The Old Man and the Sea
It’s taken a bit for me to write this down, and it’s a little belated due to that, but I had to find the right words to say.
Because of my father, a lot of the things I enjoy today, I enjoy because my he taught me how to enjoy them, and wanted to enjoy them with me. Even though he didn’t read (the only exception to this was Louis L’Amour), he loved science fiction and fantasy, and westerns. Oh, and movies. He loved his movies. I would remember the times, growing up, he would wake me up at 2am, because there was a Godzilla movie on, that I wanted to see, and he would sit and watch it with me, or the times we would go out to the drive-in, and see the latest fantasy or sci-fi movie.
Even now, my love of those things, Sci-fi/Fantasy, Movies, and all, is such a integral part of my life, that it’s part of who I am. The other things he instilled a love of, was the outdoors, camping and fishing. Whether it was on a lake or on a boat on the ocean, it still is one of the few places I find complete relaxation. He went out of his way while I was growing up, to be a part of the things I did, in the Royal Rangers and Cub Scouts, and I always enjoyed our trips out to Lake Casitas and Hemet. But the one thing he enjoyed the most, was deep sea fishing. And when I was old enough, he started taking me on those trips as well.
Even now, those trips hold a special place in my memories, and are some of the best times I’ve ever had fishing.
As I got older, we butted heads a lot more, and there were times, even though I loved the man, I just wanted to wring his neck. But he always was trying to find ways to spend time with me, doing the things we both enjoyed doing. This year was the fifth time we’ve been to Florida for vacation, and the fourth time we had been on the gulf side, and I was determined to do some fishing this time. So I packed up all of my gear, and loaded up all of my big poles, to use either in the surf or piers. Well, I did a little fishing off of one of the piers in Panama City Beach, and got ran off a couple of times due to thunderstorms. While back at the condo, I was looking online at charters, and they were all starting around $450 for a 1 day charter. Then I happened on Capt Anderson’s. They do what is known as “Head Boat” charters, which is the type of charters that me and my Dad would do out of Redondo Beach and San Diego. It’s basically 20-60 people, depending on the boat size, and it’s usually deep water fishing 100-200ft+. And it was cheap! And included any tackle which was needed and licenses. Which was good, as we had gotten rid of all of our deep sea gear when we left California. They even had a night trip, which I had never done before. So I signed myself up for the Tuesday night charter, and then signed me and Baxter up for the 10 hour day charter on Thursday.
So, my wife drops me off at 7:30 Tuesday night, and the boat leaves the harbor at 8pm. Just being back out on the ocean, watching the coastline recede, I could feel the stress disappearing with the coast.
There was also something else going on, but I couldn’t put my finger on it yet. But there was a presence…A feeling, that I couldn’t put into words. As the trip continued, and we started fishing, there were several times I would swear I heard my Dad talking, or I heard his laugh. Those of you who knew him, know what I mean about his laugh, its unmistakable. Anyways, it was a supurb night of fishing. I caught many fish, and limited out on Red Snapper, which normally don’t hit on the night trips. Saw many wonderful things. Schools of hundreds of flying fish, and dolphins chasing after and feeding on them. A pod of dolphins even escorted the ship in to the bay from the last fishing spot, which was almost 25 miles from the coast.
My dad had always wanted to fish the Gulf, but he never had the chance to. And then it hit me, and I realized, this trip happened exactly at the midpoint between the first anniversary of his death, and Father’s day. Just 6 days between the two.
And I swear to you, I heard him say, “I’m proud of you Son.”, and All the weight, stress and tribulation of the last year just disappeared. And I sat there at the bow of the ship, as it continued it’s cruise back to the mainland, and let the salt spray from the waves mix with the tears that were falling.
The Old Man got his Gulf Fishing trip after all.
The Thursday fishing trip, Baxter was sick, and couldn’t go. It was still a great trip, and did some great fishing on it, and met some neat people. But that trip Tuesday night, will stick with me until the day I die.
Miss you Dad, and Happy Father’s Day.
