Most of the time, I blog-hop to find a good title on books to read. So that I don’t have to crack my head on what next to read. When a title is found, I run the web-based OPAC to see if the book is available for loan at the library. If it is, I’ll rush to library to borrow it.

(My oh my. Sometimes I wish I’d taken Informational Science instead of Computer Science, for my degree. What the heck!)

The above title is mentioned in of of Pak Adib’s blog posting. Thank you, Pak Adib.

This book is written by Junger intended as a piece of journalism – as complete an account as possible about the last days of six men disappear at sea on board Andrea Gail. Something that can never be fully known (Allahu a’lam). Junger recreates their story based on interviews (personal, or via phone) on people who had been through similar situations (but survived).

The word perfect which make up the title is in meteorological sense, a storm that could not possibly have been worse. The word perfect is NOT a disrespect to the men who lost their lives at sea, or the people who still grieve for them.

The irony of commercial fishing

Everything about commercial fishing have always been extreme. The fishermen work for a month (20 hours/day) and then go home to celebrate a week straight. Fishermen do not earn the same kind of money most people do. They are either busted, or a third quarter short of being a millionaire. The sea is their first wife. The rest fall second. The lure of the money makes people fish. That’s why they spend ten months out of a year inside 70-feet of steel plate.

[pp34]But even if they bring a schooner with a hold full of salt to a port, several schooners pulling into a port at once could saturate the market and ruin the efforts of anyone following. In 1890s, 200 tons of halibut had to be dumped into Gloucester Harbour because the schooner carrying the load had been beaten into port by six other vessels. All because of the force of the market for fresh fish.

The sea

[pp48]Strangely, the sea doesn’t get tedious to look at – wave trains converge and crisscross in patterns that have never happened before and will never happen again. It can take hours to tear one’s eye away.

[pp54] Dawn at sea, grey void emerging out of a vaster black one. “The earth was without form and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Whoever wrote that knew the sea- knew the pale emergence of the world every morning, a world that contain absolutely nothing, not one thing.

[pp15]”It’s wide open- I got all the solitude in the world, “ says Charlie Reed. Nobody pressurin’ me about nothin’. And I see things other people don’t get to see- whale breaching right beside me, porpoises followin’ the boat. I’ve caught shit they don’t even have in books – really weird shit, monstrous looking things. And when I walk down the street in town, everyone’s respectful to me: ‘Hi Cap, how ya doin’ Cap.’ It’s nice to sit down and have a 70-year old man say, ‘Hi Cap.’ It’s a beautiful thing.

The instincts of fishermen

Commercial fishing is still one of the most dangerous pursuits in the USA. People get premonitions when they do jobs that could kill them. Even though people get premonitions all the time, the trick is when to pay attention and fear them.

[pp31]in 1871, a cook named James Nelson shipped aboard the schooner Sachem…One night he was awakened by a recurring dream and ran aft to tell the captain. For God sake, clear off the Banks, he begged. I’ve had my dream again. I’ve been shipwrecked twice after the dream.

The captain asked the dream was. I see women, dressed in white, standing in the rain, Nelson replied.

There was hardly a breath of wind. The captain was not impressed. He told Nelson to go back to bed. A while later a breeze sprang up. Within a hour it was blowing hard and the Sachem was hove-to under close-reefed foresail….

[pp] Fishermen avoid the dark of the moon when they plan their trips. No one knows why, but for several days before and after, the fish refuse to feed.

Commercial fishermen; the amateur marine biologists

The commercial fishing, or rather deep-sea fishing industry depended on many ‘agent’(s) (government agencies and gadgets) to assist them in their work and this make the fishermen amateur marine biologists.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA): The agency broadcasts wheater forecast, daily surface tempearature maps from whether satellites.

Thermocline scope: provide temperature readings at various depths.

Doppler: provide velocity and direction reading of subsurface currents at three different levels

Among the gadget for setting gear:

Highflyer:float and aluminium pole with a radar-reflecting square on top.Used on the fully-baited longline by the baiter. It bobs along the surface of the ocean and shows up very clearly on the radar screen.

Radio transmitter: Attached every eight-mile along the bait-line Has a big whip antenna tha broadcasts a low-frequency signal back to the boat. This allows the captain of a fishing boat to track the gear down it it parts off mid-string

The fishermen also provide government agencies involve in marine biology regulations by providing catch logs- statistics on every position fished, every set made, every fish caught. This allow marine biologists to assess the health of the fish stock. The catch logs provide inference on fish migratory patterns, demographic shifts,mortality rates, etc.

National Marine Fisheries Service – sends observers offshore to accompany fishing boat to gain better understanding the industry they’re regulating.

Andrea Gail:

72-feet long raked-stem, hard-chined western-rig swordfisherman.

Built in Panama City, Florida, 1978.

365-horsepower

Turbo-charged diesel engine

Top speed: 12 knots

Equipped with (onboard):

Seven type-one life preservers

Six Imperial survival suits

406-MHz Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)

121.5 MHz EPIRB

State-of-the-art electronics: radar, loran, single-sideband, VHF, weather track satellite receiver

Givens auto-inflating life raft

40miles of 700-lbs test monofilament line with thousands of hooks

Rooms for 5-tons of baitfish

An ice machine capable of making three tons of ice per day

Washer/dryer

Four-burner stove

Owner: Bob Brown (also owns Hannah Boden, skippered by a Colby College graduate; Linda Greenlaw)

Captain: Billy Tyne

Crew:

Alfred Pierre

Bobby Shatford

Micheal ‘Bugsy’ Moran

Dale ‘Murph’ Murphy

Adam Randall (withdrew, due to the funny feeling (instinct) he had about Andrea Gale, even though according to him Andrea Gale looked like she could take an aircraft carrier broadside)

Go read this book, if you want to find out the beauty of the sea. Or if you prefer to drool over George Clooney, go find the ‘Perferct Storm’ DVD or A VCD with DVD quality or whatever. As for me, I’d like to continue reading. I’ve been leaving page 57 to blog this, and I don’t want the track of my mind and the momentum of my reading to turn cold. See ya!