After filling my limit on Kings and a hearty lunch prepared by Deb; I get ready to surf the internet as we had no cell phone service and the dish on the TV was damaged in storm so that was out upstairs where the hunters stay. No sooner than I sit down with a cold Alaskan Amber……Capt. Russ comes in and says get your jacket; the Time Bandit is in the harbor loading pots. My first thought……you’re kidding!!!! From Charlie’s camp you can see clearly see the harbor, cannery and any crab boat that comes in to offload. Sure enough……there she was at the end of the dock sporting the solid black paint job and famous skull and crossbones of the Hillstrand’s Time Bandit. We all hopped in the truck to see and hopefully meet the crew and at least get some pictures of her. No sooner than we had opened up the doors; one of the deck hands Travis invited us on board. They already had 75 pots soaking and bought some more that were stacked behind the docks from a previous boat. You all have no idea how excited I got when out of the wheelhouse door comes Captains Andy and Johnathon Hillstrand to say hello!!!!!! We toured the deck but could not stay long due to the fact they had the boom in the air swinging 700 lb. crab pots all over as they loaded them; but I did get my few minutes of a dream to work on a crab boat as it is a young man’s occupation and not for the aging and “portly”; but they obliged and I couldn’t have been happier. I got to move around three shots of line (33 feet long each and weigh about 80 lbs). All the deck hands couldn’t help but to laugh as they could see the determination and excitement on my face. After that we spent a good hour in the wheelhouse with Captains Andy and Johnathon. We heard fishing stories, jokes, saw how the new computerized system on board helped them with weather and tracks where they drop gear. Signs of the Discovery Channel were all over as cameras were strategically placed all over the boat. In ending……I had to tell the Hillstrands both how I much I appreciated and enjoyed the episodes in which they would go to where their mariner father was buried and honor him with seal bombs going off on deck. Johnathon grabbed a couple and set them off scaring the bejeesuz out of the crew on deck which would turn to laughter. I fricking the love these guys. If I would have known about this 20 years ago I would have loved to have given it a shot. It’s my personality to a tee!!!!!!
I just want to pass along with having met a lot of fishermen from different boats and seeing the boats and everything that’s involved; that TV doesn’t do justice to what’s actually involved and how hard these guys work. These are some tough sonsabitches that work their asses off to feed their families. While we there; a deckhand came in and landed in the Saint Paul Medical Center with his tibia and fibula broken completely in two and flew from the island back to Anchorage with us with no pain killers or nothing; only his leg cast with a splint temporarily until he could get home to Seattle to have it set. These guys are cowboy type tough in my opinion……badasses!!!!! When we finally got to leave the island after the big storm passed; I met a retired fisherman/boat captain that was hired to be the skipper of what they call a “chase boat” for the Discovery Channel. These guys follow the all the boats on the show and film them from the sea to get that perspective. A super nice guy that I talked to a long time about a lot of things other than fishing and Deadliest Catch. We exchanged phone numbers and I intend to stay in touch with Mike……..
Please note: The Opilio crab in this series of pics were not taken off of the F/V Time Bandit. They were loading more crab pots to fish with while in the harbor.
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