We are Crabbers!

Today we are in Ketchikan, the last stop in Alaska for our trip.  I think we are finally starting to experience true Alaskan weather for this time of year, it is raining today and cooler.  Not a heavy rain but one that will soak you through in about 10 minutes.

We have one more tour today and I was really looking forward to this one.  Have you ever watched the Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel?  Well, today we board the Aleutian Ballad, a ship that was on season 2 of this program and the one that was hit by a rouge wave that nearly sunk the boat. More about this later.

Barb and I left our ship this morning to tour the town, in the pouring rain, hunting for the elusive and sometimes hard to find, fridge magnet.  Since our trip in Europe it has become a custom for Barb to buy a fridge magnet from the cities we visited. Our poor fridge, I'm afraid that it may topple over when we add all of the collection we have gathered on this trip.

After our walk, soaked, we boarded our crab boat and set off.  The captain and his crew were so much fun, stories, and silly pranks, just my kind of humour.  I took an entire 5 or 6 minute video of them pulling up the first pot and as it was getting closer to the surface, one deck hand is yelling "I can see the hook!".  It was an anchor they had planted...  silly city folk!

The crew also tossed some pieces of fish overboard to try to attract the Bald Eagles to fly. This process worked fairly well. 

On the deck of the boat was a large tank full of King Crab and prawns and smaller crab and one small octopus.

The first items they brought up was a pot used to catch opilio or snow crab. 

Once the pot was opened the catch was passed around to all of us. 

They caught a starfish in this pot as well.  Finally, since Alaskan King Crab are out of season and usually caught in the Bering Sea, we got to see these monsters that were in the tank. King Crab are covered with thorny spikes on their legs and entire body so picking them up was handled by the crew only.

We returned to our ship looking for a drink to warm us up ... best thing was a spicy Bloody Mary. Not our favourite but it worked! Dinner concluded with the elusive shooter. Tonight was Sex on the Beach!  Then off to party the night away!!

As another night winds down, we will spend our day tomorrow at sea, heading back to Vancouver. It will likely be a quiet day and we have to figure out how to pack everything up again for our journey home.