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Almost, but not quite, this was our life, a long time ago.
Of all the things I’ve done, working as a deckhand on a fishing vessel was the job that became instrumental in teaching me who I was and what I was made of. It was only for a short, four seasons, but at the end of it, if I hadn’t learn anything, I never would. It is impossible to spend an entire summer, let alone four of them, on a working fishing vessel; gutting fish, cooking in a cramped floor-heaving galley, and crawling around in the ice-filled hold of a fish boat, not to discover who I was.
Picture it. After a gruelling day on deck, you drop into your bunk at eleven PM (if you’re lucky) - bone-tired, then get up at 5 AM, without applying brush to hair or powder to nose, and repeat the performance. At the end of it all something fundamental has changed deep inside.
At the very least, you realize that, yeah, you really can do something you never thought possible … and if you can do it all with a sense of humour?…. That’s a bonus!
Chapter 1 - START OF THE SEASON … The most stressful part of a commercial fishing season was the prep, or so it seemed at the time. We stressed at the expenses of buying new gear, and over scraping and painting the boat, if, like Bill, you owned a wooden one. We stressed if we’d get it done in time, or if it rained that day and we couldn’t paint. We stressed over whether or not we could get all the equipment working ...
… and for the rest of the season we stressed whether or not it would all pay off.
When we finally chugged out of the harbour, we stressed that something had been missed or forgotten, because there was no going back.
As a newbie like me, the first thing you would have noticed, is that a commercial fisher is notoriously superstitious. After learning that about a grown-ass man, nothing surprised me.
Me? Nope, not superstitious at all, however, discretion is the better part of valour.
The fisher’s jargon can be confusing when you’re not familiar with it. It’s like a whole other language, and you’d best become proficient.
Chapter 2 - YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
The next thing you’d notice is that there was a language all its own out on the water …
… and often, not to be taken literally. “The skunk is still on”, if you still don’t get the inference, means that the fish won’t climb on board because it smells too bad.
That first full day of fishing can drag on if you don’t catch anything in the first hour or so. Hopes fluctuate wildly. You’re having thoughts like, “This is painful.” “It’s going to be a bust!” “The season is DOOMED!!”
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