We're now one hump shy of a full dragon here on the Mariner.

When we have a full complement of musicians in the orchestra we take turns manning the dragon puppet in the closing parade every Saturday. The dragon requires 6 bodies, but there are supposed to be (and usually are) 9 musicians in the orchestra. So we trade off.

Until recently.

Now, with Vern's bum knee preventing him from participating, and several musicians having left for various reasons, we have only five musicians available for the dragon. This will leave it missing a hump (this dragon has a head, four humps, and a tail – it's more like a sea serpent, but we call it a dragon).

This deficiency was discovered this morning during a rare parade rehearsal. However, two musicians are due to join us today in Ocho Rios, so there is no real emergency. They can easily be trained within the three days between now and the parade on Saturday night.

The musicians arriving today are the drummer and the alto player. By some coincidence, they are both from Argentina. Juan, our former tenor sax player (who's back home now) was also from Argentina, and he was very good, indeed. A lot of fun to have around, too.

The only problem is – these guys are here only for a few weeks. It has proven to be very difficult to find players to stay here through the Christmas season. This means we'll have to have a bunch of extra rehearsals now, and again in 3 weeks or so (if we're lucky enough to find musicians over Christmas). One of the trumpet players, Troy, is particularly upset about this, and is now threatening to “go home” too.
Oh well, what's one trumpet player more or less?

***

A little update just before I post: Vern, the musical director, has been ordered not to work, and will most likely be leaving the ship on Sunday. Our new musical director arrives on Wednesday, so I don't know what we'll be doing until then. Vern's deputy MD was Ben, who was dismissed last week, as you will recall.

As for tonight, we get another night off. They can run the show without the orchestra, as a version of the music is available in the computer. I don't like it. I worry that some accountant will wonder why they even have an orchestra on the ship if the show can go on without it.

Of course, we do more than just the shows. But still, I hope things return to normal soon.