Monday, August 25, 2014

Feeling Crabby?

This past Saturday we had our good friends out to the boat for a visit and a sail.  After the initial tour of the grounds, the kids started seeing crabs in the water. They grabbed the net and started swiping. Those crabs are fast little suckers!

But the kids kept trying and soon one crab in the bucket turned into two, turned into six!





We thought we needed to keep them in a bucket of Neuse Water until we would cook them later.  So they had a sail a on the boat with us.  We would later learn this wasn't necessary.

During the sail, the kids went below and played games.




We sailed to Green Springs, where the kids jumped overboard and play a while. The adults had a good visit on board while watching the kids.



Back in our slip, our friends had to leave before getting to learn  with us how to cook the crabs.

The boys hauled the bucket of crabs up to the picnic shelter where our club Commodore and another visiting guest taught us how to id males from females.

Females have red tip on their claws and a rounded shape on their belly.  We also threw back two females so they could continue the line of crabs.

Males do not have tipped claws and their bellies just have a long marking. They do not need to be thrown back.

The boys were shown how to cut the crab in half,



Clean the yucky stuff from inside.

And repeat until all the crabs are done.  Then we went up to the kitchen to boil them in a little Old Bay for 2-3 minutes, just until they turned red.

Ready to eat!

It is quite a bit of work for the amount of meat you get, but it was a great learning experience.

















Monday, August 18, 2014

Sailing Camp 2014

The boys attended a second session of Sailing Camp at Blackbeard Sailing Club last week.  Caleb and Nathan were students and Luke and Jacob were volunteers.

We had been on the waiting list and had not heard if they would be able to go or not. Saturday morning I happened to mention it to the head instructor and he said, " They are on the list, of course they can come".

We had already been at the club most of the previous week. So Sunday afternoon, we rushed home did some laundry and grocery shopping and Brian mowed the yard, then we were back down for dinner and another week on the boat.  Brian commuted back and forth to work each day.

Here are some photos of camp.





Most of the kids went home or to their grandparents at the end of camp each day. Another family had their cousins visiting from MI and were staying in a tent on the grounds. So we had fun in the evenings with them.  One project they did was to tie die t shirts and submerge them in the river all week to see how brown they would get.

We had a great time sharing the Prince's visiting family.


Another project  all of the camp kids did was to make a Pirate laundry bag for one of the advanced coaches, who will be a freshman at Eastern Carolina University this fall.
All in all it was a great week of camp, but after two weeks away from home, I was grateful to pull into our driveway Sunday afternoon.

Grandpa's Visit

Monday afternoon, August 4, Grandpa arrived for a visit.  It had been about 14 months since we had seen him last.  He had driven his motorhome all the way from Colorado.

That evening we had dinner and then went to his campsite to visit awhile.  He stayed 2 nights at the Neuseway Nature Center Campground. 

Tuesday morning we loaded up the van and headed to New Bern to show him the sailing club and our new boat. We had tossed around the idea of taking a trip down the river or even to Cape Lookout for the week, but decided to just stay at the club and take things day by day.  That afternoon he and Brian went to check out a campground a little closer.  He ended up driving back to Kinston Tuesday night and then driving the motor home to the new site Wednesday morning.

Wednesday was Brian and my 20th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by dropping the boys off with Grandpa and going out to lunch at the Stingray Cafe.  We shared a whole flounder plate.  Very good!

That day was also the birthday of one of the ladies at the club.  Luke made a pan of brownies for all us to share that night after dinner.

Thursday we just hung around the club. We went sailing in the afternoon and a heavy rain started just as the guys got the sails put away. We looked like  drowned rats coming into our slip.

Friday afternoon we sailed to Green Springs, a local redneck water park up the river and met our friends, the Hardees.  The kids all had a great time swimming and playing together. They were also there with some other friends who were visiting from PA.

Saturday evening was the annual Shrimp-A-Roo at the club.  It was rainy all day, so by evening there were 130 some people crammed into the clubhouse for a feast of shrimp, chicken, and all sorts of sides and desserts brought by everyone.

It was neat that he got to share in several firsts with the new boat with Brian. The first real sail, first meal on board, and the first anchoring.

Sunday morning Grandpa left to start the trek back home.  We all had a great visit with him.