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".