When I got up this morning and fired up the laptop the first thing I saw was that Captain Phil of the crab fishing boat Cornelia Marie had died. He was 53, which is younger than I am. The television show he was featured on was “America’s Deadliest Catch,” which chronicled the lives of a number of captains and crews that work in some of the most hazardous conditions you can imagine to harvest crab.While the Kahuna has seen his share of hazardous duty, you wouldn’t find me anywhere near one of those boats unless it were tied securely to the dock. I used to get queasy just watching those guys do their thing on the big screen. I need my feet on solid ground, and just the thought of being on a boat in sub zero weather bouncing around in 30 to 40 foot waves hauling in pots makes me thank god I have another skill set.Captain Phil started on the boats at age 7, and at 21 was a full fledged skipper. That makes him one tough sumbitch in my book, a friggin hero if I don’t say so myself. Then he spent the next 33 years piloting around the Bering Sea like it was just a small lake. The fact that he made it that long without going down is a small wonder by itself.A few years back I met a guy named Kevin Thompson, and we’re now good friends. One day he starts telling me that he worked the crab boats in Alaska. (He did 7 seasons.) The difference between Kevin and Captain Phil was that Kevin wanted something else out of life, and for Captain Phil, the boat was life.Kevin knew it was time to go when he got hit by a 30 foot wave while on the deck. The wave hurled him from one side of the deck to the other, where he left his teeth in the railing. Now the good part of losing his teeth was that it kept him from being tossed in the ocean, where his life expectancy would have been about one minute.Kevin is now a very successful businessman in the Seattle area, and you better believe that those years on the boat helped him get through some very tough times. He often tells people who are whining, “Maybe you should go do a season on a fishing boat if you think your life is tough.” That usually ends that crap.Captain Phil, you were a man’s man, a true tough guy, and the world is a poorer place today without you. You saw more action in your 53 years than dozens of men combined Rest in peace Skipper, it’s nothing but clear sky and smooth water from here on out.
Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com
