St. Nicholas' Vacation

St. Nicholas' Vacation  (E) Writer's Cramp Entry Due 12-21-2016 #2106107 by Chris Breva

487 words

St. Nicholas, otherwise known as Santa Claus had just finished his annual trip. It would be another year before he had to go flying all over the world. He decided that it was time to take a short vacation. During his annual trip he saw many beautiful places throughout the world but never had the time to stop and enjoy them. He decided to use his vacation time to see some of those sights. He had his chief elf book him a cabin on one the cruise ships and he set off to enjoy himself.

When he arrived at the port there were dozens of ships in the harbor and he had some difficulty finding his. However he was soon aboard and had his belongings stowed away. Then he went up on deck to watch as the large ships left the harbor for the open sea. He listened to the ringing bells as various passengers signaled for their porter and the captain signaled different commands. It was all quite fascinating to him.

Their first destination was an island in the Bahamas. St. Nicholas watched in awe as the ships passed each other in the night and danced precariously with the coral reef. The lighthouses on shore gave ominous warning to beware of coming too close. Santa went up to the bridge where the captain welcomed him. “We normally don’t allow passengers on the bridge”, the captain stated. “Since I know who you are however I’m willing to make an exception. After all you know more about navigating than I do.”
The captain ordered a course correction and the pilot made it amid sounding bells that notified the crew that they were changing direction. The course correction was necessary because they were very close to running aground on the reef. The large ship would have been nearly impossible to navigate in these waters without the assistance provided by the lighthouses. The lighthouses told the captain when he was nearing dangerous reefs and he was able to steer around them. St. Nicholas found the whole operation very fascinating. There were times when these same lighthouses had served as a beacon to him as well, except in his case they allowed him to know where he was at. His sleigh of course was much more maneuverable than the large ships that the lighthouses assisted but when one was flying through the air in the dead of night any beacon was appreciated.

At last they arrived at their port of call. St. Nicholas listened as the bells sounded their approach and their departure from the ship. He had looked forward to this for a long time. “Thank you Captain”, St. Nicholas stated as he walked toward the gangplank. “I’ve been needing a vacation for quite awhile now.”

“We’ll see you tomorrow night when the clock reaches seven St. Nicholas”, the captain answered. “We’ll leave harbor when we sound the bells.”