This is a continuation of the original Diary of a POCF series. Can you relate?

Confessions of a Captain’s Wife Trying Not To Lose It Pre Season

The alarm goes off at 4 am. Chris grabs his phone to turn it off but lingers a little longer to let his eyes adjust. The blue light silhouettes his face, slowly twisting from confusion to doubt to disappointment.

“FUCK!” he says. 

It could only mean one thing.

We have a deckhand down.

The deckhand is sick today – again – and we’re less than a week from the opening day of spiny lobster season in California, and there’s still lots to do. Traps need ropes and buoys, and then the traps need to be taken to the harbor for staging, among other tasks that I can’t think of because it’s four in the morning.

I roll out of bed and offer to make breakfast since the day is off to a weird start. I heat the skillet to fry eggs, and as I crack the first egg, I break the yoke. I feel like the yoke, but I don’t tell Chris because he’s got a million other things on his mind. Instead, I silently worry that: (more…)