Ahhh, fresh air, the smell of some sort of trees that we don’t see in the tropics, the sound of waterfalls, the freaking cold water in those waterfalls. What’s not to love? And how about the size of those trees? “Old forests” they’re called. Even the bark is bigger.
When you sit on a boat all day, you really get to relax and think, take in the surroundings. Unless you’re actually doing the work involved in sailing. Lucky for me, Bill and Kris wanted to do all the work, so I got to enjoy the beauty that is the Pacific Northwest.
And once you drop the hook in some breathtaking anchorage, you get to dinghy ashore and stretch your legs. Bill and Kris are the consummate hikers. Living in Montana, they got used to mountains, lakes, valleys, and the like. They have even created their own triathlons. We were worried about keeping up with them. But they were great. I’m not sure if they were slow because of us, or if they were just in the mood for moderate hikes. Whatever it was, we all did great. And no sand in our shoes!
Now, about those crabs! We tried to catch crabs from the boat. We caught a few, but only one was large enough to keep. We let the babies go free to live another day, month, year, whatever.
In the end, we bought four large crabs from a tent on a dock and had them steamed before bringing them back to the boat. However, I was not aware of how messy the eating process would be. I’ve always eaten Snow or Stone crab legs. And that’s all you get. Just the legs. Not this time. This time, we had to break the body in half, scoop out the guts, and bang the shells on the side of a trash can to knock off any residual yuck. All this before dredging the meat through melted butter and cajun seasoning.
Life is good.
July 2020