CrabbingInTheHood.com

Last year, I shared the post Hood Canal WA Deadliest Catch, another installment of my never-ending series ‘Stupid Human Boat Tricks‘ by sharing the near-death escapades I experienced with my Mom out on the Hood Canal. I was recently reminded by one of my readers that I neglected to finish the story, hence Part Deux.

And so, the saga continues….

When last we left our hero, he was perilously close to the brink of an icy grave….

Even in the late Summer, the waters of the Hood Canal are surprisingly cold. And in this instance, bone-chilling cold! Perhaps it’s because there’s still run-off from snow that’s melting on the Olympic Mountains? Or that the Hood Canal is over 500 feet deep in some areas, and is part of the Puget Sound waterways, leading to the Pacific Ocean?

Regardless, there I was, treading water for what seemed like an eternity, faithfully holding onto my lost crab pot buoy, patiently awaiting my Mom’s rescue.

I forced my head above the waves and scanned the surface for my trusted C-Dory. Off on the horizon, I could see my Mother hitting the 9hp kicker with a wooden oar.

Gee, that was a comforting sight! Obviously, she hadn’t yet figured out how to operate the motor or vary the rate of speed (as you may recall from my previous installment, my Mom’s first attempt at saving me ended rather abruptly as she passed me at full throttle!).

It was late afternoon by this time, with the water becoming increasingly choppy. The tide was coming in too, and rather rapidly at that. I held on relentlessly to my crab pot buoy and the $150 investment it represented, stubbornly refusing to let go. About every third wave or so, the tension on the submerged buoy & crab line would pull my head underwater.

As my head resurfaced, I looked up just in time to see the bow of my C-Dory heading straight for me! I was on a collison course with my own boat!

I could hear my Mom yelling and cursing as she continued in her valiant attempts to whack the kicker motor into obedience.

Just before the final moment of impact, I heard the Johnson Kicker die, and the trusty C-Dory finally slowed. I reached up, grabbed the bowline eyelet, and straddled the bow with my legs.

I felt like a lamprey, contently attached to a large fish. The boat was still moving, but the drag on my clutched crab line was bringing us to a halt.

However, I guess my Mom was still pretty wigged out though. For I soon heard a blood-curdling scream up above me.

“I’ve killed my son, I’ve killed my son!” she cried out!

I was satisfied just to remain still and quiet from my perch there on the bow, but I couldn’t allow my Mom to think that she had caused my early demise. So I yelled up to her that I was okay, and worked my way around the side of the boat, back to the transom, where I handed her the crab buoy and line intact.

After I climbed back in, we pulled up the pot. I can’t recall if there were any keepers. I don’t think it really mattered much.

As we made our way back to Miami Beach, I think we were both just happy to be alive!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional with Keller Williams West Sound providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, SOUNDBITEBLOG,ActiveRain, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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At times I think it would be so much easier and cost-effective to simply purchase our Dungeness Crab from anyone of a number of reputable local sources. We could fore-go all the joyful sucking black hole financial frustrations that results from boat ownership and eat our store-bought crustaceans in relative ease and comfort.

But alas, there is something very primal within us that yearns for expression – the hunter instinct – that causes us to cast aside all concerns for safety and common sense, to release our ‘inner explorer,’ and relentlessly pursue our prized quarry.

Such was the case this past week.

Our trusty C-Dory was finally in working condition (fodder for another article soon to come), so we launched at Miami Beach out in Seabeck WA, motored out to our usual spot, and dropped our pots.

A couple hours later, we returned to retrieve our pots and our hopeful bounty. Unfortunately, the tide had come in faster than we had anticipated, and we couldn’t find two of our crab pot buoys. To make matters worse, our 40hp Johnson Outboard suddently gave up the ghost and refused to cooperate, leaving us at the mercy of his evil twin, the 9 horse kicker.

Have you ever watched grass grow? Or observed molasses going uphill on a cold day? That’s about the maximum rate of speed we achieved as we sputtered our way back to the Miami Beach boat ramp.

The following day, my mother and I decided to head out a couple hours prior to the peak of low tide, accounting for the neck-breaking speed of our trolling motor, to find our two missing crab pots.

Arriving just in time, we quickly located one of the buoys. The wind had picked up, as it has a habit of doing in the afternoon out on Hood Canal, and the waves made pulling up the crab pot more difficult. As Murphy’s Law of Crabbing would have it, the pot was bare except for a lone starfish.

We searched repeatedly up and down the shoreline for the 2nd crab pot, but to no avail. Time had run out and the tide was rapidly returning.

To gain a better vantage point, I climbed up onto the roof of the cabin and peered out over the water. Suddenly, I saw the 2nd buoy submerged just under the water’s surface.

Kicker motors are great for trolling, but they totally suck when it comes to quick turns or maneuvering. We made a dozen or so attempts to retrieve the submerged buoy, but came up empty at every pass.

Finally, at wits end, I pulled off my shirt, handed my wallet and car keys to my mom, and jumped overboard.

Have you ever done something without really thinking it through, and then realize very quickly how big a mistake you’ve made?

I hit the water and immediately realized I had made a fatal error. Besides the water being just a few degrees short of freezing, my Mom had never operated the kicker motor!

As I frantically searched for the submerged crab pot buoy, I kept thinking of that scene from the movie ‘Titanic” where Leonardo slips away from Kate’s embrace, and disappears into the freezing depths.

I found the buoy and grabbed the attached line like a fierce, relentless junkyard dog. Unfortunately,  it was then that I understood why the buoy had been underwater. The rope was shorter than the water’s depth and the tide was coming back in!

Did I mention that the wind had come up and the waves were getting increasingly larger? About every 3rd wave, my head would bobble under the water, filling my mouth with saltwater.

Off on the horizon, I could see my Mother struggling to maneuver the wave-tossed C-Dory using the gutless trolling motor.

Would she somehow miraculously tap into the Matrix and learn the operating specifications for a 1985 Johnson 9-Horsepower Outboard Motor? Or would I suffer the grizzly fate of being transformed into a human crab pot buoy?

To discover the fate of our heroic Crab Hunter, read “Hood Canal WA Deadliest Catch Part Deux”

~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, SOUNDBITEBLOG, ActiveRain, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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Well, perhaps it would be best to start with “How NOT to Launch Your Boat in Kitsap County WA”:

~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~     o     ~

Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, SOUNDBITEBLOG, ActiveRain, Everyday CK, Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail:  kitsapagent@gmail.com

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