Ann Plunders
A story in pictures, by Ann, with photo contributions from friends
Saturday, 9 June 2007
My branch held the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta this past weekend, and I was thrilled to build a Viking ship. Two friends helped me build the boat for three Monday nights prior to the race, and I spend much of my free time in the evenings creating decorative touches that would be sure to help us in the race – if not to win, at least to look good. I also used the Relief Society president’s keys to get into the church at 10 pm the night before to work on the boat some more. And I talked a lot of trash about how awesome our boat was going to be. However, I limited my bragging to the presentation, not the seaworthiness of the boat!
When we arrived at the branch president’s house (which is located right on the lake), we were told that our boat hadn’t yet arrived so we had to wait to put our finishing touches on it. We quickly put our boat together once it came:
Here we are making some shields before the boat arrived.
Here we are putting it together. Note the extensive duct taping.
Then everyone else decided to go down to the lake while we made ourselves up, thus creating the proudest moment of my life – our boat’s triumphant entrance. Imagine: everyone else down at the bottom of the road while we carry our boat to the manic cry of Led Zepplin’s “Immigrant Song”.
There were about 30 people waiting for us at the end of the road, all taking our pictures.
Seriously, the greatest moment of my life. It was perfect – everything I wanted to have happen with the presentation came true.
Here are some pictures of us just looking awesome.
Note the dragon head that I made. Can you tell it’s a dragon? Neither could anyone else. We decided that Andrea was our slave girl we had picked up on a raid. Her duty was to play “Immigrant Song” on the stereo the entire time we were out on the lake to inspire us. She did a great job.
Here’s a closeup of our makeup:
Murderous!!!!
So we’re all ready to go, and we’re told that we have to run the boat into the water. I knew then that we were doomed. The bottom of our boat was made of many pieces of cardboard taped together, and I knew that if we jumped in, it would bust through and sink us. So after the start, I tried to gently get into the boat, but realized that the sides were too high and I couldn’t get in from the front, where I was supposed to sit. In that moment of hesitation, I lost my balance, and this happened:
And the aftermath, when I just couldn’t stop laughing:
because what else am I going to do? I could tell I was going to fall, so I threw myself back and laughed. Everyone said the fall was very graceful.
So then I manage to get into the boat, but it was already taking in water.
Note all the awesome decorations falling off.
And then the inevitable:
So instead of giving up, we decided to swim our boat through the race.
So what if we came in last….everyone cheered for us the most.
At one point we decided we wanted to get under the boat and rise from the depths with it over our heads, but we couldn’t lift it. But people thought it was funny we were under our boat.
Here’s us after the race, all waterlogged.
Look, someone rescued the dragon head in the background!
Odin truly thwarted us this day of my greatest triumph and my greatest humiliation. The Vikings will return for a massive pillage of
The only thing I’d do differently? Start the CD player a little closer to when we reached everyone at the lake, so they’d be able to hear the whole song.
