The Pasta Regatta!

It's an honor to be part of the crew on a noodle boat!

Hiya, Friends!  Well, it's that time of year again.  Time for the Pasta Regatta, or as it's known colloquially, the Noodle Boat Races!  I'm so excited to get to join my friends Sabretooth, Patty Mint, Pinki, Rhoda, and Penelope on the SS Rigatoni this year.

Last year, I tried out to be on the crew of a noodle boat, but I didn't make the cut, so I stayed in the spectator area and enjoyed some macaronis with cheese while my friends raced.  This year, I'm proud to represent my department at the Pasta Regatta.

Sabretooth is our captain on the SS Rigatoni.  He runs a tight noodle boat.  He really does.  But you know, on the deck of a noodle boat in the Pasta Regatta, you've gotta have discipline.  If you're not payin' attention and workin' together, things can happen, and also stuff.

I don't like things and stuff to happen to me and my friends, so I do my best to do just like Sabretooth tells me.  He knows what he's doing, as our noodle boat captain.  He's won the Cup'o'Noodles eight times!

I haven't even been alive long enough to be in eight Pasta Regattas, let alone WIN 'em!

So you can imagine just how cool it was of my pal Sabretooth for letting me be a noobie on his noodle boat.  Everybody else on the crew has been in other Pasta Regattas.  I'm the only noob.  So I really don't wanna mess things up for them or Sabretooth by making a Regatta Rookie mistake.  I really don't.  I don't wanna be that kid.

I'm looking forward to my first noodle boat race!

On account of my rookie status, my job on the SS Rigatoni isn't the most important.  Don't get me wrong.  There's no room for ride-alongs on a noodle boat during the Pasta Regatta, so everybody has a purpose.  I just meant that I'm not steerin' the noodle boat or takin' care of the engine.

What I do is sit in the prow of our noodle boat and wave to the other boats as we pass 'em.  I let Sabretooth know if anybody's in our way, so he can steer around them and also so he can tell Penelope to sound our noodle boat's whistle.  

Our noodle boat's whistle sounds really cool.  It sounds like this: BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!

But I pretty much am on the lookout for obstructions and other noodle boats for us to pass.  I like my job on the noodle boat.  I'm good at it.  Every so often, in practice, I got so I could also call out 'Hiya!' to other Noodle Boat Crews.  My friend Frosty Snowman is the captain of the SS Stuffed Shell, and I said Hiya! to him as we passed the Stuffed Shell, then again when the Stuffed shell passed us!  My friend Emma Lee is the lookout on the SS Bucatini. My friend Sophie La Giraffe is the captain of an all Little Giraffe crew aboard the SS Acini di Pepe.

All kindsa people, all kindsa pasta are represented in the Pasta Regatta.

Someday, I hope to captain a noodle boat all my own!

I'll tell ya who ya don't wanna mess with at the Pasta Regatta, Friends.  The Noodles from Elmo's World on Sesame Street.  For as clownish and silly as the Noodles seem on the show, get 'em in noodle boats, and they mean business.  I can't keep it straight who goes in which noodle boat, but the Four Noodles each captain one of the following: The SS Fusilli, the SS Radiatori, the SS Cavatappi, and the SS Farfalle.  You see those boats coming down the lane in the noodle boat race, and you'd just better pay attention.  Pour on some extra power.  Those Noodles know what they're doing.

I guess they would, you know.  Being Noodles and all.  I mean, they're super-friendly and all when they pass ya.  They wave and smile and wave and smile, but you know you're bein' passed.  You really do.  Those Noodles are in it to win it.

And so is Sabretooth, my very own noodle boat Captain, and he's ready to give us our pep talk before the race, so I'd better go.  I'll see ya tomorrow friends!  Muah!