Duck Time

The giant inflatable yellow mascot that advertises the Great Kitsap Duck Race and has come to symbolize Whaling Days was looking pretty good when I snapped its photo in Silverdale yesterday. Apparently there’s been a complete recovery from a humiliating incident five years ago (or the Rotary Club, the race promoters, simply bought a new duck). Unlike many recent posts this one has a connection to Mud Bay—tenuous but still a connection.

The Great Kitsap Duck Race raises tens of thousands of dollars for charity. To participate you pay $5 for each rubber duck you want to represent you in the race. At race time the ducks are dumped into a boomed-off area at the Silverdale Waterfront Park. Propelled by wind, tide, and possibly spectator cheers, the ducks float across the water to the finish line. If your duck is among the top finishers, you win one of the great prizes donated by local businesses, including a new truck, an ocean cruise, a hot tub, and more. Not bad for a $5 entry fee.

K and I have used a duck theme in decorating our vacation place at Treasure Island. We have several duck prints, a painting, and some carved wooden ducks my sister-in-law bought in Korea. There are even ducks on the shower curtain. Unsure where to stop with the waterfowl motif, one year I decided to add to it with some of the Whaling Days ducks. This sounds easy but it wasn’t, as every retailer I visited thought I wanted to buy entries in the race and not the actual ducks. Finally a lady outside the Safeway let me have one for $5. There was no extra charge for the sunglasses.

In 2004 the duck race mascot was the victim of foul play when vandals tried to set it on fire. All they succeeded in doing was melting its tail feathers. Forlorn, partially deflated, and with a badly burnt butt, the duck spent the rest of Whaling Days that year in the big field outside the Silverdale United Methodist Church. Fortunately there was no effect on the popularity of the duck race that year.

So what’s the connection to Mud Bay? Silverdale and Mud Bay are at the opposite ends of Dyes Inlet and are only about four miles apart by water. A few years ago one of the race ducks got loose and drifted the entire length of Dyes Inlet before washing up on the shores of Mud Bay. I know this because the former owner of my house found it. When I saw it in his garage, I made him a good offer for the intrepid banana-colored voyager. Unfortunately he turned me down.