PORT ANGELES — There still will be plenty of crab for all who want it today, even though more than 1,400 from Victoria came across the Strait of Juan de Fuca for the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival.
The line for crab meals snaked out of the festival’s main tent in the Red Lion Hotel parking lot at noon Saturday, just after the MV Coho ferry deposited its sold-out load of about 970 passengers from Canada.
Disembarking passengers followed direction signs along the Port Angeles waterfront.
They read “Welcome Canadians! Crabfest this way,” and led the visitors to the festival’s main tent at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel.
The festival at the north end of Lincoln Street in Port Angeles began at noon Friday — earlier than former years — and runs until 5 p.m. today.
“We had an extremely good Friday,” said Russ Veenema, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce director.
“By adding more hours we sold more product. We sold more crab,” he said.
“So if all goes according to plan, this will be the weekend of the most crab we have ever ordered.”
A 6,000-pound order of crab was about halfway gone by noon Saturday, Veenema said.
Another order was expected Saturday in anticipation of more crowds from Canada.
Veenema and Scott Nagel, festival director, would not say how many pounds of crab were available.
“We’re keeping that private,” Veenema said.
They did say there would be enough to feed everyone today.
The festival, which began 13 years ago as little more than a street fair and a chance to pull a crab from the harbor for a prize, has become the “true iconic event for the town,” Veenema said in an earlier interview.
“It’s turned into the biggest event of the year,” Veenema said.
Nagel described the event as the “biggest thing on the Peninsula, especially in the fall.”
Hotels were sold out in both Port Angeles and Sequim for this year’s Crab Fest, Nagel said.
Nagel predicted a total weekend turnout of about 20,000.
And that includes the visitors from Canada. This is second Crab Fest Saturday that the Coho ferry has sold out a morning run from Victoria.
Doris Schulz of Victoria said she attended last year’s Crab Fest and liked it so much she returned this year with friends and family in tow.
“This is well organized, I have to say,” Schulz said. “And it’s covered.”
Her son, Thomas Schulz of Victoria, said the food was simply “awesome.”
The Schulz’s were part of the contingent of Canadians who took advantage of a special offered by the Black Ball Ferry Line, which operates the Coho ferry in daily runs between Port Angeles and Victoria.
The ferry service sold a round-trip ferry ride and a crab dinner for $59.
On Friday, the Coho brought 450 walk-on passengers, and that’s not counting the cars, said Ryan Malane, co-owner and sales and marketing manager for Black Ball Ferry Line.
The 10:30 am. Saturday sailing from Victoria was completely sold out, Malane said.
The ferry can hold about 970 passengers.
“It looks like it will be similar on Sunday,” Malane said Friday.
“If we’re not sold out, it will be close.”
A heavy downpour Saturday morning gave way to noon sunshine just in time for lunch.
“Everybody technically weathered the storm,” Veenema said.
“We didn’t have any major disasters.
“The volume of the people in the tent didn’t seem to decline at all. Everybody hunkered down.”
Inside the main tent at about 12:30 p.m., the band Strait Shot played covers of “Superstition” and “Margaritaville” from Crab Central Stage as a near-capacity crowd cracked crab and sipped drinks on picnic tables.
Those who ordered the $29 full crab meal or $15 half crab special were handed bibs with their juicy fare.
Another rain cell passed over the Crab Fest at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach contributed to this report.
