The long-awaited arrival of sunshine and warm temperatures landed with both feet on Whidbey Island Friday and by Monday morning, folks at the Oak Harbor Marina were still in the process of getting their watercraft spiffed up and ready for the summer.

With the crab season slated to open today in our portion of Puget Sound and salmon fishing less than a month away, a couple of boaters still had a few things to do and not much time left before all the fun starts.

Ron Romerdahl was putting some of the finishing touches on his 28-foot Contessa Bayliner, getting ready for today’s crab opener.

“She’s a good little fishing boat,” the Oak Harbor resident said. “Salmon season begins August 1 and I’m getting my boat ready for the big fish to start showing up.”

In the next slip, Arnie Mengel from Oak Harbor said he had just about everything squared away on his 32-foot Luhrs, named “Dutch’s Legacy.”

“The boat was built in 1972 in St. Augustine, Florida, and it was originally designed to fish in the gulf and the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “It’s a real heavy boat and it burns a lot of gas, so I’ve had to cut down on my boating time.”

Mengel said when he first bought Dutch’s Legacy, gasoline was around $1.50 a gallon. “Now it’s about three times that much,” he said.

Being as heavy as it is, Mengel said the boat does have some advantages.

“It’s good for crabbing,” he said. “You can run it right up into the logs and you don’t have to worry about a floating log punching a hole in the hull, not like you do with some of the newer boats. Floating logs will bounce right off.”

Weather prognosticators have indicated the sunshine is going to hang around for the next few days so boats will be heading out from Oak Harbor and Cornet Bay marinas. If anyone hasn’t prepared their boats for the season, now is the time to get ‘er done.