2015 Dungeness crab season on F/V Rosella was a super success!   With an improved contact and order web component, we increased our customer base and orders a minimum of 40 folds or 868 crabs sold via the website. Weight:  Over 2,000 pounds. Captain Barry’s crab pots have been hauled from the sea and stacked for the next season in the storage yard. Boat is being prep to chase salmon in Oregon and will embark to follow the salmon wherever they may be.  Second Captain Maynor will be Second Captain.  ETD is within a week.  

In tonight, 250 pounds is Captain Barry’s final Dungeness crab load.  Call and place your orders now!

Ahoy all ye land lubbers, It’s been work to find you fresh crab; I’m currently traveling four hours south of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.  Most of my lively crab are coming from off of Pescadero. The crab are a decent size, 2 to 2 3/4 lbs. Some of you have asked about the price fluctuations at Pillar Harbor. At the start of the season our Dungeness crab sold for $5 per lb. The price moved to $6 after the crab became scarce, then rose to a peak of $7 when the pots were coming up with few crab. Never-the-less, we’ve been fishing for the critters and I’m comfortable at $6 with our current quanities. So…..call me if you’d like some lively fresh Dungeness crab, right off the boat at Pillar Point Harbor. 707-208-1706        

So the joke around Pillar Point is that there’s a new drink at The Harbor Bar called “Barry on the Rocks with a Shot of Juice”.  it’s a tribute to the last six weeks in which I not only grounded a vessel, but near electrocuted myself installing a pump.  My lady took the joke to it’s logical conclusion, creating “Kiwi on the Rocks” Use one fresh kiwi fruit per cocktail. Salt the rim of your most nautically inspired “on the rocks” glass. Peel the kiwi fruit, reserve two slices for garnish and mash the remaining fruit in the glass; add 1 1/2 oz gin and stir. Add ice cubes and fill the glass to just below the rim with tonic water (refered to by the Kiwi as “quinine”). Garnish with kiwi slices and serve with fresh crab, fresh tuna or fresh salmon bought from Captain Barry off the boat. This drink is also good for malaria.

The captain and crew of F/V Rosella are working overtime to get fresh live crab on your table Thanksgiving Day.  Come on down to Pillar Harbor, slip G-6 and check out their lively catch. If you’ve never eaten really fresh Dungeness crab, live till it gets to the pot, you’ve missed a special local delicacy.  The meat is succulent and sweet, unlike store bought seafood.  Let us introduce you to the freshest crab, right off the boat!

Less than two weeks ago – Sunday, November 4th to be exact – my lady and I were checking harbors for boats for sale. Ask a fisherman on the docks if any boats are for sale and he will likely answer, “They all are, how much do you want to pay?” So I was getting a little frustrated – we started the morning in Moss Landing and checked the Santa Cruz harbor and were on our way to Bodega Bay when I started feeling like we were wasting our time. “It will be too late,” I said as she drove the road out of Petaluma that goes west. “You’re whining,” she said. She kept driving. We got to the harbor at sunset, but no time for watching it. Mighty Mouse (that’s what I call my lady) was on a mission. She wanted the F/V Rosella the minute she saw her. You gotta admit she’s a pretty old boat. And she runs real well – she’s been loved. In her sixty years, only three others have owned her. Most recently Chuck Cappotto, who’s retiring. The surveyor was so impressed, he gave her two thumbs up!   Well, I guess one of those thumbs is mine – two total thumbs up! So now Rosella is at Pillar Harbor where we hope to catch and sell the freshest fish and crab around.

The hull has been opened for several days and the planking has been separating from the ribs. The batteries left by the salvage contractor (that removed the fuel) have been smashed. To date, most of the debris from the vessel – that has reached the beach- has been in small pieces. Significant flotsam includes: one steel 800 gallon fuel tank and one 200 gallon stainless steel water tank. The transom has survived in one piece, as a portion of the keel has. These items will need to be cut for hauling. We have seen less debris reach the beach than we expected. Our original estimate of 30 cuyds of wood is probably very conservative.     Lagan to be removed – after the wooden boat has broken apart – includes: the engine, transmission, lead ingots, concrete ballast and anchor. Barry is exploring the use of a crane with a 100’ boom to lift these objects from the rocks, assuming the crane operator can find a suitable location to work from. It is certain that this work will need to be staged from within the gated perimeter of Pillar Point Air Station.