Since I have to get up and work when ever they pull in a net full of fish, I cannot keep a regular sleep pattern. There are no windows in my bunk or in the galley or factory where I spend ninety percent of my time. Days lose their meaning. When the captain or mate calls haul back I generally have no idea whether I will be coming out of the hatch into black night or bright sun. If some one says it is 7:00 I have to ask if it is am or pm. The lack of sleep combined with the rising and falling of the waves combine to bewilder my system. I eat when I am not hungry and I never really feel full after I eat, I am frequently up when I am tired and often fall asleep when I thought I was awake enough to read a book. Filling in the dates on my paperwork is the only thing that gives me some order, but some times I will get a long sleep and find out that the date hasn’t changed, sometimes the date changes when I haven’t slept, some days last for a week and others are gone before I realized they have started.
Picture: Trampers in Dutch Harbor. Most factory processor ships will off load their product directly to trampers which will carry the frozen blocks of fish to China, Japan or Korea. The Intrepid will only hit the dock for a few hours to take fuel. It's a bit frustrating to wait for 12 hours, in sight of town, while all the fish is being removed from the freezer hold.
