Wednesday, June 08, 2005

My Job (well, it was...)-Part 1


For the lack of something more interesting to write about and with several people having asked me questions of late about what I do (or I did, before I munched my back and had to have surgery...still recovering) for a living, I figured that I would pass along a detailed look at what goes into an average fishing trip. So here goes...


A typical trip would start by 2 or 3 of us getting up around 6am to bring the boat up river to get some ice for the trip. The company that we purchased the ice from was a few miles upriver and when you have a 4-knot current to fight, it can take a long time to get there.


The worst is in the summer when the 2 bridges that we had to go under go from "on demand" to schedules to compensate for the increased boat traffic. The Memorial Bridge lifts on the half-hour and Long Bridge (you can see it raised in the foreground) is on the quarter hour. When you missed one of them, all you could do was hang around for 30 minutes, make sure that you didn't crash into anything and wait for the next opening.

Once we got upriver, hopefully no one was already ahead of us and we would pull right in under the ice hose. Since I was in charge of all things related to the fish, I would have to don raingear and hop on down into the fish-hold. Depending on which boat that we currently using, we would take anywhere from 3-6 tons of ice.

They used a hose that was supposed to be flexible, but never was, to pump the ice from the building into the boat. That usually took the better part of an hour, depending on how fast that the ice-dude was willing to crank up the machine. The one problem with going fast was that the hose would thrash all about and knock you on your ass. I've had it buck so hard that it has broken bones and caused concussions. Sometimes just for fun I would pretend to lose control of the hose and pin my buddy Billy up against the fish hold wall. The ice came out dso fast that it felt like being pelted with little marbles. He would thrash around screaming while his raingear and boots filled up with ice and I would laugh and laugh. It was fun for one and all.


The worst thing that happened while icing up was when they had an ammonia leak (they use it in the process of freezing the ice), the fumes were pumped through the hose and it filled up the fish hold. Man oh man oh man....talk about a burn. I should have gone to the hospital, but I didn't have insurance at the time and all that they were going to do was give me a breathing treatment to soothe my burning lungs anyways. Good times.


I'm getting sidetracked here. Moving on...

While we would be pumping ice into the boat, one guy would be out food shopping. If we were headed out for a normal trip of 5-7 days, we would usually spend around $300 or so.

The reason that we spent so much for only a few days was that there are only two things to look forward to every day on a boat...eating and sleeping. While the weather usually dictated the quality of sleeping, we could control what we ate.

The traditional first meal of every trip was always freshly cut inch and a quarter T-bones. Some other meals that we would also have was some sort of roast, a chicken or turkey, some fish that we caught with a lobster or crab stuffing and invariably one of the quick meals that we had on standby for those nights when we would get done late like chicken pot pies or some sort of pasta. We would always have a full compliment of snacks and ice cream with everyone getting their favorites of each.

The best thing about working on the boat was that no matter how much fattening food that you ate, you would always lose weight. The bad part was that you usually carried those eating habits over to home and gained weight by the hour.

Anyways, after getting ice and loading groceries (we always refueled the day that we got home from the previous fishing trip) we would be back to the pier and tied up by 10am. The rest of the day was usually used up by spending as much time as possible with family and doing laundry for the trip. I would always pack 7-9 sets of everything plus 3-5 sweatshirts and various other crap like movies and books. Needless to say, my bag was huge and it weighed a ton. (hmmm, that isn't the first time that I have said that, now is it?)

We would usually leave the dock between midnight and 3am depending on where that we were headed. The spots that we frequented were anywhere from 45 miles and 135 miles. When you're on a 9 knot boat, it takes quite a while to get there. We all took even turns at the wheel and usually slept the rest of the time. While on watch (driving the boat) it was nice because we had a Windows program that interfaced the GPS, the auto pilot and the computer together and it essentially drove itself.

Your watch could get quite boring and sometimes it was a struggle to stay awake, especially if it was on the way in after a huge day. I fell asleep once for 6 minutes when I first started out and got so scared to death that it never happened again. I didn't want to end up like my friends on the Heather Lynne 2. God, I remember listening to that go down only a few miles away from us like it were yesterday. If it weren't for one guy not showing up on the boat that I was filling-in on, I would have ended up on the Heather Lynne. Hutch, the captain, had called and asked my new boss (Dennis) if I was still available one week before they had their accident. Thankfully, Dennis had hired me that very morning. Oops, getting off course again....

That's it for now and I'll continue this riveting entry later. It gets more interesting from here....well, at least I think that it does, bear with me and try to control your enthusiasm.

to be continued....



6 Comments:

At 8:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just think Trevor would be an only child if you ended up on the Heather Lynn. Thank God you didn't. Don't forget to tell everyone about your fish clothes I would wash slave like for you every week..heehee

 
At 10:14 PM, Blogger Wheel Gun Bob said...

You gotta tell about the time you came in early, didn't tell the wife and went to the Danish Health Club for a "massage."

 
At 10:53 PM, Blogger The Cod God said...

no, I don't

 
At 1:10 PM, Blogger Wheel Gun Bob said...

I wish I was a fisherman
tumblin on the sea
far away from dry land
and it's bitter miseries

 
At 1:19 PM, Blogger Maryka said...

For Missy:

Nantucket Girl's Song

Then I'll haste to wed a sailor, and send him off to sea,
For a life of independence, is the pleasant life for me.
But every now and then I shall like to see his face,
For it always seems to me to beam with manly grace,
With his brow so nobly open, and his dark and kindly eye,
Oh my heart beats fondly towards him whenever he is nigh. But when he says "Goodbye my love, I'm off across the sea,"
First I cry for his departure, then laugh because I'm free.

 
At 10:31 PM, Blogger The Cod God said...

Ole Wheel Gun with a Waterboys reference. Great tune.

 

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