Saturday, July 19, 2014

Ducking and dodging (and kissing)

The past week was quite eventful with several birthday festivities and other social gatherings, leaving me a little behind when it comes to reporting my doings and dealings. Nevertheless, I simply must give a short recap of last Tuesday, when I had the pleasure of joining a friend in the boating community at the committee boat for the Tuesday night Duck Dodge sail race on Lake Union.

This is a true Seattle tradition, currently on its 40th year, where boats of different classes compete in four heats. As the boats finish, they raft up together with the committee boat at the middle of the lake and joyous celebrations ensue, including among other things fraternal/sisterly sharing of Jello shots in various radiant colors.

This Tuesday the theme was "pajama night" and my captain friend Lia had therefore built a floating bed on a barge, complete with mattresses, pillows and multicolored lights, from which her comrades and I enjoyed swimming in the lake, watching the race, drinking, snacking and chatting away, neatly dressed in our jammies. A fantastic evening!

I should probably mention an interesting little tradition as well, that apparently applies to all newcomers at this race, or "virgins" as they (we) are called, namely going from boat to boat after the raft-up, kissing all the captains.

...

Yes.

...

I debated the matter with myself for a little while but eventually decided that upholding naval traditions is in fact quite important, and thus embarged on the mission accompanied by an awesome lady and fellow Duck Dodge newbie named Lindi. I figured that when all is said and done you're only a virgin once, so what the heck...

I have to admit though that we didn't quite realize what we had gotten ourselves into, but thirty-six boats later we actually finished the task. Quite proud of myself, to be honest; those were a lot of beards, I tell ya.

Lindi, myself, and Captain Lia.



The floating bed, as seen from above.


The raft-up.


To sum up: it was one of Those Nights. A really, really memorable, super fun, and kinda sorta magical night. All thanks to Lia!

2 comments:

  1. Haha, vilket galet event! Och 36 kaptener!? Inte illa. Och imponerande säng, minst sagt. Låter som en minnesvärd dag. :-)

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