Chapter 2~ Long Sleepless Nights
Arriving on the crab grounds first, Northwestern dropped her first pots of the season. "Now let's just hope that we catch something!" She exclaimed. "Catching something would be nice." Sig agreed. She set strings well into the night. While she was used to long sleepless nights on the job the prospect of pulling an all-nighter wasn't a nice one. While her crew may be able to rest, she had to keep going, cruising to the next set of strings and so on. By dawn, she'd offloaded all her pots on deck and turned around to collect the ones from a storage area nearby. Although there was no bait in them, when the first one came over the rail, there was a pair of riders on the pot. (A/N: Riders are crabs that cling to the outside of the pot. They're an indication that you've landed on a herd of them.) "Crab in the tank before we even start fishing?" Northwestern asked gleefully. "Now that's a good sign." Sig replied.
To the Northwest, Maverick was pulling the first of his pots and the results were minimal. "Damn it!" He hissed. "It is what it is I guess." He sighed. He pulled strings and strings of empty pots and stacked them on deck, having to search for newer grounds. "Humph." He grumped. He was in a bad mood so when one of the film crew stuck a camera on the end of a pole and pointed it at him, he saw an opportunity to let his anger out. He took the pole in his mouth, shaking his head side to side as he bit it. "Hey! That's a several thousand dollar camera!" The guy complained. Maverick grinned. "It's worthless now." He said, throwing it into the sea. "Oh come on man, that's not funny." The guy wailed as Maverick busted up laughing. "Now that felt good." He said. "Very good. I feel so much better now." The camera guy marched back inside. "Oh go ahead and sulk." Maverick called.
Nearby, Lady Luck, the smallest boat in the fleet at only 70 feet in length, was having trouble just getting to launch her bots. Her pair of stabilizers had to be raised from the water and the port side one wouldn't come out. She felt something snap and knew the weight had broken from the line so she had lost that stability. "It's gonna be a rolly ride." She sighed as finally, she launched the pots over the side.
Saga, another boat fishing far to the west was having difficulty finding the crab. Her first pots had come up empty. "Grrr!" She growled. "That's why it's called fishing and not catching." She said in answer to a cameraman's question. Western Viking and Fierce Allegiance were having no luck at all, landing on blanks and single digits. "It's frustrating, it really is." Viking said. "Hopefully we'll land on 'em soon. I don't wanna be hauling up blanks and learn the seasons' over." Allegiance growled.
So far, no one had caught anything worth keeping and the clock was ticking.