When you wake up from a 4 hr rest from shutting down for the night, you sometimes have to take an hour(in this case) or 12 hours (if it's really bad!) to clear the deck of ice first. Clearing ice can be BRUTAL (although this little bit here is easy). If you don't clear it, you are slipping and sliding everywhere. More importantly, we have to push these 700lb crab pots down and up slightly on this wood deck. Ice, of course, causes you to slip (if you aren't wearing cleated boots) but it's more problematic when those steel pots dig into the ice causing drag. That's a killer! So, you clear ice first if you can! Yes, those waves are somewhat large; probably 25 footers.