Chapter 4 Can't fathom it.

The tide was running as I planned, and we were starting on the offshore end pulling in back towards land. "This is the long one guys, but we'll be halfway home at the end of it. Let's get some crab!" I announced as I started down the line. Moose gaffed the first buoy and we continued down the line. A few traps in Scott exclaims "Oh my look at This guy!" And held up a monster colossal crab. Moose glanced over as he was winching the next trap, "yeah that's a big one." He mentioned in his slight county accent he has.

Scott looked the big crab over with admiration before harvesting one of his claws, always a clean break, which is important for their regeneration. It doesn't take long for them to grow their claws back. Typically it takes between a year to three to grow back to full size. "See you later big crab," Scott told him as he released it back to the sea.

I typically load and move the stone crab traps every other pull. Most captains move them every pull. I haven't seen too much of a difference in the catch for us but that also depends on the weather. If it's calm all the time, I move them more frequently. I have the licenses to buy and sell seafood, and we also work with a couple of other boats in between our own pulls, so we don't usually have any issues with product availability. Of course it's better to have our own because then the buying expense goes to our own business and our own boat, but I like being part of the support group as well as the fishing part. I like moving the traps every other pull for a few reasons. It lets me see the progress on the regeneration of the crab when they go back in the traps for their tasty pigs feet, and it also lets me see how much they're moving, and where they're going. We don't always catch the same crabs twice, but a few of them come back, and when they do, they usually have a tiny claw about the size of a grain of rice starting to grow.

Patrón started dancing and making his little half bark out the window. I look over to see what he was looking at and a bottle nose dolphin surfaced in front of the boat. Patrón got even more excited, and his back feet pattered on the wheelhouse seat as he did his happy dance. He loves the dolphins. A few more dolphins breached as they swam back and forth in front of the boat. "Look Nuggie, there's a whole family" I smiled as he watched them. Nuggie is one of his nicknames, short for little nugget. We saw it on one of his favorite movies. He liked it and got all excited when he watched the movie, so we repeated that line to him and he liked it so much that it just sort of stuck. Patrón's name in Spanish means the boss, the captain, the jefe. He was born at the trap yard in a crab box, and has been on the crab boat with us since he practically fit in the palm of my hand. Well maybe not that small but pretty close.

As the sun reaches the top of the sky, the water takes on it's turquoise glow. The water is crystal clear and in 3.5 fathoms I can see the bottom almost perfectly. "Turtle!" Scott calls out. I slowed the throttle and look in the mirror and see him getting new latches to repair the trap. "Your turtle is bending the latches again" he held up the latches that were completely bent as if they were a rubber band that was now frozen solid in its new U position. "I love my turtle. He can have some crab if he wants." I reply. It's easy to tell what kind of sea creature gets into the traps by the different damages they leave behind. Turtles typically will either take the whole side off of the trap or just take off or bend the latches. "My" turtle bends the latches, but I like to think that's because he likes me. I've seen him plenty of times and talked to him. Told him he's such a pretty turtle and please don't eat my traps, just turn the latches and eat all the crab you want... Yes I'm that person who talks to animals. But I'll mention more about that later. People who truly know me, actually say I'm the animal whisperer. Some of them haven't met my best friend of 30 years, she's more amazing at that than me.

"Well, he's getting better at turning the latches." Scott replied as he pushed the repaired trap back into the water. I look in the clear water at the bottom as I'm driving down the line. I'm Always watching Everything at the same time. All around the boat, locate the other boats if there is any, the horizon, Bouy, rope, mirror, watch Moose gaff the bouy and get it to the winch, gauges, plotter, the next bouy, the water, the mirror and watch Scott slide the trap over and clear it. Bouy, rope, water, mirror. Marking fishing spots on the chart. It's important to be fully aware of everything, especially what's going on directly around and on board the vessel at all times. By the end of the day when everyone gets off the boat the captain is pretty tired, and some people wonder why. Well that's why.

We're what they call inshore fisherman. We don't go very far offshore. We travel about 20 or so miles from the dock, but we're still pretty close to land. Our deepest traps go in water up to 5 fathoms, which is 30 feet. Some of the offshore captains on the bigger boats go really far out into at least 10 fathoms of water, 60 feet, which is over 60 miles offshore on the bayside. That's pretty far out there. I've been out that far on calm and rough days on other boats. I helped grade crab on those days while Scott filled in as winch man or whatever position he was filling on for. The calm days out there are beautiful, deep blue water. Different fish and sea creatures come up in the traps. But the rough days, makes it safe to say that crabbers are a different breed of people. The sky can get really dark out there, and the waves come over the wheelhouse on even the biggest boats. The captain and crew has to be experienced and have good communication to handle days like that. I admire those captains and their crews. Most of those boats are solid in entirety. Solid boat, solid captain, solid crew. They typically stay together for a long time from what I've seen. I'm happy with our little 39 foot inshore boat, with our finally solid crew. Definitely happy with our fair weather days too. I couldn't fathom it any other way. See what I did there. Lol. (Laugh out loud).