The almost Halloween battle was held at Ron’s pond Sunday. The first battle we have had up there this year. Thanks to the ton of rain we’ve had this fall Ron’s pond was full and weed free. We had scheduled the battle date to get Jason a chance to battle before winter and give Lars a chance to get the Tiger out. Jason was a no show but the Tiger made its first battle, thus ending the career of the Bell. The regulars were in attendance (Ron, Lars & I) and we also had David Siskind and Kevin McCalib attend to watch the first sortie. Kevin took the Mpls out so we had one more ship to shoot at. Teams were Ben (NC) & Lars (Tiger) vs Bob (Warspite), Ron (St Louis), Kevin (Mpls). There was no wind and the weather temp was 55 with lots of clouds and some light on/off rain. It was a perfect day for battling, when Ron has the waders on. The first battle started and I took off after the Tiger. I'm proud to say that I put the first bbs into her hull.  Ben then came around and chased me off. While Ben was busy trying to get the Mpls I pulled along side Lars and traded bow sidemounts. Lars was looking a little low and I said “You’d better turn your pump on.” He responded with the worst thing a captain can say “I did but it’s not working”. So being a nice guy I took advantage of this and hit him hard with the haymaker. I’m also proud to say I sank the new Tiger for the first time. Meanwhile Ron had pulled his ship to reload his one working gun and Kevin had run the Mpls into the grass. Normally this grass would not have water over so you can’t blame him for missing it. Ben brought the NC in and started to sidemount him pretty hard. By the time I got over there Ron was in the water getting the Tiger. I got a few shots into Ben, but if only Ron had waited... After the Tiger was out and the Mpls cleared the props we started again. The Mpls was in bad shape and sank quickly. I started chasing Ben around trading sidemounts. I should have stopped to pump out a little but was too busy playing and sank. Back up to the shed for reload and refit. I had brought what I thought was the full large CO2 tank left over from the Ice Breaker. Turns out it was the empty one. Ron had one tank that had some air in it so we started to use that one. Lars opened the radio box, very easy to do with the Otter Box. There was no water and he found the pump problem. The arm was getting stuck on the switch, a little sanding fixed that. We patch most of one side of the Tiger (30-6-36) the bad stuff on Warspite (6-2-6) and all of the Mpls (20-3-19). Both Kevin and David took off and we went back to the pond for sortie two. This time we did the Britt’s (Lars & I) vs the USA (Ben & Ron). I left Lars to deal with Ben while I went after Ron. Ben dealt with Lars by giving him many good stern shots. I chased Ron around and he sank at the far shore. This left me and Lars to go after Ben. Thankfully Ben had used most of his sterns on Lars so I was free to chase him all I wanted. We all gave and took some sidemounts and left the water pump pretty good. Back to the shed to reload, this time we ran out of air in Ron’s tank. So we decided to pack up and head home. Until Ben remembered he had a tank in his van. This saved us for one more battle. Ron left the St Louis in the shed and took Mpls out. I put the Warspite on the water and took the Mpls’ transmitter from Ron. Ben put his NC out while Lars was checking a prop. Then I heard a funny noise, like bubbles. I should have turned the Warspite’s pump on because she sank next to shore. Ron went out to get her and Ben’s NC had also gone down. This left Ron as the official best battler on the water. He doesn’t even need to battle to sink ever other ship. Ben could not get the NC to stay up so we went to Ron & Lars vs Me. Lars had a prop that had come off so he went in at a lower speed. Lars & I traded sidemounts while Ron blasted at me with sterns. I started to chase Lars and he ran right behind Ron’s stern hoping to drag me by and give his teammate a free shot. Ron had other ideas and blasted Lars. He does make a better target (lots of freeboard) than I do. This opened up a big (Thumb sized) hole under A turret on the port side. Lars had been turning his pump off to get more water in the ship so he could use it for extra speed. This was working well until “The hole” got under the water. Lars repaid Ron for his friendly fire by sinking in water that was at the top of Ron’s waders. We went back up to the shed and Ben found out why he sank. Part of his sheeting, after taking a beating all year, was peeling off the hull. We counted, found out the Vikings got crushed, but my Fantasy team did great and went home. Totals were Kevin in Mpls (1 sortie and a sink) 20-3-19, Ron in St Louis (2 sorties and a sink) 30-3-3. Ron in Mpls (1 sortie and a turret tugboat) 9-2-2, Ben in NC (Sank at start of 3^rd sortie) 139-15-16, Bob in Warspite (3 sorties and a sink) 76-8-19 (Includes patching) and Lars in the New Tiger (3 sorties and 2 sinks) 182-22-59 (includes patching). Unless it gets warm or stays like this looks like building season is here. Time to get your new ship put together or fix that old one up.