For most folks, "deck the halls with boughs of holly" is the norm,
but for some of us gondoliers, it's:
"deck the bows with battery-powered Christmas lights".
Oh sure, it may not have the same poetic ring to it, but it sure looks good.
I just got finished carefully wrapping the perimeter of one of my motorized gondolas in a radiant blue.
Throughout the years I've settled for whatever I could find at the store.
That's code for:
I procrastinated until the last minute and went with the only options left.
This year the Newport fleet will all be decked out in special blue lights.
I had my wife order a case of them
(when she's involved, things tend to be more organized).
Of course, in Newport Harbor, there are an estimated 10,000 boats.
Most of them are painted white, and have all manner of decorative lights
draped from stem to stern.
Next week everyone who can, will be out on a boat in Newport to see the famous Christmas Boat Parade.
What that means to me as a gondolier is that there will be thousands of people driving boats, who won't be looking for me. They'll be too busy watching the parade and on a black boat in the dark, they'll have a tough time even seeing me. So these fancy blue lights aren't just for decoration...they're a survival tool.
So this year we're decking our bows (and the rest of the hulls too)
with these special blue lights, both to be seen, and to be stylish.
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