A Big Surprise and a Huge Blessing

We posted earlier that the Stone Crab Kids did their first public research presentation in front of an extremely gracious crowd. The West Ashley Outboard Motor Club (WAOMC) located in Charleston SC,  invited the SCK's to their monthly meeting. And what started out to be a 10 minute presentation lasted well over 30 minutes.  The folks at the WAOMC asked lots of questions and the SCK's surprised everybody ( including me ) with their knowledge of stone crabs and their research.

A short time later, a letter addressed to the SCK's showed up in the mail. The kids opened the envelope to find a donation check. They were stunned. What a wonderful surprise.

As good and as timely as that check was the real blessing was that the folks at WAOMC asked the SCK's to come back. But this time the club members wanted to bring their children and grandchildren to hear the SCK's presentation.

How sweet it is ... when people want to share our family with their families.

F/V Dirt Claw'd Underway - Kinda !

On a drizzling afternoon the research gang took the Fishing Vessel (F/V) Dirt Claw'd and casted off with Josiah at the helm. All the kids spend time at the wheel for fun, experience, and safety reasons. Most folks understand fun and experience, but safety may need a little explanation. On many occasions, because of soccer practices, ballet lessons (not Josiah), school work, etc., I will be out with just one of my children. In the event that something should happen to me, each of my children are versed in the handling of the vessel, navigation, VHF radio transmission,  and distress signaling. A good Captain's responsibility, especially a Captain who's the Daddy, is to his crew and passengers.


I had been telling the kids that if they learned to handle a small single engine boat that they could easily handle a larger vessel. Weight and engine power make a tremendous difference. Twin engines even more so. The boat we have been using is 17ft.  Dirt Claw'd is 28 ft long. As Josiah pulled away from the dock his smiling face lent credence to what had been formally just words. "Claw'd" is an delight to maneuver through the water.


Unfortunately, the engine still isn't running correctly. In my very limited knowledge of outboard engine repair, I believe it is a coil. It will run smoothly until that coil heats up and then it begins to skip. Badly. With six coils mounted on the engine, the trick is to determine which one is the culprit.

Dirt Clawed's Adventure - Sarah

Friday our family finally got on the water in our new boat named Dirt Claw'd.  And finally ...CLAW'D WORKS!   One hour later.   IT DOESN'T WORK!  Capt. Dad thought a piece of trash got in the injector .EEEEERRRRR. Wrong! But then I thought that as well, so maybe I should keep my mouth s.h.u.t.   Our boat fixer  (Mr.Whitney - Top Photo) cleaned every thing but it still didn't work.  So then we thought the plugs might be fouling because the rings may not be 'seated in' yet.). So we cleaned the thing-a-ma-gig and the engine still wouldn't work.  Either this boat engine is stubborn or we just don't know what's going on. Then we checked the coils and all fuel pumps and now we will see if Mr. Wittney can do anything. He's going to try for one more day. We're hoping you get it fixed Mr. Whitney!

Thank you.
Sarah

Crab'n is serious business.

As anyone who watches the Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch' knows, crab'n is serious business. Some of the lingo and techniques the SCK's use on the research vessel comes directly from watching "king crab pros" like Edgar Hansen, the Harris brothers, Mike Fortner, and Jake Anderson crabbing on the Bering Sea. And in the spirit professional courtesy the Stone Crab Girls want to share a crabbing ritual for catching more crab. OK 'Deadliest Catch' folks .... watch and learn !!!

We will be watching for a little patty cake action in the upcoming season. As Capt. Sig might say "Just 'shut up' and patty cake !!!"

The babies are here! The babies are here!

We have been amazed at how long we can set-back on the same plot of river real estate and continue to pull crab. The blue crabbers have moved in into the area and moved on while we continue to harvest healthy amounts of stone crab. But a couple of weeks, ago we started seeing fewer big males, more females, and a larger number of small juvenal crab  (those with claws 1 1/2" to 2", legal size is 2 3/4").  However, we do not yet have our larger boat so we can not afford to follow the crab further out into larger water. Aside from that, afternoon thunderstorms have kept us 'on the hill' (on dry land).

This morning the forecast called for more storms, but a break in the weather allowed AnnahBelle and me to venture out and check the traps. The harvest was typical, and minimal as we had suspected. Mostly females too small even if we wanted to harvest.

Then AnnahBelle pulled a pot with absolutely nothing inside but all the bait was gone. Octopus? Blue crab? Dog fish? Nooooo !!! Baby stone crab. The mud in the bottom of the trap was seeded with baby stone crab. Most about a 1/4" across the carapace ( outer shell across the back ). We didn't disturb them, but, later AnnahBelle did spot a larger baby stone crab ( about 3/4" ) that we felt comfortable handling.


What a neat blessing, if we had moved on we would have completely missed the hatchery.

Our pots have been shanghaied and convert into daycare centers!