1st Day of Mid Summer 1297
The Dragon Boat Race!
The Samurai of Sendai then spent the next ten days exploring Edo as the finishing touches were made to their Dragon Boat – including an array of spiky caltrops all over the thing, some garish paint, and a bunch of flags.
As the week prior to the Dragon Boat Races was also Arts Week, everyone enjoyed the festivities that led up to it, especially little Kioko. There were plays, traveling poets, outdoor symphonies, jugglers and tumblers and all manner of entertainers. Everyone was doing their best to display their finest artistic ability. Even Kioko got into the spirit of things – participating in a children’s painting contest and winning 1st place with a surrealistic painting of what she called a ‘train’ – that looked sort of like a long mechanical dragon on tracks.
“See?” She asked the Samurai, “I told you about the train, so I drew a picture of it for you. But it was also fun to travel by boat!”
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Then, on the morning of the Dragon Boat Races, everyone gathered at the harbor. The scene was sheer bedlam and loud – with a hundred and eight Dragon Boats positioned in the starting point – and the crews yelling and threatening and heckling each other.
Kioko and Yuki’s mother wished everyone luck – with Kioko’s mother actually Blessing the ship itself (in addition to any of Yuki’s preparations) – then the two of them went to a place where spectators could watch the event (in relative safety).
As this went on, the crew from Sendai all took their positions and Udo jumped overboard (sans clothes), to turn into a harp seal. Once submerged, he grabbed the towline hidden under the ship – which would give them the equivalent of an extra two rowers.
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Unfortunately, as first-timers to the races, the Sendai Ship was positioned near the back of the starting line. They would have to somehow get past nearly a hundred ships ahead of them to win. While that was certainly the goal – the Samurai also had to focus on defending their ship from the others – who seemed to have a thing for ‘fresh meat’…
Then a volley of booming fireworks signaled the start of the race and the Dragon Boats surges forward under the powerful strokes of their oarsmen.
The course was a half mile long, quarter mile wide, figure eight in the harbor – which meant that two laps would total a three mile trip and pass through the center four times. With the Dragon Boats averaging about six miles an hour, the race would take about thirty minutes under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, circumstances in the Dragon Boat Race were far from normal, and the Races could actually take hours.
At any rate, the ships raced through the center of the course, spreading out with no one yet fighting.
With Udo helping to speed the ship, the Sendai team managed to arrive in the top twenty ships by the time they came around the bend into the middle for the second time. There, they noticed a traffic jam of ships – as some of the tailing ships had not even bothered to go around the track – just stopping in the center on their first pass and now ready to attack anything trying to get through. Suddenly, the Samurai of Sendai realized the advantage of having more than one ship entered in the race – one fast and maneuverable one to try to get through the race with; and one or more heavy duty ones to block or ram enemy vessels.
As it was, the Samurai’s ship was grappled by a ship as it tried to negotiate the center. The crew of the other ship tried to board – but Udo’s caltrops quickly ended that business.
Unfortunately, while the maneuverability of the ship was compromised, another heavy ship rammed into the Sendai vessel and both ships began to sink.
Just like that, the Samurai of Sendai were rendered without a ship.
But quick thinking on Roka’s part, had the crew board the other ship still grappled – and with their superior martial prowess, they quickly had the enemy crew overboard and the new ship under their control.
Udo meanwhile, without a tow line to pull, swam around trying to ram ships, but quickly got a headache. The hulls of the ships were much too stout to be effected by his ramming attempts.
With their new vessel, the Samurai of Sendai managed to break through the mess in the center and complete a first lap – one of only thirty ships to actually do so. Then they threw another line overboard for Udo to pull; and were off to the center for their third pass.
Amazingly, due to some spectacular piloting from the salty dog Tanak Abe and the competition failing to see that the ship was actually being crewed by the enemy – and letting them pass – the Samurai edged into tenth place by the time they hit the center for their fourth and final time.
Now however, no one mistook them for an allied ship, and they ran smack-dab into the fray. Another ship rammed them, but Tanak Abe angled the ship at the last moment and had the oarsmen raise oars – so that the incoming ship sheered alongside and snapped all their own oars in the process!
Then getting grappled and repelling even more boarders, the ship stayed in the center battling it out furiously for nearly five minutes, before being able to finally break free. Once out of the melee and with Udo’s help, the ship crossed the finish line in 8th place – then promptly sank.
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Following the Race (and getting fished out of the water) the Samurai of Sendai were challenged by the crew who’s ship they had taken, claiming that since it was their ship that crossed the line, it should be their win. Fortunately for the Samurai, it was ruled that it was the Captain and Crew that determined who’s ship it was, so the Samurai’s placing stood.
That and they had been awarded 3rd place in the ‘most impressive ship’ category.
All told, their winnings for competing in (and finishing) the race came out to just enough to cover the costs of their trip.
Perhaps not the glorious ending they had been seeking – but not bad for a ‘new ship’. Even finishing was impressive – given that two thirds of the ships never do.
END
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Topic: Dragon Boat Races (Read 63044 times)