Tuesday, June 14, 2005

My Job (well, it was...)-Part 5

So, there I was....me, the drunk, and the dumb guy.

And no, I wasn't by myself, wiseass.

Actually, I was trying to think of someway to start this entry and that first sentence was something that I would say when we were hauling gear. Hey, when you fish with the same couple of guys for a long time, there are lots of running jokes.

That's the one thing (well, it's more than just that) that I miss the most since I've been left ashore after I blew my back out....making fun of everyone. It always made the trip go along so much smoother. No matter how miserable someone or something would be....ah, forget it. It's not important.

Back to the fishing...

So, now we have hauled the entire endline and have come to the money end, the net(s). On a good day, the end won't be twisted up like cable, but it usually is. If the tide is running, sometimes the absolute end of that would get swung around and doubled back on the string of nets. That's always fun. You end up hauling a 1/4 mile of nets in one giant fucking ball. Of course there are always several spider crabs (scroll down to see the pic and please disregard the Yankees hat, it's the best picture that I could find) that have about 18 layers of net on them and you can't get them out . That's always a positive way to start the day....especially when its blowing about 30 and your getting knocked around. Good times.

Back to it....

We use a gillnet lifter to haul the nets. It's quite a unique machine, actually. It looks like a giant tunafish can with a groove that is dead center around the outside of the "can". It uses these "hammers" with teeth that are tethered by extremely strong springs and when the lifter spins around, they are retracted and released, gripping and releasing the leadline and the floatline together in the groove, and up comes the net.

Well, thats the theory, anyways. You do have to pay much more attention while hauling gillnets than any other fixed-gear like lobster traps or long lines. Some people can do it well, some people just can't. You can usually tell around the pier the people who can haul nets or not just by the way that they handle their boat(s) around the dock. If they send you running for cover while trying to tie their boat up, they generally don't understand the principles about boat handling and will therefor tear the shit out of the gear.

That reminds me of another quick story...

We were in from fishing working on the boat one day when a boat from Newboryport, Mass came in. He had originally tied up behind us on the pier because somebody was already at the takeout (the spot reserved for unloading your catch) ahead of him.While he was walking by, he looked at the water rushing by in the river and then asked me what would be the best way was to come into the takeout ( it can be pretty tricky). We have one of the hardest tides in the country and if you get screwed up around the pier, there is nothing you can do but crash, and hope that you don't hurt anyone and/or destroy a boat or two.

One morning after a particularly strong moon-tide, we came down to go fishing and the boat was gone! So was the one that we were tied up next to. There was just an empty spot where the tide had ripped the two boats off of the pier. We just kind of stood there dumbfounded until we saw some lights down river that turned out to be the two boats. Luckily, they had laid up next to another pier that stuck out into the river and it prevented both of them from hitting the bridge together. I can't imagine the damage that it would have done if that had happened.
Anyways, the tide had ripped 3 12" cleats (those t-shaped things that are on every boat and dock) that were through-bolted a 2'x2' beam and another foot and a half of dock. So, needless to say, there is a lot of water moving around there.

Back to Mr Dipshit and his question...

I explained to Wonder-mutt that you just eased the nose of the boat over ever so slightly and let the tide slowly push it in. No problem, he said....and it wasn't. It was when he decided to leave that we had a problem.

Now, Dennis (my captain/co-worker at the time...the reason that I say that is because I ran one of his boats and he ran the other at the time) had gone down to tell Wonder-mutt how much harder that it would be to get out of the takeout safely if you didn't do it right. He explained that all you had to do was push the nose of your boat out into the tide and (once again) let the tide do the work for you.

Wonder-Mutt replied "I know how to drive a boat! This isn't my first day on the water!"

Dennis calmly explained that the reason that he was telling him this was that it would be his boat that Wonder-Mutt would be smashing into if he were to screw up.

Wonder-Mutt said something derogatory under his breath and hopped on his boat to take off.

And guess what Wonder-Mutt did after he let the lines go? Did he listen to everyone and let the tide do his work? No, of course not. He turned it broadside to the tide and the tide immediately smashed him into our boat. At the time, I happened to be on the overhead bolting down a new storage rack that we had just received and I never saw him coming.

He hit us so hard that he knocked me off of the overhead and onto my ass in the netpen (luckily). That's not a terribly fall far(about 7 feet), but if I landed awkward, it could have sucked.

The only redeeming quality of the situation was that his boat was much smaller than ours and when he hit us with the broadside of his boat, the bow of our boat cut right into his hull and rail like a knife through butter. Our boat ended up about 6" through his hull his and into his deckspace.

I may have giggled once or twice once I saw what had happened.

So, not only did he only ignore everyones advice and smashed into our boat, he was stuck there for the next few hours until the tide slacked up a bit and he could pry our boat out of his. To top it all off, he never came out of his wheelhouse once to say sorry or look at the damage. He just sat there like a loser with our boat stuck in his and everyone staring at him, from fisherman to tourists. Even the local paper got a picture of it.

He never came into Portsmouth again that season.

to be continued.....maybe I'll actually get to the catching of some fish next time

-Cod

9 Comments:

At 12:14 PM, Blogger Erin Nicole said...

you should write a book, this is good stuff.

 
At 12:18 PM, Blogger The Cod God said...

thanks

one of these days I'll actually get through two paragraphs without digressing into a random story

 
At 1:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree, he should write a book. I have been telling him that for years. Maybe someine else can get it through his head!!! I know it is a big head, so it may take a couple more than two people.

 
At 1:35 PM, Blogger Maryka said...

The digressing is the best part! Don't change a thing.

 
At 1:49 PM, Blogger Erin Nicole said...

i have to agree that i love the random stories. the techniques of fishing are interesting too...but i love story time! :)

 
At 8:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm going to sue your ass!

-"Wonder-Mutt"

 
At 10:18 PM, Blogger The Cod God said...

Take me for all I've got.

I think I have some lint and a stale M&M around here somewhere that you can have.

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Wheel Gun Bob said...

Often times when I'm at work I day dream about where I'd rather be. I'm sure everybody does this. Except those rare freaks who love their jobs. Then there is my nephew The Cod God who dreams about work when he's at home on disability! I guess you gotta really love your profession to do that. Fishermen are an odd lot to say the least. There must be something fun about hanging with a bunch of hairy man-ass in a small boat on the high seas for days on end but I can't think of it. Except maybe the money.

 
At 11:59 PM, Blogger The Cod God said...

Hey, its just like that old car ad (Mazda or Toyota or Nissan, some foreign car)when the guy travels the country to get different jobs. His last stop is in Alaska, where a man who looks like the Gorton Fisherman sits down beside our hero on a log. As they look out into the harbor at what is (presumably) their boat, he says...

"Just think Johnny. (seductively puts his arm around our hero's shoulder)12 men...one boat. What could be better?

 

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