“Honey, I have something to tell you…”

Laura Domela — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:34:57 +0000

Okay , so remember last week when we were out at Sidney Spit in the Gulf Islands, and we went to the brick beach and brought back a few oysters? We fried 'em up that night and ate a few with the fresh crab we caught for dinner and everything was delicious.

The next morning while we were eating breakfast, Kevin suddenly turned to me with an alarmed and solemn expression on his face. "Oh no!" (gulp) "Honey, I have something to tell you. Remember yesterday, when I was shucking the oysters on the rear swim step, and you were inside working on dinner?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well, inside one of the really big oysters – I found a pearl. It was a big pearl, too. I was super excited and I thought 'Cool! I'll give this to Laura as a nice little surprise.'"

"Oh, how neat!!" I said.

"Well, there's more. When I found the pearl, I set it aside – just on the floor of the rear cockpit [the outside back deck area of the boat]. And then, I kept shucking. And then, I got to that crazy huge oyster…the one I couldn't get open…the one where you came out to see what was going on?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well, I put that oyster aside to tackle later, and then I finished shucking ALL the other oysters before coming back to my nemesis. I finally got that last mean one open and was really glad to have no more oysters to shuck. And then I brought all the oysters inside to you, and then I went back out and got out the high-pressure spray hose and washed all the oyster shells and dirt and…um, and everything off the swim step and out of the rear, um, cockpit… I guess. I sprayed it all off … really well. It was nice and clean when I was done."

"Awwwwwww."

"Yeah. So, isn't that cool that I found a pearl? It makes a good story, I guess. I'm just going to go out and take a look and see if by any chance the pearl is still out there anywhere."

Kevin went out in the rain and looked around for a few minutes, then came back in a little dejected. "Nope. It's gone. I hosed the whole area down really well last night after I finished shucking the oysters. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about the pearl."

"It's okay, honey. It's really cool that you found a pearl! And it's a good story, anyway."

A few days later, after we'd traveled from Sidney Spit to Ganges Harbor, stayed the night, then cruised out to Cabbage and Tumbo Islands, Kevin was hosing the deck off again (sand and dirt from hiking shoes, etc.). There was a little scrap of paper over one of the scupper drains. He removed the bit of paper, and guess what he found? The pearl!

It's pretty big! Maybe I should make a necklace.

Gulf Islands, Sidney Spit, and Dungeness Crab

Laura Domela — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 19:16:40 +0000

After working yesterday morning at Starbucks (and running into our friend Mark Bunzel there!) we left the Port of Sidney and over to nearby Sidney Spit on Sidney Island. We wanted to give this whole crabbing thing a shot, and we heard there was good crabbing out there. I got a three-day license online and printed it out on the boat. (Boy is THAT different than getting a fishing license in the U.S….Canada is so chill.)

We grabbed a mooring buoy, and then set up our crab trap (we got one of these cool Flex Fold collapsibles to keep in the lazarette, and I think we may get another). We put it all together with the bait container and the 100ft line and the red and white buoy with my name and phone number on it, and out it went in about 30 feet of water. In 45 minutes or so, we had our first Dungeness crab! It was a male and it was a keeper, so in the bucket it went.

We set the trap back out and took the dinghy into shore to hike around a bit.

Sidney Spit is a very popular park in the summer due it its close proximity to Sidney. There's good hiking and quite a few campsites to reserve. There's even a ferry that shuttles people out here several times a day. But today, we were one of two boats out here, and never saw another person.

The spit disappears at high tide. (This morning all that was visible were some pilings and the waves crashing over the tip top of the sand bar out there.)

More good moss:

In the early 1900s Sidney Island Tile and Brick Company operated here on the island. Today, a few remains of the factory and tons of broken red bricks can still be found along the shoreline.

Hey, lookit! Oysters!

We did a little research to make sure gathering a few of these oysters was legit, and it was, so I guess we're having oysters AND crab for dinner!

Heading back out to Airship (white dot there among the pilings):

Looking pretty with Sidney in the background:

Checking the crab trap:

We got another one! Quite a bit larger than the first, and another male! Our luck so far with the whole crabbing thing has been great! (Also: we caught crab, in Canada, using Canadian bacon. I'm serious. There's probably some rule we just broke…like feeding chicken to chickens or something.)

Dinner was fresh crab and some local organic beer for our first course, and then we fried up a couple of fresh oysters for the second course. Those seem to reheat really well in the oven (from frozen!) so we froze the rest for another meal. (Also, we need a bigger pot for cooking crab. We had to cook one at a time…so uncool.)

We used the leftover crab in omelettes this morning (with some spinach) — yummy!

Yesterday's route (2.74 nautical miles):

Next stop: Ganges Harbor on Saltspring Island!

Sidney Spit – Riveted

“Honey, I have something to tell you…”

Gulf Islands, Sidney Spit, and Dungeness Crab