Sunday, September 8, 2013

Crabbing in Washington

Once restored to our native land, my mom and I headed from the ferry terminal at Anacortes, Washington, due west to the town of Mount Vernon and our family friends P and L. In addition to it being great fun to see them, we had the added boon of a beautiful day deemed perfect for them to take us back to Anacortes and out on their boat to go crabbing!


These people are pros. P dropped two pots, and then we sailed around for a few hours eating lunch, enjoying the sunshine and perfect temperature, and talking about the logistics of life on a boat.


When the time came, we went back to the pots and, voila! Dungeness crabs galore! We had to throw back all the females, plus males who weren't at least 6.25 inches across. Despite the second trap not having been latched (and therefore devoid of all but the stupidest crabs, who didn't bother to crawl out of it after having devoured the chicken drumsticks used as bait), we ended up with 9 or 10 legal crabs.




Back at their house that evening, P, not one for sentimentality, dropped them all in the boiling pot while my mother hid her face. I felt a little less bad for the crabs when I saw this guy take one of his comrades with him to its doom. My finger experienced one of those pinchers, and they are mighty.


YUM.



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