Burrrrr..

With the second trip in the tank, we headed to St. Paul Island. It went well enough but it took a couple more days than the first trip, mostly because we had to round up the gear and fished in a different region. Any designs for a mild and or warm winter were carried away with the Northeasterly winds of 35 to 40 knots.
The problem with a northerly wind direction, is it comes across the ice pack that we all loath. Air temps plunge with the first puff of a north wind, and it took only a matter of hours for it to go from 38 degrees to 4 ouch!! To compound the problem, as the sea ice moves south the conditions only get worse and of course the boat slowly but surely turns into a ice cube. This last trip at times we were working on a 90 foot skating rink and to say that saps your strength is a understatement. My brother did a good job of keeping the icing to a manageable level, and we didn't have to spend to much time "busting" ice as the weather thankfully went Southerly and therefore it tends to melt. The offload is going well and hope to make it back to Dutch Harbor for the Superbowl, GO SAINT"S Capt. Monte "Wizard Mouse"

Better late than never...

Hello. Please bear with me as these posts are late at best. It is more than difficult to run this boat and get these posted in a timely manner......


Jan 11, 2010

Our first trip is behind us, it went well. The voyage out was calm and we made good time. The fishing was not red hot, but steady, with pots averaging 300-400 crab each. After three days of grinding we filled the port side tanks (200,000 lbs) before the weather went to hell. The wind blew 50-60 knots for about 22 hours, in which we got nothing done, but it was a needed break in the middle of the trip. Once the weather died down we were back at it for another 3 1/2 days and then we headed to Trident Seafoods, in Akutan, to deliver. Trident was happy with the crab and the offload was uneventful. Once we made it back to Dutch Harbor we busied ourselves preparing for the film crew to board. One full load down, three more to go.

Capt Monte "Wizard Mouse"

December 31, 2009

We got out of town and headed to the Pinnacle area. We have started out fishing here with some success in the past. The beauty of this particular spot is the ability to fish in depths of 100 fathoms and still only be 10 or so miles from our usual fishing spot with depths of 60-70 fathoms. We will fish deep at first then move to more shallow grounds if need be. Crew is all well and not taking the New Year's eve at sea too hard.

Capt. Monte "Mouse"

December 29, 2009

Hello. We are in Dutch Harbor and the weather is relatively warm (40*) and raining. The only news since we left involves the big Sea Land crane, which is used to move containers onto and off of cargo ships. Apparently this big, 20 million dollar crane, was blown over by a hurricane that hit the Island the first week of December. Thank goodness we were long gone by then!

We are getting a good jump on this year's Opilio season over the rest of the fleet. So far we are the only crew in town and we are ready to get out there and catch some crab. Hopefully this first trip will be over quickly which might allow us to get back "home" earlier in the spring. We shall see...

Happy New Year to all!

Capt. Monte "Mouse"