Fiction Writer/Questions/ Commercial Crabbing fishing

Hello,

I’m a writer and have several questions for those of you in the know. I write fiction and in my current work in progress my main character is on the run from a murder he thinks he committed during a blackout. He is a charter fisherman in Astoria but has worked in commercial fishing in his younger days. He is going to be a last minute hire (deck hand) in Bellingham on a boat owned and captained by a Croatian man and his brother, and four other crew members. I know normally, (I think) that usually deck hands find their own transportation to Kodiak and meet the boat there, but for my purposes I want my MC to travel with this crew to Kodiak for the January King crab season. Also the boat is an older seiner 1976ish, 68 feet long, with crabbing equipment as well. So here are my questions.

[ol]
[li]How long does it typically take to get to Larson Bay by boat, and what route would a commercial fisherman take?
[/li][li]What kinds of whether and ocean conditions might you expect?
[/li][li]What would the crew be doing during this time since they are not actually working.
[/li][li]I would like my main character to have some mechanical skills and be of assistance in fixing something that breaks or lines that are clogged etc. What might be typical malfunctions and repairs needed to made along the way?
[/li][li]Do the crew members bring their own food, or is it provided?
[/li][li]When they get to Kodiak, what is the most logical thing they do? As in do they refuel and jump right into crabbing, and would Dutch Harbor be where they would most likely launch from?
[/li][li] I’ve heard that the hours are long, sometimes no sleep just straight work. Is that until the end of January.
[/li][li]I also would like to know what kind of major breakdown of the boat would require towing it into harbor for at least 2-4 days of repair?
[/li][li]And with this fictional crew, and boat, how many pounds of crab would they reasonably catch, and how does that translate into dollars?
[/li][li]And where does the crab get tendered to, to be sold etc.?
[/li][li]Do the fisherman ever take a break and go on shore for R and R?
[/li][li] My Main character also has an “affliction” and would there be a small hold with a hatch door that I could have him lock himself in at night?
[/li][/ol]

I know I’m asking a lot, but I would be very grateful for any help with this, as I want to be as accurate as I can be. Btw this story has paranormal aspects to it so I will be incorporating that into the story. Think werewolves.

Thanks again in advance,

Sara

[quote=s. Durham;118771]hello,

i’m a writer and have several questions for those of you in the know. I write fiction and in my current work in progress my main character is on the run from a murder he thinks he committed during a blackout. He is a charter fisherman in astoria but has worked in commercial fishing in his younger days. He is going to be a last minute hire (deck hand) in bellingham on a boat owned and captained by a croatian man and his brother, and four other crew members. I know normally, (i think) that usually deck hands find their own transportation to kodiak and meet the boat there, but for my purposes i want my mc to travel with this crew to kodiak for the january king crab season. Also the boat is an older seiner 1976ish, 68 feet long, with crabbing equipment as well. So here are my questions.

[ol]
[li]how long does it typically take to get to larson bay by boat, and what route would a commercial fisherman take?[/li][li]what kinds of whether and ocean conditions might you expect?[/li][li]what would the crew be doing during this time since they are not actually working.[/li][li]i would like my main character to have some mechanical skills and be of assistance in fixing something that breaks or lines that are clogged etc. What might be typical malfunctions and repairs needed to made along the way?[/li][li]do the crew members bring their own food, or is it provided?[/li][li]when they get to kodiak, what is the most logical thing they do? As in do they refuel and jump right into crabbing, and would dutch harbor be where they would most likely launch from?[/li][li] i’ve heard that the hours are long, sometimes no sleep just straight work. Is that until the end of january.[/li][li]i also would like to know what kind of major breakdown of the boat would require towing it into harbor for at least 2-4 days of repair?[/li][li]and with this fictional crew, and boat, how many pounds of crab would they reasonably catch, and how does that translate into dollars?[/li][li]and where does the crab get tendered to, to be sold etc.?[/li][li]do the fisherman ever take a break and go on shore for r and r?[/li][li] my main character also has an “affliction” and would there be a small hold with a hatch door that i could have him lock himself in at night?[/li][/ol]

i know i’m asking a lot, but i would be very grateful for any help with this, as i want to be as accurate as i can be. Btw this story has paranormal aspects to it so i will be incorporating that into the story. Think werewolves.

Thanks again in advance,

sara[/quote]

read spike walker’s (amazon) nights of ice, working on the edge, and coming back alive. He spent nine years crabbing and wrote about the life of a crabber, harrowing rescues and much more. Should find everything you need right there.

What! Do I look like a monument to charity here? If you want answers, you need to make me an offer of some kind! You know, where the detective peels off a few bills so the bartender will cough up the location of the seedy resident hotel on Skid Row where the perp crashes at! Quid pro quo is the saying I believe? Benjies in multiples of ten might help lubricate my tongue! I can be a really talkative devil with enough lubrication…

but you know, I hate novels set on fishing vessels. They are always so effing bogus! Even “Perfect Storm” which wasn’t even a novel, was bogus (except for the USCGC TAMAROA and National Guard chopper…they definitely were not bugus!) The movie was an absolute travesty of horrible acting, bad writing and complete ludicrous effects. Out on a outrigger with a cutting torch with it flailing like that…WTF!

oh effing Christ! I just saw the part where the guy is a Werewolf…COMPLETELY FUCKING BOGUS!

[QUOTE=c.captain;119451]What! Do I look like a monument to charity here? If you want answers, you need to make me an offer of some kind! You know, where the detective peels off a few bills so the bartender will cough up the location of the seedy resident hotel on Skid Row where the perp crashes at! Quid pro quo is the saying I believe? Benjies in multiples of ten might help lubricate my tongue! I can be a really talkative devil with enough lubrication…

but you know, I hate novels set on fishing vessels. They are always so effing bogus! Even “Perfect Storm” which wasn’t even a novel, was bogus (except for the USCGC TAMAROA and National Guard chopper…they definitely were not bugus!) The movie was an absolute travesty of horrible acting, bad writing and complete ludicrous effects. Out on a outrigger with a cutting torch with it flailing like that…WTF!

oh effing Christ! I just saw the part where the guy is a Werewolf…COMPLETELY FUCKING BOGUS![/QUOTE]

what? she can’t write fiction? you do it all the time…haha

[QUOTE=seacomber;119478]what? she can’t write fiction? you do it all the time…haha[/QUOTE]

Everybody’s a critic…

ah fuck it…I am in a good mood this morning (thanks to the pills) and think I’ll be benevolent for once. Here’s my answers to our author’s questions:

How long does it typically take to get to Larson Bay by boat, and what route would a commercial fisherman take?

it takes exactly the amount of time that the boat needs at the speed it runs at to cover the distance needed to travel minus piss stops along the way and picking up 6 packs at the convenience store when they get gas. The route is generally one that is all on the water unless the guy driving falls asleep at the wheel then it sometimes is a route that goes part way over land.

What kinds of whether and ocean conditions might you expect?

the North Pacific weather in the winter is quite tropical except when it isn’t…seas can be quite small to quite large

What would the crew be doing during this time since they are not actually working.

smoking pot, taking a shit, smoking crack or opium, eating something out of a can, jerking themselves off in front of the others or having an orgy on Christmas Day and all jerking eachother!

I would like my main character to have some mechanical skills and be of assistance in fixing something that breaks or lines that are clogged etc. What might be typical malfunctions and repairs needed to made along the way?

sometimes a fanbelt will break or a radiator will boil over. Sometimes the windshield wiper fluid will get empty and need to be refilled. Sometimes the flayrod will go all askew on the treadle. Maybe your man is good with a cutting torch and can go climb out on the boat’s outrigger thingy in horrendous seas to cut away the flopper thingy but the seas are so huge that the outrigger flails up and down but because our man is a werewolf with super strength, he manages to hold on while no mortal human ever could!

Do the crew members bring their own food, or is it provided?

everybody lives on cold Dinty Moore beef stew, Mary Kitchen corned beef hash or canned Mackerel until it runs out and then they eat their own dead limbs starting with the toes.

When they get to Kodiak, what is the most logical thing they do? As in do they refuel and jump right into crabbing, and would Dutch Harbor be where they would most likely launch from?

The most logical thing to do on arrival in port is to tie up the boat and shut off the engine. Then everybody goes and buys a bottle of rotgut and a nasty used up hagfish of a whore for the night or gets in an ugly bloody barfight where everybody end up in jail. Nobody goes to Dutch Harbor because the place is inhabited by aliens and fishermen are a scared of spacemen. Launchings usually takes place from Area 51 or Roswell AFB.

I’ve heard that the hours are long, sometimes no sleep just straight work. Is that until the end of January.

Nobody ever sleeps on a fishing vessel because they are already dead and the dead need no sleep

I also would like to know what kind of major breakdown of the boat would require towing it into harbor for at least 2-4 days of repair?

empty windshield washer fluid would certainly cause that or a broken lower mastknob. Sometimes a boat will sink in really deepwater and need to be recovered because the crabs they have been catching ate a super secret element that spilled out of a crashed sunken spaceship which the US government needs to build a super dooper soundbeam to counter the missiles of the godless commies so the Navy led by Rear Admiral Sandecker and a team of maritime adventurers the most swarthy of which is named Dirk Pitt find the vessel and using subs and lifting chamber and explosives blow the boat to the surface but only after one of the subs is crushed in the abyss and another gets trapped in the wreck. That could take a few days to fix but you’d need a lot of ducktape to do it!

And with this fictional crew, and boat, how many pounds of crab would they reasonably catch, and how does that translate into dollars?

I don’t know about what a “fictional crew” gets, but real crab fishermen all make $11billion dollars a day by catching crabs that are 60’ wide and weigh 300tons but they have to fight them with spears on deck and sometimes the fishermen get pulled into the seas by the suckers on the beast’s tentacles!

And where does the crab get tendered to, to be sold etc.?/

often is a fish market or at Safeway or Kroger or in a fancy pancy seafood restaurant but never in a Golden Corral or a Denny’s. There they serve Opilo crab or the fake shit made from surimi

Do the fisherman ever take a break and go on shore for R and R?

of course, every seaman needs to have his needs taken care of…even the dead ones who go ashore to eat the brains of the living. But they don’t go very often…sometimes a catcher boat can remain offshore for many years because all the fishermen on it are dead and any who weren’t already dead before the boat left rapidly become dead as they transition from being “the live greenhorn” to “the dead greenhorn” that has always been the way of the sea…you start out live but through the tests of the sea you become a zombie.

My Main character also has an “affliction” and would there be a small hold with a hatch door that I could have him lock himself in at night?

depends on what the nature of his “affliction” is? If it a hideous case of foot rot, he can hide his stinking feet in the bilge ooze but that will contaminate the ooze making it unfit to eat. If he is actually a waterbreathing creature, he can climb into the full crab tanks and remain in there and his shipmates would never think for a minute to look for him in there unless they are waterbreathing as well which many fishermen are. If he is a hydrocarbon breather, he can climb into a fuel tank but there are very few petrobreathers out there. Now, if you have a character with limbs that frequently fall off, I would set him on a fish catcher/processor where he can hide inside the slimeline and then his limbs can go into the freezer and be packaged and shipped to unsuspecting diners in some fancy pancy gourmet restaurant where highjinks aplenty take place when the customers are served severed hand still wrapped in a glove! What laughs you can have with that one!

Oh my, I see our time is up here. Hope your story ends up being a huge best seller and becomes a major Hollywood blockbuster. Just remember ole c.captain when you get the Academy award for best sceenplay. If you can toss me a few dozen benjies now would be nice…I got to go buy me a few rocks of crack.

.

[QUOTE=c.captain;119451]

<snip>

oh effing Christ! I just saw the part where the guy is a Werewolf…COMPLETELY FUCKING BOGUS![/QUOTE]

Yeah. I would go with Vampire.

[QUOTE=c.captain;119492]Everybody’s a critic…[/QUOTE]

c.cap i wasn’t critizing , just throwing a jab. you are sensitive tho since you have been getting knocked around lately, it feels good to throw salt on it. sorry it was you my friend, but you are tough and can take it. i can be an asshole sometimes, but not nearly as often anymore…

[QUOTE=cmakin;119532]Yeah. I would go with Vampire.[/QUOTE]

I say the main character should be the Kraken incognito

in the movie version, I’ll play the captain and Fraq will be the chief…

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[QUOTE=seacomber;119564]you are tough and can take it. i can be an asshole sometimes,[/QUOTE]

not to worry shipmate but just know that I can be a bigger asshole than you and don’t forget it!

[QUOTE=seacomber;119447]read spike walker’s (amazon) nights of ice, working on the edge, and coming back alive. He spent nine years crabbing and wrote about the life of a crabber, harrowing rescues and much more. Should find everything you need right there.[/QUOTE]

Thank you seacomber, much appreciated! I will look for Nights on Ice. And thank you again for the direction.

Cheers, Sara

[QUOTE=cmakin;119532]Yeah. I would go with Vampire.[/QUOTE]

:slight_smile: No vampires (maybe later) Werewolves have the stage currently~

[QUOTE=c.captain;119500]ah fuck it…I am in a good mood this morning (thanks to the pills) and think I’ll be benevolent for once. Here’s my answers to our author’s questions:

Ah well, now I seem to have stirred the pot so to speak:) Dear c.captain, your answers were humorous, entertaining and despite your best efforts made me laugh. So no, I’m not Clive Cussler here, nor a screenwriter, just a lowly little fiction writer who understands the pills you speak of, and wants “authenticity” for her plot. However, your answers make me think you could write a really funny zombie story on a fishing vessel…

Anyhoo, thank you you guys for at least posting my questions, who knows, maybe I will learn a thing or two lurking around the site. As for the Benjis, if I break a hundred (dollars that is) writing this year, that will be a banner year for this writer:)

Oh my, I see our time is up here. Hope your story ends up being a huge best seller and becomes a major Hollywood blockbuster. Just remember ole c.captain when you get the Academy award for best sceenplay. A few dozen benjies would also be nice…I got to go buy me a few rocks of crack.

Btw,Crack is bad for you, don’tchaknow:) But yes if it makes Blockbuster status, one benji for you, absolutely!

Cheers, Sara

i