Exciting dock morning...

(backdated)
Docks this morning was quite exciting, with the end of last night's storm rolling through. It was a carryover day, so all I needed were two squid samples. I was surprised that anyone actually went out in the weather last night, but several boats actually did. I heard one crew member say that there was so much lightning around them, they hadn't needed a light boat. I certainly would not wanted to be out working in it; someone mentioned to me, well what about the big ships that are out there, a storm doesn't stop them. However, these are small boats and the crew is actually out working on the water (I'm thinking of a skiff setting a net). On big freighter, it's like being inside a fairly large building. You're not supposed to be out on a lake fishing during a thunderstorm - is the ocean somehow different? You'd still be the tallest thing poking out of the water, and therefore more likely to attract a strike, aren't you?

Anyhow, the unloading crew was of the opinion that fishermen are crazy - which is the general consensus at the best of times. Thunder continued to rumble the rest of morning, causing everyone to flinch at especially loud strikes, and exclaim at the lightning. One strike caused the lights inside the market to flicker for a few seconds, making Sammy howl, "Nooo, the power can't go out, we don't have a generator." The power's gone off before - making unloading the boats impossible, since all the small Coastal Pelagic Species are sucked out of the hold with a pump. The boats do have refrigeration systems, but some are better than others and the quality declines the longer it's held on the boats. Fortunately, the lights came back on and all was well.

The captain of one of the boats I sampled is very anti-Fish and Game, and ignored me anytime I approached to ask his fishing information. He'd either see me walking toward him and jump on his boat and into the wheelhouse, or stalk off down the dock in the other direction. Usually, he's got a rant saved up and if we just listen to him bellyache for a while, he tell us what we need to know afterward. Today, he just didn't want to talk to anyone, so I gave up and just got the info from the dealer. He'd been fishing in the same place as the previous boat, as I suspected, and the dealers often have a more accurate hail weight (that is, estimated, before it's actually weighed) anyway.

I still got poured on several times and was rather damp by the time I got back to the office. When am I going to learn to leave a change of clothes here?

I was late getting home last night because I had to take a bunch of photos of the approaching storm, which I stuck on DA so I'll just give you some links.

Sunset Beach Watertower House

Sunset Beach Watertower House v.2

Rainbow Palm in a Pot

Rainbow - Huntington Harbor

Exciting dock morning...

(backdated)
Docks this morning was quite exciting, with the end of last night's storm rolling through. It was a carryover day, so all I needed were two squid samples. I was surprised that anyone actually went out in the weather last night, but several boats actually did. I heard one crew member say that there was so much lightning around them, they hadn't needed a light boat. I certainly would not wanted to be out working in it; someone mentioned to me, well what about the big ships that are out there, a storm doesn't stop them. However, these are small boats and the crew is actually out working on the water (I'm thinking of a skiff setting a net). On big freighter, it's like being inside a fairly large building. You're not supposed to be out on a lake fishing during a thunderstorm - is the ocean somehow different? You'd still be the tallest thing poking out of the water, and therefore more likely to attract a strike, aren't you?

Anyhow, the unloading crew was of the opinion that fishermen are crazy - which is the general consensus at the best of times. Thunder continued to rumble the rest of morning, causing everyone to flinch at especially loud strikes, and exclaim at the lightning. One strike caused the lights inside the market to flicker for a few seconds, making Sammy howl, "Nooo, the power can't go out, we don't have a generator." The power's gone off before - making unloading the boats impossible, since all the small Coastal Pelagic Species are sucked out of the hold with a pump. The boats do have refrigeration systems, but some are better than others and the quality declines the longer it's held on the boats. Fortunately, the lights came back on and all was well.

The captain of one of the boats I sampled is very anti-Fish and Game, and ignored me anytime I approached to ask his fishing information. He'd either see me walking toward him and jump on his boat and into the wheelhouse, or stalk off down the dock in the other direction. Usually, he's got a rant saved up and if we just listen to him bellyache for a while, he tell us what we need to know afterward. Today, he just didn't want to talk to anyone, so I gave up and just got the info from the dealer. He'd been fishing in the same place as the previous boat, as I suspected, and the dealers often have a more accurate hail weight (that is, estimated, before it's actually weighed) anyway.

I still got poured on several times and was rather damp by the time I got back to the office. When am I going to learn to leave a change of clothes here?

I was late getting home last night because I had to take a bunch of photos of the approaching storm, which I stuck on DA so I'll just give you some links.

Sunset Beach Watertower House

Sunset Beach Watertower House v.2

Rainbow Palm in a Pot

Rainbow - Huntington Harbor