For the opening of crab season we decided to make our way out to Skagit Island. Because our boat is now in Anacortes it required a cross under the Deception Pass bridge during slack tide. Going under the bridge is a really cool experience, but VERY deceiving when leading up to the bridge. My mom and I were totally freaking out thinking that the mast was going to hit the bridge. For some reason when you are on the water looking up at the mast and the bridge it kind of looks like it may hit. The boys were laughing hysterically at us! :)
Once we got to Skagit Island we were so thankful to see an open mooring buoy. For some reason the buoy was more challenging to grab than usual. Usually Nick will grab the hook on the top of the buoy and I will pull the line through while he holds up the hook on the buoy. Well this time I got stuck in ropes that surround the boat (don't know the technical sailing term - the lines that help you to to stay on the boat.). I was stuck in the middle of the two lines and my personal flotation device (pfd) blew up! I got stuck in the ropes and was practically getting choked from the pfd! There was a lot of laughing once everyone realized what had happened.
We arrived at Skagit Island a couple days prior to crabbing season so we could dig for clams to use as bait. My dad's friend Mike had given us the tip to use clams as bait so we thought we would give it a try. We had a ton of fun digging for clams. We only had one shovel so we all took turns digging. Skagit Island isn't the easiest island to dig for clams, it was full of rocks! However, once you find a group of clams it sure is fun to dig them all up!
Once we had captured our bait we decided to go for a walk around the island. Let's just say the island doesn't have a path that goes all the way around. We tried our best to follow what used to be a path and eventually had to give up. We had a bit of a scare on the way back as Boots took a pretty large fall down from the walking path to the shore. As always she shook it off and was up and running. I'm thinking she must have 9 lives!
The plan for the first day of crabbing season was to get up early so we could put our pots into the water right at opening. Without setting an alarm we missed opening by about a half and hour. It didn't matter as we all caught our limit for the day. The clam bait worked perfectly, the crabs couldn't stay away from it! It was around midday when we had caught our limited and started our processing plant. Because we have such a limited amount of space in the fridge we had to get the crab out of the shells to be able to keep our limit.
Later in the afternoon my dad's friend Mike and his friend Ralph came and tied up next to us. They had an unfortunate experience when picking up their crab pots. They took their skiff to go pick up their pots and somehow managed to tip the skiff completely over! Thankfully it was opening day of crabbing season and some people saw it happen and were there within minutes to help fish them out of the water. There is always some sort of drama out on the water!
The next day we put our pots out again and caught our limit right away! I was having so much fun crabbing! The worst part is the processing of the crabs, but the best part was eating them! We had so much fun as the weather was nice - we were actually in shorts!!
We had to head back to our slip the next day as my dad needed to get back to land for an appointment. We woke up in the morning, did a little more crabbing and then had a sunny sail with Mike and Ralph before heading out.
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