May 24th
My first experience with the Vestige in the water was spent in the engine room… plugging a hole with my finger. It’s not uncommon that there are kinks to work out when putting a boat back in the water after five months on a dry dock. My job was to watch the engine and report any abnormal leakage. Not two minutes into our trial run I came across a hole gushing oil. It wasn’t just dripping – oil was pulsating into the bilge. So like the doctor’s assistant I stuck my finger into the wound to stop the bleeding. Luckily that was the only leak… from the position I was in I wouldn’t have been able to spare any more fingers.
Some of the events at the Crab Festival are like none I’ve ever seen. They used to have seal skinning competitions – but they decided killing baby seals might not be the best way to… well, I’m not sure why they decided to stop – I don’t think they stopped out of humane intentions. But some of the other events are still very engaging. I watched dozens of people submit themselves to the icy waters of Alaska in the survival suit race. People gathered their teams of four, raced to get into their suits, plunged into the water and swam a hundred yards to a raft. The high school swim team won with the best time over crews of fishermen and even the coast guard rescue swimmers. But this event wasn’t just for the adults or young adults… there was a team of three young girls with their mom who ranked in the top five best times – with a more positive attitude than the big boys about being in the frigid water. The race continued even with a thousand pound sea lion that positioned himself between the racers and the raft while checking out the action. He glided effortlessly around the swimmers, who looked like floating orange marshmallows, but soon lost interest and left.
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