MLMBC The Off Season, Episode 2

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was......holding it's own.

If you have been following, last week's episode of The Off Season sent the team packing and heading to the greeat white north for some crab fishing.  Team Bonding?  Strength building?  Mental Focus?  A good time?  If I know these guys it was probably a no for all four of those.  As you can see from the picture above, the boys learned the hard way that crab fishing is not a sport, it's about survival.  This is what a normal morning looked like on the deck of their vessel:

And that was on the way to breakfast.  Most days the boys could be seen like this, working the traps and lines:

Well, every guy except Mitch.  Normally at around 11AM Aryn would come up from the haul

And say he found Mitch asleep...again...with the crabs....

Jon on the other hand, was a workhorse the whole time, but he did miss his cat.  So much that he brought a stuffed one with him so he'd feel more at home.

Brian was mostly quiet the entire time.  Mostly because he lost a bet with the Captain and had to pick up a crab from the deck using only his teeth.  As you can see he was successful in doing so but shortly after this photo the crab attacked him and Brian had to have his mouth wired shut for the remainder of the trip.

Over the course of the first couple days it was believed by the team and ship's crew that Ken was the craziest of the bunch.  He seemed to have grown a full beard in a matter of hours and was jumping in and out of the frigid water catching crab wearing only his boots and pants and shouting, "I don't need any nets or cages...ARGGGHHHHH!"

However, at meal time on the third day a photo surfaced of a man jumping off the boat as they shoved off from port.

It was later determined that it was Ken who jumped ship at the port yelling, "See ya suckers!" and the old balding shirtless man was actually a stowaway that had been living on the ship year round since 1962.

As the tired crew made berth late in the week, the whereabouts of Block were still unknown.  As they were tying up they overheard a rumor going around on the pier about some crazy party that happened at a local ski lodge up in the hills.

Tired, cranky and smelling of the sea, the four members of the tiem set off in search of Block.  Why had he abandoned them?  Was he at the ski lodge?  They thought he liked fishing?  Tune in next week as the team makes the voyage to the ski lodge to uncover what happened and to see if Block was there.

MMBC The Off Season, Episode 1

January is the month of Mental Toughness.  Your more experienced midwest racers will either hide in their basements from the cold on their trainers or rollers while some of the more mentally irregular ones will fatbike it outside or pedal around on their studded tires til their snot freezes their nose shut....like this guy https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152773595118171&set=a.10151092782818171.448130.572633170&type=1&theater

What of the MLMBC?  Last season the Club had good success with their "outside the box" off season experiments.  You may remember the trip to Russia to learn balance with Figure skating and  also the Motorcycle Rally in Europe for team building.  Money well spent.  In order to keep their edge over the competition, it was decided that this year the Club's first trip would be a charter boat for Alaskan Crab Fishing.  What better way to build mental toughness than to experience some of the harshest working conditions on the planet.

Aryn and Jon had to figure out a good way to present the Club with their idea.  They needed something so simple the whole team would understand their roles and end goal.  After some french fries and a few half beers they began work on a scale model Lego fishing boat.

After hours of of explaining the same three sentences over and over again to convince the Club this was a good idea, they packed their bags and boarded a plane for Alaska.

Once in the harbor they were greeted by their captain and shown their ship and living quarters.  This confused Mitch as he was heard saying, "I thought all this stuff was going to be made out of Legos.  I want to go home."

Before shoving off the Club was shown some videos on boating safety 

and also went through some exercises with Life Preserver Pete and Scuba Steve

After getting settled in and reviewing the map, it was time for the crew to shove off.

So now we sit patiently and wait for their return.  Tune in next week to see how our boys fared on the open sea.