My MacGyver Crab Trap

 

I realize my title here is a bit misleading as, no, this is not a post about how to trap wonderfully edible crabs while living on a boat.

It's about how one might capture a fiddler crab that falls through a hatch in one's head in the middle of the night because one's spouse insists that a hatch must remain open in order to release shower steam. Of course the head is mine while a certain spouse's head remains crab free. Go figure.

Hans had no sooner left for work yesterday morning when I discovered a fiddler crab hiding in my head. If they didn't totally creep me out it may have been humorous as the poor thing thought it was being quite clever in a 'I can't see you so I know you can't see me' kind of way. Unfortunately for him, his spidery legs, wrapped around the hose (within inches of the potty) he was hiding behind, gave him away.

I shuddered, gave thanks that he wasn't hiding in my face towel, and shut the door.

I then spent hours hating the poor thing for upsetting my day and feeling horribly guilty about leaving it to die.

DamnDamnDamn

But imagine my horror when later in the day I opened the door and discovered.... it was gone. I blindly backed up and then nearly jumped out of my skin when I stepped on something slithery only to realize it was a shoe lace. I slammed the door once more and after fortifying myself with a Frosty from Wendy's (the short walk to Wendy's always makes things better) I gave it another go. This time I moved my bath mat and by god there he was.

 

I had to remind myself that during the many years I was single, I successfully dealt with things like bats and mice although it certainly didn't hurt that I had three cats at the time.

But sans cats, I came up with a plan.

Here's poor Chester without the cover of my bathmat (Hans is the one who names these creatures, not me). It would appear I need to scrub the floors of our heads sometime soon.

 

A rubbermaid container is the 'trap', the flexible cutting board slides under the crab, and the trimmed paper plate will add stability underneath the flimsy cutting board so I can carry it off the boat.

 

 

Of course Wilbur was fascinated

"What is that creature trapped underneath my mama's elegant cookware?"

Cue in the "Jaws' music; someone is very, very afraid

 

 

It's Chester the Curious Crab.

Eeeewwwe!

 

 

Just try to convince me they don't have faces!!!

 

I took a deep breath and knowing I had only one chance at this, I slammed my rubbermaid container over Chester. I'm sure if he hadn't been dehydrated he wouldn't have allowed this humiliation.

Then I slid my flexible plastic cutting board underneath him as he scuttled about with creepy clicking noises and giving me some major heebee-jebees. My final move was sliding a sturdy paper plate (with one curved edge cut away leaving me with a flat surface) under the whole thing for stability.

With Chester held out in front of me as far as possible and Wilbur hot on my heels we paraded through the Knotty Cat and then out into the cockpit where I dumped Chester back into the murky marina water. He landed on his back and for one brief second lay there stunned, and then with a burst of energy he waved a frantic goodbye to me with all his little legs and then disappeared under the boat.

I breathed a sigh of relief and then had a scary thought. What if Chester hadn't been alone? What if he'd brought a friend with him?

This is why I don't get out of bed at night if I can help it. Unless of course Chester or one of his ilk decides to drop into the hatch over our berth. This also might be why I don't sleep well at night. And if crabs can get in so easily what about snakes...

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A lot of good sailing.

We arrived in Coinjock by 3 PM yesterday and were actually a bit early as we were able to sail quite a ways through North Landing River. We docked at the Midway Marina which actually had quite a bit of space available. The Coinjock Marina is the only other marina at this point and it was packed tight and boats were even rafted up together. I think the Coinjock is supposed to have a fabulous restaurant so that might be why. We sure didn't feel like dropping our dinghy in the water in order to cross the channel to find out. We ate leftover chile and spaghetti.

We left Coinjock this morning at 8:15 AM and sailed through the dreaded Albemarle today with absolutely no trouble. We had steady North East winds at around 15-20 knots with some 25 knots gusting, so we ran with the jib all the way out.

We thought we should have been sailing faster than we were and when Hans just now turned on the engines, our port propeller made some complaining noises and spit out a crab pot! That damn thing slowed us down by a whole knot.

I don't like crab pots but I do love crabs because they're so cute. We bought Wilbur a very expensive stuffed crab this summer after visiting Tangier Island. Wilbur loved his 'Crabby Cake' and would lovingly chew it for hours.

Recently things cooled down between the two of them and Wilbur yanked the stuffing right out of poor Crabby Cake.

We were in the Midway Marina's tiny little bar and enjoying a drink when I spotted this guy.

Today we decided to head east toward Roanoke instead of using the Alligator River. Since the winds are supposed to be favorable we're going to take Pamlico Sound at the Inner Banks in order to avoid a chunk of Intracoastal travel and save a little bit of time.

We just docked in Broad Creek as there are no anchorages what so ever here. Tomorrow we continue through Pamlico Sound and will decide whether to reconnect with the Intracoastal at that point or catch it later on.