Andrea Gail October 28, 1991

Few things have stuck with me like the story of Andrea Gail. 

In 1997 Sebastian Junger's book was released and in 2000 the motion picture.

It is perhaps George Clooney's monolog, in the film The Perfect Storm, his haunting description to Linda Greenlaw as to why we do this that still echoes in my mind nearly every time I "drop lines" and head out to sea.  

The fog's just lifting. 

You throw off your bow line, throw off your stern.

Head out the south channel past Rocky Neck and Ten Pound Island, past Niles Pond, where I skated as a kid. 

Blow your airhorn, and you throw a wave to the lighthouse keeper's kid on Thatcher Island. 

Then the birds show up, blackbacks and herring gulls, big dump ducks. The sun hits you. 

You head north, open up to 12. Steaming now. 

The guys are busy, you're in charge. 

And you know what? 

You're a goddamn swordboat captain. 

Is there anything better in the world?

Years later I would happen across the Hannah Boden at dock near Kiawah Island South Carolina. My crew had no idea why we slowed to take photos on the old and tired looking "longliner" now converted into a craber, seemly out of place at the Cherry Point Seafood Company on the Bohicket Creek. 

But sure enough there on a shrimp boat dock was the sister ship to Andrea Gail.

Hannah Boden August 10, 2016 Photo By The Author

Yeah I'm a goddamn charter yacht captain and I get to do what I want.