"Mother Christmas": Why Knot?

Right in the middle of things, down-town Port Elizabeth, a little red jeep is parked. Christmas lights and a Norwegian flag-sticker decorate it. And "a skip and a jump" further on a rope-letter sign asks "Why Knot?" Under it knotted and macrame'ed items and a book are for sale. Beside them a blond tanned woman is macrameing and conversing: Mariann!

She is a woman with a story. She and husband/captain, Peter, sailed away one day, from Oslo, in their home-made Colin Archer ketch, "Fredag" (Friday), and made it as far as Union Island here in the Grenadines. There it sunk on a reef. I won't spoil all the fun for you by telling all their story. Just recommend to you the book by "Fredags" captain, Peter Røren, "Kakerlakkenes Død" ("Death of the Cockroaches") It's a tounge-in-cheek title refering to the last "passengers" to leave a sinking ship. But I will reveal the "happy ending": "Fredag" was raised! Both Peter and Mariann have settled here in Bequia where they prefer to live their laid-back lives.

And Mariann is now "Mother Christmas" for all the Norwegian (Scandinavian!) blue-water sailors arriving here after their, usually first, ocean passage. This year Mariann's garden was filled to the brim with over 200 "vikings", their floating homes filling "Admiralty Bay". Mariann's "Bequia Christmas" is renowned in sailing-Norway. We missed that, being in Barbados, but will "make up" for it with a great Scandinavian lobster-barbecue on the beach at New Year's Eve!

We just have to procure the lobsters!