We spent the afternoon relaxing on the boat and organizing some things we brought with us to finish outfitting her. At 5:00pm we went over to the yacht club to help them decorate for the JO ball tomorrow night. We had a great time working with about 16-20 people who came by to help and then finished off with a pizza dinner. The yacht club looks beautiful with blue, silver and white "winter wonderland" decorations.
On Saturday my cousin, Nina, and her husband John joined us. John is "going through the chairs" at the Bremerton yacht club so is a junior officer this year and next. A JO Ball is put on by each of the Grand 14 yacht clubs in Puget Sound. Each one is a themed costume party so all the junior officers in the area attend 7 JO balls each of their two years.
We had a wonderful time catching up on each other's lives and what all the kids and grandkids are up to. That evening we donned our costumes and headed to the club. Bob went as Jack Frost from the movie The Guardian. I went as a Victorian Caroler. John and Nina chose a winter color scheme for their formal wear and looked quite elegant. The people attending came up with some great costumes. There was a wide variety including Santa Clause, hockey players, characters from the movie Frozen, skiiers, and pretty much anything you can come up with.
The junior officers were all introduced before dinner and we were able to honor our own club's junior officers, Al & Sue Smith and Jim & Jill Whitehead, as well as John and Nina.
We enjoyed a wonderful German meal of sauerbraten and cabbage, Waldorf salad and Black Forest German Chocolate Cake.After dinner there was a time for dancing and plenty of time for more socializing. We had never attended the ball before but had a wonderful time and are looking forward to next time.
Sunday morning John and Nina joined the other junior officers at the yacht club for a special breakfast. We headed out about 9:00am to get back home in time for friends to join us for the Seahawks playoff game. We had a great weekend and it was the perfect distance for our shakedown cruise. We learned some things that we want to fix or purchase for the boat and found that the second cabin works perfectly for guests. We still didn't have our upholstery but a couple of blankets added some padding to the settee and dinette so it worked out just fine. The extra salon space was wonderful for the four of us and could easily handle two or three more couples. We were also able to give a few tours of Synnova to some friends who have been following our journey to getting the new boat.
