Their office is an unforgiving sea, where waves 40 feet high don't elicit a blink from the crew. Thick ice encrusts the ship at times, and brutally cold winds of 100 mph or more blow across its decks, where the 1,000-pound, welded-steel tools of their trade slide around like fenders.

But they wouldn't have it any other way.

That's because Captains Johnathan (John) and Andy Hillstrand, commercial crab fishermen featured on the popular Discovery Channel series Deadliest Catch, have always wanted to fish for a living.

And fish they do, seeking out the best spots along the floor of the Bering Sea for their crew to launch giant steel crab pots, then haul up as much as 2,000 pounds of crab at a time, empty the crab into the hold of their boat, Time Bandit, and then repeat the process.

DISCOVERY CHANNELThe crew of Time Bandit, left to right: Shea Long, Andy Hillstrand, Russ Newberry, Neal Hillstrand, Johnathan Hillstrand and Eddie Uwekoolani.CHILDHOOD OBSESSION

Growing up in Homer, Alaska, where the ocean was their backyard, boating was second nature. The brothers – two of five Hillstrand boys – were out on the water from the time they were only a few months old, and they learned to fish around the same age most kids are learning to add and subtract.

They also learned that fishing could be an occupation, since their dad was a commercial fisherman; John Sr., a rough, tough-talking man, fished for salmon and king crab, among others, and owned a few boats. They vividly recall watching him walk out the door for the weeks-long king crab season each autumn. "We used to watch him sail off and leave us at home with the women, in the house," John says. "We wanted to go with him so bad."

Except for a short while when they wanted to be a fireman (John) and an astronaut (Andy), fishing was foremost on their minds. "We loved everything about the ocean, everything that's underneath the ocean," Andy explains. They started working the water, first for salmon and shrimp, while in high school. While both had been out on their dad's crab boat before they were 10 years old, they weren't allowed to fish for crabs because of the danger. Commercial fishing ranks highest in job fatality rates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and king-crab fishing is considered the most dangerous of those occupations, largely because of the conditions of the Bering Sea during the season.

Still, crab fishing became their career when they graduated high school, and they met with success pretty quickly. Even if you chalk part of their success up to their upbringing, it's easy to understand why fishing got into their blood and stayed there. Right out of high school, for example, John made $128,000 in one year. DISCOVERY CHANNELCrab pots launch in big seas aboard Time Bandit."That's a lot of money for a kid," he says. "That's why the lure is there. Our guys don't make the kind of money we made years ago, but they made $110,000 last year."

And that's considering total fishing time of about two months, with a few more weeks spent preparing the gear and traveling to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where Time Bandit is based.

THE MAKING OF TIME BANDIT

The money wasn't always there, however. Around 1990, when John was 27 and Andy was 26, they decided they needed their own boat to fish for both king crab and opilio crab, also known as snow crab.

All five brothers fished, but they didn't want to run or work on other people's boats any longer. Andy was particularly eager to go for opilios and had even begged his father in previous years to fish for them, to no avail.

Trouble was, "we didn't have a dime to our name," Andy says, so their father agreed to fund the build project. He even designed the boat that would become the 113-foot Time Bandit, which the brothers still fish aboard to this day. John Sr. drew the lines on a napkin – "he could just draw things to scale, he had a very good architectural eye," Andy says – and helped all five boys build it, with Giddings Boat Works in Charleston, Oregon. "We know every bolt, every piece of wiring," Andy says of the steel-hulled, 290-ton vessel.

John Sr. kept Time Bandit in his name until they paid it off, within two years. "We named it "˜Time Bandit' because it takes all your time," John says, "but also because we love the movie Time Bandit."

When the boat launched in 1991, she featured little luxuries that other fishing vessels didn't, like a head on deck for the crew to use. That head is now a two-person sauna, something you generally won't find on other commercial fishing boats. Time Bandit also has a pantry-like area with a microwave and coffee pot in the foredeck, and all staterooms feature queen-size berths. Why? Simple: When you spend five or six months on a boat, comfort is key.