The Royal St. John's Regatta is on, and we're there all day

The pistols have fired today at Quidi Vidi Lake — the Royal St. John's Regatta is underway.

This is the 200th anniversary of the regatta, and for rowers, spectators and concession operators, it's off to a good start.

Fun and games at the Regatta

6 years ago

Duration 2:29

Let us take you around the pond for a few highlights at the Regatta this afternoon

Both the M5 women's crew and the Outer Cove men's crew have won their first races.

The M5 women's team set a new record, with an official time of 4:56.10. They'll get a chance to row even faster in the championship race this evening. 

The Outer Cove men easily won their race Wednesday morning with a time of 8:55.90. They're gunning to beat the existing men's record time of 8:51.32, with a final chance in tonight's championship race.

The Outer Cove men's crew has 39 championships between its seven crew members, and their 8:59.70 finish time last year was only the fifth time in regatta history that a men's team has cracked nine minutes.

Eat the Pond

But if the races aren't your thing, staying on shore is always a time.

• Down at the lake: Tales of eccentric characters, unique buildings, strange sports and wild parties on the shores of Quidi Vidi

Zach Goudie is eating his way around the lake, sampling all the hot dogs, samosas and churros on offer at food stalls and food trucks.

But it's not all fun and games getting food around the pond.

Dave Penny owns Adam's Mini Donuts and he started running into problems while preparing for the events around the lake on Tuesday evening.

"Everything went to pot," Penny said.

"I got a back up [for] everything and I had to use it all for one reason or another. This got stuck, that didn't work, this, I needed more of it, blah, blah, blah."

But Penny said he's lucky that he lives close enough to the lake that he was able to run to his house to get some extra supplies.

And as it turns out, running a small booth also means working as a security guard. Penny said he slept in his car at the pond Tuesday night to keep an eye on things.

"It was just for security … that's what some people did, just hang around their spots all night," he said.

Despite it all, Penny's glad that he put in the extra effort to open the night before the regatta.

"It's a good dry run and there's a lot of people around," he said.

"And that's good because all of what I had to put up with last night I don't have to put up with today."

We'll be bringing you all the snacks, the games of chance and the white-knuckle races live all day on YouTube, our website and on Facebook.

Follow along and show us your best lakeside photos using #cbcnl on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Heat the Pond

The talk of the day for many people around the pond is the extreme heat, with forecast humidex values reaching as high as 35 degrees.

Brenda Mooney said she's been going to the regatta for as many as 35 years, and this year is the hottest one she can remember.

"It's been fog, cold, windy, all of those things. But today — beautiful day, but really too hot for walking around," she said.

"But who are we to complain, what can we do?"

For Hao Nguyen, a graduate student from Vietnam, the heat is familiar.

"It's the same in Vietnam right now," he said.

"In Vietnam, the temperature is over 30, so it's the same right here. We like it."

Commissariat house ground-breaking

The regatta isn't the only bit of St. John's history celebrating an anniversary.

Exactly 200 years ago today, ground was broken to build the Commissariat house, on the corner of King's Bridge Road near Military Road.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, Lynda Keefe was down at the lake with a family dressed to impress in clothes made and styled just like those that would have been worn back in 1818.

Everything would have been hand-sewn and made entirely of natural fabrics, Keefe said, pointing out that while most people would have made their own outfits, in 1818 more people were moving to town and the day's hippest fashions were becoming more widely available for purchase.

And though the outfits look toasty — especially on a bright, sunny day — model Elizabeth Howard said it was cooler under all that cotton and wool than it looked.

"It actually feels quite nice, nice and covered from the sun," she said.

The only real drawback is the time it took to get into the garments, she said.

All told, the models spent an hour dressing up and required a few people to help out with all the clasps, zips and buttons.

Howard said the folks in 1818 who would have worn outfits like these "definitely would have had to get up earlier."

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