We opened this morning at 8. The wind is howling... off shore. That is good for keeping off the mosquitoes, for holding back the tide, for stirring up the fish, but not for bringing them in and not for ease of managing the boat. However, fish bumped into the legs of several of us while we were waiting to set and we saw a lot of strikes immediately... but the actual catch was disappointing as we went through it.
Harry called to let us know that they have 7' rollers out there and gusts up to 50 MPH. After setting the net, Jake went in (it was our tide off, but I wasn't about to go in on what promised to be a big tide) so David and Roger took the Grayling... and they managed to get through more nets than the Ambi did. Josh, Hugh, and Jeff powered through one of the sites in the Bathtub and Sarah, Evan, Chris and I fought with the Ambi to get most of the way through one site but decided that the small number of fish didn't really justify the extreme effort it took to harvest them. So we threw off and went in until either the wind calmed down some (naahhh) or the tide started to drop.
The announcement at noon said the return is still too slow to justify another opening, so Chris will have his birthday dinner (lasagna and lemon cheesecake) on his birthday (and not the 40,000 lb tide he's been predicting) and we'll have some more sleep.
Josh was sick a few days ago - a cold. I seem to have contracted it, although that is strictly against my personal policy, and Sarah seems to be coming down with it now. Sarah has also been plagued by tendonitis in her left wrist, which limits the roles she can have in the boat. But she's game and keeps up.
It occurred to me as I was putting on my boots for the morning set that conditions like this - barely enough sleep, struggling against elements that are much stronger than we are, trying to keep everyone on the right side of the boat with all body parts intact - is incompatible with those painful existential crises. We're too busy trying to perform our tasks or stay warm or stay intact to worry about the meaning of it all. Everyone is tired and wants to sleep (some more) and we're considering being disappointed with our poundage (though we just broke 150K), but no one is questioning the meaning of it all. It's not even on the table. That may require more spare time than we have here.
The announcement at noon said that the return has slowed down and not really picked up so they do plan to close us at 4, and will make another announcement on the 12th at noon, meaning that the earliest we could fish would be tomorrow's night tide.
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