Chapter 3~ Lady Luck
Luck, ha! No ship was having any luck so far. The red king crab was being particularly elusive this season. It was ridiculous. Northwestern hauled in her first pots and the most crab she got was single digits. "Unbelievable!" She growled. "This sucks!" When the fishing was bad, most deckhands would revert to the age old sailor's practice of complaining. Northwestern was no exception. "Sig, you stink!" She yowled. Sig just ignored her and continued hauling pots. As a highliner, it was expected of Northwestern to haul in a lot of crab and a lot of money. So far this season, she hadn't lived up to that title, yet. "They're out there somewhere. The fact that there is some crab in the pot shows that a herd of 'em passed this way. The question is where and when." She said to the cameraman. He nodded. "How will you figure that out?" He asked. "There are lots of variables." She said. "The currents, the tides, the water temperature even. All these things can affect the way the crab travel across the ocean floor." He nodded.
Not too far away, another highliner, the Fierce Allegiance, was having equal trouble finding the crab. "This is not the year for highliners apparently." Allegiance sighed, having heard about Northwestern's equal run of bad luck. "Why don't we call up Wizard? She's the most superstitious boat in the fleet. Maybe she's got some kind of weird concoction that could help us." He said. "Maybe." His captain said although he didn't sound particularly hopeful.
"Oh come on!" Western Viking exclaimed at the end of an extremely bad first string. "Damn it, this is not what I wanted." Blanks, blanks and more blanks. That was the best he got. "Grrr." He growled, smacking the water fiercely. "Take that! And that! And that!" He yowled at the Bering Sea. A harsh reproach in the form of a wall of water to the face was the answer he got. "Never test the Bering sea." His captain chided. "Shut up." Viking groaned as he fumed. And he fumed all the way to the start of the next string. Fortunately, luck was shining on him this time as he was soon hauling big numbers. There were at least an average of 30 in each pot. "Now this is more like it. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" He sighed. He should've known that out here, good luck wasn't meant to last long.
Northwestern was the first to get the news. "Are you serious!" She exclaimed, smacking the water harshly with her bow in frustration. "It is what it is old girl." Sig sighed. The Alaskan Department of Fish and Game had announced a close to the season in two days. "Once we had seventy-two days up here. Now we have seventy-two hours?" She growled. By this time in two days, the season would be over. And with only a few pounds of crab in her tank, Northwestern knew that she'd better land on the crab and soon.