Five days overnight, sleeping at the nose of the ship next to the engine room. A constant rumble, even at idle. The sleeping spot was a simple bunk with a sleep pad. BYOB (bring your own blankets). For some reason, I didn't mind being down there. I was the only one sleeping there at the time. We had a bucket to do our business and throw it overboard. I remember buying a toilet seat attachment to use on my bucket, and when I went to throw things overboard, the seat went with it. Sorry, Mother Ocean.

Crab fishing for those few months was a pivotal learning period for me. I had always been in creative roles, and this was being part of "the machine" — making sure you were keeping up with your very specific task. I was the baiter. I was no master though. My entire job was to grind down frozen boxes of fish in an industrial, hand-mangling grinder. Then take all the ground fish and stuff it into jars. Then place the jars in the box for the other guys to swap out when they pulled up a trap.

There were some very long days. Wake up at 2am, drop pots, back to bed at 6am, wake up at 10am, drop more pots, go back to sleep at 2pm, eat a turkey sandwich, and chug a coffee. Pick up the first round of pots, start dinner in the diesel stove (the meals were premade by the captain’s wife, who is an EXCELLENT cook and baker). Pick up the second set of pots. Stack all the pots on the back of the boat. Go to bed by 9pm. Wake up at midnight. Do it all over again. Crab fishing taught me what real hard work is about, and it wasn’t even a tough season.

I am profoundly grateful to have experienced catching a 6-ft shark, a 30-lb octopus, and cooking tiger prawns straight from the trap. I recall riding waves that turned into mountains of water. Fog so thick the captain called us in because he couldn’t see the end of the 62-ft steel-hull boat known as the Miss Moriah.

Probably the two most spectacular events were when we floated past the Farallon Islands, keeping a safe distance of course, since it is a wildlife refuge. The last and most amazing moment I witnessed was floating over a school of jellyfish. There were thousands of them. It seemed like fifteen minutes on another planet. Whales, porpoises, and flying fish were some of the other amazing visitors during my stay on the boat. An experience I will never forget. Thank you to Bettencourt Fisheries and the family.