Chapter 2 A Well Oiled Machine

"Hey How's it goin?" Moose came up from the downstairs bunk and poked his head in the doorway of the wheelhouse. His dark sunglasses already in place above his red hair and beard, complete with a black baseball cap. "Good morning Moose" I reply as I sip my coffee. "Good morning Morgan" he smiles back with one of the whitest perfect smiles I've ever seen. This is our second good morning of the day. The first is when it's still dark, we board the boat and leave the dock. But then they go back to sleep, and now it actually looks like morning.

"You ready man?" Scott asked getting up and gave me a kiss before joining him down on the deck. "Ahhh yeah." Moose replied as he put his white slickers on over his clothes. Scott put his slickers on as well, and they got their gloves on and arranged the deck ready to work.

The deck of the crab boat is flat, with just the large grey diamond plated engine box raised in the middle that takes up a good part of the white non slip deck. About 5 feet behind the engine box at the stern of the boat, closer to the port side, is the puller box. On this boat it's about a 4 foot high, 2.5 foot square pillar which holds the winch mechanism. Inside the enclosed box are the hydraulic hoses and motor parts, that run the winch, located on the outside port side of the box. The winch is a round wheel that spins to pull the traps up onto the boat, with the controls to turn it on and off on the top of the box. The power to the winch is up next to me in the wheelhouse. There's a groove on top of the wheel for the rope to go through.

The winch-man's, also called the "puller" position is at the hauling station port side of that box, next to the wheel, and in front of the trap table. The clearing position is on the starboard side of that box. There's about 2.5 feet between the puller box and the stern gunwale of the boat, enough room to slide the traps from the trap table to the clearing table. The clearing table is a wide aluminum table permanently mounted on the stern gunwale, starboard of the puller box that goes from the trap table to the starboard side of the boat. The trap table is mounted on the stern gunwale port side from the puller box, and it stands straight up and down on the back of the boat until it's triggered and then it lays flat towards the winch man. Needless to say, the winch-man has a pretty dangerous position. They both do, but in my professional opinion, that one is the easiest to get injured at.

Scott is literally one of the best winch-men in the fleet. He's super fast, accurate, and fluid in every motion. When it's just him and I on the boat, I love watching him move. I have a rear view mirror mounted above the windshield, just like in a car, so I can easily watch everything that goes on behind me without turning around. Scott likes to clear the traps as much as I do, so that's what he does. Moose is our winch-man.

We've had Moose with us for a couple of years now after I went on a firing spree for about a season or two. Mainly because we had crew showing up drunk or trying to smuggle alcohol to drink on the boat. Others just weren't up to par and had the wrong attitude. Some of them, I really would have liked if it would've worked out. I run a tight ship, and Scott likes that. We have completely opposite personalities, which is the perfect balance for a power couple. It took several years for us to find the balance where we stopped butting heads of who's the boss. We established hierarchy early on, but third party views of the ones I put my foot down on caused majority of the head butting. Who's the boss? Of the business, Me. But not in our relationship. Our relationship is on the 100/100 level. If your not both on the same page looking together in the same direction, it just won't work.

Scott is very peaceful for the most part, and has a big heart which he wears on his sleeve. Me on the other hand, I'm very headstrong and although I also have a big heart, I'm rough around the edges and able to put my foot down really easily. And honestly I'm either known as a sweetheart or a total bitch depending on the situation or who you talk to. I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with our culture differences during upbringing. I grew up in the fast paced suburbs of New Jersey, where if you stop to think for too long you get ran over. While he grew up in the laid back islands of the Florida Keys. I'm also older by a couple of years.

The balance is perfect, but is one that can go either way depending on the couple or situation.

My view is simple. Scott and I can go out by ourselves and easily pull 500-650 traps by ourselves, and be back to the dock by 4pm. If our crewman is slowing us down and isn't making things easier and faster, then we don't need em. Moose came to us with some experience, but he wasn't ever really properly trained. He pretty much had the idea of how it all worked, and was able to get the job done, but we noticed right away that he struggled a bit. He definitely needed to get the dance smoothed out. He's a good person, a very hard worker, and has the strength of a team of oxen. We like him, so we took the time to sharpen his skills. Scott took it slow for awhile and showed Moose minor adjustments to his methods to make his job much much easier, much much faster, and much much smoother. Already having the knowledge to be able to clear the traps, Scott was able to show him simple motions at the winch to improve his skills. It's amazing how such small minor adjustments can have such a major effect. During training, I took the time to stop the boat at each buoy while Moose perfected his motions. It took our first season together to work out all the kinks, but now we're a well oiled machine.

Moose stood in his position at the winch, Scott at the clearing table. The bait ready to go in the traps, the grader box all set up, the crab box ready for the harvest. I reached the end buoy and spun the boat around lined up with the trap line. Patrón got in his position with his paws up on the ledge of the windshield looking out the front window, where he loves to watch everything around him. Moose adjusted his baseball cap and sunglasses and looked forward over the port side of the boat, gaff ready. The sun is just peeking above the horizon giving enough light to differentiate our buoys from everyone else's. Everyone has different buoy colors with their license number branded into it.

"It's a beautiful day to catch some crabs" I announced, turned the winch power on, and started the boat down the trap line. I passed the first buoy close to check the exact direction of the tide, and followed the rope with the boat. Moose gaffed the first buoy as soon as it was in reach, and smoothly turned to the back of the boat, setting the gaff down with his right hand and he used his left hand to slide the rope through the rope roller of the trap table and pull it to the winch. Switched hands and turned on the winch with his left hand as the rope coiled into his right hand. After a few coils of the rope he threw the buoy back out and completed pulling the trap out of the water. The trap slid up onto the table, triggered the switch and laid the table flat. Scott grabbed the trap and slid it over to in front of him as Moose shut the winch off and pulled the rope out of the winch as he stood the table back up, and positioned himself for the next one. I shut the power to the winch to give a little throttle to the engine. Scott cleared the fish out of the trap as I was pulling up to the next buoy.

I repeat the motions of the boat and give power back to the winch. I look in the mirror and watch Scott put the crab claws into the bin, bait and drop the trap back into the water as Moose is pulling the next rope through the winch as I continue forward. Patrón's back feet dance as he looks at the seagulls flying in front of the boat. Scott slides the next trap over and opens the lid as Moose gets ready for the next one. Every movement they make is intentionally precise, and smooth like a dance. We continue down the line averaging 4 - 6 knots as the sun rises higher above the dark glass calm sea creating a shimmering effect like sparkles. Hints of turquoise start to peek through into the morning. A well oiled machine indeed.