For the fifth year running, the Navy White Christmas remains the highlight on the social calendar of any Sailor worth his weight. And, as every year, the objective remains to drink as much Foster's as possible while raising as much money as possible for charity.

Having supported Operation Santa Claus for the past four years, the Admiralty decided to change the charitable objective for 2011, raising money for the Hong Kong Sea School instead. The Sea School is based in Stanley, close to most of the dragon boat action, and has been a great supporter of the Navy over the years, letting us use their facilities for warm up and during race days as well as providing an excellent parking space for the Admiral! In all seriousness, however, the Sea School is a boys school that also provides boarding for many students from poor family backgrounds that rely on sponsorships. Hence we set ourselves a target of raising HK$ 25,000 for the school.

For most Sailors, the Navy White Christmas is the only opportunity to dig out their Navy White Uniforms which women of all races and ages find so incredibly irresistible. It’s attracting them – in the words of the Admiral – “like flies to the shit”! Thus, having dry cleaned all the alcohol and lipstick stains from last year, some twenty Sailors were dressed up to the nines, knowing damn well that any uniform violation will cost them dearly for charity (as Sailor Dan found out the hard way, having failed to make his uniform in time). But even those in uniform often failed the underwear test or the polished shoes.

The Admiralty was pleased to also welcome Bill Hutchison, Principal of the Sea School, to the party. Being a man of discipline and well accustomed to wearing a uniform, he had no trouble passing the checklist.

Aside from a three hour open bar (“more beer!”), the main event of the night was the Navy Quiz, where wrong answers would end in a costly bill for charity. Fortunately for the Sea School, the intellectual level of our crew is not particularly high (you only need to be able to paddle and count to ten), hence the money flowed quite quickly. Most Sailors were unable to answer the most simple questions, such as naming all our drummers since inception or explaining the term “doing a Reto”. The quiz also asked participants to explain some very basic nautical terms, such as a “Bombay Runner” (a large cockroach) or the “cuntline” (the "valley" between the strands of a rope or cable). Mathematics was also not strong point, with the respective Sailor unable to count the “e”s in our team song.

More fund raising followed with an auction of vintage Navy shirts, prototype hats and enlarged photos of the 2011 season.

As the three hour open bar drew to a close, there was the usual rush for last orders (“more shooters!”) before the crew had found sufficient courage to pour into the streets of Lan Kwai Fong, where the fund raising continued by coaxing passer-bys into donating to charity in return for pictures with the crew. Most people gave generously, although there are always a few who question our motives and think we would go through all this trouble to scam them of a few dollars for free beer. They must have mistaken us with the US Navy!

When all was said and done, the donation box yielded over HKD 30,000! Add to that an individual student sponsorship by Cpt Widmer, the Navy raised over HKD 45,000 for the Sea School – far exceeding its original target!