There was great sadness amongst the male crew of the chalupa San Augustin. Great wailing and crying, not to mention a couple of gents beating their fists and screaming, \u201cWhy, dear Lord? Why?\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadness like someone had stolen our puppy. Sadness like someone had spit in our beer. Sadness like the TV was out for a week and we had to converse like normal humans with family. <\/p>\n
It happens. <\/p>\n
The St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation hosted the inaugural San Agustin Rowing Challenge on July 4 along the bayfront. It pitted a men\u2019s team against a women\u2019s team, each taking turns rowing the 37-foot replica of a 16th century Spanish longboat \u2014 the chalupa \u2014 against the clock.
\n<\/p>\n
After it was over, the announcer gave the verdict. The men had won on time, but after the judges\u2019 scores on style and technique and whether all of our flies were zipped up (knowing our crew, they probably weren\u2019t), the women took home the cup. <\/p>\n
Ouch!<\/p>\n
Maybe we made some missteps. Trying to bribe one of the judges \u2014 the mayor! \u2014 didn\u2019t go over too well. It didn\u2019t sit well with another judge \u2014 the former mayor! \u2014 whose feelings were hurt when we DIDN\u2019T try to bribe him. <\/p>\n
Then there were little things. Like we didn\u2019t sing. The women sang as they rowed. But our coxswain hates singing. No, let me re-phrase that \u2026 it makes his spine crinkle like an accordion. It causes him to yell, \u201cShut it, sons of scurvy dogs!\u201d (He thinks it ruins our concentration. He\u2019s right. We ran aground once.)<\/p>\n
Maybe we didn\u2019t smile or wave enough. This was especially tough on me. I love to smile and wave. I\u2019ve been known to wave at fish. And I just couldn\u2019t help it when I saw my daughter on the bayfront beaming and calling to me. <\/p>\n
I paid for it. \u201cThompson, you rabid uncle of a scurvy dog,\u201d the coxswain yelled, \u201cwave again and it\u2019s overboard with you!\u201d <\/p>\n
Maybe it was the sad tridents \u2014 we were known as the \u201cSons of Neptune\u201d \u2014 crudely tattooed on our arms with a Sharpie. Or that we couldn\u2019t even coordinate the color of the bandanas on our heads. We looked like a hobo rainbow flag. Maybe it was our overall appearance \u2014 rejects from a low-budget pirate movie. <\/p>\n
But, boy, did we row. Fast, and some of us, smooth. We half-ed the women\u2019s time. We were focused and determined. We didn\u2019t even have time to drink the rum we snuck aboard! One spectator said it was like watching a cigar boat \u2026 with rocket engines. <\/p>\n
Alas, we lost. It happens. The Sons of Neptune will get over it. Multi-colored bandanas off to you, ladies. You rowed really well, and brought style to that dingy chalupa. Much more than a bunch of scurvy dogs who probably didn\u2019t even have their flies zipped. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was great sadness amongst the male crew of the chalupa San Augustin. Great wailing and crying, not to mention a couple of gents beating their fists and screaming, \u201cWhy, dear Lord? Why?\u201d Sadness like someone had stolen our puppy. Sadness like someone had spit in our beer. Sadness like the TV was out for a week and we had to converse like normal humans with family. It happens. The St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation hosted the inaugural San Agustin Rowing Challenge on July 4 along the bayfront. It pitted a men\u2019s team against a women\u2019s team, each taking turns rowing the 37-foot replica of a 16th century Spanish longboat \u2014 the chalupa \u2014 against the clock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2015-nutshells"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1373,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions\/1373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}