The 15th Lama and the Wise Guy from the East ( )

Log entry, the catch-scallop queen, Philip Conny master. Position three degrees, 44 minutes south, 158 degrees, 13 minutes west. Wind fresh, sky fair, remarks. Departed Christmas island after interruption of holiday planned. Reason for interruption, the 15th lama and the wise guy from the east.

The name Christmas was given to the island by its discoverer, Captain James Cook, who dropped the first civilized anchor off the Swiss shore on Christmas Eve of 1777, celebrated the holiday and left on the second day of the New Year.

We raised the outline of its palm groves just two days short of 170 years later, and flipped into a sheltered lagoon to see what we could do to set the scene for our own celebration.

It wasn't much we could arrange for a stateside, rotag-reviewer-style Christmas scene, But with memories and the ache of home sickness to be fought by activity, the crewmen worked to change on the deck of the Scarlet Queen.

An awning went up over number two holes. Reef was spliced out of lengths of fair horses. What do you think of this now, Captain? The Christmas tree material eyes out of the shaft of an ore, to which were lashed branches from Pandena's pine.

By sunset it was draped with light lines, some dipped in red paint, some in flight. We were buried so deeply in the new, yule-tied atmosphere that it was only by chance that my chief-mate Gallagher lifted his head to see the stranger standing in through the reef paddock.

Hey, look at the liner bearing down on us! It wasn't quite a liner, but almost. It was a trim luxurious power yacht, the lorry, with a fortune in bright work shining in the setting sun.