Where to begin with today’s trip… I suppose I’ll start with last nights marine forecast. Last night the forecast for today was calm in the morning with wind building around noon and then building up through the evening. Well, not very accurate as things go. This morning after we left the dock our forecast was upgraded to 30 knots of wind by noon.
Okay, we’re already out so what do we do? We do whatever we can to make it work. My plan was pull pots as fast as possible then get as much fishing time in as we could before the big wind hits us. There’s a saying that Boxers use and that saying goes like this “Everyone has a great plan until they get punched in the face” I can easily relate this trip to a heavy weight boxing match. The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds but it was all finished by the third.
We pulled our pots getting a total of 48 crabs. We had 32 Dungeness and 16 Rock crabs. That’s a pretty good crab score especially for February. By time we finished the crabbing though, the wind was already coming in the bay. It didn’t take long to realize a decision had to be made. Taking the seastate into consideration, I decided to use the tried and true addage “Safety first”. We pulled the plug and headed back to the dock.
Hopefully this bad weather will move along sooner than later.
-Captain Danny Frank for the New Horizon
