A few weeks ago while we were at the Pub after a particularly beautiful couple of dives from the Spirit, Kelly mentioned that crab season was upon us July 1st and we should go out crabbing. After looking at the tides we settled on Friday, July 8 as Kelly and Alyssa had the day off, or so they thought. We were to meet at Fay Bainbridge at 2 pm and in the water by 2:30. Slack tide was at 3 pm and we wanted some time on either side since the current can get fairly strong there. Alyssa and Kelly had to work so it was Lucas and I.
Lucas pulled in just after 2 pm and as we were getting ready realized he forget his bag. I had mine so I was promptly put in charge of holding the bag during the dive. I actually volunteered to do this since I hadn't been out crabbing before and didn't know how good I'd be trying to grab them. I clipped the bag on a small clip. I thought that if I got distracted at some point I might unknowingly drop the bag and it would at least still be attached. Dropping the bag turned out to be a correct assessment.
We walked into the water and stopped to put our mask and fins on. I put on one fin looked down and realized I not only dropped the empty bag but it was no longer attached to the clip. I frantically put on my mask and other fin, yelled at Lucas what happened and dove down to find it. As I searched for it in the four feet of water we were in I felt tugging on my fin, looked back and found the bag attached to the strap. The strap had caught on the pulley line and broke when I put the fin on. That crisis was averted and we then had to untangle Lucas's regulator before setting out to find our crabs.
Our depth was initially 5 feet with the depth dropping slowly as we headed NorthEast until we hit 15 feet then declined rapidly. We didn't see many crabs until about 25 feet where we found two circling each other with their claws out and a third watching from the sidelines. Lucas went to grab this one, a large Dungenness, but the crab anticipated his move and skirted aside. They did this twice then the crab took off on a sideways run. Crabs move fast. I chased it up the incline against the current continually losing ground until I quit so I didn't burn through all of my air. We were only 10 minutes into the dive.
We continued down to 30 feet passing beds of Sea Pens, some pulled into the sand, and the largest Nudibranch I had ever seen. It was a pink translucent color and must have been 8-10 inches long and 5 inches wide. The pickings were lean for crabs but we found a few that went into the bag as we slowly made our way back up the incline to around 18 feet. When you grab crabs you have to grab them from the back with your fingers on top and thumb underneath, otherwise they can reach underneath and grab your fingers. Lucas tells me Dungeness can cut off a finger but Red Rock crabs will only break them. That's why I carried the bag and let Lucas catch them. We filled the bag with a number of crabs and headed back South.
So I finally found a crab, was trying to grab it and at some point forgot about the bag full of crabs I was holding. I grabbed the crab, went to measure it and realized I had dropped the bag. Lucas was up ahead and hadn't noticed. I frantically swam back to where I thought it had been. Right when I put my hand on the bag I saw Lucas next to me probably wondering what I was doing. We stayed at this depth and made our way along the contour chasing the Red Rocks through the Eel Grass and ending up a bit South of our starting point in about 7 feet of water. Our dive time by this point was 76 minutes so we dove back down and headed in towards the beach. Final crab total was 9. Dinner was excellent and the beer tasted great. All in all another great day of diving in Puget Sound.
Lucas pulled in just after 2 pm and as we were getting ready realized he forget his bag. I had mine so I was promptly put in charge of holding the bag during the dive. I actually volunteered to do this since I hadn't been out crabbing before and didn't know how good I'd be trying to grab them. I clipped the bag on a small clip. I thought that if I got distracted at some point I might unknowingly drop the bag and it would at least still be attached. Dropping the bag turned out to be a correct assessment.
We walked into the water and stopped to put our mask and fins on. I put on one fin looked down and realized I not only dropped the empty bag but it was no longer attached to the clip. I frantically put on my mask and other fin, yelled at Lucas what happened and dove down to find it. As I searched for it in the four feet of water we were in I felt tugging on my fin, looked back and found the bag attached to the strap. The strap had caught on the pulley line and broke when I put the fin on. That crisis was averted and we then had to untangle Lucas's regulator before setting out to find our crabs.
Our depth was initially 5 feet with the depth dropping slowly as we headed NorthEast until we hit 15 feet then declined rapidly. We didn't see many crabs until about 25 feet where we found two circling each other with their claws out and a third watching from the sidelines. Lucas went to grab this one, a large Dungenness, but the crab anticipated his move and skirted aside. They did this twice then the crab took off on a sideways run. Crabs move fast. I chased it up the incline against the current continually losing ground until I quit so I didn't burn through all of my air. We were only 10 minutes into the dive.
We continued down to 30 feet passing beds of Sea Pens, some pulled into the sand, and the largest Nudibranch I had ever seen. It was a pink translucent color and must have been 8-10 inches long and 5 inches wide. The pickings were lean for crabs but we found a few that went into the bag as we slowly made our way back up the incline to around 18 feet. When you grab crabs you have to grab them from the back with your fingers on top and thumb underneath, otherwise they can reach underneath and grab your fingers. Lucas tells me Dungeness can cut off a finger but Red Rock crabs will only break them. That's why I carried the bag and let Lucas catch them. We filled the bag with a number of crabs and headed back South.
So I finally found a crab, was trying to grab it and at some point forgot about the bag full of crabs I was holding. I grabbed the crab, went to measure it and realized I had dropped the bag. Lucas was up ahead and hadn't noticed. I frantically swam back to where I thought it had been. Right when I put my hand on the bag I saw Lucas next to me probably wondering what I was doing. We stayed at this depth and made our way along the contour chasing the Red Rocks through the Eel Grass and ending up a bit South of our starting point in about 7 feet of water. Our dive time by this point was 76 minutes so we dove back down and headed in towards the beach. Final crab total was 9. Dinner was excellent and the beer tasted great. All in all another great day of diving in Puget Sound.
We're totally in for next time and will hold the bag for you, since you're now experienced. Sorry again about canceling - dive shop gets in the way of diving more than I'd like to admit. We're going to try Manzanita tomorrow and will let you know how it goes! -Kelly
ReplyDeleteSorry kelly and alyssa got waylaid at the shop and didn't get to go on the great crabbing adventure.
ReplyDeletePam