Nygard Regatta

by Caitlín

Today two Scouts from Ship 7916 attended the annual Henry I. Nygard Regatta for the first time to see what it was like and report back to the rest of the Scouts so we can determine whether it is something we want to do next year.
Right photo: Hauling a up the Boatswain's Chairlift.

Skipper Shay, David, and I set our alarms for the dreadful hour of 4:45 a.m. and had to leave the commuter lot by 6:00 in order to arrive at Camp Brown by the time the event began. It was beautiful out, but driving for a little over two hours straight still wasn't fun--especially that early when we were all wishing we could be back in bed.

Once we had found the camp and stretched, we went into the mess hall to get oriented, find out which competitions were being held today, and use the head. We found out from Mr. David of Ship 1176 that no competitive events were scheduled until 1:00 p.m., so we had a lot of waiting to do. We should have looked at the boarding manual more carefully!
Below: A crew from Ship 1942 practices their rowing.

On the deck outside the mess hall we stood overlooking the Chesapeake and watching the boats go by. There were several sailboats out, as well as a lot of powerboats, and we were wishing we could be sailing. Ship 1942 (S.S.S. Dragonlady) has one of their boats only 30 minutes from Camp Brown, and a few members half-seriously said they should go jump aboard.

Various Skippers came up to say hello, and urged David and I to go mingle with the other youth, but neither of us felt up to it. Instead the two of us sat outside and talked about nothing of importance. Eventually my mom came over and made us get up and take pictures of things that were going on.

But since there wasn't anything besides a church service, the three of us ended up standing by the car and talking instead. I think my mom managed to thoroughly weird David out during that time. By 10:00 David had convinced us that we should go back into town and try and find a movie theater to watch either Indiana Jones or Prince Caspian just for something to do.
Right photo: Scouts practice their Scuttlebutt skills, raising a fifty-five gallon drum. Only the Coxswain is allowed to speak.

So we drove quite a ways down Route 5 before realizing that Scotland and the surrounding towns were too small to have any theaters. Instead of going to the movies, we stopped at a local grocery store and bought some snacks and a couple soft drinks to go with our lunch. More time to kill back at camp, and then lunch. David and I sat at a picnic table and watched the boats sail by just out of reach.

The competitions finally began at 1:00, so I took pictures of the knot-tying contest (which David, being David, was sure he could win easily) and the boatswain's chairlift. No one was participating in the scuttlebutt at that time, but I'd gotten a couple shots of one team practicing earlier in the day. After that we were all ready to go home, so we left.
Left: A team of knot-tiers leap into action. This activity is judged on speed and accuracy.

I think that the Regatta might be something fun to go to next year if our Ship is good enough to compete in at least a couple things, but I don't know if I would want to spend the entire weekend there. I'm sure the event would be a lot more fun if me and the other Scouts actually socialized with people, but David and I were both feeling shy this time.
At right: Ship 548 (S.S.S. Sea Eagle) had its own Advanced Life Support vehicle decorated with team spirit!