Hi folks,
We spent our annual opening week of Crabbing in the san Juans again this year. In our " little boat" the 20' hewescraft ProV. It was a confidence inspiring boat again. We sure get rocked now and then but it's been a stable and fun boat even running around between islands. Would not even consider doing this without a good marine radio though. To far between cell coverage and to remote to get help any other way.
This is the third year for us of opening week crabbing here. We have found something odd, for reasons that I cannot yet explain. The round traps simply catch more then the square ones. Odd that the shape of the trap matters but there was just no question after this many days and the hundreds of crabs in them.
Over 350 miles spent motoring around the islands this year whale watching and fishing. We took some zero experience fishing folks on the boat that just fell in love with catching the spiny tail sharks. Easy to catch and on ultra light gear they had a blast. In one bait ball I stood on the transom and counted 25 to 30 sharks swimming in and around it eating the bait. It was difficult to get a solid count with them moving. One was caught on a big purple fly cast right to them on the surface. I had sprayed the feathers with sardine oil and it was horizontally jigged across the surface in front of them. When that shark bit, and felt the hook, it dove for the bottom with that little ultra light rods drag screaming!
We stayed at the Fidalgo bay RV park, and had the boat in the Cap Sante Marina. That marina is top notch for our needs, Well organized, clean, and just perfect to depart from and return to at night. We mountain biked one long day on Lopez island. 5 bucks to tie up there for the afternoon. We also spent one afternoon at Friday Harbour. That is free tie up if they have space.
I guess one of the more interesting events was coming back to the Marina along the south edge of Sinclair island one early evening with particularly rougher then normal conditions. Wind waves about 2-3 foot and our speed no more then about 10mph with the banging over the tops of the waves. Well in the distance we saw another boat going the opposite direction. It was moving quick and skipping along the surface with ease. While watching this impressive boat speeding along it made a sharp turn towards us and then was head on coming right at us. I said to my wife, I wonder if they are in trouble or need some help?
distance judging on the ocean waters is difficult at best, but this boat was way far off when first spotted. Maybe a few miles? By the time I saw it the turn towards our boat, within a couple minutes on this 2-3 foot seas it was on top of us. However as it was closing this distance my wife said that we should stop and see what is going on because they are clearly coming to us really fast.
About this time I said it's the coast guard. They were next to us at about this time. It was so fast that it's hard to explain that a boat could navigate this well in this water at that speed and be connected to us this quickly! They did this easier and faster then I think could be done by any vehicle on dry land in a wide open parking lot! They asked a couple questions about our safety gear and then asked permission to board our boat. I said sure come on in.
They went through a check list and looked at everything including checking to see if there was water under the floor, fire extinguisher, horns, life jackets, bilge, lights, etc etc. Everything was in order ( thank goodness). They filled out some paperwork to show that our boat was inspected and passed. Then I said, I think this is a "Sanctuary" Marine area exempt from coast guard intervention. ( I was making a joke in regard to the sanctuary city nonsense that is going on now) The big dude, kinda looked like Dwayne Johnson filling out the paperwork, just looked up at me dumbfounded, the Captain (boss) driving the CG boat said " don't even go there" several others on his boat began laughing, and the boss then said I will deport you back to Eastern Washington in a heart beat! It lightened the mood which felt a bit tense before that.
No discredit to the Washington F&G or the Sheriff Dept. , but there is another level of Holy crap when the coast guard reels you in like this and does the once over on your boat! Odds are it will probably never happen again. However I will not be as overwhelmed next time. They were very good at this. We both actually felt better that they came on board and blessed our vessel with a thumbs up for having all the right stuff.
We ended the trip with our limit of crab every day. The struggle became storage this year. Freezers fill quick and 85% of the crab is shell. We boiled and shelled a lot of crab during the week to make space. Freezing only the meat. We brought back home a full live well of crab with the aerator running for 7 hours to get home. On the way back we stopped a few times to add bags of ice to the live well also.
The one down side was having two crab traps stolen or somehow vanish? I was crabbing in 25-35 feet of water and have 100 foot of sinking line with weighted pots and with double floats. They did not just drift away. There were about 20-30 of them belonging to others in the same little bay. When we returned one morning to get them, two of ours were gone? We decided then we are not going to set them out anyplace a little skiff can get to. We only put them out far from the launch and any marina. It really ruined the day that those were missing. I asked a fella at the marina about this. He said that I was right to get them a distance from the areas that can be accessed by a small skiff and get them out where it takes a bigger boat to survive the trip. Far less problems further from the mainland and the public launch sites.
We bought two new ones at West Marine and were back in business that night. Not an expense I had planned on!
Over all this is truly one of the great boating locations on earth. I am counting the days until next years trip already.
Last edited by JJHACK; 07/27/15.
