After a visit to Latitudes to see Smokey - who slept through all of their efforts to get reacquainted - we left for an adventurous afternoon. Smokey apparently didn't sleep all day though. When we returned, I found her new Made-in-Maine catnip toy definitely in new places.
Reddy, a beautiful Brittney rescue dog, was waiting for us when we arrived at the house. Such a sweet boy!
Mike and Gloria have a recreational lobster license and invited us to go out lobstering! Of course! I'm always good to go out on someone else's boat, especially if it involves gathering dinner.
Getting the boat ready. Yesterday was a nice, sunny, summer day - probably 75 degrees.
Reddy helps with the dock work, but doesn't go along.
These traps are in about 75 feet of water. Line and trap aren't light, so it's not an easy task to hand pull them up. But Mike did!
Aboard the boat at last, with at least 1 lobster in the trap.
There are strict rules for what you can keep. Females with eggs definitely go back in the water. So do small ones. The Maine guidelines -
"A legal lobster in the State of Maine has a carapace or body shell length that measures between 3 ¼ inches and 5 inches. The measurement is made between the extreme rear of the eye socket to the end of the carapace. Minimum lobster size has a carapace or body shell length of 3 ¼ inches."
Mike measured, threw a few back, and ultimately kept 6 from his 5 traps.
Dinner!
Gloria made a wonderful lobster dinner - lobsters just don't get any fresher than this. AND! They send the left-over lobster home with us :-) Lobster rolls for lunch, lobster tail with dinner, and of course, a few bits for Smokey.
One more adventure after dinner - a green crab tasting in Bath. Green Crabs are an invasive species in the Maine waters. Their favorite food is softshell clams which are also a favorite for folks in Maine. An idea to introduce the green crabs as a delicacy seems like a good way to help reduce the population. This is already being done in Venice, Italy. The link below is a really interesting article on the issue and work being done here.
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/14/invasive-green-crabs-are-scuttling-from-dilemma-to-delicacy/
We were invited to a tasting of "softshell green crabs" - went along with some dubious thoughts on eating the things. The plate of crabs, along with the fried lemons looks good enough...
This is Luke's brave face
I ate some of the legs - tasted sort of like salty, crispy, thin paper straws. I did not try the body, although Gloria said it was pretty good. I did like the fried lemons! But I think the glass of wine was the very best.
2 large loads of laundry done at the house rounded up our adventures. Back to the boat before dark. It was a fun day and it was really good to see Gloria and Mike and Reddy again.
This morning we had a breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup. yum! Gloria and Mike gifted us a can of the best ever pancake mix plus a jug of Maine maple syrup. This warm breakfast was especially good this morning as today is a dreary, windy, showery 57 degrees. Combine that with sitting in 57 degree water and you do not have a warm environment in the boat. Even locals are wearing jackets over their shorts and T shirts!
Next for us is a return to either Port Clyde or Boothbay, and then back to Rockland for a few days to have our masthead wind instrument replaced. Again.
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