Niec to meet you, and a fellow groundfisherman at that..It was hard to give up the boat, and I made damn sure I wasnt at the marina to watch her sail away

About a month ago, I had a lady visiting with me from Seattle who also as Parkinsons, and she wanted to see Cape Cod before she went back home, so we spend a day down there..The guy who bought my boat was from Wellfleet, and when we got into Wellfleet I saw a sign that said ""Wellfleet Town Dock"..Im sitting at the light thinking...Hmmmm..I wonder?..So when the light turneed green, I took a left and went looking for the town dock..And low and behold, there she was, tied up over there..I got very emotional, and it caught me by surprise..You can sell a boat, but you cant erase the memories, and the camaraderie, and the brotherhood I shared with my fellow fishermen..As you know, go down to any fishermans dock, and you will find a colorful cast of characters that you will never forget, that do some of the most comical things you can imagine..Some out of necessity, and others cuz its just plain the way they are..There was this one guy who probably invented the word "frugal"..He would pick something out of the trash and make it work for years..Me..I always bought brand new stuff, and Jimmy's junk would out last my new stuff..One time he had a vibration in the shaft, and he loosened all the motor mount bolts, started up the engine, and put her in gear, an drove wedges underneath the motor mounts until the vibration stopped, got some shims and bolted it back down..Only he could get away with something like that!!

Steve, I'm so glad you joined us here.

I get the first autograph for inviting you.

Thank you for coming over, Steve. I am happy to meet you.

I grew up on the Oregon coast and I knew many fishermen - most were trawlers there, like you. I think that is one reason I identify with the crabbers on the show, they remind me of people I knew and seeing the boats in the harbor brings back memories.

I am so jealous that you met Capt Phil and Jonathan. They are cool guys! I remember the episode where the Hillstrand brothers took their boat over by where they buried their dad and saluted him. That was so touching! I also love how Jonathan and Andy switch off captain duties, but I forget which one does king crab and which one does opies.

My hubby and I wait all year for the new episodes to come on.
I hate the night it's on though. This past Tuesday I had to choose between NCIS, Biggest Loser and Deadliest catch. They were all on at the same time.

Luckily I was able to see Deadliest Catch later that night.

BTW, Phil is my favorite.


DAY

No. Nonono.

No!

Here I was going to start a thread on 'the other reality TV shows'.

Just saw commercials for my brand of reality TV. Dangerous Catch starts a new season this week on Discovery and Axe Men on the History Channel. Love these shows! Even though I'm not a big fan of eating crabs... or getting splinters from firewood.

These 2 shows cut through the soap opera aftertaste of the other ones. If these guys make a mistake they don't get voted off an island or can't get a record deal.

They get fired and have to find another way to support their family or worse yet, killed.

Ice Road Truckers is another good one but it's done for the year.

Yes..I remember that episode..Very touching!!..Those are exactly the kinds of memories I talked about in my post, where you cant erase the memories, the camaraderie, or the brotherhood

So Steve...how many can you new boat hold?

What's the longest you were ever out to sea?

My new boat holds about three people comfortably

The longest Ive ever been out to sea was two weeks

I used to be a deck hand on a Tuna Seiner out of Fairhaven Ma, from 1978-1980 and we would roam the ocean for schools of tuna from The Outer Banks of North Carolina to Cape Cod Bay..We would begin the season in June, and end around November..When we were fishing schoolies, 30 lb to 200 lb tunas we never knew when we were coming home when we left the dock..We caught them with a huge net that was a half mile long, and 240' feet deep..It had rings every so many fathoms on the bottom of the net, that a cable ran through to "purse" the net up..We would surround the whole school of fish, and if they didnt escape before we got the net pursed up, we had them..Here is a picture of my new boat, and some pictures of tuna fishing



This picture below is a tuna seiner in Long Island Sound



Me throwing a tuna in an almost full fish hold..(100 tons)



Setting the net..The seine skiff has one the end of the net, and holds tension on its end so we can make the long circle around the school of fish..Notice the cable going into the water..It is attached to the seine skiff, and when we complete the set, we start hauling back on both ends of that long cable, that goes through all the rings attached to the bottom of the net, and it closes the bottom of the net like the draw strings on a womans purse..The top of the net has styrofoam corks every so many feet, to keep the top of the net floating

Yum, tuna!!

Steve, you make it so much more real than watching a tv show. It really adds to it.

I never realized the nets where so huge. Or that a tuna could be 200lbs.

Have you named your new boat?

I love all those pictures. Thank you for sharing.