Put-in-Bay Pirate Fest 2012

PIB Pirate Fest IV, the Revenge is over and was a success. This was the third one we have been officially involved with.

I think that we had a few more people than last year although not everyone from last year came. We had several new faces this year. All of them were at the spring Pirate Event at the Santa Maria and were still enthusiastic.\

Our display area was bigger this year with around eight display areas. As with the Santa Maria, the biggest attraction was the gibbet and pillory that the Beach Brothers brought.

The Festival made it worth their while - Billy Beach won the costume contest along with a trip to the Cayman Islands. His younger brother Clint won it a couple of years ago.

Since the event is on an island, most of us met on the mainland and transferred belongings to a few of vehicles that the festival provided ferry passes for. Several of us arrived between noon and 1:30 so we ended up with two vehicles and nine pirates crossing at once - most of us in pirate garb. This was enough to earn Thomas and Ed free beers from some ferry passengers.

The opening ceremony involves a "pirate fleet" attacking the the town. The fleet consists of a couple of decorated boats and a barge full of cannons. This time we joined in. Originally we were going to take both boats out but the seams of the Firefly were too dry and it took on too much water. After bailing it out, we transferred into the Black Sheep and attacked from there. We had ten people in the Black Sheep at once.

Afterwards we set up camp and went to a local restaurant for dinner. Eventually we ended up at Hooligan's Irish Pub to listen to the band.

The "pirate village" (that is our display plus some vendors) officially opened at 11:00 which let us eat a leisurely breakfast before setting up. Saturday was significantly cooler than previous years with a cool breeze.

In addition to the display and the costume contest, we also had a battle at the area fenced off for cannons. It was a quick affair with the surviving attackers killed by cannon fire but I still had enough time to get off around a dozen rounds.

We had dinner at Pasquale which is owned by the event organizer and put in an appearance at The Boat House which was pushing the pirate theme hard, then back to Hooligans.

Sunday had much lighter crowds. There was an antique car parade. After that we repeated the battle and began breaking down camp.

Most of us went back on the same ferry. While waiting for the ferry, most of the people still in costume posed in knee-deep water. Once on the ferry, Clint managed to get nearly everyone on the ferry to put up their hands for a picture. I guess he was pirating the ferry.