Free Food - Crabs and Watermelon

Pat = "Um, oh....Tom?  You need to come out here." - outside of boat
Joan= "What?" - climbing out into cockpit
Tom ="What's up?" - below
Sabrina = "What's going on?" - below
Pat = "Uummm, you just need to come out here and see."
Joan = "Oooh!" - now in cockpit
Tom = "Ok.  What is it?" - climbing out to see
Sabrina = "WHAT?  Is everything ok? - still below 
Pat = "You just need to come out here."
Sabrina = "Is something wrong?  Is everything ok?"  Mild panic "Will someone please tell me WHAT is going on?"- as I head for companionway in mild panic.
Joan = "NO, NO, NO....nothing is wrong.  It's a good surprise."

Blue crabs just waiting for us

What we found on the dock was a bucket of 10 blue crabs.  Cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) had left them for us to enjoy.  Thanks Jessie!!!

Pat starts the transfer with our tongs

We had slept in and thus found them mid-morning.  At the urging of Bill (our super-duper dock mate) we sprung into action.  Pat ran for a bag of ice at the dock office.  We put the ice in a cooler and then an old shirt down on top the ice.  Apparently if you lay them directly on the ice, it will kill them because ice is fresh water.  Also if you lay them down upside down, it will kill them as well.

Sometimes it takes a village or at the very least some dock mates

The next step was moving them from the bucket to cooler.   While we have long tongs, they really weren't long enough and the crabs were....crabby.  They started waving around their claws with great speed.  Soon we had two wooden spoons and a spatula out to help us - HEY, it was all we had.  A dock neighbor's advice was "just pick them up."  He acted like I was crazy when I asked if he had crab tongs.  I said "come show us how."  He reached in and almost got pinched big time.  "Whoa!, these are angry little crabs.  Not at all like the Dungeness crabs we have in Seattle."  We had a good laugh later with him about that.  Bill (our super-duper dock mate) came to the rescue with proper crab tongs. 

They SEEM docile but they are NOT!

Even though we got them on ice, they were starting to bubble meaning they were starting to die.  (We got quite an education on crabs during all of this.)  We needed to act fast.  Okay - change of plans.  Instead of crab dinner or lunch, we would have crab brunch.  What?  You don't have crab for brunch on Saturday's!

A little spice makes it nice

We started with my pressure cooker pan but soon realized the handles would melt on the grill.  Bill loaned us his crab boiling pot and we got the water on the grill to bring it to a boil.  Luckily I had some Old Bay on the boat so we dumped a bunch of that in the water and waited for the boil.  Watched pot does take a long time to boil.  Especially if it will be boiling up some yummy crabs for Saturday brunch. 

Tom and Joan check out the crab

In the mean time, cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) brought his trap over to loan it to Tom.  He had snagged another so our count was up to 11 crabs.  He explained to how to bait and set the trap. 

YUM

Finally the water was boiling.  We put 4 crabs in and waited 10 mins.  They came out that lovely red crab color.  Four more in and another 10 mins.  The last 3 went in and we prepped by adding some chopped garlic and Old Bay to the butter melting in a small sauce pan on the grill.  Our utility drop cloth from the boat worked terrific as a table cloth as things soon got messy.  FINALLY the last 3 crabs were boiled.  Pat gave us a refresher in how to eat crabs as we dug in.  YUM!  So very, very good.  It was simply amazing.  We finished off with a lovely watermelon that Gina had given us.  Thanks Gina!!

Ready to dig in

The carnage and yes those are channel locks.  We don't yet have a lot of the proper gear for crab.

We all enjoyed it so much.  It wasn't just the delicious crabs and watermelon but the whole experience of waking up to a wonderful surprise that took our day in a whole new and unexpected direction.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?