Top Of The World!

Bonsoir mon cher amour!

I would just like to thank you for your friendship. I cannot tell you enough what your support means to me or how much I appreciate it. The best way for me to let you now is by reciprocating the consideration and caring you've blessed me with.
Merci mon ami!

"Thar She Blows!"

No, it's not a whale. Sorry. But, it is a whale of an idea. As a lobsterfisherman I am very "in tune" to the weather, as any of you that have been following my blog may know. I need to be, since my livelihood and my crew's safety depend greatly on weather conditions. I think I've been seeing a change in the amount of wind we get and how often we get it. This could just be that I am not the young "cowboy" I used to be and have less tolerance for windy days at sea, although it sure seems like I spend a hell of a lot of windy days out on the boat! Or maybe it's too many movies, like The Day After tomorrow and An Inconvenient Truth. (Yes, I know, I "plugged" Al's documentary again, and no I'm not getting paid for it...HINT, HINT AL!) Back to the wind. Does anyone else sense, or know for that matter, if the wind does blow more often these days?

Have you ever found yourself saying, "If I only had enough money, I would..."? Well, that's almost become my tag line in the last year or so, and goes something like this..."If I only had enough money I would go into the wind turbine business." I am not a "greenie", but I am open minded, (Not usually a foremost trait in a traditional lobsterfisherman. We're often fairly stubborn.). In my open mindedness I'm starting to think that wind power might be a really good idea, not to mention lucrative. It is clean, we probably aren't going to run out of wind anytime soon, there's endless amounts of places to put wind turbines, there are tax breaks for using them, and ,(if used to power my own home), I would love to see the day that I could live "OFF THE GRID"! Wouldn't you? If you aren't sure what "off the grid" means, just imagine generating all the power you need to run your own home and being able to tell the electric company to go "piss in the wind"! (Sorry if that offends anyone, but it works too well here.) Another alternative to telling them to do that is selling them your excess power generation, at least in some places that allow it, anyway.

You can find out a lot more about wind energy at American Wind Energy Association.org I seem to like these .org and .gov sites, don't I? This is actually a good starting point, as there are links there to other sites as well.

Mammograms, breast cancer, support?

Yes. You are really seeing a post about breast cancer on my blog! So far on my site, if you have been frequenting it, you've found incites to my occupation, a few recipes and some humor. So why a serious topic like this now. Well my sister has been dealing with breast cancer for some time now. I am not here to tell her story, that would be for her to do. I guess you could say I have always been one to try to fix things if I could, and this is out of my realm. I can, however, continue to offer my love and support and prayers. As she had to have yet another surgery today, (and on her birthday too!), I found myself again wishing there was more that I could do. Well, I figured this post was the least I could do. I thought maybe acknowledgment of what she was dealing with might be somewhat comforting. While doing yet more online research, I realized that I might be able to help some others in some small way.

First, let me say that I AM NOT an authority on this subject or any of the sites I wish to share with you. Use your own judgment and INFORM YOURSELF!

Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you what I have found. You can do a GOOGLE SEARCH using just the words...breast cancer, and you will get as much information as you could imagine. It may take you some time to sort through it all, but you might find something specific you are looking for. Below is just a sampling of what I found.

Probably, the most information I found in one place was on the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Site. Here you will find tons of information. This is a .gov site and seems to be the most comprehensive site I found in my brief search. They even had a toll free line for questions about cancer(1-800-4-cancer) and they offer LiveHelp online chat. U.S. tax dollars well spent, take advantage.

Not to be confused with the previously mentioned site, The National Breast Cancer Foundation, a .org site, has a lot of information in video format, as well as text. Could be helpful if you just don't feel up to doing much reading. This site has a very welcoming and "homey" feel to it. Another .org site that was welcoming was Breast Cancer Support, and it seemed to be easy to find your way around. They offered forums and a chat room to reach out to others. As the name implys, this should be a great place to find support.

Breast cancer can be a scary topic for us grownups, but what about for the children that know someone with it or just want to know more about it? Kids Health-For Kids, yet another .org site, breaks down breast cancer at a kids level, and offers related articles and resources. It is geared to kids to help take away some of their fears and give them the knowledge to cope and understand it better. Parents I recommend this site for anything kid related, start here first...KidsHealth.org, where you can chose either the Parent, Kids, or Teen site. I liked it so well, I put a shortcut to it on my desktop.

Husbands and partners of breast cancer patients and survivors need support, too! I hadn't even thought of this until I came across this page on MyBreastCancerNetwork.com There appears to be a great deal of support here for them as well. As a husband or partner, you can probably find information here to help you understand, cope, and communicate with others.

I have not had to "deal" with breast cancer directly, but it has come close enough to me to make me aware of it, and to be more understanding of those have had to "deal" with it directly. I would like to those of you with it and effected by it, I sympathize for you, I support you, I pray for you, I respect you, and I wish you all of the best.

I truly hope that this post helps someone in some way. If you wish to comment, I would love to here from you. But, more importantly, my sister and others can read your comments here as well. If wish to make a comment privately, please feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail address is on the side bar.

Last, and most importantly...Welcome home Sis and Happy Birthday. I love you.

Bad Economy Killing Your Credit Score?

Me Too! My conclusion...
"With a credit score like mine, no need to worry about identity theft."

Spring Fever

It will certainly be good to see this again. Unfortunately, that's months away. Catches like the one shown here only happen a few times in the peak of the season, usually fall. This time of year, I can end up hauling traps for hours and only catch a few dozen lobsters. (There's been a couple of days this winter, that I've fished until dark, an not caught enough to pay for my bait and fuel!) Pretty discouraging, huh? Not much I can do about it though, except keep waiting for the lobsters. Thank goodness halibut season opens soon.

Hey! Who's Controlling My Right Foot?

Try this!

1. While sitting with your feet on the floor, begin moving your right foot in a clockwise motion...

2.While continuing clockwise motion with foot, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand...

3.WHAT THE??? What happened to the clockwise motion with right foot!

Maybe you can do it. I finally gave up.
My foot just seemed to have a mind of it's own or maybe it's connected to my right hand. Have fun with this.

"Hey, What's The Weather Goning To Be?"

Where I get my weather updates. O.K. Let me tell you a bit about my weather dependency and how I keep an eye on conditions.

As you may have figured out by reading my profile, I am a year-round commercial lobsterfisherman. Weather has a lot more effect on what I do than just comfort. Where I fish from there is very little sheltered waters. A couple of miles from my harbor and I'm in open ocean. To give you a better idea, I do most of my fishing 2 - 12 miles or so from my harbor. Whether I'm near shore (a mile or less), or offshore (2 - 12 miles out), weather is a constant factor.

There are several variables to what I consider when I check on the weather. Wind is probably the key factor, as it can have a great deal to do with sea conditions. Wave heights and frequency are another major player. Fronts and storms, of course, are the most important things I look for, but are not a daily consideration. However, they are more common elements in the winter.

I rely on forecasts and bouy reports from NOAA. NOAA stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce. You can learn more about them from the NOAA website. There is lots of information there. Very interesting stuff, from land weather, to marine weather, to climate observations, to the various research they do, as well as severe weather alerts. They even have a link for student and teacher resources.

If you find something at NOAA that you would check on a regular basis, you can do like I have done and place a shortcut to the exact page you'd check, right on your desktop. Whenever you open the link it will take you to that page with the most updated information. For example, I have four different shortcuts for my weather, all through NOAA. Marine forecast, land forecast, and two separate bouys. My marine forecasts and bouy observations are from the National Data Bouy Center.

I get up in the morning, get a cup of coffee, go to the computer and click on the bouy links, and I can find out what the conditions are offshore. It even has the historical data right there so, fro example, I can see what the wind did during the night, allowing me to determine if its getting better or worse.

As most people know weather can change pretty quickly. Being offshore you want to know well ahead of time if conditions are going to worsen, in order to plan accordingly. The marine radios, called vhf's, have presets on them that allow you to get weather updates from NOAA on demand, and they also have severe weather alerts. Many people have said to me that with the technology available today, it must be easy to stay informed of the weather. Well it is easier, but when it comes to weather for me, I still rely on what most traditional fisherman use. Instinct! I always keep an eye on the sky, taking note of changes in the clouds, or the feel of the air, or a change in the color of the water on the horizon.

Well, I hope I have given you some insight to my observations of the weather. As a commercial lobsterfisherman there's a tremendous amount of variables as the weather relates to what I do. Probably enough to write a book about. Maybe I will post more in the future about the conditions and there effects on a fisherman's day at sea. I hope you find something from this post helpful.

I will leave you with a downeast reply to a tourist that complains about the weather...
"If you don't like this weather, wait a few minutes!"

Global Warming

Oh Boy! Where do I start? Global warming...ummm, let's see....well...for starters, its 9 degrees this morning. NINE! Does anything about that number imply warmth? I didn't think so either. O.K. That's a start. (an 'icebreaker', if you will) Alright,as if 9 degs. wasn't bad enough, I just looked at the wind chill off shore. It's a few degrees below zero! And I told my sternman we would haul today. "GREAT!" Lucky for us there isn't going to be much wind today.

Don't get me wrong here, I am a democrat,(at least most of the time) but,...where's Al Gore NOW? I'd like to see him over ten miles offshore with us in awhile.
"Well Al, how's that 'global warming' theory of yours looking right about now?!" - "OH, by the way Al,..that "snotsickle" you've got going on there is gettin kinda long!"

I know, there are definitely changes going on in the climate. I've seen a lot of the shows, and hearings, and yes even his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. And yes it can be alarming at 9;00 o'clock at night, with the thermostat on 70 something, with a blanket over you and a bowl of hot popcorn in your lap. But, not out here. Well offshore, at the end of February, with 4 - 8 inch icicles(saltwater, mind you) hanging off the roof of the boat.

I have an idea what some of you are thinking, because I've thought it too, sometimes. "You could be doing something else, that does not require you to be out on the North Atlantic at the end of February, on a 9 degree day!" (but trust me, please, if you were a Maine lobsterfisherman, born and bred, you'd be out there too!) The thing is, that no matter how bad the outcome sounds from these "global warming" reports, most of us,(at least way up here in the northern parts of the Northern hemisphere, anyway!), actually look forward to warmer, well..., milder winters. 50s would be fine with me!

Alright, I may be just a fisherman, but I'm not dumb. I know that the temperature changes are very subtle. But we can be optimistic can't we?

What are your thoughts on global warming? I would like to hear them. Please feel free to leave a post.

Do you want to learn more about how most of us fishermen stay up to date on the weather? Keep watch for my weather post coming soon.

Technical Shmecnical

Finally, back to my posts! Well, I thought the end of the online world was near. You see, I have been having some trouble with my laptop. It's a 17" HP pavillion with a few years on it. I was expecting a scene from Will Smith's movie, i Robot. I'd be working away on it and all of a sudden, with NO warning what so ever, it would turn off. And I mean off, not logging out or shutting down or flickering, but OFF! Talk about frusterating, I was ready to "whip cord" this thing across the room. I ran all the tests and sweeps and clean-ups and restores, but it would still happen. Of course, I came to think it was the beggining of the end. Thank goodness for a good friend of mine who told me the laptop might be overheating. He told me about cooling pads. Have you ever heard of them? I hadn't, for all I new a cooling pad was just another backache remedy, but oooh no! It's what undoubtedly saved the the life of my laptop and probably saved me a bundle of money as well.


O.K. Cooling pads, for the rest of you technologically impaired (same as me), are a simple device with a fan in them that sets on your desk, table, or lap and you set your laptop on top of it. It elavates your laptop and provides more air flow underneath, allowing for more cooling. The fan is powered by your laptop, through a supplied usb cable. The one I purchased was about $30 and has a slight angle to it, wich for me seems to better.


I think you can probably get a cooling pad or cooling staion, as there also known, at any computer supply store. I got mine, at Best Buy, and it is a Rocket Fish brand. I found different types and various features. I think they were all powered by usb. Most were level, and one had additional usb ports on it, I think that one was called a cooling hub. And as with anything else the prices varied. They ranged from low $20s to mid $40s.
I hope this information is helpful to you. It's amazing that some problem's can be solved so easily. Good luck to you and happy blogging!

No Lobsters Today

No lobsters today, no paycheck next week. That's just how winter fishing goes. It's been a week today since I've been on the water. The weather this time of year makes it very difficult to get out and haul my traps. Yes it's cold and yes it snows, but the part that keeps my boat on the mooring is the wind and the seas, and we have had a lot of both this month! Just to give you a look at what it looks like, check out the picture,"Blustery". That was from last winter, but that's just about what it's looked like lately. If you are a fan of Maine lobster (and who isn't?), I hope you appreciate what I'm up against to get them for you! Believe me, I wish it was easier. Oh well, spring will get here eventually and we will all be a little happier.

Listen Up Kids!

This is my first post on my first blog so don't get too excited. If you're reading this then I've done something right so far. I have a lot to learn about this so be patient and check back often because when I get the hang of this, East of Acadia will be the best darn web page you've seen. O.K.! I know, that was a bit much. Seriously though, as this site grows, I welcome your feedback.