Q: How did the two of you meet and how long have you been married?
RM: We met in Alaska on a factory trawler when we were both working there in 1986. We got married in 1989. I still fished in 1989 and our oldest daughter was born in 1990.
Q: Greg, what is it like fishing with your wife onboard?
GM: It's different. Of all the years I've been fishing or running boats, I've been in charge. I pretty much lost that. I wasn't the boss anymore.
Q: Ragnhild, what made you decide to join your husband out at sea?
RM: Last time I joined him was in 2002, for king crab, but I was only doing the cooking. Greg had been asking me about going back. He started asking me last year and I started thinking about it. I got the time off from my regular job so that made it possible. So I said yes to joining him this time.
Q: Greg, does it surprise you that your wife enjoyed being on deck so much? At the beginning of the show (in the bathroom), it didn't look too promising!
GM: Well, last time she was on the boat she went out on one day and took pictures and never went outside again. So, I was really surprised when she went out on deck and stayed out on deck, even when the weather got worse. She surprised and impressed me. She did a lot better than I thought she would.
Q: Ragnhild, did you take any medication to help with your sea sickness, or did you just get better on your own?
RM: Yes, before we left Dutch Harbour I had a patch behind my ear, but I had to take it off because it dried me out. I tried to make it without medicine. When we got out there someone from another boat gave me a tablet, so I was down for a couple of hours but that got me back on my feet.
Q: Ragnhild, how much time did you spend on deck? It looked like you enjoyed sorting the crabs.
RM: I did. During the king crab season I was out there after I had cooked basically two meals a day and cleaned up. I was out there for a few strings, two to three hours maybe. At first I was bored, but I got used to sorting the crab and I got to enjoy it.
Q: Ragnhild, what was it like the first time you grabbed a crab on deck?
RM: It's hard to explain. I've never enjoyed touching live crab, the previous time I was up there I had a hard time with it. I'd have to say the gloves I was wearing helped me a lot. Without gloves I couldn't do it. I slowly got used to it and the way they moved. They moved rather slowly, the king crab, so I got better at it. Handling king crab is tough and they're also very heavy. I got tendonitis almost immediately during king crab season.
Q: How cold does it really get on the deck of a crab boat during the season?
GM: For king crab, not that cold. But as the year goes on it gets colder, and when you get into opilios it gets a lot colder. That's from January through to March. It was in the forties and fifties for king crab, and this last year for snow crab or opilio at the end we were at minus twenty. That's why I don't go outside, and you'll see why Ragnhild was crying.
