Georgetown Pirates Halloween Paddle/Party By Dave Biss Thursday, October 30, 2003	Click to See All Photos

We could not have asked for a better night for the Georgetown Pirate’s season ending paddle. The air was clear, and a crescent moon was smiling down on us, as we all meet in costume at Jack's Boathouse. Yes, it was a costume paddle.  Actually, it was a Halloween Paddle/Party. And it was a very successful event both as the paddle and as the party.

Sixteen of us showed up for the spooky event. Let me try to set the picture as we all slowly gathered our boats and our gear on the docks. Anna came dressed as Frank, the owner of the boathouse. She had on a beard, and even had the picture-posing stance down pat. Max, her son, dressed up reluctantly as Scrappy Doo. Frank volunteered to tow little Max around for the entire paddle as he called out to all the other paddlers. Max is great entertainment for us all. Caroline and Nelson appeared all dressed as a Pirate and a Devil. Those were great costumes you two. Marcos put on his full dry suit, then proceeded to put on a Death costume over top of it, complete with mask, bone gloves, and bone slippers too. That must have been a challenge. Faye dressed as an M&M, and even put a little M&M man on the bow of her boat. Ciaran and Sandy went all out and crafted two amazing costumes He dressed as a Lady Bug, and she as a Witch. Those teeth were really scary. The witch’s teeth, that is. Carolyn came as The Sea Kayaker. Cyndi and myself dressed up as two Pirates, since that is what we are. And finally Jesse and Frank decided to dress up their boats instead of themselves. Jesse attached a blinking eighteen inch tall ghost to the bow of his boat. And Frank mounted a rack of antlers to his bow. Finally Elizabeth and Cindy had their faces painted as a Panda and a Tiger. That was quite appropriate since they work for the World Wildlife Fund.

What an interesting and scary group we would have appeared, if there would have been anyone else on the river that night to see us. As it was, we paddled and talked and laughed as we went around Roosevelt Island. On the way back to the Boathouse, some of us even tried to paddle by the Georgetown waterfront harbor to see if some treats could be scared out of the innocent strollers along the wharf. But there was no one to be seen. That was probably all for the best. After all, what would the Coast Guard have thought of Jesse’s blinking ghost on his bow, or Frank’s rack of antlers, or the vision of Death paddling the waters of the Potomac. Maybe there is more of an under riding ‘current’ to that topic than appears on the surface….nah!  It was all a night of ghoulish fun.

After we all returned to the docks, I managed to amuse the crew by trying to roll with my costume on. It wasn’t too bad, but he hat just wouldn’t stay put. But it was fun rolling with the fake plastic cutlass between my teeth.

Then the food and drink appeared.  How festive. I was completely surprised how everyone got into the spirit. Not only with the great costumes, but with all the food that quickly piled up on the table. There was fried chicken, two types of pasta salad, bowls of nuts and candies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, cookies galore, and even Brie and French bread. Oh and we can’t forget the bottle of wine that we toasted the end of the season with.

We ate, we talked, we laughed. Then our Pirate King awarded some of the paddlers with Halloween gifts. Among us was the ‘best costume’, the ‘most original costume’, the ‘Sea Kayaker costume’, etc. I got the ‘best attempt to roll with your costume on’ award, by default. And of course, we had to recognize and award the work well done by the Pirate King himself for all the effort that he does throughout the year keeping the group going and making up new excuses each week for having a great time on the water Lastly, we all honored the man who makes our Georgetown group possible, the owner of the Boathouse, Frank. His kindness and tireless work on the docks gives us the space to launch into the Potomac every week. As should be, he got the biggest cheer from the group.

So our party came to a successful end, as we all feasted by the waterfront, in the glow of the candles from inside the carved pumpkins, and the blinking skull decorations. It was a great time, and a wonderful end to the season. We are all looking forward to the springtime when we will meet again on the docks and launch again into the Potomac.  And I think we are all already planning on what costume we will wear to next year’s Halloween Paddle/Party at Jacks Boathouse in Georgetown.  It will be a Howl, just like this year was.  Maybe we will see you there.

Dave ‘The Mutineer’