The Bearing Sea morning was just as harsh as its evening. The wind and waves actually seemed harsher in the hazy light.
After only a few brief hours of sleep, the tired crew rose to prepare the boat for the upcoming strings of pots. The men argued under hushed tones as they gazed up at a sleeping Lola. RJ managed to convince his father to let the girl sleep for a few more hours.
As harsh as Rodney was, he did love his children. He didn't want his youngest child to break on the second day.
When Lola did eventually wake on her own terms, she was more than confused. The bunks around her were empty. She struggled to get down from the lofty bunked bed. She quickly layered her clothing and slipped on her heavy rain gear.
She was a little afraid when she ventured out onto the deck, fearing her family wouldn't be there. However, when she saw her brothers busy preparing the pots for the upcoming night, her fear transformed into anger.
"Were you just going to let me sleep all day?" She fumed, stomping over to Josh.
RJ intervened quickly, "It was my idea. I thought you'd need the sleep. Besides, we're fixing everything that got messed up last night."
"I'm part of this crew, too," Lola frowned.
"Fine," RJ said tensely. He had thought he'd be doing her a favor. He didn't expect the backlash. "You can go down into the holding tank and secure the boards so the crabs don't get hurt."
Lola started to protest. Securing the boards was a tough job for one man, let alone a 17 year old girl. But she didn't want to give her brother the satisfaction of saying she couldn't do it. Instead, she turned and walked to the northern part of the boat where the holding tank was.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aaron walking towards her.
"Let me help you," He said as he nudged her out of the way and grabbed the ropes. "This lid weighs a lot."
"It's set up on a levy," Lola rolled her eyes. "I'm not a little girl, Aaron."
Aaron slowly dropped the lid on the deck. It landed with a dense thud.
"Maybe," He smiled. "But you're still my little sister. Have fun down there. Holler if you need anything."
Lola made a face as she dropped down into the massive holding cell for the crabs.
The cell was separated into three main parts for the crabs, divided with thick boards. Each section filled with sea water before the catch was dropped in. Currently, only one of the sections was full of water, allowing Lola room to walk around in the musty crustacean jail cells. Occasionally the boards would weather and crack. She was given the task to make sure the boards were intact, and if one was cracking, to fix it.
A cracked board was a major red flag for crab fishers. If a crab died, it not only was a profit lost, but it released toxins that had the potential to kill ten other crabs. A chain reaction would follow. One dead crab has the potential to ruin an entire season.
Lola, armed with her tool kit, climbed up the makeshift stairs between the first and second area. The first section was slushing with sea water and contained the previous day's catch, roughly 4,000 crabs.
She whipped her flashlight out and flashed it into the water, "Hello little guys! You smell particularly fishy today. Are you all alive? …. I'll take that as a yes. It looks like you're keeping the place well kept- I don't see any broken boards."
She climbed back down to the tiny corridor between each divided area. Moving onto the middle section, she dropped to her knees to check the bottom boards. She stuck the flashlight into her mouth so she could use both hands to search.
A few feet into her search, she found a snag.
"I found you," She sang out, pulling her bag of tools up.
She was in the middle of rummaging around when a loud, echoing thump removed the natural light from the holding cell. She jerked to flash the light up. Her fear was confirmed- someone had shut the lid on her.
The situation got worse when the seawater began to fill the second holding tank.
Lola scooped up the tool bag and clumsily scuttled over to the wobbly stairs. She tried to get as close to the lid as possible by standing on her tip toes. She stuck the flashlight back in her mouth and used both hands to pound on the lid.
"HEY! I'M IN HERE! AARON! RJ! DAD! JOSH! SOMEONE! I'M STILL DOWN HERE!"
No luck. The lid stayed shut. Lola kept pounding on the heavy metal lid, hoping the noise would cause a disturbance on the deck. Her hands began to get raw after a few minutes of constant pounding. She didn't want to look down at the rising level of water.
It was already at the third step of the short set of stairs. She didn't have a lot of time left.
"SOMEBODY! I'M TRAPPED DOWN HERE!"
When her parents told her she was allowed to go on The Saga for the season, Lola knew she had to prepare herself for death. Her family had been unusually lucky having never lost a crew member. However lucky they were, deaths were a constant threat in the crab fishing business. Coming onto the boat, she knew there was a risk that she might not make it home. After last night, she thought she'd be safe. Apparently not. She was going to die trapped in a holding cell for crabs. She was going to drown.
Drowning wasn't the most pleasant way to die, she thought. It was probably one of the worst.
The water was now at her feet. It was going to be any minute now.
All of a sudden, there was scratching noise and a "POP!" A flood of natural light nearly blinded Lola.
"Lo!" Aaron yelled, his head peeking down into the hole. "Shit! Thank God you're alright. Here, grab onto my arms. I'm going to pull you up."
Lola did as he said, latching onto her brother like a leech. He yanked her up to the deck. She took a deep breath of the fresh air.
"What the hell happened?" She gasped.
"The dumbass over there closed cell," Aaron sneered, glaring at Josh.
Josh jumped to defend himself, "I thought she went to lunch."
"You know you're supposed to double check, man," RJ said. "Let's just be glad we got to her in time."
Lola rose to her feet, "Yeah. Thanks a lot guys."
Rodney exited the cabin and walked over to his daughter. He was stroking his beard- not a good sign.
"This is the second time you've almost died, Lola."
"It wasn't my fault this time… sir," She said calmly, crossing her arms. She was still pissed at him for hitting her last night, but she didn't want to make him mad enough to hit her again.
Rodney's hand left his beard, and Lola prepared for the worst. Instead of the hand colliding with her face, it touched her shoulder. It was an awkward gesture, but a gesture at that. He quickly lifted his hand and addressed all of his children.
"Yesterday wasn't terrible for the first day of the season, but we need to do better. Get back to work."
Without any backlash or groans, The Campbell clan got back to work stringing pots and securing everything on the deck for the long night ahead. They worked fast and hard, completing the rest of the work within an hour. The sky was turning marvelous shades of blues and blacks. They'd start dropping the first few strings of pots within the hour, but they were allotted a small break. Lola was heading down to the salon when RJ's deep voice said loudly,
"Hey! There's another boat! It doesn't look like a fisher."
Maybe ten miles out there was a boat bobbing in the water. It was hard to see, as the night was rapidly falling.
Rodney's head peaked out from the cabin, intrigued. He wanted to clarify that it wasn't competition. He inched the tiny fishing boat a few miles closer.
"I'll try to pick something up on the radio," He called out to the deck.
Rodney slid back into his worn seat. Sure enough, the radar sweep revealed a bright point of light in the middle of nowhere. He fiddled with the radio before saying clearly,
"Fishing boat at position on seven four one five west, five seven seven five north."
Josh, RJ, Aaron, and Lola crowded around their father.
"This is fishing boat Saga, Sierra Alfa Golf Alfa. Over."
The Campbell's were greeted with white noise. The point flashing on the screen seemed to dance to the lullaby of the static.
"They can't be anchored out there. It's way too deep," Josh mused.
"It defiantly looks like it's adrift," RJ commented. "It is way too big to be a fishing boat."
"A freighter, you think?" Lola shrugged.
Rodney looked at his daughter, "What the hell would a freighter be doing up here? There isn't a port for 800 miles."
"Smugglers," Aaron said, jumping to Lola's defense.
"Yeah. They're defiantly smugglers. Tundra grass is going for big bucks on the Black Market," Josh said sarcastically.
"Fishing boat at position on seven four one five west, five seven seven five north. This is fishing boat Saga, Sierra Alfa Golf Alfa. Do you copy? Over," Rodney repeated, holding the microphone close to his mouth.
Again, there was only a static hiss.
"Should we call the coast guard?" Lola asked.
Her brothers and father looked at her like she was from another planet. She defiantly had a lot to learn.
"We check it out."
The flood lights on The Saga illuminating the water in front of the boat. The Campbell's looked through squinted eyes into the darkness. The beeping dot on the radar grew closer and closer until- a looming shadow appeared.
They approached the vessel and the shadow was clarified. It was a giant rusting bow. Rodney tilted the searchlight up to reveal more of the massive, dark ship. The name "Fortuna" was displayed in bold letters on the side.
Rodney reached for the microphone, "Fortuna, this is Saga. Is there anyone aboard?"
The sound of their own boat was the only noise that drifted through the dark sky.
"Fortuna, I am hove to at your port bow. Is there anyone aboard?"
They waited for a minute, looking at the silent, darkened ship under the glare of their boat's lights. Rodney was aware that he was wasting precious fishing time, but this boat could be in distress. He rose and nodded at his oldest son,
"RJ, come with me. You guys sit tight."
They went onto the deck and whispered in hushed tones. Lola, who considered herself a master of reading lips, couldn't make out what they were saying. After a few moments they returned.
"Well?" Josh asked, apparently annoyed he wasn't invited to their discussion.
"Gear up. We're going aboard Fortuna."