The
I tried my hand at deep sea fishing this weekend. Actually I tried out other pats of my body too, notably my stomach and semicircular canals. My hands were up to the challenge but not so for my canals and stomach.
Okinawa is bordered by the South China Sea and
Of course both sides are heavily involved with fishing. For
this trip we left from Awase on the Pacific side. The Pacific is so named
because when the European explores “discovered” it was peaceful in comparison
to the
The tropical cyclone is a low-pressure system which derives its energy primarily from evaporation from the sea in the presence of high winds and lowered surface pressure and the associated condensation in convective clouds concentrated near its center. Mid-latitude storms (low pressure systems with associated cold fronts, warm fronts, and occluded fronts) primarily get their energy from the horizontal temperature gradients that exist in the atmosphere. Structurally, tropical cyclones have their strongest winds near the earth's surface while mid-latitude storms have their strongest winds in the upper part of the storm
These storms are named hurricane or typhoon depending on what hemisphere they form. Hurricane/Typhoon John lasted 31 days as it traveled both the Northeast and Northwest Pacific basins during August and September 1994. (It formed in the Northeast Pacific, reached hurricane force there, moved across the dateline and was renamed Typhoon John, and then finally re-curved back across the dateline and renamed Hurricane John again
Hurricanes are notorious in the literature we read from
I say all this in preparation for my tale. We were 16 strong and left on two 45 foot Japanese fishing boats. We were an eclectic collection of Air Force and Navy dentists one Navy ER doctor (good always to have along) my friend Kathryn, a school teacher and a lawyer (yes. I know the joke).
To do this we assembled at 4 AM. That meant I had to get up at 3 AM. By the time we got to the dock and launched it was 6 AM. We had a short weather discussion and though it was going to be choppy we went anyway. I later learned that if the winds were one mile an hour stronger we would not have been able to go.
We went out about 20 miles to fish and that took about 1-1/2
hours. The seas were pretty intense on the way out. About a dozen times the
boat was airborne and propeller cavitations were frequent. It was a great ride
with the salt spray in your face and the bumps were like an E-ticket ride at
I had taken two meclizine tablets. I used it successful when I went whale watching and although most on that boat were sick I was fine. This time I was doing well too, until we actually arrived where we were to fish. With the engine off and no forward momentum I turned as green as the ocean. I had my pole in the water all of ten minutes when it hit. For the rest of the voyage I was on my back or pitched over the side. There is a reason I’m in the Air Force and not the Navy: I ain’t no sailor.
Now there are three levels of intensity when it comes to motion sickness. Level one is regular seasickness. At level two you are so sick you are afraid that you’ll die. At level three you’re so sick you’re afraid that you won’t die. I don’t know hee I fit in that spectrum but I was pretty miserable. Mecilizine is not supposed to make you sleepy but thankfully it does so you can zone out. I fell asleep on the deck for long periods of time. It was an escape tactic that worked. Somehow my shit cam out of my pants and the bottom flapped open. I knew that my stomach was getting toasty from the sun and that I had sun-block in my pack 15 feet away but there was no way I was maneuvering those 15 feet. I figured I’d deal with the sunburn later.
By the way most of the others on my boat had some level of seasickness including as I was told our Japanese skipper.
On the way back to port the seas flattened out and experienced the only good thing about sea sickness. It eventually does end. Our boat did poorly we only got 12 fish all different types of tuna and none of them were very big. Since we pooled the fish I got one to show for my efforts and the 10,000 Yen it cost for the trip. The other boat did well; they got 5 Mahi-mahi and 29 fish in all. Some of thir guy did this for sport because thy had full freezers from previous trips so I got one Mahi and a couple more tuna.
In all we were ten hours on the water. I went home and cleaned fish. I feasted on sashimi that night and grilled Mahi steaks the next night. I started my Ibprophen right away because I knew that I’d gotten too much sun on my stomach.
The next day I went to the newly renovated zoo. This is
Golden Week, a week that the Japanese celebrate a lot of holidays and most take
the entire week off. Since Okinawa is their equivalent of
As the day progressed my sunburn bloomed and by the evening I was hurting. Unknown to me it was only the prologue. Each day got worse. By Wednesday it was impossible to sit down and bend or wear a belt. Thankfully I was in the OR that day and worked standing up in my pajamas. I think they actually call it a scrub suit. It wasn’t until Thursday night that I started to get some measure of comfort. I’m now looking forward to the peeling and itching.
Deep sea fishing may not be the thing that pegs my fun meter.
Ray
The Day’s Catch
You don’t have to know Japanese to “get” this sign