Justine is still dreaming of being on board the Keewaydin,
She woke to find we were anchored close inshore. There, luxuriant ash foliage swayed in the breeze. A beautiful land . It was a long time before she realised she was looking out of the bedroom window .
I am out of contact with my fishing effort. I am sitting on a wind-wild headland above the bay where I last set my pots.
I have identified enough weed clumped buoys to know they are still there.
I left them unbaited, so going to them willl be a chore without hope of reward.
There is something in my bait tub, but I can't face looking in it until I have to.
This South-Westerly has stirred up a mocha, but I've seen a seal and a lot of weed in my favoured netting spot.
However, I'll go for it tomorrow if the swell has died down.
I need to reconnect with this place.
We are going to Ireland with the kayaks next week, so I haven't long.
How did I used to do it before?
So many distractions on Land
I don't want to turn into a Captain Birdseye. Or like one of those old harbour-flies who used to lace the quay in Aberystwyth, talking a mixture of rubbish and misery.
There are folk who walk the walk & others who talk the talk.
I want to feel part of that magnificence the sea by fishing it.
The sea temperatures are still way down though. Has the Gulf Stream wobbled and nobody had the heart to tell us?
Jamie on Mull said it was a quiet lobster year up there too. A Crab Year.
I like that combination of observation and acceptance. They are starting to get a few spiders. And recently octopus: if an octopus shares a pot with a lobster for long, there is an empty blue carapace instead of the lobster.
To be an effective fisherman you have to be an obsessive, selfish, monomaniacal, reckless, brave and lucky bastard,
When I fished that "punt" off Llanhystud beach ohso long ago, I was pretty much on the case.
The sea is a demanding mistress.
I must have been pretty unbearable as a partner. And sorry kids, for all those summer holidays you never had!