You probably have a job that is a 9-5. If you are a deckhand for a charter company, you don’t get to sleep in until 8 am or even 8:30. I wake up at five in the morning every day to work on the boat. 

If you’re a deckhand, the first thing you are going to prepare for is just getting out of bed. After running thirteen charters in a row you will start to get super tired and you will not want to get out of bed. The most challenging part of my day as a deckhand is getting out of the house. 

Once you have successfully made it in your vehicle you are now able to drive to the harbor. There isn’t much selection for parking so choose wisely. You don’t want to get a parking ticket. 

Setting up the boat for the day is challenging at first.  It’s an easy process now that I have been doing it all summer. First, you need to set up the inside of the boat. This includes trash bags, checking that the head (the bathroom) is good, the coffee machine has coffee and is on, and getting stuff put away so the boat is ready for customers. We review the manifest for the parties/number of people who are going out and set out the correct number of rods. Once that is good we take the bow line off so we don’t have to worry about it when pushing off the dock. Lastly, we do a once-over check and make sure everything is ready for the day. That can consist of making sure we have enough bait, have enough sinkers, and everything in the cabin looks good to go. 

After that, we can sit inside and chill before a long day. Sometimes we have breakfast from the Porthole or go to the Fish House to stock up on supplies for the day. 

At 7am, we greet the anglers at the boat. We record their fishing licenses in the log book. Then we always ask, “You guys don’t have yellow fruit, right?” We always say that because bananas are bad luck on boats.  Once everyone is clear, the captain does the safety speech.  When this is done, we throw the lines and push the boat off the dock.  

All this is done before 7:30 am.  I bet you are still sleeping! Mornings for deckhands can be hard work. However, it is always a fun time fishing while making memories.