Saturday, November 22, 2008

Eastham's Rubber Duck Race - An Endurance Test

This morning's surprise was an inch of 'ocean affect' snow and about 50 mph winds. These, together, made for very inhospitable conditions for this morning's rubber duck race on Bee's River at the end of First Encounter Beach. When I arrived there were about 50 hardy souls waiting for the festivities to begin. I quickly paid the $1 I owed for my duck (duck #18, if you want to cheer me on). The winds brought the wind-chill to well under 0 degrees.

Well, the ducks were dumped into the river and quickly (mercifully) made a break for the open river, making for a short race. The 10 winning ducks were fished from the water by a few men in waders, their owners were later awarded a turkey or a pie. Not me, unfortunately. The losing ducks were also fished out (except for 3 that made a dash for the open Bay) to be given to kids and adults in the crowd. The net - a lot of fun, but it would be more fun if it the wind chill was 30 to 40 degrees higher.

No comments: