Winner, Winner a Crab Dinner

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Winner, Winner a Crab Dinner

Drawing a crab tagged with number 401 for the GoWest Rally Crab Race had a promising sound to it. We had purchased a $20 contender which we’d get to eat a couple of days later. Ocean Pacific Seafoods who also own the Bundaberg Port Marina and were among the major sponsors for our rally, had made their premises available and not only supplied the spanner crabs but had offered to cook them too.

The racers

Even the crab selection was a spirited affair. What would a quick one look like?

We Aussies are known for betting on anything and everything - even 2 flies crawling up a wall. The international sailors took note and participated even if a bit skeptical to begin with. The arena, rather than being a circle, was amusingly arranged as a map of Australia. Tasmania was included but as usual, something of an afterthought and represented by an appropriately shaped rock. Rules of engagement were simple: first 5 crabs in each of 2 heats, to reach any boundary, would be in the final. In the final, the first crab to reach any boundary would win the ‘owner’ a $100 seafood voucher from Ocean Pacific Seafoods. Win or loose, we’d still have a cooked crab for supper on Monday night!

With much at stake, participants were ready to urge their crab on. We felt particularly good about OUR crab: number 401. The number seemed auspicious. The Japanese garden in the central courtyard of Building 401 on our university campus, was the scene of our wedding reception 40 years ago. Look at those numbers, surely they would be lucky for us?

Geoff, the marina manager, presided over the occasion and gave a run down on Spanner Crabs, where and how they could be caught and local regulations regarding catch size and even how to handle them and tie up their claws once caught.

But enough already! Let’s get back to the racing. We’d been warned it might be slow. In the main, Geoff was right except for 401 which took off towards the furtherest boundary and the geographical equivalent of Perth - our own home town. The other contestants had barely left the starting mat when our crustacean clawed the line. The Bloke was beside himself, we’d scored number 1 in the heat.

Getting frustrated, another backer urging his crab to move. Just a bit. P l e a s e.

Just shift those nippers!

Amazingly, in the final, our 401 made a conspicuous repeat performance making a bolt for ‘Perth‘ on the westernmost border of the arena. Clearly, The Bloke is better at selecting racing crabs than Melbourne Cup contenders!

Winning nippers!

The afternoon was rounded off by a raffle of excess rally gifts while we gobbled down 500gms of freshly cooked prawns each, washed down with some ice cold Great Northern beer supplied by the Great Northern Brewing Co. Beer and prawns - a killer combo! To 'share the love', we immediately converted our $100 seafood voucher into oysters to share around.