Mike Corey

Morley fires up the engine, the crew unhitches the dock ropes, and the ship chugs slowly out of the harbor.

Mike DeCapua calls out to Bob.

Hey.

Skipper says we can get some shut-eye.

You coming?

Nah, I'm going to stay up here and have a smoke.

Suit yourself.

Mike and the other two crew members head downstairs to their bunk rooms, leaving Bob alone on the stern.

He lights a cigarette and watches the lights of Sitka as they start to recede.

When the ship passes some outcroppings called the Old Sitka Rocks, Bob looks for a series of faint yellow streetlamps.

He knows that just beyond one of those lamps, there's a duplex where his ex-wife now lives with their two kids and that bastard flight mechanic.

Bob tries to picture his children curled up in their beds, Brendan and his little sister, Katie.

He wonders when he'll see them again.

He only gets them every other weekend.

And if the Le Conti is away for too long, he'll miss his next visit.

When the street lamps are barely visible on the horizon, Bob stubs out his cigarette and heads below deck.

It's an 18-hour voyage to Fairweather Ground, and there's still a lot of work to be done before they get there.

He needs to get some sleep.

Bob Doyle pins a wriggling fish against the deck of the Le Conti, trying to stab it with his knife.

But this one is massive, and it's refusing to go quietly.