The few thoughts that I remember going through my head:
“Wow if this were a meme, my brother would be in a canoe and I would be in the boat from the perfect storm.”
“Wow it is extremely rough out here and he claims it’s a beautiful day, he has lost his mind.”
“Woah, this rocking is not for me. Please don’t throw up, please don’t throw up. You are a watermans daughter, YOU CANNOT THROW UP.”
“Maybe I’ll just go lay down in the cabin. Yep that’s a great idea.”
“Wow this music is really loud.”
“Are we gonna go in anytime soon?” “I should have listened to them when they said I might get sea sick, but nooooo. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
“Yoo, Sirius XM channel FLYYYYYY is LIT.”
“Okay this isn’t so bad, I’m feeling better. Let me get my phone.” “Nope, nope, nope. Lay back down.” “Phew that was close.”
“Oh hey, were moving. Maybe we are done.” “Nope we have more nets.” “SOMEBODY CALL THE CHOPPER!” “SOS”
“Okayyyyy XM. This was a banger.” “Wait a minute is that DMX…YESS.”
“We’re moving again.” “He’s telling me one more and then we go in.” “I can do this. I’m a strong, independent, Fishermans daughter in America.”
*LOTS OF ROCKING*
“WHERE THE HECK IS THAT RESCUE CHOPPER!!”
*Fell asleep*
“Okay, that’s the engine. We are rolling.” “Whyyyyy are we slowing down again..I’m gonna cry!”
“Okay, just letting the nets back out.” “Alright we are really going now, shew.”
*They are making PB&J’s*
“Do I want a PB&J? Nope. I’ll probably throw it up.” “Maybe just a peanut butter sandwich”
*At this point I have now moved out of the little cubby hole in the cabin and up to the seat*
“This isn’t so bad now.” “Praise Jesus, we are going home.”
What was intended to be an insightful day of one of the many things my brother does for work quickly turned into me praying the sharks would jump into the barrels so we could come in faster.
While there were A LOT more thoughts that ran through my head I didn’t have the ability to jot them down. I have never gotten sea sick before in my life and I’m 29 years old. I wanted to do a small business feature on my father and brother because they are both commercial fisherman and hard working men. So after begging and pleading, something I’ll never have to do again, my brother finally agreed to take me. I met him at the docks and we set sail. I may have taken a dramamine because I wasn’t entirely sure what my body would do once we started out. The ride was full of rocking and going up and then coming back down. I instantly wanted to install windshield wipers on the windows because I couldn’t see for all the splashing from the waves. Now when I saw waves they were nothing that you could surf, maybe a couple were, but they were enough to have me referring back to the movie The Perfect Storm. What a way to go out. Donnie, however, assured me this was a beautiful day and if days were all like this he would be ecstatic. Yea..okay, not me.
Fast forward about 15 miles off shore and we have finally made it to our destination. As we are all getting our oil skins, jackets and boots on, I am praying I don’t bust my nose losing my footing. Wow it is really rocking out here. I get my gear on and grab my camera because that was the whole purpose of coming out and head to the deck. My brother, Donnie, and nephew, Cole are getting things ready to pull up the first net. The barrels are all in place and the rope is being spun in. I snap some shots and patiently wait for the net to show its face but let’s be honest, I am not patient. What feels like eternity later here comes the net, with some sharks in it!
I’m not going to lie, it was really cool to watch them diligently pull this net up and get the sharks untangled from it and put into barrels to take in. I was even more impressed as I started to become ill that they were doing just fine. The more net they pulled in, more sharks spilled out. Even the occasional skate or spider crab came along with it. I kept snapping away despite losing my footing a couple (1,000) times. It was a pretty day to be on the water, the sun was peeping out and the seagulls were surrounding the boat waiting for some lunch. The waves weren’t spilling over the sides like I thought they would be, but they were certainly rocking the boat front to back and side to side. Probably a good thing as my brother was being funny and throwing the sharks a little harder so they might ricochet off me like a backboard and into the barrel. Dodge-shark champ over here! The sharks are not what you typically might think of. They look like little sand sharks and while they have razor sharp teeth, they won’t bite you. If you slide your finger across their teeth, they will slice you up pretty bad, but who is going to put their finger in any sharks mouth. Not this girl. The two worked really well together putting the net up on the reel, making sure it was winding the way it was supposed to all while removing the fish from the nets.
It was when I decided to put the camera down and grab a pair of gloves that the real wave of sea sickness hit me. I blame going back into the cabin. Either way it was real. I came out of the cabin thinking the fresh, salty air might help me. It did, a little. I picked up some sharks that didn’t make it into the barrels and then I just stood there. Donnie knew I wasn’t right. I had gone from asking one million questions to dead silence. He laughed, Cole laughed and I made my way back to the hole in the cabin to lay down.
I stayed down in that little bunker for what felt like days but was only hours. I tried to lay as still as possible even the rocking side to side was trying to throw me off the cushioned bench. I listened to the extremely loud music that was playing and jammed out to some old school beats. I attribute my survival to DMX, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and The Fugees. If you have Sirius XM radio, listen to The Fly station. Maybe it was just the DJ on at that time but it was LIT. Every time that boat started to go I would get a feeling of relief until it slowed down again. This happened a total of five times. We had to pull two more nets in after the first and then put all three back out.
I failed miserably at my purpose for going out on the boat. On average I take about 200 pictures, sometimes more if I’m really in the groove. I came home with 36 pictures and 10 of them were snapped while the boat was rocking so they were so blurry it looked like I had been consumed by white caps! So I have 26 pretty decent pictures to share with you guys and no more than that because I won’t be venturing back to the ocean anytime soon.
A Story Without Words 