Sitka Crab

Leslie Friday, June 20, 2008

Today was a day of laundry and errands. We wanted to be sure to get to the fish monger on the dock between 4:30 (when the fishermen start to come in) and 6:00 pm (when they close). Our timing worked out perfectly. We may have mentioned previously that Dungeness crab season opened on June 15th. We hadn’t had any yet. When we got to the dock at 4:30, the operator told us that the crab would be delivered as soon as the boat at the dock left. We decided to stand around and watch.

Soon the crab fisherman pulled up to the dock. The pier is high so they use a pull system to lift the tubs of fish from the boat level to the pier level.

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The crabman had only one tub of crabs.

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Soon a line formed of people waiting for crabs. We were first in line. That was good because after a few sales the woman in charge said that she didn’t think they would have enough crabs to fill everyone’s order.

First the crab were counted and weighed (so the crabman could get paid). There was 82 pounds of crab weighing about 2 pounds each. We bought 2 crabs and another pound of King Salmon filets. We had previously discussed that we needed to get more use out of the giant pot we bought in Ketchikan for to cook the King Crab.

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We were lucky that the sun shone for most of the afternoon so we were able to eat out of doors. We had talked about bringing our old Coleman camp stove to use out-of-doors but ultimately it didn’t make the "purge" of the RV basement. We had to cook in-doors but we do carry a "church" table to use places where no picnic table is provided. Eating crab or corn on the cob is best done out-of-doors. If we travel places where we expect to eat out-of-doors, I think I’ll put the camp stove back on the "critical" list. It would be nice to keep the fish cooking outside the RV. We do have two Fantastic fans that move air out of the RV. I don’t know why they don’t make Fantastic fans for houses, but this ceiling mounted high powered fan completely replaces all the air in the RV in about 10 minutes. We have one Fantastic fan mounted over the kitchen and a second one mounted over the sink in the bathroom. If we turn one Fantastic fan to "in" and the other to "out," it feels a bit like a wind tunnel in here.
Most of us think that mid-summer occurs on June 21st. Due to the position of the earth vis the sun, this year the summer solstice occurred on June 21th at 3:07 pm. The local radio station announced that winter is coming – and of course that is true, every day from now on will be shorter. I took most of these pictures after 10:00 pm.

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Tonight at around 10:00 pm I went out to take pictures of the sunset and the waterline. Enjoy!