Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
I stopped by the boat yesterday afternoon to chat with Dad about our prospects of getting our charter trip in today. Since I am sitting at my desk typing right now you can guess what decision we made. Just a little breezy for my taste. Some boats did go however. I don’t fault them for their decision. They know their boat, their crew’s tolerance for rough seas and generally just how mad they are at the fish and how badly they want to go after them. From the Inreach texts I am receiving I think I made the right call in regard to the sea conditions and maybe the wrong call as far as the fishing. It sounds like the tuna are biting pretty good. But I have a saying, “if you have to spend more time hanging on instead of hanging on to fish, it just ain’t worth it!”
While I was talking with Dad about the weather yesterday, I was thinking about how our perspective has changed on this topic over the years. Back in the mid-80s, some folks on the dock took to calling Dad by the nickname “Hurricane Frank” because no matter how much wind there was or how big the seas were it was very seldom too much or too big. I guess that kind of falls back on one of dear old Dad’s life mottos, ”There is no substitute for youth and horsepower.”
A little over thirty years later, Dad doesn’t take as many chances with the weather. I am guessing he is older and wiser, or maybe just not as mad at the fish as he was in those days. He might have lost some of the youth but the “Last Call” was repowered with bigger engines a few years back, so we have more horsepower to make up for it! That being said, we still tend to error on the side of caution these days. The fish will still be there when the wind calms down.
After we made our decision to postpone today’s charter, I took a stroll down the dock to see what the other guys were thinking. In my marina a few guys were getting ready to go and some weren’t. Some of the guys knew they were going to take a beating weatherwise, but the prospect of a wide open tuna bite eased their future pain. My buddy Capt. Steve on the “Game Over” even said that he would be just fine. The beating wouldn’t be until the ride home when the fish box was going to be full. I hope he was right on the latter part at least!
After I got home from the marina I gave another good friend a call to see his thoughts on the weather (I was already second guessing myself, I guess). Capt. Gary on the “Buckshot” is one of the more experienced captains in town and I hold his opinion in very high regard. He served in the United States Coast Guard as a young man and has run boats all over the world. If there were such a thing as boxes on his resume, he has them all checked. Capt. Gary felt the same way about the weather as I did, so that was reassuring to me. One thing I found really interesting from our conversation was one of his weather predicting methods. He was looking at the shape of the cloud formations and the way they were moving. He could tell that it was going to be honking out of the west/northwest just by looking at the clouds. I knew what he was talking about. It’s one of those things you don’t learn overnight, it comes from experience. Just like when we get exceptional VHF radio reception the day prior to a hard southwesterly blow. Talking to my friends in North Carolina and North Jersey is cool, but it almost always means that I will be spending the next day watching the flags standing straight out in the breeze.
Speaking of flags, I couldn’t help but notice how beat up my flags were already this spring. That says a little something about how windy it has been. On my boat we fly three flags (other than fish flags after a trip). Old Glory is tethered to the highest position on our tower on the port side and the Stars and Bars flies on the other side of the tower, a bit lower. As it has for 30 plus years. I won’t get into a political debate about what is the correct thing to do these days. I will defer to history texts and leave it at that. The last flag flies on the port side outrigger well below the other two. It is a 2020 campaign flag for President Trump. I had to replace that one yesterday. It was pretty tattered. Thankfully, I have a full supply of more. Maybe the wind will let up sometime soon and take it easier on me and my flags.
I will leave you with one parting thought on the weather. An old salt once told me, “it is better to be safe at the dock wishing you were out fishing than out fishing wishing you were safe back at the dock.” Solid words to live by. Even if the tunas are biting.
Capt Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” which is docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center, owner of Pettolina Marine Surveying, Inc. and multi-term President of the Ocean City Marlin Club. If you would like to book a charter on the “Last Call”, please call 443-783-3699 or 410-251-0575.