A Day In The Life Of A Fisherman

I was out lobster fishing one morning with the Captain and another. It was 4:00am, and the sea was flat calm. The power to the boat's lights was out so I held the spot light for the others to see to haul in and clean the traps. Before daylight, the calm waters became wavy and at one point the boat turned in such a way that the spot light I held slipped up and lit up the area outside of the boat. There was a wall of water at the rear of the boat about 30 feet above us. The boat slipped up and over the wave, then down into the trough. I was stunned and another wave was coming. This time I yelled for the others to look at the wave. They had been so intent on the catch, that the rocking of the boat didn't disturb them. When the Captain saw the wave coming. He screamed to chuck the traps over and ran for the wheel house to straighten out the boat. To be in a boat that small, 35 feet and have waves 30 feet above you is really scary, but fun kind of like a wild roller coaster ride.

We headed for shore along with forty or more other boats racing to get to the protective harbour. When we got near the breakwater, the waves were crashing over a sand bar that was normally under six feet of water but was now dry in the wave troughs, so it was necessary to surf the waves to get inside. The Captain's mostly were experienced but there were a few younger ones, whom the older Captains instructed via radio. The Captain I was with showed fear while on the, because it was necessary to keep the boat straight throughout the roll, while the rutter was out of the water, or the boat would turn over with the wave. Eventually we cleared the sandbar and then the cursing started as the boat was still surfing toward the beach, which was approaching fast. It was then necessary to turn the boat toward the wharf, but one slip and the boat would roll up the sandy beach. We made it, but the boat in front of us missed and was almost destroyed on the beach.

A younger Captain in behind us also saw the trouble and went into deeper water to pass us. He had a lighter boat with a faster engine and with everyone screaming at him to stop it, he went in, but a wave broke at the mouth of the harbour and picked up his boat and threw it high, out of the water. His boat spun in the air with his engines going full tilt, when the boat landed it was headed for the breakwater, a heavy anchor-like cement wall. The fibreglass boat would have shattered, but the Captain managed to throw his engines into reverse and barely skimmed the breakwater.

We went into the harbour by gunning the engines between waves. Then the next boat came in between the next set of waves. I was never so thankful of have experience at the wheel.

This actually happened and although it felt like a wild roller coaster ride, the Poseidon Adventure comes to mind. We still don't know where those waves came from.

Note: The picture of the Melinda Paula II above was the boat I was in at the time of the waves.