Tom drove up and unloaded a gas can, which he immediately took to the boat. I was to find out later that Tom had also stopped to eat breakfast while he was in town.

Harry came out of his motorhome and then a few minutes later Wally showed up. We all made preparations to get out on the water to take advantage of the morning tide. Tom was loading up the crab traps with bait when I discovered I forgot to get the key to the boat. So I had to hike back up to our camp to get the key. Tom and I were finally on our way out to the bay. Harry and Wally had already left ahead of us.

Looking back at the Alsea Bay Bridge

I drove the boat out under the Alsea Bay Bridge a found a place for Tom to start dropping traps. We didn't do very well at first, but that is fairly normal.

Some crabs are real fighters

On our second round of pulling our crab traps, we got a trap with 12 crabs, six of which were keepers. From then on, we would only catch one or two keepers at a time.

Tom pulled up a trap that was so full of crabs I thought he would not be able to get the trap in the boat. He struggled trying to get the trap in to the boat without dumping the load of crabs back in the water. It took him long enough that I was able to get my camera out and take a picture of the trap and its contents sitting in the boat. I counted 20 crabs in the trap and I saw two crabs get away while Tom was struggling. Out of all those crabs, only two were keepers.

A big load of critters

Later Tom had another fight on his hands when a crap pot he pulled up was extremely heavy. He struggled and fought until he was able to tip the pot into the boat. I have never seen a crab trap so full of crabs. I lost track of the exact number, but it was up around 30 crabs in one trap.

All morning we could see seals resting on the sand on the other side of the bay. During one of periods when we were waiting for our traps to fill with crabs, we pulled up along side Harry and Wally’s boat.

Crab fishing isn’t all work

While we were talking, the current and the wind pushed us up on the sand beach right in the middle of the sleeping seals. Where our boats touched shore the seals scattered in both directions. They only went a short distance, so we had seals on both sides of us barking at us and protesting our presence in their midst. It seemed very unusual to be right in among a herd of wild critters in their own territory.

Seals noisily protested our intrusion

It was about this time that we decided to pull our crab traps for the last time this morning. We were only four crabs shy of a limit, so we headed for our traps. When we pulled the traps were found we had two more keepers, so we were only two away from a limit for the day. It was decided we had enough to go in for the lunch.

Tom putting our catch in storage

When we arrived back in camp, we all found our wives were gone. They had taken off to town to do some shopping and sightseeing. So Tom, Harry, Wally, and I had lunch in the middle of our circle of motorhomes on a picnic table.

Getting ready for lunch while wives shop

The women came back from town at about 2:30 this afternoon. With the car back in camp, Tom and I pulled the boat out of the water. Tom wanted to check the lower unit on the engine to make sure it had enough fluid. It took a while to get the plugs to break loose. Harry was finally successful at getting the bottom plug loose by using a large screwdriver and a pair of pliers applied to the screwdriver shank.

As it turned out, the lower unit of the engine did need to have fluid added. Tom squeezed in some fluid from a tube. Then he handed the tube of lubricant to Harry to continue to add fluid. When the lower unit was full, Tom quickly put the plug in place to keep the fluid from leaking out. We then put the boat back in the water and I drove it back to the slip where we are keeping the boat this week.

With the boat put away for the night, the four guys in our group took off for Newport. Wally and Harry needed a bilge pump to get the water out of the boat they were using. So we found a store which seems to have everything. I took a picture of Tom and Harry looking at crab traps.

Checking out crab fishing gear

This seemed to excite one of the store’s employees. He told me the store had a "No photographs" policy and I had clearly violated the rule. We had a short talk about the policy, but the end result is that I got a good picture. Wally found a manually powered pump, so we were ready to be on our way.

As we were about to leave town, Tom decided to take us on a tour of the harbor area below the bridge. He showed us the RV camping area, which is nothing more than a parking lot with hookups. Then we saw the boat launch ramp, all the time the bridge was arching high over our heads. When we came back on to the highway, Tom stopped at a small seafood restaurant and fish market. While there, Tom bought a couple of quarts of clam chowder for our evening meal.

Time to get together in our camp circle

We all gathered in our camp circle to visit for a while and to get a campfire going. Snacks came out for us to build an appetite. Tom fired up two barbecues to cook some turkey breasts. The bait we have been using consists of turkey legs and thighs. When we bought bags of turkey parts for bait, we would have the turkey beasts left over. So, it seems somewhat ironic that we would be eating what was left over from our crab bait.

We had a usual group meal on the tables in the middle of our camp circle. Some of us ate crab while others ate turkey and a few ate both. The clam chowder turned out to be very good. Cathie supplied fresh corn-on-the-cob and it was very good.

After dinner it was time to sit around the campfire and visit. Then the marshmallows appeared and the roasting began. Harry is really good at getting a perfect golden brown crust toasted on the marshmallows on a skewer. Nora again made Smores from the marshmallows she toasted.

A great way to end a busy day