Is a book about a month-long swordfishing trip captained by Linda Greenlaw aboard Hannah Boden with a crew of five men. She is made famous by Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm - a tragic account of six men aboard the doomed Andrea Gail (Hannah Boden’s sister ship).

[pp 245] Readers of the Perfect Storm are curious about my experience in the Halloween gale, and are often disappointed when I explain to them….this is not to downplay the severity of the storm.

Because fishing, especially commercial fishing is a very physical, writing must be very challenging for Linda as it exhorts her a different sort of energy.

The Hungry Ocean is a delightful read. Linda Greenlaw is funny, in fact, she’s sarcastically funny.

{Since I read the book first, before I blog about it, I think I’ve lost some excitement and the momentum in relating to you the joy of reading this book.}

Bob Brown

Linda’s fondness for her boss, Bob Brown (who owns both Hannah Boden and Andrea Gail) is a typical worker-boss admiration. She understands why her boss is hard on the external, but as time goes by, and she no longer works for him (she has chosen lobstering, inshore, on her own boat), she managed to get a glimpse Brown’s personal charm and they become good friends.

[pp242-243] I knew I hadn’t heard the end of Bob’s disaproval of my decision to head to shore. Sitting back in the captain’s chair …. I contemplated my love/hate relationship with my boss….Bob would have been delighted if I had reported both fish hold and bait freezer full of fish, and that we were now attempting to fill our bunks. In fact, Bob probably would have suggested packing a few under the galley table.

I didn’t actually love Bob Brown, I mused. What I did love was the knowledge that there existed a man like him…he certainly would have stayed and fished on, despite all the logical reasons to go home. Price, quality,crew, full hold be damned. Bob simply would have stayed simply because he was slaying fish…the consumate fisherman, a purist.

[pp3] Bob flew his own plane and was a top notch mechanical and electrical troubleshooter. As for determination- he would take a boat to Mars if he thought there might be a fish to be caught there.

My only real problem with Bob, was that he demanded so much of people. He naively expected everyone he came into contact with to think and act on his level.

Sad moment: [pp257] I reached the top of the ladder and turned to see Bob jacking himself up the rungs with one hand…The sixty year old came up the ladder with the speed and agility of a young boy….He turned to his righ, bent slightly at his waist, released his grip from the ladder, and fell… the rest is a blur. An ambulance, emergency room, tests, hemorrhaging of the brain, swelling, head trauma, and a helicopter ride to Boston…

Linda, on being a woman

She is always amused of people treating her as a woman in the fishing industry.

[pp11] …”I just wanted to say hello. I’ve never met a fisherwoman before. Good Luck.”

“Thanks. You too”, I said, and shook my my head at his use of the word fisherwoman…I can never understand why people think I would be offended to be called a fisherman. I have often been confused by terms such as “male nurse…”

She acknowledge the male-female ego and steer around it like she steers her boat.

[pp7] No self-respecting fisherman will allow himself to be outworked by a woman; it is a fact that brought the best out of my crew for years.

Most fishermen are wary of second thoughts. Linda’s firm in her decision, but sometimes she tries to stretch her luck, too:

[pp32] Ringo:Linda, can I run up to Dunkin Donuts…

Linda: No. We’re going to leave ….you’re not leaving this boat.

Linda: Hey Bob, I need to run to the store for a Chap stick.

Bob: Oh no, you’re not leaving this boat…

Linda: I can’t go a month without Chap Stick. My lips will never be the same…

Bob: Here, take mine…

(Someone else): What would he have done if she said she needed Tampax.

Linda on superstitions

Linda is a practical person, but she still pay attention to some of the superstition held by most sea-farers.

[pp93] Strange acting waterfowls are a bad omen, a sure warning to batten down the hatches…in seventeen years of watching birds at sea, I have never witnessed them doing anything other than acting like birds.

[pp100]…All captains find comfort in rising barometer and the sound of the stylus scratching across the paper of the fax machine. In addition, I still watch the birds. And if I ever see one doing the back-stroke, I’ll know all hell is about to break loose.

Other taboo:

Pork: Pigs and water just don’t jive {Reminds me of M’sian: Suara you dengan baju you tak jive – One contestant imitating Fauziah Latiff}

Bananas: considered bad luck on the boat.

Friday: Sailing on Friday is forbidden.

Hatch cover upside down: A premonition of an upside-down boat.

Blue: Unlucky color for any boat.

Yellow: Not acceptable as hull color.

Whistling on board: A real no-no

No 13: Is always pronounced ‘12+1’

Women: are Jonahs – bad luck, aboard a boat. {It’s ironic that Linda Greenlaw is a woman fishboat captain } [pp134] An old timer appeared to be logging my comings and goings, greeting me at the dock with “Hello Jonah!” I always refer to him as “the Ancient Mariner”…I always offered the old man fish from the top of the trip…perhaps the fish given stood as a concrete evidence that there does exist a woman who is no worse luck than some men aboard a boat and some superstitions are obsolete.

Rejecting the superstitions: A friend once suggested that I paint my own boat blue and named her “Thirteen Whistling Pigs”. I might not be as superstitious as some, but I am not crazy.

Linda on fishing mentality

[pp194] The crux of fishing mentality is to be suspicious of good fortune, be it in the form of prolonged sunshine or copious pounds of fish, never accepting it at face value. Some fishermen maintain their status quo; like not shower or shave during the course of favourable fishing. Some do the reverse to retain their golden horseshoe – by chasing off the predators; in one instance, her crew resort to sacrificing a blue-shark to the sea.

Linda on lying

Even though some says fishermen having the knack to constantly spinning a yarn (they usually lied about to cover up something, like, a possible big catch, so that others won’t encroach their territory), it’s best not to be caught lying as experienced first hand by Linda (in her case, it’s lying by omission). For that, she’s been called Captain Sandbagger.

White lie: Linda admitted that she should have lied to the Coast Guards that one of her crew’s condition as possible coma, instead of dead. Since the US and Canadian Coast Guard refuse to air-lift her crew dead body, she had to lower the dead body on top frozen bait fish (hence the expression “dead as a mackerel” )in a bait freezer and return to port {without catching any fish} to unload the dead body.

Go find and read this book- wonderful adventure full of delights.

---