We had a nice time at the bay until the escaped convict made us close up shop and head back to Gulf Terrace.

Our day at the bay had been very short on Wednesday because of a thunderstorm that swiftly crossed the bay in our direction.

Friday, though, featured perhaps the greatest hermit crab race of all time. This was our third or fourth annual hermit crab race at the bay. Danny reported 24 crabs. The average size was much larger than previous years, most crabs about the size of golf ball according to Nicole.

The reason we had so many large crabs was that on Wednesday we had discovered that a stump and roots on the edge of the water had a heavy population of large hermit crabs. Most of the crabs were in the usual snail shell. Nicole found the largest conch-shaped shell.

Kathy, however, found the largest hermit crab since Cashin hermit-crab records have been kept. After the race, all of us crawled about 100 yards out into the shallow waters of the bay. I crawled on my back with my hands behind me and my knees up and feet in front of me. I was Kelly’s water camel.

Kathy went back in to get a float and as she was walking away she yelled “WOW! THIS IS THE BIGGEST HERMIT CRAB I’VE EVER SEEN.” Kathy brought over a cup-cake size (her measurement) snail shell with a large clawed hermit crab inside.

Later I took a picture of “Cupcake” in Kelly’s bucket. I put my ring in the picture to indicate the size. This will be important as I try each year to find a larger hermit crab than Cupcake.