Tom Burton and Henry Collins played a round of rock, paper, scissors at Holbrook’s Wharf to determine who would go first in a runoff during the lobster crate races.
Burton and Collins had tied in the event’s heavyweight division, crossing 12 crates each before slipping into the water. In the runoff, Burton had to go first.
“I don’t want to go first, but I guess I’ll try and set a high bar,” Burton recalled thinking. “You’re getting really amped and before you think too hard, you just gotta take off.”
Burton and his family had attended the festivities before, but he did not realize there was a heavyweight division. In his first attempt at the competition, Burton walked away as the winner of the $50 prize.
While it may not have been Paris, Cundy’s Harbor was home to its own action and drama on Aug. 3, with the lobster crate races and blindfolded dinghy races. The races are part of the village’s annual, weekend-long festival, which concluded the following day with the Blessing of the Fleet and a parade.
“It was a lot of fun. I’m glad I got to compete,” Burton said. “We love being able to be a part of the community. It was really fun to cheer for some of the younger kids earlier and just feel the shared joy and the triumphs for all the people here.”
Earlier in the afternoon, 18 boats took part in the blindfolded dinghy races.
In the first heat, Jackie and Eli Chalmers placed first, finishing before most boats left the starting area. Karen Luchini and Remco op den Kelder won the second heat after gaining distance at the turn.
In the finals, Jackie and Eli Chalmers rowed to the first-place prize.
“I row with my granddad, but never blindfolded,” Eli Chalmers said. “We practiced yesterday, and we had a pretty good system.”
The lobster crate races followed, beginning with the division for racers under 100 pounds. In the races, participants attempt to walk or run across 30 floating wooden lobster crates and back to the wharf, without falling and without a hand or knee touching a crate.
Frank Jean, 9, completed the course with ease and without fear, although it was far from as easy as he made it look. He was the only participant who completed the course the entire day.
Jackie Chalmers then earned his second gold medal of the day, winning the 100-150 pounds division by crossing 14 crates. Burton then won the tense runoff in the heavyweight division.
Sunday’s festivities began at 8 a.m. with the annual Blessing of the Fleet. Veronica Gonsior, pastor of the Cundy’s Harbor Community Church of the Nazarene, performed the blessing at Watson’s Wharf. The ceremony went on despite a chorus of thunderclaps and burgeoning rain threatening to shut it down.
More than 20 boats circled the harbor to receive the blessing.
“It’s my favorite service of the year,” Gonsior said. “We’re outdoors worshipping God in his creation in a sanctuary not made by human hands.”
After the blessing, the boats made their way out for the laying of a wreath to honor all of the loved ones who have passed away over the years and in the last year.
“Today, that had some real special meaning. We lost a lot of family members recently,” Gonsior said.
A rain shower accompanied the ceremony’s conclusion, but the skies cleared in time for the parade down Cundy’s Harbor Road later that day.
Highlights of the parade included a balloon-filled trailer with a sign taking pride in the village, a pirate ship with fierce buccaneers swinging their swords, and a jovial merman flooding the harbor with bubbles.
“It’s all ages,” said Joan Melroy, a board member with the Holbrook Community Foundation, which hosts the races. “I love how it brings the community together.”
