Crab Crab Crab

Sunday August 7^th – We pulled anchor from Fossil Bay and headed to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island for 4 nights.  We had a nice cruise, got all tied up, then got everything ready to set the crab pots.  Crabbing was only going to be open for one more day and we needed to stock up.

After setting the pots in our trusty spot we headed to the Madrona Grill for some dinner.  The boys hung out on the docks that evening and we pulled both crab pots for a total of 5 keepers!

The next morning, we pulled the pots after an all night soak.  Sometimes after soaking all night they do ok, but usually they they don’t have much in them.  This time however we had 8 large keepers in one pot and 4 in the other!  After the big score we put the pots back down and ran back to the boat.  All the crab went in the crab jail (a bucket with holes and a lid that hangs off the boat in the water so the crabs stay alive until killing time) and we headed to the pool for swimming and relaxation time.

Skylar and Dylan went for a hike in the quarries above Roche Harbor and created this obstacle course out of rocks, hills and and trees.  They had a blast seeing how fast they could do the course then came back to the boat totally exhausted. Skylar was a little beat up after apparently taking a few hard spills.  That night the kids stayed on the boat while Julie and I had a nice dinner alone at the Madrona Grill.  We love these kids but on a boat it can be 24/7 depending on your location, so taking this opportunity was a nice change of pace!  One last pull of the crab posts before dark yielded 4 more keeps for a total of 21!!

Tuesday the 9^th of August – It was time for Dylan to catch his 3pm floatplane back home and for my mom and her friend Phil to fly in for the day at 9am.  We greeted my mom and Phil as they hoped off the plan on to the dock after having a great flight from Lake Union through the San Juan Islands.  We all hung out on the boat for while the kids cleaned all the crab, then set off on a hike to see the Mausoleum.  The Mausoleum is final resting place for the McMillin family.  Roche Harbor was a company town and the family ran the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company started in 1886.

When I was a kid (from the time I was about 3 through 15) our family along with my uncle Karl and his family, would take a boat trip to Sucia Island in the San Juan’s.  We would pack up our 19’ boat (no head, sleeping space or galley, just an open boat with some seats) for a 2 week boating/fishing/camping adventure on Sucia.  We would leave either from Des Moines or Anacortes and make the run up to the island.  This yearly trip was the the spark that created my obsession with boating today.  It was a huge adventure and I loved it.  At least once during our 2 week stay on Sucia we would take a day and make the aprox 15mi trek to Roche Harbor, sometimes in weather not fit for a 19’ boat but we did it anyway.  We would re-fuel the boat and re-provision our supplies but the trip was never complete without a hike to the Mausoleum.

We all had a great time reliving the Mausoleum hike we used to do almost 30 years ago.  After we got back to the boat we cooked all the crab and had a huge crab feast! At 3pm we sent Dylan off on the seaplane back home.  It was great having him on the boat for a few days.  We all hung out on the boat that afternoon talking and having lots of fun then went up to the Madrona Grill for an early dinner before my mom and Phil needed to catch their 6pm flight home.  It was so nice to hang out with them for the day, we had a lot of fun together!

We spent the next couple days at the pool, going on hikes and getting the boat ready to cross over into Canada.