Flashes of Panic

“…as the fastest lobster boat in Casco Bay.”

This announcement on the marine radio was followed, after a beat, by the comment, “No more messing around, now, let’s see that thing haul some ass.” Apparently someone forgot which channel was the trash-talking channel.

After all, traps are more commonly hauled than ass by, for one, Motivation out of Boothbay, or Cry Baby with the straight-six which was nearly the fastest non-diesel boat at the Harpswell races we went over to see today. This was my first time going to the races; I got sunburnt despite massive and repeated application of sunscreen. We considered taking a swim to cool off, but we put off that idea by heavy spectator boat traffic and the fact that the water, at 62 degrees, was notably colder than where I’d dipped in the New Meadows when I finished my run.

It’s hard to describe these races without showing them; this New York Times reporter tried and pretty much failed. (Apparently not someone who really understood what he was watching.) This video does a lot better; we saw a lot of the boats in there race today.

There are a lot of things we do in my state that they don’t do anywhere else, that’s for certain.

Technorati Tags: Harpswell, lobsterboat, Maine, races, rash