When Li Wei was woken up by the broadcast in the cabin, he immediately felt the Sea Monster shaking violently.
Looking out through the porthole, he saw heavy rain falling on the sea surface, and from time to time, a wave would crash against the hull, splashing countless spray.
Li Wei quickly put on his clothes, and when he walked into the wheelhouse, he saw that Buck, Jim, and Jack didn't look good.
Bad weather not only increases operational difficulty but also keeps them in a dangerous environment at all times.
Li Wei asked directly:
"Jack, does the weather bureau have any information?"
"Boss, the weather bureau said it's just normal rainfall, no warning has been issued."
Hearing this answer, Li Wei immediately breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't extreme weather, it was fine.
The sea is different from land. The same level six wind on land can only shake large tree branches; on the sea, it can blow up two to three meter high waves, which ordinary small fishing boats cannot withstand at all.
The current wind speed is between level five and six, and the waves it stirs up have basically no impact on the 33-meter long Sea Monster.
Li Wei sat back in the Captain's chair, glanced at the GPS positioning, and saw they still had a dozen nautical miles to go to the second destination. He turned his head and said to Buck, Jim, and Jack:
"Buck, Jim, Jack, we are still a dozen nautical miles away from our destination. Be careful during the fishing operation later. If you have any problems, communicate with me in time. Do you all understand?"
"Understood, Boss."
"..."
Buck, Jim, and Jack also knew the risks involved. They nodded seriously, went to the cabin door to put on their waterproof suits, and then put on life jackets over them before opening the cabin door and walking onto the deck.
The Sea Monster was like a rampaging beast, cutting through the wind and waves on the turbulent sea, and in the blink of an eye, it reached the area where the fishing cages were located.
Due to the high winds and rough seas, Li Wei had difficulty finding the buoys with his naked eyes and could only rely on the detection system.
In addition, he also had to constantly pay attention to the waves crashing against the hull.
What he didn't expect was that the sea area, which was originally like an underwater desert, had many more marine creatures.
They were probably pushed over from the deep sea by the waves, but unfortunately, the number of black cod was still very small.
Just as Li Wei was feeling disappointed, a large wave quickly approached the Sea Monster. Li Wei quickly picked up the walkie-talkie and shouted:
"Big wave, be careful!"
Before he could finish his words, a large wave over three meters high crashed heavily against the starboard side.
At this time, Li Wei had no mind to pay attention to the situation at the bottom of the sea. He quickly checked if Buck, Jim, and Jack were still on the ship.
Seeing that they were safe, he breathed a sigh of relief.
A few minutes later, the Sea Monster arrived next to the buoy, and the three prepared men immediately began to get busy.
The first fishing cage was quickly pulled out of the water.
When the three men saw the situation in the cage, their mood was like the weather at this moment.
"Buck, how's the catch in this cage?"
"Boss, the cage is full of miscellaneous fish, with only two black cod. I think we need to change locations to set the cages again."
"Okay, throw the unnecessary miscellaneous fish back into the sea, then secure the fishing cage, and we'll prepare to change locations."
"Understood, Boss."
The three men, hearing the new order, first cleaned the fishing cage, and then used the crane to transport the fishing cage to the corner of the deck.
As the fishing cages were continuously pulled out of the sea, the faces of Buck, Jim, and Jack became worse and worse.
Not catching black cod was secondary.
The most important thing was that this sea area was the fishing spot they had discussed, and they thought they would have a good harvest, but the result was completely different, making them feel their faces burning.
When the last fishing cage was pulled onto the ship, the Sea Monster caught a total of 2600 pounds of black cod this time, valued at 7800 us dollars.
Buck handed the work of securing the fishing cages to Jim and Jack, while he walked into the wheelhouse with a heavy heart, not knowing how to explain to Li Wei.
Li Wei saw Buck walk in, stood up and poured him a cup of hot coffee, and seeing his conflicted expression, said directly:
"Buck, relax, don't put too much pressure on yourself. This is the norm in Alaska Bay."
Buck was originally thinking about how to start speaking, but he didn't expect the other party to directly comfort him, making the words he had been brewing for a long time stuck in his throat, not knowing what to say.
Li Wei continued:
"Buck, we don't have time to waste now. We need to quickly decide where to fish next."
"Thanks, Li Wei."
Hearing Li Wei's words, Buck quickly adjusted his mindset.
He began to check the GPS positioning system and constantly recalled the sea areas where he used to fish frequently.
"Li Wei, we used to catch a lot of black cod here. I plan to try here next."
Buck said as he pointed to a location on the screen.
Li Wei followed the direction of his finger and looked, then zoomed in on this sea chart, and quickly remembered where this was.
They passed through this sea area when they were traveling yesterday. There were indeed many black cod on the seabed there, but the seabed conditions were more complex, and the depth exceeded 800 meters. Deploying fishing cages would require extending the ropes, which would take a lot of time. He immediately ruled out this sea area in his mind.
"Buck, I remember the depth of that sea area exceeds eight hundred meters. If we deploy fishing cages there, the spare ropes we have are completely insufficient, and it will waste a lot of time."
Buck also remembered this problem upon hearing this, and his brows furrowed tightly.
Seeing this, Li Wei didn't plan to keep him in suspense and said directly:
"Buck, when I was sorting through Charles's belongings some time ago, I found many old sea charts and nautical diaries he left behind. He marked a lot of information on them, and I plan to try the locations he marked."
Hearing Li Wei's words, Buck was not overly surprised.
Before GPS was widely used, Captains would use sea charts and nautical diaries when going out to sea. They would record the fishing situation on them to make it easier to find the most suitable targets in the future.
It can be said that these were the Captain's most valuable possessions.
Just like the first destination they went to, it was the sea area the original owner's father frequented the most in recent years.
Buck quickly accepted this explanation,
"Boss, where is the place you mentioned?"
"Here."
Li Wei quickly brought up the location of the underwater basin.
Buck just glanced at it and confirmed that it was a place they hadn't been to. Although he still had some doubts, they didn't have a better option for the time being.
"Then let's try here."
The two discussed the next destination.
Li Wei controlled the Sea Monster to sail at full speed towards the sea area where the underwater basin was located.
As the sun gradually rose, the drizzling rain also stopped. After four hours of sailing, the Sea Monster had arrived at the sea area where the underwater basin was located.
Dense black cod were visible in the entire underwater basin,
and their numbers had not decreased due to the large waves last night.
"Guys, let's get started!"
After four hours of rest, Buck, Jim, and Jack were full of energy and quickly deployed the fishing cages into the sea one by one.
At eleven o'clock in the morning, all the fishing cages were deployed.
Buck and the others had a simple lunch and then returned to the cabin to rest.
Li Wei returned to the wheelhouse to check the sea chart.
Because the underwater basin was not far from the first destination, he planned to detour to other sea areas. If he could find schools of black cod, it would be great. If not, at most it would just waste some fuel.
Having made up his mind, Li Wei controlled the fishing boat to sail towards a more distant sea area.
Buck, Jim, and Jack were unaware of this. Full and well-rested, they were catching up on sleep in the cabin.
In the wheelhouse, Li Wei was listening to the radio while checking the situation of the seabed around him. Just as he felt he was about to find nothing again, a purple-gold light spot suddenly appeared in his vision.
This discovery invigorated him. The last time he encountered such a rich purple light was when he found ambergris.
That ambergris was a purple light spot that brought him over a hundred thousand us dollars in income.
Now, what was in his vision was a purple-gold light spot, so wouldn't that make him take off instantly?
Li Wei suppressed his excitement and quickly magnified the image in his vision.
As the light spot kept getting bigger, it turned out to be a sunken ship, and the purple-gold light was emanating from the ship's cargo hold.
There were a dozen large wooden boxes in the sunken ship's cargo hold in his vision, most of which contained ordinary items that were no longer recognizable due to the passage of time. Only a few boxes contained well-preserved items, which were the most valuable parts of this sunken ship.
These boxes were all filled with gold and silver coins. Judging by their style, they should be currency from old Europe, but he didn't know which country.
If he could salvage the boxes containing the gold and silver coins, wouldn't he take off instantly?
However, when Li Wei noticed the data on the sonar,
it was as if someone had poured a basin of ice water over him in the middle of winter, chilling him from head to heart.
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