The res tech made this spear. It had a wooden handle, probably pine and probably it used to be a broom handle or a mop handle. It was trimmed and shaped and polished. For the tip he used a two and a half foot segment of stainless steel rod. Near the tip there was a hole. He jammed a smaller stainless steel piece through the hole and bent it back along the spear tip and sharpened the ends. It was very lethal looking. So one day we are down south near the latitude where it changes from the tropical zone to the temperate zone. The weather was fine. We did a “large volume station” there. That takes about 36 hours. When we weren’t working, we could hang out on deck and relax or sleep. This one day something unusual happened. The sea slowly became calmer and calmer until there was not even a hint of a wave anywhere. I shit you not. I went over to the railings and looked in the water and I could see my reflection in the ocean from ten feet up. It was so calm it was erie. That’s when I saw what the spear was for. When the ship stops for any length of time, it attracts creatures who want to eat and creatures who want to hide and not get eaten. First come the flying fish. Then after a while come the squid who want to eat the flying fish. Then come the Mahi Mahi who want to eat the squid. It was so clear you could see down deep into the ocean. That is when the res tech showed up with his spear. When a big Mahi Mahi swam under his spear, ker plunk, he speared it and hauled it in over the railing. Everyone vanished from the fan tail. I walked through the ship and everyplace where one could work, people were making spears. They used whatever materials they could find. One guy made a tip out of an old pruning saw. I bet there wasn’t a mop with an intact handle to be found anywhere. People caught maybe fifteen big Mahi Mahi. Alex the cook came out on deck to check out the catch. We asked him if he would cook up some of the fish for us and he made a deal with us. He would cook one and keep one. I wondered why Alex would want seven or eight of these fine fish and someone told me that he and his wife ran a sort of unofficial orphanage in Tijuana. He was intending to use that fish to feed his crew at home. How cool is that?
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 05:53:59 +0000
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