BROTHERS RECALL DAY THEY DODGED THE ‘PERFECT ’

VERO BEACH -- When the “perfect storm” struck the cold North Atlantic in October 1991, fishermen Albert and Tim Johnston had just unloaded a monster haul and were headed back out to join the sword fishing boat Andrea Gail. When weather reports turned nasty, they ducked south. The Johnstons lived. The Andrea Gail's crew did not. Now working full time at their Vero Beach tackle shop, the brothers have found themselves in a national spotlight as the last to make radio contact with the ill-fated fishing boat portrayed in last weekend's blockbuster, . “Tim and myself and the guys on that boat are the only ones that know what was going on out there,” Albert Johnston said after seeing the movie. The crew aboard the 76-foot Mary T he captained would later find remnants of storm-wracked vessels, including metal drums inscribed with “AG.” He and his brother were so rattled from the experience they started spending more time in their Vero Beach shop and less time fishing off the Grand Banks.

On Friday they fielded calls from radio and television stations eager for a firsthand account of the storm and a reality check on the film's much- debated special effects.

While Albert, 45, was absent, darting off to the first screening from his summer home in New Brunswick, Canada, Tim, 38, manned Johnston's Tackle Corporation on U.S. 1 and bought blocks of tickets to an evening show for friends and family.

His brother was pleased with the film, and told the book's author Sebastian Junger so when he called Saturday. He found it true-to-life, especially when it came to portraying the strain that sea journeys put on fishermen's families and the “grunge factor” among those at sea.

Although from his perch as TRANSITION captain of the Mary T Albert Johnston never saw a 100-foot “rogue” wave, he said buoys a hundred miles

from the Mary T registered waves that high Oct. 29. The two self-described “boat nuts” who grew up near Biloxi, Miss., remember their 11-day fishing trip leading up to the storm with clarity that comes only after being practically lost at sea. They remember how the “fish were just plentiful” as they swung back from the Grand Banks fishing ground to dock at Fairhaven, Mass., scoring $165,000 in swordfish. STEM (RETELLING) “He came out and he fished right off us,” Albert Johnston said of Andrea Gail Captain Billy Tyne. “We filled the boat and went in.” After unloading its fish, the Mary T headed back out to sea. Albert Johnston spotted the Andrea Gail again and said he knew Tyne “had the boat absolutely hatched” with fish. “It was the biggest trip of his life,” he said. Tyne also had mechanical problems. Johnston said the skipper had been on the radio “all day” Oct 28, complaining about the boat's owner being a “cheapskate” who made him keep the Andrea Gail “all pieced together.” Then came reports of a hurricane moving north, which he said Tyne barely heeded. The same currents driving the fish were moving storm clouds. “Where we fish is where currents meet,” Tim Johnston said of the fish run, “ was getting closer and closer.”

But so were two other , which collided in a deadly huddle above the Andrea Gail.

Albert Johnston, who fellow seamen dubbed “the weatherman” due to his penchant for reports, said Tyne likely never read weather faxes that showed high pressure lines converging in a “big black blur.” The Mary T moved south to the storm's outer reaches.

Radio contact with the Andrea Gail broke off after the evening of Oct. 28. Days later after cruising through heads of lettuce and other debris from nearby ships, Albert Johnston recalled the “oily calm” of the sea when he spotted the drums from the Andrea Gail. Both men were shaken.

“Their captain was a qualified captain,” Tim One of Tim's favorite parts about the storm craze is that he'sJoh wonnston a measure said. “They of were respect from the general public. But like any of the long-liners KICKER Junger profiled in his book, Johnston redirects the limelight tojust those in the on wrong the placerisky at fringe, those still out at sea. the wrong time.” Said Johnston: “If you are a person who likes to eat fish . . . when you go and eat tuna or yellow fish from the store, somebody may have put “I was gun-shy the next their life on the line for that fish.” trip,” his brother said, “hightailed it to Newfoundland” at the hint of fierce seas instead of