A death at Buccaneer Days 2011

I make a pathetic pirate. That was my first thought when I was invited to spend the weekend on Catalina Island for "Buccaneer Days", a yearly pirate festival. I felt inadequate to say the least. Not only did i lack any swashbuckling gear or accessories but mentally, i was unprepared; Recent car issues have left me virtually penniless (please see previous blog "My Wednesday") and the thought of a weekend of plundering and pillaging was the furthest thing from my mind. My friend Jessica had invited me, rationalizing that i needed a vacation because i was working so hard and, she was kind enough to pay my way for the whole weekend! I couldn't say no to that! I accepted with the understanding that I would pay her back when i had the money later. I met up with Jessica and her friends Wendy, Mike and Danielle at the Catalina Express at the San Pedro port early Friday morning. Once on the boat, we settled in for the ride with some mighty tasty Bloody Marys. After a few sips, I felt my financial anxiety slowly fade away along with the coastline. As for my wardrobe, all i could muster up together was a suit vest, red bandanna and green beads from NYE 2010. I stepped outside to enjoy the fresh ocean air and the occasional dolphin escorting us out of the port. Buccaneer Days is held at Two Harbors, Northwest of Avalon and is the thinnest part of the island, so thin in fact that from the shore, you can walk straight inland and reach the back harbor in 3 minutes.

   We landed at about 11:00 am, walked along the dock welcomed by at least 50 boats donning Pirate flags and at least one boat occasionally firing off a loud cannon to which everyone around would respond with a loud and enthusiastic "Yaaarrgghh". We received our 3 day wristbands and headed into the main festival area,  a huge open area with booths and a stage and a raised patio just beyond with a bar, restaurant and cafe. I started feeling a little self conscious due to my lack of proper attire and seeing people already donning sea worthy garb, on the other hand, compared to all the college kids walking around in wife "blessers" (thanks Ned Flanders) and shorts, I felt more adequately dressed than before. Directly behind the party area, further inland from the shore, was the camping area. We found the spot under a low hanging tree. This is the girl's spot, they have been coming to buccaneer days for years.

 They even carved "Lost Girls" into into the bark of the tree, they're pretty hard core. Up the road from the camp site there is a small elementary school from there, one can see both harbors. We had to wait until 4pm, until after the school let out and the kids were all out of the area to set up our tents, so we headed back to the festival area in search of food. 

The only cafe in that whole part of the island is the Coral Reef cafe, it's great all around food, i enjoyed a delicious double cheeseburger with bacon while watching the band 'Damaged goods" sound checking. I was pretty much in full relaxed mode by now. we headed back to the camp soon after and set up out tents.

   Standing there, with the sun hanging low behind me, watching all these strangers, dressed like pirates and piratesses, united in a common cause, setting up shelter for the night, drinking rum, playing instruments, was the first semblance of a pirate life i had encountered.
 I imagined how it might have been for actual pirates, unemployed hunters and sea men having to turn to stealing to make money, landing on an island over 400 years ago, camping for the night under the stars where only 200 feet away was the beach shore no wristbands, no cell phones, no porta potties, no connection to the outside world, it was magical sharing this experience with others, we were all re-enacting some small part of history. We broke out the Captain Morgan Tattoo and began to partake while getting dressed in our pirate attire, for me that meant "guy liner". 

Once in the festival area, we headed for the bar where i tried my first "Buffalo Milk" a creamy mudslide type of drink, then it was off to the dance floor where the band was playing old favorites like "Longview" and "Possum Kingdom" They were really rocking it! Then I thought, "Hey Pirates never listened to Greenday!" After a while on the dance floor, we walked out onto the beach, where there were over 100 boats swaying in the water the lights on the tops of the masts looked like hundreds of small hovering UFOs, it was quite beautiful. The breeze was cool but not cold, off to the left the whole mountainside was lit up with an ad for Agave Underground. there were groups of people hanging all around the Beach area. After drinking and dancing for a few more hours I was pretty tired by 12 am,  we stumbled back to out tents where there were folks singing and drinking, I fell asleep listening to the sounds of laughter, pirate ballads and Irish drinking songs. 

   Saturday morning, we awoke around 10 am, drank some rum, and walked over to the Coral Reef cafe where I ordered a scrambled egg skillet topped with chili and a coffee, perfect hangover food, in fact the Coral Reef cafe itself was pretty bad ass, the menu is a "Whats What" of burger joint favorites.The food was fresh and very tasty, the cooks served up plates like clockwork and the cashiers were very friendly under pressure

Sadie

Ashley 

 The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach at both harbors then eating delectable ham and turkey cold cuts and cheese. somewhere deep down inside, i felt guilty; pirates would have never had it so good, they would have landed and instantly had to start searching for food, fire wood and watch for predators, probably would have killed for rum and here we were drinking it like it was water. But then again, wasn't this the point of buccaneer days? To be akin to a Swashbuckling Disneyland for adults?  To have all the fantasy of being a pirate without all the troubling reality? Pirates never had "Buffalo Milk".

That night the girls put on their second costume change of the weekend.

 

 we danced again for a few hours. The band played the exact same songs as the night before, but in a different order. after a few drinks, i went and had my first "Grog" a Vodka, Rum, possibly tequila and orange juice drink, not bad, it did the trick, I was sloshed. The dance floor was much more packed that night than Friday night. The costumes were amazing, so much detail! the people who wore them obviously rented them, i think these were lawyers and executives that lead quiet mundane lives and then transform once a year into their swarthy pirate alter ego, then there were other people like my friends who painstakingly seek out accessories year round in their daily routines slowly compiling the perfect looking pirate costume and then there were the college kids still in their wife blessers and shorts and sandals who were just there to drink. 

The dance floor was something out of a Las Vegas club, lights, smoke, drinks, grinding, swaying and pogoing. Hey, Pirates never grinded... at one point a guy tyring to hit on a passing piratess was met by her plastic sword to his throat, he stood there motionless, his arms held out and hands spread as in surrender. She creeped slowly around him, her sword in one hand and her drink in the other never taking her eyes off him. when she was clear of him, she took a swig of her drink and walked off now that's a woman! It was a fairly smooth festival, i only saw isolated instances of arguments throughout the evening, at one point i saw a local ambulance arrive, i figured someone had drunken too much, after all, i thought "Pirates, what are you gonna do." Again I faded early that night and was asleep by what i think was 10pm, my phone had died long ago. We had some new neighbors that evening, locals. I woke up when the rest of the group returned after dancing, i noticed our new neighbors were very much awake and loud, I thought "Pirates, what are you gonna do". It wasn't till about 2 hours later when they were still at it that i realized that it was going to be a long night. I wont go into the details but there was alot of back and forth comments from both our tents throughout the early morning, at one point one of the girls in the tent said: "What time is it? i think it's almost sunset"- Wow.

By the time we woke up Sunday morning, our Jersey Shore Neighbors had packed up and gone, we slowly started packing up, the fantasy was dissolving and reality was slowly drifting in. 

we went to the Coral Reef cafe to order another double cheeseburger with bacon. this is where reality slapped me in the face, the two guys in front of us in line were talking about the guy who died the night before, I butted in and asked them what had happened, he told me that a guy late last night had drowned. I got chills, that was why i saw the ambulance, i immediately thought of what might have been the last thought going through his head as he descended into the black sea floor, air escaping his lungs where just a moment before, he was probably laughing with friends feeling on top of the world, I was in a slight state of shock from then on. A bit later, i saw a sheriff in a truck and asked him about the drowned man. 

He told me that a man was walking along the dock returning to his boat, fell, hit his head on the dock and fell in the water, several people that were there jumped in after him but because of the dark could not grab onto him. i don't know if they found his body that night or the next morning because when we were boarding the Catalina Express, there were police boats tied up to the dock. I asked the sheriff how many people die there on average to my surprise, he said "On the Island? at least one every other day." He then said that there's at least one death every Buccaneer days festival. How's that for reality? I heard a long time ago that Disneyland will never pronounce a visitor dead on the premises of the resort, in order to keep their good name untarnished with legal records of Death on the grounds of the happiest place on earth. I wonder what this kind publicity would do to the popularity of this event, would it draw negative attention,  or more likely would it draw more visitors to it?

 It would add another layer of reality and danger to this 3 day pirate adventure, i can imagine shirts that say "I survived Buccaneer days 2012...Literally". I walked with Jessica to the smaller harbor  behind the camp site, it was a beautiful day, made just a bit sweeter after hearing about the drowned guy, in the back of my mind i thought what if that were me?
I had a chance of dying the night before, it was probably like 1 in 500 but still, death was close this weekend. 

 It seems that whenever you are taken out of your reality by something like death at such close range you are forced to re-assess it. Suddenly my financial troubles seemed a bit more trivial, my inadequate costume was forgotten and my experience as a pirate was a bit more real.