bags & balls & which way they layin’?

On each end of a string is a buoy set up. The set ups are made “hard balls” & “bags”. The hard balls are rigid plastic floats, 45 inches in circumference, sometimes called trawl floats, because trawlers use them to keep their nets up. The “bags” are inflatable buoys, 60 inch circumference & bright red. We have 3 hard balls, a bag & a trailer, a small oval inflatable buoy called an “LD” for low drag, which, if they are, is not noticeable.

The hard balls always maintain their buoyancy, so if they get dragged down by the current (which they often do), they return to the surface quickly, where the bags actually get compressed, then slowly re-inflate as they return to the surface.

One of the responsibilities for the last guy on watch is to find the buoys on the first string we plan to haul. Usually I’ll designate an end, such as “Find west end of Heartbreak” or “Find the shallow end of Devil’s Tower”., but if I’m at all uncertain of the weather or the current, I won’t designate an end. In this case, the crewman will call me when he locates an end and & I’ll ask him “Which way are they hanging?” or “Which way they layin’?” Possible answers are “with the wind, with the current, into the wind”, or simply, “to the north, south east west” etc. With this info, I know which way to haul.

This was written on Day 9 of 11 (Thursday 12th). At the time we had 11 strings left, now we’re down to 6. So we’re jamming through the gear, have 6 (out of 66) strings left and the tides are really getting big. We have beautiful weather, but we’re battling the tides. We’ll definitely finish on time, if not early, but not without a battle!