I must have had way too much Rum because I had forgotten the order of events at Bequia. Had to rehash the thing with Leighann and Misty to get the order right. Actually this chapter should have been before Chapter 4 but Oh well. Following the adventures on Bequia but after the evening snack and oh so good rum swizzles the Entertainment director Rusty introduced us to “The Crab Race” Basically a bunch of Hermit Crabs are set down in the center of a circle. First one over the outer ring wins. She had “official” judges” and printed rules and even an odds board. She introduced the racing crabs with much hype and laughter. Ran 3 heats with winner of each heat in championship race. The whole time she was conducting the race this large jolly very British woman was wearing an impeccably made crab hat. I still laugh just remembering the sight.  With 64 “adult” passenger, all of whom had bet a few dollars on hermit crabs, the crowd became a touch boisterous. All the hulabaloo was in good fun. One guy got right up against the outer ring and was making scary faces and “frightening” noises to scare his crab’s opponents. Hermit crabs as far as I know have lousy vision and are deaf. That guy drew “severe” punishment from Rusty 8^) at a later contest. At the end of each heat the winning bettors were paid off in “doubloons”. As if we needed any more rum or other drinks. The victorious crab from each heat was entered into the final championship race. One of the crabs (# 8) apparently suffered a drug overdose from unscrupulous handlers and had to be med-evacted from the race arena in the crab ambulance. Sheit was in such bad shape that a stretcher was required. Rumor is that the Galley Crew had big money riding on Sheit. The passengers threatened to lynch the scum that would mistreat a poor sea creature. Rum swizzles were invoked to quiet the crowd.  During one of the intra race interludes I noticed the tee shirt a young woman was wearing and fell to talking to her and her boy-friend. The shirt had symbols on the back that showed all the sub-atomic particles that we presently think make-up the Hydrogen atom. I have read papers from the nuclear physicists most of my adult life. I admire their ballsy ability to explain what they did not see with increasingly complicated and more massive particles. It takes young people who still believe in magic to work in that field. Us old folks have become too cynical and fossilized in our world view. We have seen way too many “naked emperors”. She works at CERN which is in Switzerland and he works in Brookhaven which is in New York. Talk about a long distance relationship. She flys to NY once a month and he flys to Switzerland once a month. So they have two weekends a month together. That is more than Caro and I spend together and we are in the same house. They work for quasi governmental organizations so travel is cheap. After 4 prelimanry heats and a final race we lost our money. But it was fun and a great way to loosen up for the foray to Maxs and Columbos.
For pictures of the Crab Race at Bequia click here WJ4 Beach to Crab Race or go to http://community.webshots.com/album/27185353KrywShqTde
and for the remainder of the crabrace photos click here WJ 4b Crab Race or go to http://community.webshots.com/album/27186262yKfjFPoSTK |
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