Results of the Gale
November 7th and 8th (Thursday and Friday)
Thursday was the beginning of our gale. The southeast winds came through Higgins Passage just as we had guessed, and we watched as waves rolled past our point. We seemed quite well protected; stern tied and tucked in close to shore around the point as we were. It rained for most of the day, sometimes very hard. We had a very nice rainy and relaxing, inside day, with pancakes for brunch, and lots of reading time.
On Friday the rain came in showers, and the wind was less consistent. Still we seemed well protected. We went out in the morning to check our square crab trap, and we reset our round one. We checked them three times through the day, moving them each time. We kept five Dungeness and one Rock Crab. It was very interesting how localized the crab populations seemed to be. One place that we put the square trap we caught only Rock crabs, in one area we got nothing, and in another area the trap was full of Dungeness. All of these different areas were within a half-mile of each other, the bottom type was consistent, and the depth did not seem to make a difference. It was interesting.
After we had set our traps in the morning we headed out to the outer shore because we wanted to see what the swells were like after yesterday’s wind. The tide was high, so most of the reefs and rocks were only visible by the massive breakers cresting and crashing down. Areas between rocks were filled by foaming green water, and the rebound of waves back away from the land made for a very jumbled sea. It was weird being in such a little boat bobbing about in the swells like a cork, sinking into the valley between waves and not being able to see around until we rose up to the top of the next one, and then right back down again. Even at high tide it was amazing how much that the reef broke up the swells and protected the areas in behind. A jumbled sea of chaos on the outside of the reef was diminished to a simple chop on the inside.
We also did a bunch of chores during the day; mainly cleaning. We gave the inside of the boat a full spring-cleaning wipe down. She sure looked better afterwards! Whenever we get a hard rain we collect the rainwater. So after yesterday's rain we had a lot of fresh water; perfect time for cleaning.
We had another delicious crab dinner, and made plans to clean the rest of the crabs tomorrow morning for lunch and the freezer. It was a good day.
Thursday was the beginning of our gale. The southeast winds came through Higgins Passage just as we had guessed, and we watched as waves rolled past our point. We seemed quite well protected; stern tied and tucked in close to shore around the point as we were. It rained for most of the day, sometimes very hard. We had a very nice rainy and relaxing, inside day, with pancakes for brunch, and lots of reading time.
On Friday the rain came in showers, and the wind was less consistent. Still we seemed well protected. We went out in the morning to check our square crab trap, and we reset our round one. We checked them three times through the day, moving them each time. We kept five Dungeness and one Rock Crab. It was very interesting how localized the crab populations seemed to be. One place that we put the square trap we caught only Rock crabs, in one area we got nothing, and in another area the trap was full of Dungeness. All of these different areas were within a half-mile of each other, the bottom type was consistent, and the depth did not seem to make a difference. It was interesting.
After we had set our traps in the morning we headed out to the outer shore because we wanted to see what the swells were like after yesterday’s wind. The tide was high, so most of the reefs and rocks were only visible by the massive breakers cresting and crashing down. Areas between rocks were filled by foaming green water, and the rebound of waves back away from the land made for a very jumbled sea. It was weird being in such a little boat bobbing about in the swells like a cork, sinking into the valley between waves and not being able to see around until we rose up to the top of the next one, and then right back down again. Even at high tide it was amazing how much that the reef broke up the swells and protected the areas in behind. A jumbled sea of chaos on the outside of the reef was diminished to a simple chop on the inside.
We also did a bunch of chores during the day; mainly cleaning. We gave the inside of the boat a full spring-cleaning wipe down. She sure looked better afterwards! Whenever we get a hard rain we collect the rainwater. So after yesterday's rain we had a lot of fresh water; perfect time for cleaning.
We had another delicious crab dinner, and made plans to clean the rest of the crabs tomorrow morning for lunch and the freezer. It was a good day.
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