Week 15 - Crabapolosa and Boat Chores in Ketchikan

Monday, July 22, Kurt went out bright and early to check the crab pots and sure enough there were 6 keepers (our limit) plus some undersized—those for next year?  So I set to work and cleaned, cooked and picked the 6 keepers. Whew.  I was tired after this.  Of course we had crab for dinner, with fresh bread.

Tuesday morning we discovered 4 more keepers and headed off to Yes Bay.  I cleaned and cooked them before we left then picked them after we got to Yes.  On the way into Yes Bay, we dropped the two prawn traps and once in one of our favorite little spots, put out two crab pots. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon, but I did pick the crab.

It takes several hours of hard, tedious but meticulous work to turn the pile of cleaned and cooked crab in the photo on the left into the two shallow containers of crab meat and much larger container of crab shells in the photo on the right.

The next morning we checked the crab and prawn traps and had both crab and prawns to harvest!  So prawns for dinner with a crab appetizer. The weather was decidedly showery with periods of heavy rain and wind followed by bright sun and calm conditions.

On Thursday morning, bright and early, we pulled the crab pots, which had two more keepers. As we motored out of Yes Bay, we pulled the prawn pots with another batch of prawns.  I cleaned and cooked the prawns and crab as we cruised down Behm Canal towards Ketchikan.

We arrived in Ketchikan shortly after 11 in the morning.  We like to get to Ketchikan in the morning because it is often windy in the afternoon.  As it turned out, a shower rolled through just as we arrived and it was both windy and rainy.  Fortunately the wind died pretty much as we entered the Bar Harbor marina but the rain remained.

The rest of Thursday and all day Friday were chores to get ready to leave and go to Virginia to help my sister with my brother’s affairs.   I put away gear and cooked food that needed to be eaten for Kurt during my absence.

A diversion and the talk of the town in Ketchikan was the appearance of the mega-mega-yacht Serene in Tongass Narrows. The vessel is listed at 440 feet long and 59 feet wide.  Mega yachts are not unusual in SE Alaska but this one is reportedly the 10th or 11th largest in the world and owned by a Russian billionaire.  For comparison, the largest of the Alaska state ferries, M/V Columbia, is 418 feet long.

On Saturday morning I headed off.  Those that live in Alaska know how far it is from the east coast.  I walked to the airport ferry, took the ferry across Tongass Narrows, flew to Seattle, waited for 12 hours for my next flight, spent a 3 hour layover in the airline's hub then finally arrived to Virginia 11 a.m. Sunday, about 23 hours after leaving the boat. Because it is summer all the flights were jammed, but I did manage to sleep on my night flight. 

Meanwhile Kurt worked on boat projects including removing one of the toilets that has been misbehaving, due to backflow. He found that the discharge hose had been crimped during installation, and probably the backflow preventer valve slowly quit working.  He also gave the boat a badly needed wash, not something it had had since leaving Bainbridge Island 3-1/2 months ago.