By Kirsten Gum
O.K. there's something you need to know. I almost hurled like a dozen times while out on the commercial crab boat. No I don't get seasick (which is amazing since half my family can look at a wave and will blow chunks) and I DO have a strong stomach, but that old bait was too much. Remember, these professionals use frozen squid to bait their crab pots. That part doesn't smell. It's the old bait, which has been sitting underwater and gives off an odor like nothing I've smelled before. It honestly took me by surprise ¿ how vicious and foul.
I grew up on a farm, helped my dad kill chickens and ducks, have been up-close and personal with chicken poop, dog poop, horse poop, rotten apples, rotten meat, week-old fish, and nothing smelled as bad as rancid squid. O.K. so a couple crab pots weren't bad, but remember we picked up more than 60 pots! It's the amount of rancid squid, the concentration of it in a 10-hour period that did me in. By the end of the day, I had to run to the side of the boat several times. Never let anything out of my mouth but my stomach was doing that whole heaving thing, eyes watering -- yuck, yuck, yuck. I did my damnedest to keep it in because I just couldn't give my crew the satisfaction ¿ but it was hard! So was the work, and I dug every minute of it.
I really enjoy physical labor like that. I guess that comes from growing up on a farm and apple orchard. My dad had us doing all sorts of things. To be fair, I worked for him for two reasons, to get paid and to get out of being grounded. Both reasons kept me in damn good shape when I was a kid. Now as an adult, I thrive on the burn, the full satisfaction of working hard and getting good results, and anything I do outdoors I enjoy. When I was on the boat, I really felt like my life had come full circle.
I was born in Alaska, and I can remember as a child being deathly afraid of crabs. My dad was a recreational crabber. He'd come home from a good morning on the water and pull all the crabs out and let them crawl all over the lawn. Me and my brother and sister would scream and run all over the yard. It's one of those memories that makes me smile -- especially now that I spent a couple days slaying crabs in the Northwest. And talk about the sweet meat. I love seafood. Oh, I was in heaven when we finally cooked up the crabs.
Unfortunately because of time, you didn't get to see my fantastic cooking skills. We took our catch to Ivar's Acres of Clams on the wharf in Seattle. It¿s one of the most well-known seafood restaurants in the city. I used to work at Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union in Seattle while I was going to college at the University of Washington. Wow, those were lucrative days. Made some fantastic spending-money waiting tables -- but smelled like salmon a lot! It kind of gets in the air at the restaurant and, well, the odor attaches itself to everything in its sight.
One of my favorite moments of this adventure was reuniting with my old manager Nancy Bogue. She still looks the same and is funny as ever. Just an absolute fantastic lady. We used to spend hours talking during work and after work. She was one person who really was a great influence on my life, and I can't thank her enough for all the advice. Nancy, you rock -- and that comes from a true rock hound!
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