I thought i would take a moment to tell a quick story about a lobster run that didnt go as planned. It didnt take place on the sea but it was just as risky. About 3 winters ago, my brother-in-law John was traveling with me to Maine to pick up the lobsters. On this particular trip the weather started out pretty good. No snow and it had been warm the day before. Thats when you know you are in trouble. After several hundred miles of pretty smooth sailing we heard some warnings on the radio about record cold and high winds from a noreaster. So i sent my sister Denise a phone call and she said we could stay at her new place, which wasnt finished yet, but had heat. We could sleep on the floors with sleeping bags, which sounded alot better than trying to get our cabin warmed up with a just a woodstove at midnight when the temperature was below zero. Our first taste of the bitter cold happened in Massachusetts when we , or should i say i got out to pump gas. By now the wind chill factor was -40 and my hands flash froze to the gas nozzle. That was the last fill up before we would have to get out again. Cruising in the warm van it was hard to tell what we were in for when we arrived because neither of us wanted to venture out for a pee break at this point. Thats what empty water bottles are for. My sister had assured us that the home builder knew we were coming and had left a key hidden for us. I sent another text just to double check. Everything was set for a warm arrival. As we pulled in to the half finished home we drew straws to see who would go out and venture for the key. The windchill was now -70 below. I went first and lasted about 4 minutes. Next John went out and he lasted about 4 minutes. We attempted this key search several more times, but we were soon to find out that the builder didnt leave the key. As my sister said, thats a bummer now what are you going to do. After sitting there in a frozen daze approaching 1 am we decided to try our old cabin, the one with no insulation and only a wood stove for heat. When we got down the long road to nowhere we saw that the lane had not been plowed out so we once again had to draw straws to see who would make the first trek to the cabin dragging gear behind in a fish tote, at least 100 yards. It was not safe enough for both of us to venture out together in case we both dropped. Somebody had to stay unfrozen enough to call for help. Coldest day i have ever seen and ive seen plenty up there. When i opened the cabin door and looked at the thermometer it read 12 below zero, inside. And the wind was howling outside straight out of canada and off the water. I went back and got John and told him the good news. That we only needed to warm the place up some 42 degrees to keep from freezing to death. So we took turns bringing in the rest of the supplies so they wouldnt freeze and burst in the van overnight. I had no wood inside, but there was a pile out back under some snow. We dug at that for about 20 minutes until we found some pieces we hoped would burn. It turns out that the wood was punky and had absorbed the rain from the warm weather 2 days before. So we had one fire- starting log and a dozen pieces of frozen wood that were more ice than wood. By 3 am we celebrated with an inside temperature of 32 degrees and decided that was the best we could do. So this is where i always enjoy telling this part of the story. I have had alot of guests in the cabin and i try to make them as comfortable as possible with plenty of blankets, but i am not giving up my bed. So John slept on the frozen couch next to the northwest facing wall. You can actually hold a candle up to the windows by this couch and they will blow out. Pictures fall off the bulging drywall when its this windy. So i crawled into my bed and asked John if he was warm enough and he shivered something like my face feels a little heat from the stove but my rear end has quite a breeze going down it I told him to just keep rotating like a rottiserie chicken and he would be fine. Eventually i think he fell asleep or developed mild hypothermia,, one of the two. Around 8 am the cabin temperature was back down to somewhere below zero and John looked like he had frozen solid to the couch and had been sprinkled with pixie dust from the frozen air particles creeping thru the window. Thats when he asked me how come i didnt get cold with just one blanket. I said,, i actually had to turn the heat down a little, my electric blanket gets a little too hot on high. (This always remembers me of the scene in Dumb and Dumber with the gloves). Neither one of us could take it any longer so we loaded everything back up and drove around looking for a cheap motel. As long as it had heat we didnt care how big the roaches were. We found one but we couldnt check in for another few hours so we went to McDs and sat in front of the big glass windows with the sun pouring through, literally trying to warm our core body temps up. After sitting there half froze we finally got into our motel room and it was as expected but it had hot running water. Best shower of my life!! It was heavenly warm water., I had never been happier to take a shower and get a good nights sleep. Finally a night of rest after two days of hell. As we turned out the lights i was just about asleep when i heard my brother-in-law sawing down a tree with what had to be a chainsaw. Ive never heard anyone snore louder than a two cycle engine, so I texted my sister and said, i am going to kill your husband. She said to me you found out he snores?. I said the whole motel found out he snores, and asked her what to do. Her advice was good luck. Sleepless night number 2. At this point i didnt even know who i was or where i was, or why i was there. I just wanted to sleep. We eventually went back to our cabin and borrowed some dry wood from my neighbor and the wind had died down by this point and the outside temp was near 20 degrees. We stayed in our cabin and made a dinner with a balmy indoor temp of near 60. Got repacked and reorganized to load lobsters the next morning and head to Ohio with them. This is how much i loved making the trip back and forth to Maine to pick up lobsters. It was an adventure and so gratifying to get them back alive. I have many more adventures on the highway that arent as cold but just as exhausting. But i will get back to sea stories next time. Love you all very much. If John wants to add anything to the story he is welcome. My good buddy Howard Hawk got to experience the frozen couch a few times. I guess maybe i should get an electric blanket for the guests, but then i would never get rid of them.......
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 23:18:57 +0000