It’s freezing when we wake up – not literally, but almost. Mike checks the temperature inside the boat when we turn the generator on – 62 degrees. Brrrrr! The air conditioning comes on in heat mode which warms up the salon but does nothing for the temperature in the hulls as they are sitting in very cold water.
The boat is being hauled out tomorrow and as our fridge and freezer are water cooled, we will have to turn them off. This is fine as the freezer especially needs a good defrost. Kathy here in Bodkin Creek has offered me some freezer space so we turn ours off and pack all the stuff in the cool box and take it over to her. Americans seem to have something most of us Brits don’t have – huge basements which house laundries and spare fridges and freezers – how blissful. Anyway, we pack our stuff into hers and by the time we come upstairs Kim is waiting for us outside to take us for the octuplet crab steaming extravaganza at Michelle and Joe’s house on the bay.
We stop off at their house first for Craig to show Mike his huge array of power tools and sets some aside for him to use to try and get the screw out of the sail drive when we are hauled out tomorrow.
When we arrive at Michelle and Joe’s the crab steaming is well under way. They have two tables set out by the water covered with discarded crab shells and pulverised, ripped off legs. It looks like food carnage of mega portions but smells delicious.
I go into the shed to look at the crabs that are yet to make it to the pot and discover that they are the blue legged kind, one of which was hanging from our anchor chain a few days ago. I knew I should have cooked him.
Anyway, they all look very subdued in their pot so I decide I should lend a hand to the proceedings, pick the pot up and carry it out to the steamer. Putting it gently on the floor (I don’t want to wake them) I quietly pick up the tongs and reaching over them a few suddenly sense their impending doom and reach out aggressively with their larger claw, waving them at me in defence. Easily scared (and feeling a bit guilty) I hand the tongs to Sean and hide behind Kim just in case one launches itself at me, Alien-like in its attack.
Sean nonchalantly heaves them one by one into the pot, shaking them off when they cling to the tongs. Unfortunately by the time they land in the pot they are all very much alive and as he fills it with more and more crabs, they are able to start scrabbling over the side. Kim and I stand well back whimpering but Sean subdues them by throwing handfuls of crab seasoning over them which seems to stop them fighting back. Maybe they think it’s sand. More likely they are blinded! Anyway, they are quiet enough for him to pop the lid on and start the steamer. At this point I move away from earshot – I don’t want to risk hearing them banging on the side of the pot!
Sitting down, and after the lesson from Robbie and Joe on how to pull them apart, which is not, I have to add, for the fainthearted, I start to eat the batch that were steamed earlier and which are now cool enough to handle. Delicious but fiddly.
There are a lot of us eating crabs. A bushel gives you about 80. On top of the octuplets there is their 10 children, one set of parents and a couple of other friends/family in attendance. That’s one hell of a lot of debris! At the end of the meal it looks like we have left more than we’ve eaten. On top of the crabs, salads, cakes and cookies are produced and we are still in the middle of eating when the clouds close over and the wind picks up.
We ignore the first spits of rain, and the steady patter but when it becomes a heavy downpour, we run for the cars, grabbing everything with us and head back to Kim and Craig’s. Mike drives us in Michelle and Joe’s car which they have kindly lent us to get us around and up to see the Crazy Horse gang up in Middletown.
We continue to have a lovely evening with the gang, slowly beginning to work out and remember which of the 10 children/teens belong to which set of parents. This, with my aging brain and memory, is not easy.
We are the last to leave Kim and Craig’s, Mike clutching tools which Craig has lent him to deal with the bloody screw that is causing the problem with the sail drive seal and drive back to Bodkin Creek and Kathy and Andy’s dock.
It’s still pouring when we get into the dinghy, and we are once again soaked by the time we get back.
A third blanket goes on the bed tonight. It had better not get any colder – we haven’t got any more!
Position: 39 deg 10 min N, 76 deg 31 min W
Distance so far: 2677 miles
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