HEALTH CONSCIOUS

September 27, 2008

We did not go out today figured it was a good time to visit Helens Cousin in Coquille and pick up our crab cooker. For some reason we did not pick it up when we arrived on the 15th of this month.

My thoughts at that time was, I guess, since they have a crab and fish cleaning station here at the Charleston Marina Park, why not use their equipment. The great thing about using their fish cleaning station is it’s a covered building that has everything you need to clean your fish and they even furnish the propane and crap pots for boiling the crabs.

As you can see by the pictures they have two burners as well as two fish cleaning stations with cutting boards.

The only problem we ran into is they're well used and you have to wait your turn for the crab cooking pots.

Naturally when we went up to Coquille we had to stop by the local vegetable stand and get some fresh vegetables. What really shocked me is they had green tomatoes, which Helen fries up like eggplant or fried squash. If you have not tried them you’re missing a treat. They're a little tart, but sure tasty right out of the frying pan. Their fresh tomatoes are also great and real tasty. Nothing like the ones you get in the grocery store. I believe the tomatoes were grew in Roseburg OR.

We even bought fresh okra, which we both enjoy. Okra is a vegetable that not many people like that much. I guess it’s the slimness of the ones you boil, however they're sure good deep fried. I know this is not the healthiest way to eat vegetables, but like they say if it tastes good it’s probably not good for you. This is really not a good thing too tell your doctor about eating your vegetables deep fried, so we will just keep this a secret between you and me.

We naturally had to stop by the Chinese restaurant that we stopped by in March called Yu’s Dynasty. Since Lacy, our dog was with us we had to order the food to go. Now here is what you get for a total of $15.00 for the two of us: Pork Chow Mein, Pork Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, Large Fried Shrimp, Mar Far Chicken, extra carton of Sweet & Sour Sauce, two fortune cookies with all the condiments. I mean there was enough for both of us with left over for another meal the next day.

Heavens that works out to $3.75 per meal. You could not eat out for that price at a fast food place.

ANCHORS AWAY

SEPTEMBER 24,2008

The day began with an overcast sky, rain predicted in the pm and the temperature not bad, around 57 degrees at 12:30.

Our neighbor,Tim will be going with us to show where the best place to crab is at. He was the one I talked about in an earlier post who is a diver that worked on boats for a living.

Funny, if you look at my Goggle map I pretty much had that place earmarked to begin with. I was told last year by another crabber the area was pretty good.

We launched the boat at the dock. They charge you a $5.00 launch fee, which can get costly if you use it a lot. Your best bet is to purchase a yearly launch fee, which is just $50.00. If you're going to launch your boat 10 times or more, this is the way to go. I thought about it, but it's a little late this time of the year for me. Next year I will purchase the yearly permit.


Early this morning we drove our truck over to the area called Peterson point, which is really another jetty that helps protect the Marina. We noticed that a Coast Guard cutter was at the boat ramp checking out some boater. Not sure what the problem was, but I am sure it was a safety issue. These Coast Guard personnel sure do their job. I have to admit it sure looks like they had enough personnel on that one boat.

Outside the Marina was a smaller Coast Guard boat working on a buoy marker, which I assume the lights were being replaced?

We finally got the boat launched around 12:30 and motored over to the crabbing spot, which was a mile or two away from the Marina. The bay was fairly calm with just some small waves. This was the opportune time to try out my depth finders. I have the Bottom Line Finder and also the Lowrance depth sounder . Both work great.

We almost blew it when we set out our first pot. It was a little deeper than we planned on, or should I say did not have enough rope for it. You guessed it the buoy disappeared real quick. After we set the other trap we noticed we could not see the fist buoy we set. We headed back to the general area and started zig zagging around to see if we could find our pot buoy. After we had made about 5 or 6 trips we finally spotted it. The buoy was under water about 4 feet, and thank goodness I had made up a 4 foot gaff for retrieving our traps earlier this week. Without the gaff it would have been another pot for Davey Jones Locker. Hey, this is one big lesson to learn. Use the dumb depth finders you have before you set your pots, DUH.

When we finally did retrieve the pot we had one legal crab and 8 or so just under the legal size limit. Now since we did not have the trap set for too long, with already one legal crab, I just knew we were in for two limits of crab. Well that was a short lived dream. It started to rain a little bit and since I am such a fair weather fisherman I figured its time to head back to he barn. One of the big worries is if the wind was to come up, and since our boat is not that big, we could have problems. Now its not that I can't maneuver a boat in larger waves, but why take any chances.
Made it back to the boat ramp with no problems, just a wee bit on the wet side. Mainly just showers, not a wet soaking rain.

Some things I've learned on this excursion is to make sure you have enough rope on your pots and don't use the standard white & red Buoys. They're pretty hard to see when its overcast or there are a lot of white caps. Another item you may want to add to your equipment is a crab pot pulley, which connects to the side of your boat. In the long run this can save a lot of sore muscles and makes it much easier to get the pots back up to the boat.

Naturally I have to get one tomorrow from Wal-Mart. They have them for around $32.00.

ADDED ATTRACTION FOR WHERE WE ARE?

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008


Some of you have been asking why you can't zoom in on the Goggle map I made up where we're located (dated September 22, 2008.) However, thanks too Randy for his help, I was able to put it in the blog.

Enjoy:

In order to open the file do the following:

1. Click on Tom's Placemark
2.Under the File download window, click on Save
3. Save the file on your desktop
4. Then go to your desktop and it should open for you.

When your through with it, you can easily delete the file.

If you have Explorer 7. It will ask you to save it , however it will put it in a program called MiniDM. This will open it automatically without putting the file on your Desktop.

Tom's Placemark

CHECKING OVER THE NORTH EAST SIDE OF COOS BAY

September 23, 2008

Another clear day again, with a little breeze. Should have went crabbing, but decided to do a little looking at some of the homes North of Coos Bay. We have never looked around this area on any of our previous trips here. On our way we decided to stop by a Myrtle wood store which is called naturally, The Myrtle Wood Factory. Neat place, that specializes in furniture and nick knacks made of Myrtle wood. They do have some beautiful bowls made of Myrtle wood, but pretty pricey.

You can get this little Jewel for around $750.00

The bowls vary in price anywhere from $20.00, up to over $75.00

If you go back to one of my Blogs dated 4/4/08, (FINAL PLAN FOR RETURN) you will see a picture of a home that has a Myrtle wood tongue and grooved floor.

We noticed traveling back an forth from Coos Bay to Coquille some nice looking homes on the North East end of town. There was several homes along the mountain side just above the slough. Some of the homes look pretty nice from the highway, so we figured why not see what they had to offer.

We noticed there was quite a mixture of older and newer homes. The views of the bay were not as great as we expected. The area has a lot more large trees and brush than I thought it would, so the view was very limited. Oh well, we have plenty of time to find a home we like. I think one of our problems is we're trying to compare what we have now, with what we want to find here. Can't do that; like they always say there are no two things alike.

AREA WERE STAYING AT VIA GOOGLE EARTH

This is for Randy. He is always trying to track my moves and he does a great job of that. To save him time I found the site that I was able to edit and show the area we're staying in. You will notice that I also show some of the hot spots for crabbing and clamming.

Weather today was a little on the cool side, but did get up to 58 degrees, however it was sunny all day with a slight breeze.

Still seeing fisherman coming in every day with limits of crab. Not sure what their doing with so many crabs? I will need to finish up the crab that was given to me a few days ago, which means a large crab cocktail and maybe a small crab Louie salad. It all sounds good too me.

Now if I can just find someone that would be willing to crack the crab and get the meat out of the shell it would be great. I asked Helen if she would like to learn the fine art of cracking crab. Yep, you guessed her answer. Must be from her knowing me too long.

Hoping to take the boat out tomorrow assuming the weather will remain the same as today. By then I will be ready for some more crab. I would like to take some fresh crab up to her cousin, which lives in Coquille. Of course, if both Helen & I catch our limits that would be 24 crabs, so we would have to spend some time cracking crab. Would like catch enough to freeze and take home with us.

Been trying to figure out how I could use my Seal-O-matic so the shell does not put holes in the plastic wrap. Tried to freeze some last year by this method and found the plastic bags you use for the machine are not heavy duty enough, causing the shell to poke holes in the bags.

I want to do some clamming, but the tide is still to high unless a person wants to get up at 2 am. I think it will improve in a few days where the tide is low at a more reasonable time.

JUST FOR THE HALIBUT

September 21 2008

Well we went into town like I stated, however the storm they were predicting never materializes in fact it got down right warm that day. I guess I should have shot for getting out in the bay, but not knowing how the weather conditions change in this area we felt it may not be a good idea.


Went down to the dock around 4 or so, to see what the fishermen were bringing in this time. Both cleaning stations were busy with fishermen cleaning Halibut. They got some pretty nice fish. I had to ask them where they went and they told me about 15 miles outside the bay.
















I believe all of the fishermen limited out. Tried to learn how to fillet the Halibut by watching them fillet, but I don’t think I learned much. According to them it’s pretty easy, but of course it’s easy to them since they do this all the time. I think they were local residents. I was able to take few pictures of them filleting, but really looking at the pictures don’t show you much.

There is a charter boat here at the marina that specifically goes out for Halibut, but its pretty expensive. Who knows, when I get my new 45 foot yacht. I may attempt a trip or two out in the wide open Ocean. I know, dream on Tom.

KICKING BACK

September 18, 19 & 20th. 2008

Pretty much stayed around the park the 3 days enjoying the weather. Like I mentioned it’s a little cool in the am, but nice in the pm. It is supposed to storm Sunday, so we won’t do much that day. Probably a good day to travel into Coos Bay to Bi-Mart and Supper Wal-Mart for the necessities of life, you know like the evening beer when you’re just sitting back doing nothing except enjoying the great outdoors. Good day for taking pictures!

TOUGH CRABBING

September 17 2008.

We pretty much stayed at the RV site all day since I was feeling a little under the weather that day. The weather for the past 4 days has been excellent. Nice in the afternoon, but a little cool in the early morning.

Funny I was out side basking in the warm sun when a fellow Rver parked down the road came over to talk to me and offer me some fresh crab they had just caught. Being the gentleman that I am I could not hurt her feelings and jumped at the chance. I really only wanted enough for a meal, but her and her husband gave me 10 crabs all were cleaned, so all I had to do was boil them. I know something’s are a little tough, but I guess I have to do a little work boiling them. Have to watch the critters cook. I had been boiling them for 15 minutes, but now the new way is no more then 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil. To be on the safe side I tried boiling them for 12 minutes, came out ok.

I ate 3 of the rascals that evening by myself. Helen was not into eating crab that night.
Still have 3 packages left to munch on.

I would like to get enough crabs and clams to make a large pot of Cioppino.
Maybe I can get enough fish together before we leave to make up this tantalizing dish.

I talked to some Rvers that are going out in beyond the bay and catching Lingcod and Sea Bass. I will attempt fishing for them in the bay, but not much faith in catching them in this part of the ocean. They are catching Salmon, but I’m not interested in them.

I was able too find an old rock jetty that was built back in the teens that may be a great place to catch rock fish. The jetty is under water now, but with a depth finder you could find it. It extends on both sides of the bay just off shore.

LOTS OF TUNA THIS YEAR

September 16,2008

Got up late this morning and decided to try our luck crabbing on the docks. Was not ready for the boat as of yet. Still had to do some more maintenance on it like install the depth finders. We crabbed for about 3 hours with very little luck. Caught several small Dungeness crabs and some small rock crabs. Decided to call it quits for the day around 4:30 or so. On the way back we noticed a fisherman at one of the cleaning stations on the dock cleaning Albacore Tuna. Naturally I had to stop and watch the man cut up the tuna. Most of the tuna he was cleaning were around 25 to 30 lbs each. He would fillet them and cut them into large boneless steaks. I guess the man comes down to the dock every evening to clean other fisherman’s tuna. They’re catching the Albacore about 30 to 40 miles off shore, which is pretty close. They are predicting a large harvest of tuna this year in Oregon.

I talked to one of the fisherman and asked how much they were charging for their tuna this year and he told me $2.50 a lb. Now figuring you have a 20 lb fish and you pay $2.50 per lb, that’s about $50.00 per fish. Of course you have to figure in for waste such as the head, entrails etc and that makes up about ½ the weight, so in realty you’re paying around $5.00 per lb and getting about 10 lbs of fish.

TROLLING FROM A SEA PLANE?

September 15, 2008

We left early in the morning on our last part of the journey to Charleston Mariana, southwest of Coos Bay.

Now here is a good one I bet hardly anyone ever sees. While coming into the city limits along the bay I noticed a small sea plan on the Bay. It got my attention since the plane was slowly moving. I figure it was getting ready to take off since the bay was so clam with no wind and was pretty smooth. Looking at the plane a little closer and pointing it out to Helen we noticed there were fishing poles sticking out of the windows. Yes, I said fishing poles, and no I was not drinking anything! There was a boat just the South of the seaplane that was trolling, and since they have been reporting the salmon fishing was hot in that area and that is what the sea plane was doing, trolling.

I have seen much in my life, but heck why not people fishing from a sea plane.

Like I have mentioned in many of my early Blogs last year, there’s so many neat things to see out there if you just want to look.

Used out computer GPS to find an RV repair site to have them look at our backup monitor since it went out and was still under warrantee. GPS worked great this time, however the traffic was not bad. Arrived at Charleston around 2:30.

Glad we had our reservation in advance the Marina RV Park was full.

Met one of our new neighbors next door that is probably in his late forties. He helped us unhook our motor home and get my boat ready for fishing

I guess he is a professional diver that works on the boats while they’re in the water. One of the better dives he does is in the winter months when the commercial crabbers are working the sea. Eventually they get a lot of rope from crab traps wrapped up on the screw (that’s layman talk for propeller shaft). He has to dive and free the tangled rope from the prop. I guess he doesn’t make much money doing this about $40 to $60 dollars a shot. However, when you have lots of commercial crabbers working it does not take long to get several clients. In 99 % of the cases the commercial crabbing boats are able to limp it back to the bay to work on it. Interesting enough, he was telling me he used to work for this outfit that dove for clams and shipped them to the various aquariums in Oregon. They used the clams for feeding the Sea Otters.

ON OUR WAY

September 14, 2008

We left home around noon with the plan to get to Roseburg Oregon by night fall. It must have been a dream, as we never got there until the next day. Of course this is one of the plans you make in advance and timing is not there. Originally we were going to leave at 10 am, but you know how that goes there is always that last minute check to see what you forgot to do.

Needless to say we got to Ashland Oregon and believe it or not, got lost in this small little town looking for a gas station. My Jim Dandy computer told me the cheapest place to get gas in Oregon was there.

Now with the Computer GPS unit telling me which turn to make to get to this service station it did not warm me about the 5 o’clock evening rush hour, and since this was the only gas station that had gas on sell, guess where all the traffic was heading for. To make it worse it is not a very big station and trying to pull our pickup with the RV it takes a pretty good turning radius to get around. Figure on 32 foot motor home with and 16 foot tow vehicle. Of course your in trouble if its too tight to turn and there is no way to back up the motor home when you have the two vehicles attached, Anyway had to by pass the station and travel on in hope we did not run into any dead end streets. About 25 minutes later after several circles around the town we found our way out. You know that feeling like you have been there before and you were. Another lesson learned. To save a buck it probably cost me 5 bucks more in gas.

Finally back on the freeway and headed North in hopes of finding another gas station easier to get in and out of, and hopefully an RV park a little further up the road.

We found a real nice RV campground in Medford called the Pear Tree. Nice clean RV site, not cheap, but well worth the price. They have a real nice pool and of course a great hot tub, which we didn’t use.