Posts tagged ‘Lifestyle’

Aug 2

Crabbing With Dad

I spent last week at my parent’s river house, and it was just the vacation I needed!

While I was there, I got to go crabbing with my dad, who started out by crabbing off of his dock. What I learned from that is there are crabs right there at the dock. Well, I wasn’t planning on swimming in that water anyway! At some point, he started placing his pots out in the river, but last week was the first opportunity I had to see them.

We went out twice a day to work the crab pots, and something interesting happened every time. I saw a school of fish jumping out of the water, this way and that, trying to evade the hungry jaws of some bigger fish. I saw large male crabs cradling little females (doublers), protecting them at molting time and securing mating rights. I saw plenty of jellyfish, birds dive-bombing for their dinner, and a crab swimming on the surface of waters that were forty feet deep.

My dad is just a natural teacher, so he pretty much talks you through whatever he’s doing. Crabbing technique, boating lessons, history, crab anatomy, bay ecology…there’s plenty to teach about, out there on the water. I learned some things, too. I learned that driving a boat is way different from driving a car. For one thing, when you turn a car off, it usually stops moving. I learned that eels are really slimy. And they can get out of that bucket if they really want to. I learned that dead jellyfish can still sting you, that lighthouses out in the middle of the bay don’t have indoor plumbing, and if your eyes tell you those waves look rough, then they are. Only more so.

Some things I already knew; I just needed reminding. Like what a joy it is to spend quality time with your family. Family and friendship are blessings that not every one of us has. It doesn’t do to take them for granted.

♥

I made a little video of my dad working his crab pots. Vegetarians, beware: the crabs in this video all got cooked!

♦

Items of Interest:

Weekends at The Rivah

River Vacation

Blue Crabs – Fish Facts

Jul 27

24 Comments

River Vacation (or How I Almost Died)

I’ve been spending my vacation at the river house! The first few days was just my dad and me, before some other family came in. On my second day, we heard there were huge waves out on the bay, and we decided to “just go see” after checking the crab pots. We were in the wrong boat, but the temptation was too strong.

As soon as we got a little ways into the inlet, we could see the waves just rolling at the entrance. Surf was up! But we went a little further…you know, just to see. As we got closer to the end, it became apparent that this was a fool’s mission. But we had gone too far and there was no way to safely turn the boat around.

Looking out at that rocking water, I was torn between really wanting to experience the adventure of being out among them, and really not wanting to get wet. In any case, I had no choice, and we had to go through. So that’s what we did.

I’ll admit that I was a little scared. It wasn’t so much that I feared for my life; I never thought we were in any real danger of death. I was more afraid that we’d be really, really inconvenienced. It’s just so much nicer to be sitting on a boat than it is to be thrown off a boat. And also, I didn’t want my camera to fall in.

There were a couple of times when I thought the boat could conceivably be rolled, and my dad had to maneuver just right to turn the boat at the safest time. After that, he just chose a wave and surfed it back into the inlet.

Even though we were probably in no more danger than that of being sea sick, I still reserve the right to refer to it as “the day I almost died”. I don’t have a lot of excitement in my life, so I take what I can get. Also, that sounds so much more interesting than “the day I almost got wet”.

I’m working on a crabbing video for next week, but in the meantime, here are a few pictures:

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Jul 8

10 Comments