We celebrate the New Year Polynesian style on Sugar Shack.  Little did we know what we were in for when we agreed to host our friends for New Year’s Eve.  Our friend’s Stephan and Manu took care of everything and I mean everything from food, drinks, décor, music, cooking, and cleaning.

Stephan and Manu came over around 1700 to drop off the food, chafing dishes, grills, coolers, drinks, folding table, and décor.  It took Matt and Stephan three trips in the dinghy to get it all on board.  We were expecting 11-12 people including one other cruiser, Eve from “Auntie” and 9 Polynesians.

The Décor:

Manu came prepared with flowers, palm fronds, and décor.  She is so sweet! She showed me how to decorate with the plants/flowers, brought batteries for all the décor and we had fun creating an oasis on the boat.  Bottom right corner is Stephan and Manu during pre-party prep.

The Food:

Two large chafing dishes were filled to the brim.  One was dedicated to rice (they love their rice) and the other had fried bananas, fried oranges, potatoes, grilled bananas, and green beans.

They rented three portable grills powered by a type of propane and 12 dishes of food.  Basically, the three grills were placed in the cockpit on our table and the folding table.  When it was time for dinner, we brought out several boxes of food and Stephan grilled the meats which included shrimp, beef, chicken, pork, and fish.  Guests loaded their plates with rice and vegetables and then the cooked meats were passed around.

The bottom right photo was just a funny photo of some of the shoes…most were left in the dinghy.

Stephan also brought a cooler full of beer, rhum, lychee rum, raspberry cider, whiskey, and tequila.  Each group that came brought their own cooler full of liquor as well.  Nobody touched our liquor because they all brought their own.  We thought hosting included us doing something…but nope!  They would not impose or consume any of our food or drinks. Nor would they allow us to cook or clean.

The New Year Party

After we fed everyone the first dinner (yes, there will be a 2^nd dinner before the night is over) we headed to the bow.  Manu had brought these super cool balls that lit up and changed colors.  It was the hit of the party for sure.  We hung out at the bow until midnight. After all it would not be a new year celebration without glow, right?

At midnight there were fireworks on the dock.  Totally surprised us all as nobody expected them.  It was super short, maybe 2 minutes worth, but really cool! An excellent way to ring in the New Year.

The obligatory post next to our sail bag :0

The ladies all had beautiful floral crowns.  I was very envious.  Bottom left: Manu and I, bottom middle: Manu and Stephan, bottom right: full moon as it rose above the clouds.

A few of our guests took turns playing Polynesian music.  Several truly magical moments happened when they all sung along with the music in true Polynesian fashion.  What a blessing it was to ring in the Near Year on such a beautiful night, with a full moon, lots of food and drinks and good friends.

The funny thing is timing.  Cruisers refer to 2100 (9:00pm) as sailor’s midnight.  Why?  Because we are usually in bed by that time.  We are also up at sunrise.  Eve, Matt, and I were wondering how we were going to manage to stay up until midnight.  Lots of laughter and good company helped us solve that problem.  Eve left around 12:30am and the party was still going.  Matt passed out around 0300 and it was still going. 

2^nd Dinner

Right around 0300, the food came back out.  Which is a good thing as we had enough to feed over 40 people!  There was so much food!  Stephan cooked up a second meal for everyone.

Somewhere around 4:00am, as the sun was rising, I had to tap out.  I asked Stephan if they could move the party to the dock as I was going to fall flat on my face!  We got everyone off the boat and I did some basic cleaning (put the food away, cleaned up some of the mess that might attract bugs/ants) and crashed hard around 4:45am. 

Somehow, I remembered to turn off all the electronics, battery operated lights and décor, bring in the underwater light, closed the hatches, turned off the VHF, and shut the shades.  I was hoping to sleep at least until noon!  Ha!  Didn’t happen. I woke up 4 hours later and started the massive cleaning project.

The First Day of the New Year

Everyone offered to come back over to clean but I tackled the project as Matt recovered.  We still had the folding table, grills, chafing dishes and tons and tons of food and liquor.  Stephan and Manu came over with 4 other people and we enjoyed a New Year’s Day dinner.

Believe it or not, there were still lots of left-over food and drinks.  We luckily piled it all back into the coolers and loaded it in the dinghy to bring it back to Stephan’s house.

We found out that they took the party to the dock and then the beach.  They never went to bed!  Yep, can you believe that?  Of course, they are all in their 30’s.

An absolutely excellent way to start the New Year of 2021!

New Year’s celebration in this blog post occurred on NYE 2020.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.