The Cornelia Marie is slowly making its way to the crab grounds. Or so it seems to Lindsy. Phil is actually quite certain his boat is the fasted in the fleet, especially now she has got some new engines.
The other boats left earlier but Phil overtakes them in the night.
By daybreak the fishing grounds are reached and the crew start pulling pots. Phil had already dialed in the good spots during the first two weeks so the pots are brimming with good crabs, clean and big.
Lindsy is sitting with Phil in the wheelhouse watching the guys work when the satellite phone rings.
"Cornelia Marie, with Phil. WHAT……….A GIRL."
Phil is screaming with joy, no loud hailer needed for this one. He is now a proud granddaddy, of a beautiful baby girl. Absolutely beaming with pride he turns to Lindsy who is hugging his back with tears streaming down her cheeks while also jumping up and down, trying to steal the phone.
Talk about Bering sea dementia.
The crew noticing that they are nowhere near the next pot look up to see the celebration going on in the wheelhouse and that sends Josh running.
Within seconds Josh storms into the wheelhouse. Talking a thousand mile per hour, with the rest of the crew hot on his heals.
"Whatisit,everybodyokaythebabyisborn?Iamsohappy."
Talk about shorthand talking. Putting the phone on the speaker Jake gets to tell everybody the good news. A baby girl, just perfect, and they all hear the baby crying in the background. Shouts of congratulations are coming from all the guys, Lindsy is hugging everybody she can get hold of and they all hug back. Fishing forgotten for a while.
Then the phone goes dead. Lindsy is starting to panic, but Phil explains that it is normal so far out, the reception isn't always the best. But it puts and end to the impromptu party, and fishing is continued. Except that now Lindsy isn't sitting with Phil anymore but busy in the galley, making something to celebrate. Even if she never was the most domestic one. She does know how to cook and bake. And it is a good way to get her adrenalin down.
Phil is celebrating in his own way, by telling everybody, and I really mean everybody in the fleet that he is now a granddaddy. This good news is going round even faster than the bad news of his health last year. And the congratulations start pouring in, together with the not so well disguised request for rounds in the elbowroom next time he is in Dutch or cigars. And Phil is more than willing to offer everybody rounds on him now that he knows he is a granddaddy.
By the end of the string, Phil is having cramp in his jaws from grinning, Josh looks pretty much in the same state. The boat is already close to half full from just one days work and the inside of the boat smells deliciously of a strange mixture of apple pie and some sort of oriental dish.
After this things seem to settle down on board. Russell is working well with the rest of the crew, Josh is grumbling about being master baiter again. Phil works too many hours without rest or walking around because he is stubborn as a mule. Lindsy gets bored by just sitting around and being ignored by a working Phil, being physically pushed around by the hard working crew and cleaning things that don't stay clean for over five minutes.
So she decides to put her newly bought gear to use, and goes out to do bait. This leaves Murray with a luxury problem, he has too many hands on deck.
"Hey Lindsy, How long can you keep it up?"
"I don't know, four hours, maybe six's? Not much longer I think."
She responds with a grin on her face, waving a dead codfish around.
Murray turns it around in his brain for a bit and comes to the conclusion that six's hours is enough time to give two of his crew a break.
"Okay Freddie you are first, three hours and not a minute more."
Freddie just nods and leaves to crash on the nearest horizontal surface.
The change happened so fast that Phil hasn't even noticed that Freddie had been replaced by Lindsy. He does see that Josh is working the rail, and that the one working bait is going slow. So he gets on the phone to get Murray. Running from his duty on the crane Murray gets the phone.
"Yeah Phil what's up?"
"What is wrong with Freddie, why is he doing bait and going so slow?"
This gets Murray's slightly psychotic laughter out again.
"It isn't Freddie, he is taking a nap, its Lindsy. But don't worry we will take good care of her."
And with that Murray is gone again because the next pot is up, and work goes on.
Phil sits wondering a bit, and watches Lindsy running around on deck, first as a headless chicken, but she is getting the hang of it. And after two hours everything goes as clockwork again.
After three hours Freddie is back out and Murray heads up to the wheelhouse to relieve Phil. Telling him to take a three hour break. The weather is fine, Lindsy is hanging on and even pulling her weight on deck and Phil has been the longest without any rest of all of them.
Reluctantly Phil agrees and he turns in.
After three hours no Murray on deck, so Josh calls up to ask what is going on.
"Well Josh, I cant get it over my heart to wake your dad up, but if you want a break, feel free to come up and turn him out of his warm bed."
Josh decides he can keep up working, and after relaying the message to the rest of the crew they all decide that sleep is overrated anyway. Even Lindsy needs no convincing that working on deck is better than waking up Phil at this moment.
When Phil finally wakes up it is dusk. The light of the low hanging sun shining on his face has woken him. And he feels more refreshed than he ever has before during either King or Opie season. Turning over he checks the clock and nearly falls out of bed.
Running up three steps at a time he hits the wheelhouse where a weary looking Murray is holding the helm.
"What the hell, why didn't you wake me. You said three hours."
Murray turns his head and he is almost grey in the soft orange light.
"Good morning to you too Phil. Glad you had a good night sleep, and don't worry, we are at the second to last pot of this string, three holds are full to overflowing, the last one on its way. Feel free to take over after."
Phil feels like an ass right away, but Murray is chuckling again, he doesn't seem to be holding a grudge. So Phil takes his time to look at his crew. They are all still working but the bait boy is falling over even if nothing is happening. Phil expects the rest of the crew to start laughing and hazing, but than he sees Josh bending over to help the exhausted greenhorn up. Murray is on the loudhailer already.
"Lindsy you okay? Only one more and than you lot can go and get some sleep. Phil just woke up and is sitting next to me. I'll try to motivate him to get some hot food ready for you guys."
Lindsy just has enough energy to flip the bird in the direction of the wheelhouse while she shuffles of to the waiting pot to climb in and pull out the remaining crab and hang the new bait. Phil correctly interprets that, that means she is doing fine. Only if you where to ask Lindsy if she was really doing fine the answer would be a different one. She had planned on four to six's hours, it became closer to twenty something. All she wants now is a hot bath, not going to happen, and a twelve hour nap, also not going to happen, and she knows that.
By the time Murray hangs up the loud hailer Phil is already on his way to the galley to get some food going. And he feels that if he has to he will force feed Lindsy, because she is way to skinny for this kind of stuff. Completely forgetting that both his sons weigh less than his fiancé.