Crabbing (in more ways than one)

I LOVE crab for supper…or lunch, or anytime. I am not fussy when crab is on the menu. Crab with butter, crab cakes, crab in salad, crab on toasted cheesebread…you name it, I’ll eat it.

So, when my husband thought we should buy a boat and trap some crab, I thought it was a lovely idea.

So, we bought a boat:

Now, a boat without a motor isn’t much use on the ocean, so- we bought a motor:

Then we thought wheels would be nice, as it is a lot easier to wheel a boat to the ocean than it is to carry it. So, we ordered wheels off the internet, and they arrived promptly:

The next step was to spend 3 hours each getting our pleasure craft operator licenses, so that we could actually, legally, use the boat.

After that, we acquired incidentals, such as fuel tanks (they don’t come with the motor, surprisingly) PFDs, crab pots, sinking line, bait, fishing license, anchor, bumpers, whistles, safety equipment (bailer, heaving lines, pealess whistles), crab measuring thingie, bait bags and bait.

We decided to take the boat to Elk Lake last weekend and try it out. We were putting it together on what was probably the hottest day of the year, on the front lawn in full sunlight. Heatstroke potential? You betcha. Whilst inflating the boat, the little connector on the air pump hose broke, and we were unable to finish inflating the bow section (see, nautical term). That resulted in me running around to find a replacement part, and Steve having to McGyver what I found so that it would work on our boat. That put paid to boating that day:(

Now fully equipped (and more importantly, fully inflated), we decided to try our luck at catching some actual crabs. On Canada Day, since we were both off, we emptied my husband’s truck (which is always full of work tools), loaded up our fishing gear, wrestled the boat on top, tied it down and headed over to Brentwood Bay to launch.

Hmmppphh! The sea, which had been as calm as glass for the past couple of weeks, while we were preparing for the big event, decided to ruffle our feathers and was decidedly too choppy for our inflatable boat. We looked sadly at the water, then got back in the truck.

Nothing daunted, we drove across the peninsula to Island View Beach, with the aim of crabbing there. Yeah. Uh-huh. No way. The parking lot was jammed full of people who didn’t know how to park…there could have been almost double the number of cars if people parked properly. No room for us. So much for that idea.

Island Beach being a lost cause, we gave up our dreams of a crab supper, and decided to go over to Elk Lake and do some actual pleasure boating (also practice for me, as I haven’t driven a boat since the late 80s).

That little fantasy came to a crashing halt when we reached the parking lot/boat launch and found it packed. Frustrated, we came home, and are contemplating celebrating Canada Day with hamburgers instead of a lovely crab dinner with salad and sourdough bread. NOT a reasonable substitute in my book.