Before we pulled out of the dock, the guys went and retrieved the crab trap. One large female, but no males. Dang it. Dave then backed out and pulled into the fuel dock. The dock hand was like “hmmm. He seems to know what he’s doing.” Yep. That’s our Captain Dave. He’s really got the hang of docking this big monster.
After we got underway, we made a quick stop to get the shrimp pot. Jim snagged it from the back deck. Took Jim and Melissa a while to get the line up. Meanwhile the boat is drifting towards the rocks and Dave is like “hustle it up!”. Tricky as he didn’t want to put the boat engine in gear and wrap the line around the prop so really didn’t want to engage till the shrimp pot was aboard.
We didn’t get much. A couple of scrawny crabs, a random fish, and another 6 shrimp. That’s 10 shrimp total – 3.5 oz of meat ultimately. Two days of licenses cost $11 USD, plus the cat food we used for bait, another $1. Using that math, it was $56 USD per pound. You can buy the same gulf island shrimp in Seattle – fresh for $20/lb. If we include even the smallest amount of capital expense for the trap – figuring a ten year life span with 4 fishing expeditions per year, that takes the cost of that shrimp to $75 USD per pound. Yep. Melissa just had to do that math.
It was a bit windy in the channel today, and the waves were a couple of feet high. Nothing the stabilizers couldn’t handle though.
Margaret did a class from the upper deck while underway.
Dave backed into Blind Bay just as smooth as you please.
Underway, Melissa baked hamburger buns, we are tired of the crumbly store bought gluten free ones we've had this trip. For reasons not clear, her favorite gluten free flour has been unavailable for months. Jim and Margaret found another one to try – Pamela’s. We found a hamburger bun recipe and gave it a try. Melissa struggled to get the buns to proof properly. Maybe because of the substitution of cider vinegar for cream of tartar. But most likely because she didn’t proof the yeast before adding it to the recipe the way she typically would. Eventually putting it in the oven with a bowl of boiling water got the buns to rise. Having made tin foil molds to form them in, they turned out pretty well. Jim had brought aboard lamb burgers that he grilled, and made a feta, yogurt, lemon, and mint sauce to top them off. A yummy dinner!
