Crabbing at Winchester Bay, OR

8/19/13 Sorry about not posting for such a long time but there really hasn't been that much of interest to write about. We have been here at Winchester Bay since August 4, trying to catch crab. Usually we are here in September, and usually with the RoVing Rods at the Crabfest. Late Sept. and early Oct. are usually the best times to get crab. At that time they are full of meat because in August, many of them have recently molted and the ones we catch have fairly soft shells and the muscles haven't grown into the new, larger shells yet. Unfortunately, this seems to be a very slow year for crabbing. When we first got here, the weather was very cold, with fierce bitter winds for 2 days. Then things started to improve and we have had some fairly nice days. This is the view from our site towards the river, across the crabbing dock:

We have our inflatable boat and motor with us but it requires some work to set it up and with the weather bad and the crabbing slow, we decided to wait to set it up. So we have been crabbing off the dock. Usually by now, we would have caught at least 100 crabs - we have caught about 20. Imagine our surprise when we went out to the dock the 3rd day we were here and there were Sid & Pam Bowen, old RoVing Rod friends who now live at the SKP park in Sutherlin, OR. We had a happy reunion with them, sharing Happy Hour in our rig one day, and also going out to pizza with them (and their neighbors) another day. Pam & Sid are on the right side, towards the back, behind the lady with the big hat:

What have we been doing other than crabbing, you might ask, since processing lots of crab hasn't been on our daily agenda. Well, when we first arrived, there were 3 tuna boats in selling tuna and because of the competition, they had dropped the price to $2/pound. Of course, that is for the whole fish, which means 50% waste. Plus $5 per fish if you have them fillet it. Oh well, fresh tuna canned by us a so much better than store bought, so we got some and canned it. The other event here has been the phenomenal king salmon run. Boats are going out of here and coming back within only a few hours with huge king salmon - 25 pounds or so each. The cleaning stations are busy for hours and if we go over there and ask nicely, they give us their carcasses. We have been using them for bait in our crab traps, and also canning some of the salmon when we can get it. A few days ago, Ron & Donna Gibson, also RoVing Rod friends, stopped by for a nice visit. They told us that 2 other RR couples were here, and showed us where they were parked. So we had a very nice Happy Hour with John & Vi Primmer, and Marcia and Dick Sumner, Charlie and also Jack Vincent, who had just arrived. From left are Jack, Elaine, Charlie, John, Dick, Marcia & Vi.

The guys all went out fishing and caught some nice ones, and Dick & Marcia gave us some beautiful fillets for dinner. Then yesterday, Ron & Barb Bonham showed up and we had another Happy Hour because it was Ron's birthday. From left are Barb, Ron, Elaine, John, Vi & Jack. He doesn't look very happy about it in this picture, does he?!

So, you can see that we are not having travel adventures, but we are enjoying some social times with friends and trying to catch crabs, while also devoting some time to planning for future travels. Thank goodness there is an excellent 4G Verizon signal here. At the end of the month we will start heading south, back to CA because my daughter, Laura, will be getting married at South Lake Tahoe on Sept. 7. We have rented a big house there for all the family to stay with us as this will be a kind of family reunion, as well as a celebration of her marriage.