I’m surely red-eyed as I clomp through the snow. I park and make my way over.
“Are you here to take him home? Like,properlyand finally take him home?” Anjanette asks, all eager.
“He has a car. Why would I drive him home?”
“I didn’t ask aboutdrivinghim. I asked abouttakinghim home.” Her smile and wink are not subtle.
Oh. I’m not one to blush, but I do. And I suppose she’s right. There’s no reason for me to be here, except that I want to see Dave. To take him home. It’s fun to watch him work and cook. And catch him eyeing me the same way I’m eyeing him—now without the pretense that it’s just friendship.
Anj yelps and pulls my arm, guiding us to a table. “Anyway, come look at this.” She’s very smiley as she flashes her phone my way. “I’m sending you about a million things now. You’ll be posting for days.”
The footage she shares is awesome. First, it’s guys working the boat, pulling in traps, measuring lobsters, and fitting them with rubber bands. Then it’s Anj showing off, hauling traps in record time and letting us know she can kick ass as much as the guys do.
She shows me another video of a muscled guy tossing out traps over and over. “That’s Dave’s dad there.”
“Oh, he did mention he’s from a lobstering family.”
“He is. You liked that? Just wait.” She smiles when the video continues. “This is his grandmother.”
I’m sort of floored as I watch a woman who must be in her late eighties, maybe even nineties, lean over the side of a boat and work her arm muscles like mad. With the help of a buff crew, she hauls traps on board and then flings around her haul, those to be measured as keepers or not. She’s also clearly in charge of who is banding the crustaceans—securing rubber bands around those strong claws—and making sure they do a good job so that us regular people will not get chomped to pieces.
When I ask about her, Aje smiles. “Not only is she a legend, but she’s on the path to follow another woman who worked boats until she was over a hundred years old. Lost her a few years back. Her death was an incredible loss to us all.”
“Oh gosh, I read about her. About a thousand articles. Such a wonderful role model. I didn’t realize there were so many women hauling traps. Or are there? Are women treated less awful in this industry than in any other?” It’s a shitty question to ask, but reasonable, given the time.
“There is a definitegood old boy–type atmosphere on the boats. They have their CB radios on all day, chatting away, talking about what’s for lunch, et cetera, but there are so many more female captains these days, and it’s awesome. They include me in everything, and I really haven’t had any problems recently. I think they admire women doing this work and make us part of their crew.”
“Dave didn’t want to follow the family business, I gather?”
“I didn’t say that.” Anjanette waits and then skirts a reply. “Oh, and I got more cool stuff.”
She blows up my phone with videos, and I send them all to Megan Madonna. She’ll have a field day with this footage.
“Can you walk me through an average day? Mind if I film it?”
“Mind it? I’d love it!” She beams and adjusts her heavy vest. “Ready?”
“I nod. Hit me.”
“Wake up early. Three or three thirty a.m. Drink lots of coffee. Pack a lunch, head to the shore. And by the way, it’s why we love Dave’s truck so hard. Most of us forget to pack a lunch because we’re too tired. Board the boat and head out. TV shows always make it look like we pull traps by hand, but I haven’t seen that since I was a kid. We use a pot hauler that uses a small engine to pull the rope through a pulley system that brings the traps onto the boat. Makes it much easier, but itisdangerous. Ropes can get caught around your foot and take you overboard in a second if you aren’t careful. Unfortunately, we’ve lost a lot of fishermen that way over the years. Ironically, most of them can’t swim.”
“Wait, what? These people can’t swim? That can’t be right.”
She laughs. “It is right. I mean, I can, and Dave can. But none of these other guys.”
I’m stupefied.
“The larger boats have at least one sternman, possibly more if it is a bigger or more successful boat. Sometimes, the captain only has to drive the boat and doesn’t even get dirty. Other times, the captain gets into it, doing a lot of the labor. The traps are hauled in strings usually, with multiple traps per string on long ropes. The lobsters then get pulled out of the traps, measured, banded. Typically, mid-July is when it starts getting good.”
Her information is gold.
She leans in. “Want another piece of insider stuff?”
“I definitely do!”
“Fishermen are very territorial, and it is, like, unwritten law that is heavily enforced. Each fisherman has a territory they are allowed to fish. If you fish in one area, you can’t fish past a certain point, and if you stray from your designated area, you’llget forced out by getting your gear cut. It is seriously risky, and I’m surprised nobody has been killed.”
“Oh, and are you all still hauling in the winter? I read that it’s not a great season.”
