It's now New Years eve and the party is going strong up at the pavilion. I have no idea what's going on on the Pacific side of the resort but with it costing $150 for all you can drink and I think it's also all you can eat, I hope they have a great night for what they are paying. Personally, there is no way I could eat or drink that much. Now you do get a nice swimming pool to share with heaven only knows how many other people and a fireworks display that all the resorts along the estuary are having that will be visible for miles around. We plan on staying either out on our dock or our boat or maybe walking up to the concrete pier that connects our docks to the shore. Any way we go, we plan on avoiding as many people as we can and watch the fireworks if we can stay up till midnight.

Earlier this afternoon, we went to a birthday party at home of the expat we visited on Sunday last week. It's about four miles up the estuary. They're known for throwing open their home for expats and cruisers every Sunday and providing a buffet style lunch for a meager charge of just $2.50 a head. Todays meal was a choice of pulled chicken or pulled pork with gravy along with side dishes(brought by the expats and cruisers)of potato salad, lentil salad or a noodle dish. Add in two types of birthday cakes(one store bought and sweet potato cake). The store bought cakes frosting was just about as thick as the rest of the layers of the actual cake. There were at least 14 people at the party. For all of us that are far from home, it's a great place to kickback and have a good time with old friends(some have been here for years) and make new friends as more boats show up. Another boat joined us on the dock on Friday quite tired after coming south through some nasty weather. While the husband(Jason) has been out on big ships for quite some time, it's one of his first longer passage of four days to get here. They were surprised how tired they were when they got here. We have always found the first 3-4 days of a passage to be there worst till the body and mind adjust to the change in schedule that you go through as you do longer distance voyages. Four hours on watch and four hours off with meals at irregular interval and making sure someone is always on watch is tough on anyone, especially if you have not done it before.

Just two hours till the start of the fireworks!

I just hiked up to the party pavilion and they have a live band playing along with a big screen tv showing the band playing at other places. They just went on break and the audio manager just turned up the sound on what was on the screen. Amazing how much of their music has accordions playing in it. No clue how that got into their music. I saw fireworks up in the sky farther up the estuary and firecrackers are going off all along the coast. About 200 people of all ages from teens to people in their 80s, some sitting at tables and some dancing. As for the pig they were to roast, it turns out that they take a pig and filet it open and lay it flat and then put it on a steel rack that keeps it flat and then its placed close to the fire and cooked. I saw at least two already finished and another still near the fire being cooked. Long buffet tables with tons more food for the partiers. It's going to be a long night. From what we heard, the party on the Pacific side is set to continue till 0800! Now that's a LONG party.

It's now New Years day and all is quiet here at the marina. We sat on deck from about 2340 waiting for the fireworks to start as the music continued to blast from the pavilion on shore. Scattered displays were going off up and down the estuary all evening long. As we neared midnight, the countdown started and when they got to midnight, everyone up and down the estuary exploded in aerial fireworks and firecrackers. The sky above Zephyr was lit by huge aerial shells exploding over and over. Across the estuary at another resort, they lit up the sky as well. There were dozens of displays as far as the eye could see. It was amazing. We've never been so close to these displays and the explosions of the shell was loud and rapid as hundreds of rockets lit up the nights sky. Add in the full moon and it was quite dramatic to see. As for the music, it seemed to shut down about 0040 and after that, just the explosions of firecrackers continuing along the shore. We came below and headed for bed. It had been a long day and we were ready for a good night sleep.