On the Ocean

Last weekend, we made the trip down to visit Ty's parents, Jeff and Pam, in Dallas, Oregon.  Jeff had promised to take us out salmon fishing in the ocean.  Jeff is a very experienced fisherman, and offered to share some of his skills with us.

Pam and Jeff keep their boat -- Happy Anniversary -- moored at a big, beautiful marina in Newport, Oregon.  Newport is where the Yaquina River flows into the Pacific, and is home to some of the west coast's largest commercial fishing fleets.  In other words, there were a lot of boats for us to gawk at!

Jeff knew there wasn't much luck of us getting salmon as the season hasn't really ramped up quite yet, so we brought along two big crab pots to drop on our way out.  (And according to Newport's official website, it's the "Dungeness Crab Capitol of the World," so we knew we'd have good luck getting crab at least.)

We headed out to the ocean and left our pots right past the breakwater.  After that, it was out into the open ocean where we dropped our lines.  As expected, we didn't get any fish, but we certainly got some bites.  Being out on the ocean with expanses of water and sky on all sides was amazing!

We headed back in to check on the pots and were amazed at what we got.  Over 12 of the largest Dungeness I've ever seen.

 

Pam and Ty were naturals pulling up the pots together.  I stayed out of the way and snapped pictures.

 

 

After pulling in the pots, we headed up the Yaquina to do a bit of sight-seeing.  The river quickly leads away from the hubub of downtown Newport and into quiet areas with lots of wildlife.

Once we'd gottn Happy Anniversary cleaned up and the crabs packed into coolers for the ride home, it was great to head back to Pam and Jeff's house to boil up some crab and enjoy them -- along with some cold drinks.  Yum!

Ballard Sunday Farmer's Market

We are fortunate enough that our marina is walking distance from old Ballard Avenue where, every Sunday, farmers gather to sell fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers.  The market is always a scene -- packed with shoppers, buskers, artists, craftspeople, and, of course, farmers.  Our friend, Sharla, joined me for a morning trip to the market to pick up apples for making into applesauce -- our go-to boatmeal addition when blackberries aren't in season -- and to take pictures.  Sharla is an amazing photographer and always willing to share her skills.

The market was overflowing with amazing produce of all colors, so we decided to try and capture a complete rainbow.

Red (orange, and yellow) heirloom tomatoes were everywhere!

What else could we photograph for orange but carrots, with their lush tops still on.

There are flower vendors at both ends of the market -- it was hard to decide what flowers to take pictures of, but these extra-large sunflowers were pretty stunning.

Green was also bountiful at the market.  I think my favorite part of this farmer's stand was actually his chalkboard signs.

Perhaps we'll have to try boatmeal with blueberries one of these days.

There were lovely purple flowers, but also a complete stand of eggplants of all shades.  These lighter, smaller eggplants caught our eye.

After taking pictures of practically every booth, we visited my favorite apple vendor -- ACMA Mission Orchards -- to pick up sauce apples.

I got a couple pounds of ginger crisps, which are sweet and will probably be delicious in a spiced sauce.

Crabbing





 

Last Sunday, we took our friends, Lilly and Kevin, out for a sail trip.  Besides enjoying the sunshine near-perfect conditions on Puget Sound, the other purpose of the trip was to do some crabbing.  We'd gotten our 2014 crabbing and fishing license a while back, but this was the first time we'd put it to use.

 



 

 

We headed out from Ballard Mill Marina around 9:00 AM and made it through the locks in no time.  We dropped two crab pots just beyond the breakwater in front of Shilshole Bay Marina. We filled the bait bags with (extra stinky) chicken livers and clams.  (Kevin was wise enough to instruct us that, when crabbing, stinkier is always better.)

 

After dropping the pots, we headed across the Sound toward Port Madison.  This was Kevin's first trip on Vicky Lee, and he definitely saw the best of sailing.

 

After a near perfect sail across the sound, we headed back toward Shilshole to check the pots.  We first checked the pot we'd dropped in shallower water -- at about 60 feet -- and were disheartened to find that we'd only got one very small rock crab, which we had to throw back. We then went to check the second pot, which we'd dropped in deeper water and were quite pleasantly surprised to find that our stinky livers and clams had attracted 11 crabs. Jackpot!

 

Kevin and I hoisted the very full pot onto Vicky's bow, and then carefully carried it back to the cockpit to open it up.

 



Ty bravely opened the pot to extract the crabs one-by-one so that we could check that they were male and large enough to keep.  He did not escape unscathed and suffered at least one good pinch on the finger.

 



In all, we ended up with five lovely Dungeness to divide among the crew.   Ty and I boiled our crabs in salty seawater and enjoyed them with a late dinner back at the Marina.  Yum!