped
with life jackets supplied by the Northwest Marine Trades Association
before going aboard. Members of the Seattle Floating Homes Association
organized their members to light up their homes and wave as the fleet
cruised by.
Uniguard Insurance Co. picked up the
cost of transporting the kids via Seattle Transit buses, the King County
Cerebral Palsy Association provided a stocking stuffed with all sorts
of goodies for each kid, the Sweet Adeline Singers sang Christmas carols,
and the Yarrow Bay skippers and families provided munchies for everyone
while underway.
For many of these institutionalized kids,
the annual handicapped cruise was, and continues to be, the highlight
of the year.
Like everything else, the handicapped
cruise has grown, with kids embarking from a number of docks (including
North Star Marina) and the route has changed to include a round-trip
along the length of the Evergreen Point Bridge, where a boat bearing
Santa Claus waves as the boats cruise past. Every kid has a chance to
talk to Santa via VHF radio. I remember one kid who asked Santa for
a pony. Santa told him that he wasn't sure he could get a pony into
his sleigh, but he would do his best.
So much of Christmas has become commercial,
with merchants depending on gift purchases to make their year, which
makes these maritime traditions, still a simple outpouring of love and
joy, so special. We hope you can take part in one or both of these traditions
this year, either in Seattle or near where you moor your boat. The gift
of your time will be returned a thousandfold in the joy you bring to
others. 
