My Life As A Stern Man #7

Aug 30, 2013

Hi Folks,

I haven't had a chance to write much lately. We've had my best friend Joan and her husband Bob visiting and have been showing them around beautiful Maine. We all had a wonderful time, ate too much, and ran ourselves ragged. We even brought them in to Maine Lobster Direct to see where our lobsters go...they said 'hi' to a few they recognized. One of the places we went to was the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. It's at the site of the old Percy and Small Shipbuilding Company. This shipyard built the world's largest commercial wooden schooner - the six masted 'Wyoming'. The Wyoming was 426 feet long and launched in Dec 1909.  You can tour the original factory buildings in the shipyard and the adjoining museum. It's a great day trip and we highly recommend it!

The weather was perfect all the time they were here but the day they left it started raining and then a huge fog bank moved in and stayed the whole day!

It's as if Mother Nature knew I was missing my best friend.  But now it's time to get back to work. 

We really see a lot of activity and interesting vessels here in Portland Harbor/Casco Bay. 

The annual Lobster Boat Races were held last week...heck no, we didn't enter... and the harbor was clogged with everyone watching. It's a constant challenge navigating around everything from kayaks to cruise ships.

I got a nice surprise the other day.

The Cap'n decided it was time to 'upgrade' his stern-man and bought me new gloves,  apron and boat shoes.

Pretty spiffy, huh? I never imagined this job would have such great benefits...chuckle.

We head up to Camden the day after Labor Day. We're going on a four day lighthouse cruise on the Schooner Mary Day and we couldn't be more excited.

Trading a diesel engine for wind power and a hammock will be a nice change. Look for an update and some photos in an upcoming blog.

That's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun"

My Life As A Ster Man #6

Thurs Aug 8, 2013 

My Life As A Stern Man #6

Hi Folks,

Another cold and rainy day out on the water. We had the added factor of wind today; blowing about 15 knots. This made the ocean surface really choppy and the swells five to six feet high, which wouldn't have been too bad except there was only a 1-2 second interval in between swells so it was a constant rock and roll!

The rail on the starboard (right) side of the boat where we haul traps is only knee high and that's where I usually lean. 

After almost going overboard, I decided to find another leaning place. Smart move, huh? I have now discovered muscles in my legs and back that I never knew existed and bruises all over my posterior. And to make matters worse, when we got home, the floor was moving...go figure. 

As an aside, here's an easy way to remember which is starboard and which is port. Port and left are both four letters; the port side is the left side of the ship when you're facing the bow or forward. Obviously, starboard is the right side. 

On another subject... I am soooo done with seals. They lie in the water watching and waiting. We had one following us the whole time we were hauling up our traps outside beyond the harbor. 

Sure they're cute and they have those soulful eyes but they're really laughing it up behind their flippers and saying "Suckers... just wait until you drop those traps back in the water and see what I'm gonna do." Those cute seals turn into the Loch Ness Monster and put their noses up thru the trap head and bite holes in the bait bag so they can steal all the bait. What freeloaders! I had to throw away eleven bait bags today! 

Well, that's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".

"My Life As A Sternman" Aug 2013

Mon Aug 5, 2013 

My Life As A Stern Man #5

Hi Folks,

We got down to the boat earlier than usual this morning and it was darn cold...the coldest morning in a long time. I thought August was supposed to be the hottest month but apparently no one told the weatherman. 

It's been cool and rainy all summer - except for that one weekend in July when the temperature almost reached triple digits.  

Anyway, the wind was blowing about ten knots and the further we got out of the harbor, the wind blew stronger and the rollers (swells) got bigger. 

And all the time we were steaming out, the song that kept running through my mind was...wait for it... The Edmund Fitzgerald. I might as well have been thinking of the Titanic! 
 
Speaking of Titanic, let me digress a moment. Waaaay back when I graduated from high school (don't even try to count that far back), my mother, brother and I spent the summer in Europe. 

We flew to New York and boarded a cruise liner, the SS Rotterdam, to South Hampton, England. The Rotterdam's Captain decided to hold a talent show with the passengers and my mom signed me up because I played the guitar...just Girl Scout campfire stuff, nothing fancy. 

Well, I didn't clear my repertoire with Mumsie and one of the songs I sang was a lively little ditty entitled 'Titanic'.  

It goes like this..."Oh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue and they thought they had a ship that the water would not come thru. But the Lord's almighty hand said this ship would never land, it was sad when the great ship went down". 

It gets even better with the chorus..."Oh it was sad, it was sad. It was sad when the great ship went down to the bottom of the... Husbands and wives, little bitty children lost their lives. It was sad when the great ship went down". 

Needless to say my mother was mortified that I sang a song about a sinking ship while we were on a ship! But I won second place so I guess no one was too upset!

Well, I've digressed enough for today. That's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".

 

Fri Aug 2, 2013 

My Life As A Stern Man #4

Hi Folks,

We took a day off to go to the Lobster Festival in Rockland (go figure).  Back hauling traps today and picked up something I had never seen before...a sea cucumber. 

It felt kind of solid, not squishy and apparently is able to mold itself around the trap to get in or out thru the wire. 

We also get hermit crabs, star fish and regular fish in our traps....sculpin and flounder and even caught a spider crab last week.

But the strangest thing I've ever seen was something that lived in the red algae seaweed that was growing on the buoy line. I can only assume it was some type of protozoa/insect and it was definitely alive. 

And on our way back in, we picked up some rope and part of a spindle that got wrapped around the boat's propeller shaft. 

The whole way in from Ram Island Light that spindle kept hitting the hull. We ended up having to get a diver to go down and cut it it off. 
Thank goodness there wasn't any damage!

While we waited for the diver, the boat got a good cleaning. We have thick mats that are put down on the deck so we don't slip (fish guts make it awful slimy - ick). 

The mats are really just a bunch of 1 inch rubber holes joined together in a 3 foot square. These holes do let the water flow through but they trap seaweed, small crabs and all kinds of stuff and have to be taken up, shaken, and put on the (trap) slide so I can hose down the deck.

Then the rest of the boat got scrubbed down...that's me climbing on the side and cleaning windows.

That's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".

My Life As A Stern Man #3
 
Hi Folks,
Today started out very slow for me. I was pretty much sleepless last night and 0:00 dark hundred came waaaay too early this morning. But we got underway only slightly later than usual, so the Cap'n decided he wouldn't dock my paycheck. 

Oh wait.... I don't get a paycheck😐 

 It was a beautiful day on the water - tank top weather - and by the time we reached our first string, I was feeling fine and dandy.
 

Here's a bit of trivia I'll bet most of you didn't know. Has nothing to do with lobstering but interesting just the same.

I'm sure you all have heard the term 'Down East' when people are talking about Maine but I'll bet you don't know what that really means. 

In the early days of sailing when ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which are east of Boston), the prevailing winds were at their backs...so they were sailing downwind, or going 'Down East.' 

And when they returned to Boston they were sailing upwind or going 'up to Boston,' despite the fact that Boston lies approximately 50 miles to the south of Maine’s southern-most border.

 I'll bet you could win Trivial Pursuit with that knowledge!

Anyway, back to lobstering. Despite the fact that the day was beautiful, the lobsters just were not cooperating. It's very frustrating to pull up a trap that has about a dozen lobsters in it, only to have ten of them be under-size or notched females and have to be thrown back into the ocean. 

It takes approx. 7years for a lobster to grow to legal size. A notched female means that a V has been cut into the 2nd left segment or Uropod of the tail. She has reached a certain age and has been caught when she had eggs and is now considered a breeder/egger. The photo (above) shows the eggs and a green circle is where the notch is on this female. 
 
Maine law closely regulates the lobster industry to ensure the waters are not 'fished out'; lobstermen are required to throw back all notched females. 

That's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".
              

My life as a stern man #1

We are so happy to present to you the following is a blog post from our good friend. Here, she discusses what it's like to work on a lobster boat as a stern person. The names have been changed to protect the innocent! Haha! Enjoy, Folks!.

Hi folks,
Let me introduce myself. I'm a stern man on a lobster boat out of Portland, Maine. Actually, I'm a 'stern woman' but I don't think that's a real word and believe me, 'stern women' are few and far between. Now, I'm kind of a girlie-girl and this is a TOTALLY new world for me but I'm having a blast and wanted  to share my experiences.  So... how did I come to be when I am today, you're wondering.... you are wondering, aren't you? Well, here goes.

I retired in March from the Space Shuttle Program in Florida and decided to follow the man in my life back to Maine. By the way, he's the Captain of the lobster boat so I'm sure you can see where this is headed. There are just the two of us and we fish  for lobster three days a week. I just say we're 'lobstering'. (From Memorial Day to Labor Day it's against Maine law to haul on Sunday.

We have 15 strings of traps in the water; each string has 8 traps and we haul the full 15 strings every other day. The reason we don't haul daily is the traps have to sit on the ocean bottom waiting for those lobsters to crawl in and every other day allows enough time for more lobsters to 'come on down'. Now, these traps are pretty heavy at 70 pounds each and I can't physically lift them so the Cap'n does the heavy lifting and I bait the traps and band the lobsters. He calls me his "BB girl". Get it?....bait 'em and band 'em.

I'll finish this blog with a typical day.

Up at 5:30 am and down to the boat before 7:00. Now this is 0:00dark hundred as far as I'm concerned! My eyes are half open and there's a full coffee mug clutched in my hands. But once we're on the boat and steaming out thru the channel, it is so invigorating and beautiful that I'm fully awake and looking for the day to begin. At least that's how most days start out...note: more on the fog, rain, and wind later.

The traps were initially set in May, when we started our season. They are moved from the inner harbor out towards the main channel and islands in Casco Bay as the lobsters begin to crawl with warmer water. Finding where they're crawling is tricky but the Cap'n has been doing this most of his life and has a pretty good feel of when and where to set his traps.

Depending on the conditions, it usually takes us until noonish to haul all strings (see note above on some of those conditions). Lunch is a quick sandwich on the way in. That is, AFTER 'you know who' has cleaned the mats, hosed down the boat, and made sure everything is shipshape. The other 'you know who' is technically in charge and gets to leisurely eat his lunch while at the helm. But, I draw the line at bait duty so he puts what's left back in the bait barrel and salts it down to preserve the fish for our next trip. Believe me you don't want to know what that fish smells like if we have enough left for a third day! I have developed an extraordinary capacity for holding my breath when filling the bait bags.

Then we're off to Maine Lobster Direct on Union Wharf to sell our catch and home for the most wonderful thing ever....a shower!

That's it for now. After hauling tomorrow, the real stuff begins. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".

My Life As A Stern Man #2

We have another installment from the Florida-girl-turned -New-England stern-man.

7/28/13
Hi Folks,
We headed out as usual and set one of our crab traps first. I LOVE the crabmeat here in Maine but to call these delicious sea creatures Sand Crabs is definitely confusing to me.

When my daughters were little, they would catch sand crabs at the beach in California and those things look nothing like the Maine crabs.

They were about as long as your thumb with a body like a squid. The ones here in Maine are huge by comparison.

But there is one other gigantic difference between the two....the California sand crabs don't bite. And let me tell you, the buggers here in Maine are vicious.

Not only do they bite, they actively seek out fingers to pinch!

The Cap'n wears big, heavy orange gloves (a fashion faux pas as far as I'm concerned). My gloves are pink or purple usually with flowers on the cuffs (hence my 'girlie girl' status).

 They do the job by keeping fish slime off my hands (yuk) and protecting my delicate little fingers from cuts. But they do not protect me from bites!

So I decided I needed to have a small talk with the leader of this crew. "Cap'n (I said) I know part of my job is to clear out the traps when they're hauled up BUT (pause for effect with a tear in my eye)... those crabs are attacking me and they're winning the battle! Would you please clear them out before I bait the trap?"

And being the kind man that he is, he agreed (yea).

 He proceeds to pick those things up like it was nothing and with a flick of his wrist, over the side of the boat and into the water they go.

Now I am a fairly mild and easy going person but these crabs bring out the worst in me. Die, suckers, die!

That's it for now. Be safe and, as the Cap'n likes to say, "stay out of the hot sun".

How to Cook Lobsters in a Traditional Pot…like a Maine-ah!

Here at www.MaineLobsterDirect.com , the most asked question we get is “How do you cook a Maine Lobster?” Well, we have the easiest recipe for the most traditional way of cooking hard shell Maine Lobster: Steaming.

Just follow these steps of how to steam a Maine Lobster and you won’t fail!

How to Cook Lobsters in a Traditional Pot…like a Maine-ah!

1. Purchase Lobsters (either directly from a fisherman or from www.mainelobsterdirect.com ) 
2. In a large pot add 2-3 inches of salted water to the bottom of the pot and bring to a rolling boil.

2. Adding extra seaweed to the pot is how us Mainers get that special flavor-of –the-sea that Maine seafood should have.
3. Remove the rubber bands from the claws.
4. Place Lobsters head first into the pot. When the water returns to a boil, start the timer to one of these recommended cooking times.

Lobster Cooking Times

Chicks - .95 – 1.20 lbs         8 min

Medium- 1.2- 1.4 lbs         10 min

Large- 1.45-1.8 lbs            14 min

Jumbo- 2.0- 2.45 lbs     16/17 min

Selects- 2.5-2.95 lbs           22 min

3’s- 3.5’s                         26-28min

4 pound-ahs                    29/30 min

5. Remove with tongs, drain and serve hot

Here are a few tips on how to tell your lobster is fully cooked.

·   The internal temp of Lobster is at or around 180°F (80°C)

·   If you can pull off an antennae or one of the legs with out any resistance. They should come off easily if the lobster is fully cooked.

·   The lobster meat is firm and white. If the meat is kind of clear it means it needs to be cooked a little longer.

And there you have perfectly cooked Maine Lobsters. 

Visit us for all your lobster and seafood needs at www.mainelobsterdirect.com or https://www.facebook.com/mainelobsterdirect

If you have any questions please feel free to call us at 1-800-556-2783

#lobster #mainelobster #mainelobsters #seafood #howtocooklobster #lobsterrecipe #maine 

Sustainable Seafood

"What is Sustainable Seafood?
Sustainable seafood is harvested and produced in a manner that provides for our needs today without compromising the environment or our ability to provide for the needs of future generations. GMRI's work strives to enable both ecologic and economic viability, recognizing that they go hand in hand." (GMRI, Website)

We here at Maine Lobster Direct strongly believe that healthy seas and the creatures that live with in it are very important to the balance of life on this planet. We believe that purchasing sustainably caught and harvested seafood is not only better for our bottom line, but for the bottom line of all of us!

Right down the street from our facilities is an amazing non profit organization called the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. They work to help strengthen five essential elements that define an enduring relationship with the ocean:

• Healthy Ecosystem

• Sustainable Industries

• Vibrant Communities

• Abundant Opportunities

• Inspired Children

Please check out their website and get a sense of the amazing work they are doing.

GULF OF MAINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE