January and it's chilly but not freezing. When the sun is out it's down right lovely and it's lovely today. We've had some wonderful visits these past couple of days. Met new friends and old friends here at the dock in Oriental. Yesterday we had five visitors in the foc'sle before 10 AM. Everyone talking about their adventures on the water. It's music to our ears. Jay and Sarah live aboard the Sea Angel and are salty to be sure. They have crewed and cooked aboard schooners, Roseway and others, They have sailed from West Coast through the Panama Canal and up the east coast to Maine and now they are on their own private sailing adventure. Then surprise / surprise we hear someone calling out across the dock, "Hey Dave, It's Brad Pease from Chatham." He and his wife C. Louise Moye (a fine artist) are sailing the Sea Chanty to Florida and hopefully to the Bahamas. We visited their boat. It has that WOW factor, wood, traditional, classic. A real beauty. We had a delightful visit with them first at lunch at the M & M's and then along with Randy & Ellen for BOGO Pizza at Silo's. This place has been terrific to and for us. Our days fly by, we get to visit with great people and most of them are sailors. Dave also gets to talk with the fishermen from the shrimp boats that surround us. This small wharf is a place where if you take out your fish here - you can get your ice and tie up here at no cost. There is a steady coming and going of boats, shrimpers and draggers. When the shrimp season is over, they go for flounder and/ or fluke. When the flounder leave, they change over to sea scallops. Just like it used to be at home in Provincetown.
In the North east we have the Gulf of Maine closed, sector allocations, days-at-sea, and now the National Marine Fisheries has added a cost to the boat of $710. per day that you go out for ground fish - if an observer goes with you. And you have no choice, you have to take the observer, after you notify big-brother 48 hours in advance of going fishing, they decide if you have to take an observer and if you do, the boat has to pay $710 to NMF to take him/her. For us that means we will never be able to go fishing, we only make about $1000 for the day, then take out expenses (fuel etc) add in the new observer cost and you are left with nothing. If we are lucky we may break even. There is a law suit going on, many many Congressmen and women, senators, scientists, and fishermen have asked that NMFS not put this burden on an already overly regulated industry. All pleas have fallen on deaf ears- thus the law suit. Dave and I both agree that this is another tactic of NMFS to get rid of fishermen and their boats. No small boat owner will survive. The bigger boats will pay, maybe not like it, but they'll cough up the 710 bucks. We are definitely a changing industry, a changing country and a changing world. It's just that I don't particularly like how it is shaping up. I don't even recognize it as the America I grew up in. I've never been very political, but I may have to start shouting, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Remember that line, I keep hearing it said and it worries me. We do need to rethink where we want this country to be in 5 or 10 years. Will only the biggest corporations be allowed to own the water, the land and the businesses? It seems to be where we are heading.
I'm so glad Dave and I got to take the Richard & Arnold south this year. No freezing lines to deal with, no severe storms causing the boat to be pitched against the wharf and no filling out the daily log books for NMFS. We had to keep our tracking device turned on at all times even though we are not fishing, not even in the northeast. We had to put a new device onboard (cost $3000) because we are considered transiting. Oh and it costs us $69. a month to track us. We're not fishing so we are paying for absolutely nothing. We'd like to get the federal permits off the boat, but there are so many rules about that, that we're afraid to make a move. We would most likely end up with no permits, no money and no retirement.
Thanks for letting me vent. Fair winds, stay safe, warm and dry.
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