How to handle a Crab

I don't have any photos loaded on our new computer that I am using to write this blog so I am including a video of "How to Handle a Blue Crab". We made this video back in the Chesapeake bay before we left Maryland but I had no way to publish it on our old computer.

I should mention that our dear friends, Jim and Vicki O'Neil, who we visited at Christmas, gave us a new camera to replace our broken one--It's that Southern hospitality again. We bought this new ACER computer in Brunswick but promptly spilled a scotch on it and it has been confused and recalcitrant ever since. It refuses to load any pictures because it refuses to find the drivers I need to run the software to transfer photos.

It's getting more like me every day. I named it Hal. "I'm afraid I can't do that Max", it says in a soft voice when I try to load my new software that will let me relax on the boat and reach the WiFi router which is mounted in the laundry room. So Hal and I are writing this blog in the laundry room. "How about another scotch," I say to Hal in a mockingly soft voice. Silence. Ha! I thought so!

We rented a car for a week so that we could celebrate our 12th anniversary by car instead of on foot. We reserved a room (for free, thanks to our friends at American Express) at the Hampton Inn in Islamorada 30 miles north of here. We had a suite with separate king bedroom, a full kitchen, and a balcony overlooking the sea. The hotel had a large pool, whirlpool, tiki bar, sand beach, and an Outback Steakhouse restaurant. Instead of spending a fortune on dinner, we decided to grab some carryout from the restaurant and dine while watching the sunset sky.

On the way back to our marina the next day, we stopped at Lorelei Waterside bar and met a fellow who told us about the tarpon (large silvery fish) that congregate at Robbie's Marina on Lower Matcumbe Key. For a few bucks, Robbie's staff give you a pale of fish to feed the tarpon which snap the fish from you with the same speed that an alligator might snap your arm off. They are harmless, though, and some brave souls hold the bait underwater and allow the tarpon, who don't know where the food ends and your hand begins, to try to swallow most of their arm. So we went there and fed some tarpon but I wasn't brave enough to stick my hand deep into the water.

I forgot to take the camera battery along on our trip so I have no photos of all of this. But we plan to rent a car again in a few weeks and maybe I'll get some pictures of Robbie's and of the Hampton. I hope the video works for you.