A seafaring holiday

Day 1: a car for an hour, a ferry for an hour, three buses took two hours and finally the harbor of Menemsha, on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The Richard & Arnold at the dock and Dave waiting, I was happy to see that not much has changed - the houses, the boats and the people as I remembered, inviting and warm. Actually it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer season, but I had the most refreshing swim at the beach near the harbor, looking back toward the mainland, west facing. The water was cool, clear and salty. Dinner was fish and lobster, of coarse. Day 2: Awake at 3AM. Dave started the engine and let go the lines. It felt like the middle of the night, so I stayed in the bunk ---Big mistake. An hour later I found myself sea-sick and unable to stand up. I lie on the deck like a wet fish and roll around most of the day wanting my headache and queezyness to go away. Every ten minutes I ask Dave "how much longer?" The gods of the sea looked down on me with pity and we arrived back at the dock around noon. Not bad. I changed into a bathing suit and went first for a swim then for a shower. Very refreshing. Dave and I ate lunch on shore, on the dock . A cup of chowder and saltines for me. A seafood sandwich for Dave that he called a "chimmmy-chonga". A friendly fisherman Tim, who owns and fishes the old 'Bottom Scratcher' renamed 'Four Kids' gave Dave a ride to a pharmacy to buy bonine for me. There was no Dramamine left in the whole village at Menemsha Harbor. I'll bet I'm not the first mariner to go begging for it.
Day 3: Much better, the stuff works. We headed out again at 4AM but this time I got up and went on deck to see the night turn to day as we headed south toward Gay Head Lighthouse and past the tip of the island.  Noman's Island lay as a grey lump on the horizon off in the distance. The sea was running 5-6 feet, it was rougher than the day before, but the pill was working it's magic and I was able to help a little with the sorting of fish. The piles are small and Dave had the deck cleared in less than fifteen minutes. The fish were slow coming and he decided to move, closer inside, not as rollie and easier for me. We bruise easily at our age. Dave ate eggs and sausages, I lived on water and crackers. The regulations allow for 300 pounds of Fluke per boat, per day with five days allowed each week and so we were back at the dock by one o'clock. I went for a swim, showered  and had lunch with my honey and then with mixed feeling, I hopped the bus at 4PM, then the ferry and then the car. Dave calls me "a tough lady". I was asleep in my own bed by 10PM- but recovering took two days. It was a memorable three day holiday and you know what? I'll have to do it again - I forgot to take pictures.  

Me and the Provincetown Blessing of the fleet

judy.dutra.96@facebook.com

Off To Martha's Vineyard Island

Posts have been non-existant due to change-over in compters, i'm still working it out. Meanwhile I will be joining Dave on board our sweet new/old boat. I look forward to the visit. Dave said, "Bring your draimimine." I know it's a joke but I will most likely feel queezy at some point in the trip. He never gets sea-sick and that just isn't fair. I haven't been away from home since driving  back and forth to Gloucester last winter. This time I'm leaving the car in Hyannis, it will be like old times -traveling on my own to far off places. MVI is not far, as the crow flys, but all day on car, boat and bus will be all the adventure I need. Events at the Blessing of the Fleet in Provincetown at the end of June will stay with us forever. Family, friends, loved ones gathered to share a space on board our Richard & Arnold. I'll post pictures taken by Steven Kennedy from onboard the boat. There's one of me that I kinda like, I'm not fond of having my picture taken. Dave on the other hand never takes a bad photo. The harbor where I'm heading will most likely be baking in the sun like every place in America right now. I remember being in downtown Ciaro in 1992 and it was 120 degrees in the shade. Move slow, drink water and stay out of the noon day sun. I also remember being in Menemsha, a tiny bowl that has no cell phone reception, when it felt just as hot. I'm going to get away from my responsibilities and to feel the water under me again.  I'll fish with  my honey for three days, from 5AM to whenever we catch our daily limit-which doesn't take long since the quota is so small, but that's another story. dave and I try to avoid the conflict with overzealous burourcrats, we just say, "yes'm and do their bidding." It's a sore subject and one better left to tell in the book, 'Nautical Twilight'. It's all there in black & white. So now we we have an 80 year old hull that may one day be a sailing / fishing yacht. Or maybe we will have to take all the fishing gear off and sell our permits to some big company, who can afford to buy our share. I know for sure that our Richard & Arnold will out live Dave and me, and most likely all the people in all the offices that have been hired to keep an eye on one old man and one old boat

The Richard and Arnold heading out, this time to Woods Hole then on to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Sound to chase the summer flounder. In the two weeks before this picture was taken Dave added a layer of fiberglass cloth and resin over the doghouse and forward deck, the hatch lip was lowered by four inches and a new cover added. Doors to below deck now swing open and are louvered. We drove to NJ and back with a net reel and doors. Dave changed doors, but then changed them again - put his old ones back on, the net needed the bigger door. Each door weighs about 600 pounds. I watched as he used a sky hook to put them into the back of his old truck, using a three part tackles system on a gin-pole. Nets were changed, the squid net for the 'flat-net', he had a beauty built by the Levin's in Fairhaven since the last one he had built by them lasted many, many years and caught its share of flat-fish. He stopped squid fishing because the boat's muffler was leaking fumes into the wheelhouse. The old muffler was removed and a new elbow, pipe and stainless steel muffler were added, thanks Wellfleet Welding - Matt.  This all takes place before he can even set the net. Oh and he changed the oil in the engine. Lots of small issues taken care of, all good, all to keep the boat safe and catching. Let's hope this will be a good Fluke season.

Fishing is what Dave loves to do and he's now doing it with our fishing/yacht. Our vessel will be leaving the wharf again for a June Fluke season off Martha's Vineyard. The daily catch allowance is small, 300 pounds, but we can live with that. There is hardly any fishing left around here, I mean that the cod allocations have been caught up, there are lots of back door dealings as far as the yellow-tail flounder go, the rules have pretty much overwhelmed most fishing businesses and the lobster gear has moved in for the season. The latest scheme for dividing up the fish - the current trend, it's not a good one. First of all it was based on a time frame that did not take into account the years leading up to allocation. Too many people have been pushed out of the fishing business using faulty data and over zealous regulators. The control and money are now in the hands of a few and they can sell allocation to whomever they choose. It's the thirty year cycle - weirs, dorymen with hooks, gillnets and draggers, harpooners and hand-liners- after thirty years no one will remember what the broo-haha over catch shares was all about and no one will remember when men were free to fish the way they wanted. We hope to leave all the bureaucracy at the wharf when we cast off the lines, catch a few fish. If the price stays up we'll have a good summer.   I have been busy writing, speaking, and spending time meeting lots of friends who tell me they enjoyed reading my book, 'Nautical Twilight'. I will be in the author's tent in Wellfleet for the Wellfleet Harborfest on the pier at 10 am Sat.- June 16, 2012 - and will talk about the book. I'm not used to tooting my own horn - but so many people have been telling me how much they've loved it. It's a small slice of our lives and a look at what was once the Provincetown fishing fleet. I have been invited to speak at the Eldredge Library in Chatham,MA at 2 pm on Thursday, June 21                     ALSO Dave and I will be participating in many of the events at the Provincetown Portuguese Festival and the 65th Blessing of the Fleet, June 21-24. visit their web page: www.provincetownportuguesefestival.com  I will be sharing a table with Nancy Bloom on Ryder Street all day Friday and Saturday. Stop and say hello.   Dave has promised to bring the boat back for that weekend- he's not allowed to fish for fluke on Fridays and Saturdays anyway, don't ask me why. The Richard & Arnold will be in the parade of boats on Sunday, this is our 31st with the R&A, but we had lots of blessings and parties with the 'Wildflower' back in the 1970's. Looks like June is going to be a fun month.   Thank you one and all

Dave brought the Richard & Arnold back to Provincetown, not that he wanted to stop catching squid but because there is work to be done that requires his attention: he added fiberglass cloth and resin to deck to stop leaks from the top, there are no leaks from the bottom now! Dave will replace an old leaky muffler and some metal pipe as well.  A new net has been ordered form Levin in Fairhaven,MA for the up coming Fluke season and we just returned from a two day trip to New Jersey to pick up an aluminum net reel, along with two winches, and doors (the metal slabs that hold the net open). We borrowed our son's truck and a friend's trailer to carry the gear, I'd forgotten how stressful travel on America's highways can be, especially when towing a 20 ft trailer. We witnessed the most bizarre traffic accident on our way onto the George Washington Bridge: traffic was at a crawl - stop and go - lanes narrowing and funneling from four down to two, construction on the left, bright plastic orange cones forcing cars to the right and this small car squished itself against a big truck, literally ran into the massive truck going less than 5 miles an hour like it was going to push it out of the way -  instead of stopping and waiting for the truck to pass, or running into the plastic cone - the car pushed against a truck 10 times its size. Dave and I couldn't believe our eyes. We were able to scoot around it because we were in back of the truck. Some people just shouldn't be driving. We were happy to arrive in Pt. Pleasant, NJ where there still is a fishing fleet, anywhere there are fishing boats feels like home. Everyone was helpful and we had the trailer loaded in an hour. I spent a couple of summers with my family when I was a kid in our two week rental at the beach in Point Pleasant. We spent the night and walked the boardwalk along the Jersey Shore, the first time for Dave and a return for me - some sixty years later. My how time flies. Back home safe and ready to tackle the muffler, its priority. After that if there is time before Fluke season, Dave will cut the old net reel off and lift it from the boat. The new one will be mounted, bolted and welded in place. Sounds easy when I write about it but nothing about fishing or the boat is ever really easy, but I think Dave would rather be welding on a new net reel than driving Interstate 95.  

Squid, squid and more squid. Today in Nantucket Sound approximately 20 boats are fishing and wishing for squid. The Richard & Arnold is doing its share. I find it amazing that one old man can keep up with boats that have crewmen 20 years younger than Dave. Back in the 1970's and 80's there were hundreds of boat all vying for the product. Today our fleets are so diminished that on most days there is not a boat to be seen on the horizon. The sad fact is that we were better off when we had many small boats instead of a few larger ones. America imports over 85 % of its fish and now we are selling our 'catch shares' to the highest bidder. Most likely our resource of fresh fish will be owned by Walmart or investors from China. Dave remains fishing because he feels that no one, not even our government should be allowed to force us out of business. The sad fact is that the younger generation of fishermen who have been given all the allocation - will never know what freedom is. They will never be able to fish when and where they want. They will always have to answer to the government, where we as the senior generation of fishermen had incentive, camaraderie and answered to a higher power.  Yes, the boat is like a new vessel, handles beautifully, feels strong, but the fishery is ghoulish, lacks ingenuity and is stifling from overbearing government regulation. The catch share system was designed to fail and in its wake will remove hundreds of small fishing businesses. It seems to be working. The men who made the sacrifices in the name of sustainability have been pushed aside by a generation who doesn't have a clue what it was like to compete for the fish, who shared a common bond, who knew true freedom.