Heart of Oak

Posted By Sarah on November 4, 2009

Merganser downrigged on the beach at Kingston. Ekk & Brian at bow.

This post is a bit late, since we’ve all been down with the flu these last couple of weeks. Anyways, the Battle of Kingston was lots of fun (though very cold). We met some great new people, including the Sea Rats Atlantic, a hardy group of twenty-somethings in entirely hand-sewn clothing who looked straight out of the gutter. (I mean that as a compliment: they looked perfectly like ragged naval conscripts.) I enjoyed watching Ekk and their captain playing show and tell with various handmade items.

The Sea Rats were pretty hardcore – their camp was a circle of bodies sleeping on the open ground around their fire, no padding, no tent or rain fly, nothing. It was 30*F, windy, and threatening rain/snow/sleet all weekend. Awesome folks. We’ve told them if they’re ever up our way and want to play but don’t have a boat, give us a call & we’d be glad to have them aboard with us. They’re a great group & we really look forward to working with them more in the future.

Ekk & Eiderduck in the parking lot at Kingston

One downside to the site was the fact that some of the parking was, in fact, tidal. I got some great photos of Ekk rowing Eiderduck around the parking lot. Fortunately, most people were notified once the tide started coming in, so no cars were lost. Eiderduck was quite popular – our only regret was that we didn’t put her mast & sail up! For those of you playing along at home, yes, Ekk is pointing at a “No Parking” sign.

We left Eiderduck parked properly when the tide went out.

I was very pleased with the nautical reenactor community at Kingston. We had a local malcontent trying to sabotage the event (seriously, the guy has a history of trying to steal or cut adrift reenactors’ boats in the middle of the night) so we established a watch system and patrolled all night. This event was the first time I’ve seen all the boat crews starting to come together as one team.

The best example of this was on Friday night, when a passing large freighter (this event was on the Hudson River) threw up a huge wake that broke bow lines and tossed at least one vessel up on her beam ends on the beach. The beach we were all pulled up on is long and shallow and sandy, with the naval encampment across the parking lot on the grass on the other side. Ekk, Brian, and I were getting some things out of the truck over near the beach just around dusk. I was watching the freighter come in and remarked at her speed. As we watched her pass, that wake suddenly hit the sandbars and turned into rolling combers. I had just a second to see one of our fleet’s vessels fly into the air like an eggshell on top of a cresting wave and come down hard in the sand. Without even hesitating, all three Merganser crew raised the general alarm and began running for the beach. Ekk vaulted the fence and didn’t even slow down as he waded out to where the Dark and Stormy had snapped her bow lines and was drifting out towards the shipping lanes. The crew of the General Arnold were right on our heels, as their camp was closest, followed by just about every other able-bodied person in the encampment. The periauger Mercury, recently recovered from having been stolen earlier in the week, landed hard on her rudder but we were able to shift her with enough boatmen. Merganser got slapped a little (I found seaweed inside under the aft transom deck later) but wasn’t hurt.

Dale Henry of the Growler, backed by the rest of the fleet.

Everyone’s reaction was instant and flawless – there was no worry about personal comfort or obligations (“It’s not *my* boat…”) just sheer teamwork coming together to ensure boats were not damaged and were returned to their correct spots on the beach as quickly and safely as possible. Our actions as unified members of one common community proved a fine example of professional response to an emergency situation. Every crew distinguished themselves, and in the dark, no one could tell who was helping what boat. It was wonderful to see.

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