"Nerved Up"

It has been a beautiful, but very hot, week on the water. Most summer days when it's hot on land, lobstermen are eagerly seabound in hopes of catching a sea breeze to satisfy their low heat tolerance. Mainers hate heat as a rule. Myself included. However, there hasn't been a breeze on the water. Not so much as a breath. It feels rather eery, actually. The calm before the storm.

The boys were all het up about the coming hurricane today. The radio was a constant flurry of nervous exchanges about shifting gear to deeper water, checking mooring lines, and securing floats. In fact we put in a 14-hour day just to get all of the gear shifted. Traps that are sitting on shoal, rocky bottom when a hurricane hits are likely to get pummeled hard by the surf. Therefore, the wise fishermen shift their traps out to deeper water and on muddy bottom, where there will be less impact. Cap commented that come Monday we would see the consequences of not shifting gear. He claimed that those who neglected their gear leaving it in shallow water would find their gear all tied up in a ball with other lines after the storm.

I admit I was skeptical at the beginning of the day. Cap told me that a Category 2 hurricane (Earl) was expected to hit Cape Cod on Friday night. He said there was a possibility that they might evacuate the Cape. I was planning on driving down to the Rhode Island seaboard for a weekend of cajun dancing to celebrate my 25th birthday on Friday, so I suppose I was in a state of denial. There was still a good possibility that Earl would veer east, missing New England and crash into the Canadian shore instead. I was selfishly hoping for the latter scenario.

Cap Jr. called Cap on the radio mid-day. He said he was all "nerved-up" about the storm. He said he was headed in to secure his property in the harbor. Jr. had witnessed a mass exodus of all of the seals that normally loll around on Webber's Ledge. Fishermen were reporting that on a short set the catch had been half of what it was days before. Although the weathermen were still wishy-washy, the marine animals sensed danger on the horizon. Everyone was preparing for the worst. My hopes of hearing some of the best cajun musicians in the country in a few days began to deteriorate with the building hype of the hurricane. All we can do is brace ourselves and see what comes of the storm. It never hurts to be prepared.