Happy Fire-Breathing Reptile Yachting Day!

Only in China does the whole country get a day off to watch EL paddle a big canoe. 

Not just paddle, but also to captain.

The schedule for getting the boats out kept changing.   I finally got my sorry ass out there at about 7:15, only to see that a couple of my sector's boats were already afloat.  There was only the Keepet of the Keys and one kid at the boatshed.  I couldn't quite understand, but the Keeper kept pointing me away from the shed.  Finally, I figured out he wanted me to go over to the sheds where the newer, communally owned raceboats were kept.  I got there just in time to help lower the long boat assigned to my sector for this year.  I also managed to get myself onto the captain's platform just in time to ride it out of the shed.

Since opening day and Dragon boat day overlapped this year (^@%*^% budget cuts! ) the boats ended up going straight to the review stand to save time.  I got back at 12:30 and the entire village flotilla was parked - with no one aboard any of the boats.  Then the mouth stuffing ceremony was done - again, with uncrewed boats.   Finally, people headed for the boats - The review stand was a hastily built construct of bamboo and plywood.  It could easily support 50-100 people.  The combined crews were far more numerous.  I had a friend following me.  I got onto the boat and headed for the tail - since the boats had been sitting in the sun, my feet were getting burned, so I didn't stop to look back and see where he was.  He took quite some time to show up.  Turns out I stepped off the review stand just in time.  It didn't exactly collapse, but had some very intriguing uneven sags which happened just as I exited.

After a bit of parading around the pond, we parked the boats in the correct place.  The plan was to launch for official practice at 6.  The other sectors decided to go early.  My sectors leader (aka, The Dude), agreed to let me captain the raceboat, with him also being up on the command platform (oh good, someone else to light the explosives and throw them - one more year I don't have to count my fingers at the end of opening day practice).  I was on the command deck at about 5:40, awaiting the Dude's arrival, when someone gave the order to cast off the lines and away we went.

After one lap in the pond, a slightly miffed Dude was waiting to jump into the boat as we passed my sector.  Thankfully, he didn't toss me overboard or send me to sit next to the gong.  Instead, I captained out on the open pond and he tossed the firecrackers and gave more detailed instructions when we were lining up with other boats to race or coming alongside the wall to swap out crew.

EL, to quote an Aussie saying, it sounds like there were a few blokes there who "couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery". You certainly have more patience than I do. Aside from all the issues, I hope that you had fun!

China is amazing - so much disorganization, yet somehow things still get done.  I am sad about the lack of a formal race, but have been enjoying my time paddling.  3 days to go, so I may want to grab command of a boat again.  There's less opportunity now, since the Dude seems to be training at least 1 new captain.

Last day of Dragon Boating in my village this year.  We did a parade run with all the boats and then the rewarding of the boats ceremony.  Currently, everyone's on lunch break before the afternoon race session.

Well, almost everyone will be back in the pond later.

When I started, everyone seemed so concerned over whether or not I can swim, since dragon boats do occasionally flip.  Happily for me, I grew up swimming and used to escape the never ending paint scraping at the beach place by swimming far enough offshore that I could pretend not to hear my mother calling me back.

The real danger of dragon boating isn't the water.  It's getting in and out of the boats, especially getting out - people tend to leap out, which rocks the boat.  If you are getting ready to step out or jump out and someone else jumps at just the wrong moment, your well planned exit can go very very badly.  A few years ago, one of my older village friends was sitting next to me.  I turned to grab my paddle, heard a splash, and looked back to see he'd fallen between the boat and the wall.  Somehow, on the way down or while being hauled up, one of his legs was injured.  He now comes to watch the boats in a wheelchair.

I'm not sure what happened today.  I was in my usual back seat and heard yelling from farther forward.  One of the older guys was face down on the concrete shelf the boats use to dock - with his forehead smacked pretty hard into the concrete step up and his feet still in the boat.    The last I saw, an ambulance had arrived to collect him.

My wife often complains that I'm the last one out of the boat.  I've explained that "Killed while doing something incredibly stupid for fun." would be a far preferable epitaph for me than "Killed because he lost his balance getting out of a boat."  When she saw the ambulance pulling up near the boats, she decided she'd rather have me get out last than be the first one carried off on a stretcher.

I hope my fellow villager gets through this with nothing more than a splitting headache and a badly scraped forehead.  I expect I'll be able to get some more info later today.

Good news.  Splitting headache and gashed forehead turned out to be the correct diagnosis.

Someone even scraped some of the algae off the concrete to make it much less slippery.

Attempted to exit my boat last, but had a friend "help" me.  Boat was heading away as I stepped across and found myself halfway to a full split (something I'm NOT capable of) before I got dragged to safety.