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Crab Pots

Nasty stuff! Universally disliked by boaters. Heaven forbid you pick up one. It could be in the

stabilizer fins, rudder strut, propeller shaft (think $$ signs if the line wraps around the shaft as it could work itself into the bearings.)

If stuck in the stabilizer fins, the cage could bang against the boat if you’re going fast.  Uggh.

And afore I continue, credit to the Captain for painstakingly listing and explaining all the “stuff” a crab pot could do. I just know it as a *!! @%#)!!* problem.

So yes, boaters and crab pots are sworn enemies. The pots are marked with floats, of course, but sometimes hard to detect. And they are everywhere in the waterways. On the sides, in the middle, some in a line, mostly indiscriminately placed, or so it appears. Crabbers obviously have their own ideas.

And if St. Adjutor, patron saint of boaters (had to look that one up) decides you need a lesson and a pot does manage to barnacle itself to your boat, you have to hire a diver.

Mutter – mutter – mutter.

Marathon, Florida. I watched the men go out with their crabbing boats and empty cages. I took photos and waved and they waved back. This is how they make a living, the only life they know. And cheerfully waving to me on my “floating condo” is as close as they will come to my lifestyle, ever.

Humbled. No more grumping about having to avoid crab pots. Give a passing thought to those men when you’re smacking on a juicy crab cake.

 

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