Back On Tantrum: A Family Fishing Trip

Written by Pilar Martinelli

Back on the Tantrum No. 1 for my tenth go. We’ve come to know each other well over the years- this girl and I. Comfortable she is not. Skookum and safe, she is. Everything you want in a working fishboat. A solid workhorse that feeds this family and many, many others. For her, I am eternally grateful.

A New Milestone: Rex Joins the Crew

This trip, we had a boy on board with us for the very first time. Not an infant. Not a toddler. Not a little boy. A real live, fully formed human that can hold his own, well acquainted with everything on the Tantrum, particularly the navigation systems. This kid can plan a route to just about anywhere in the world. We no longer have to worry about him playing with all the switches and incidentally turning off the freezer system or the hydraulics. Rex knows what all the buttons do and whether they should be on or off. He can even turn on the main engine and help operate the anchor wench. Gone are the days when mom had to wrangle him into his rain gear for outings to the stern – stuffing a wriggling little boy into layers, liners, gloves, boots, and a life jacket. At eight, he is officially independent, dressing himself in all the proper gear when he wants to go out on deck and taking himself there all on his own.

Learning the Ropes on Deck

This boy’s attention span, however, still has its limitations. He can’t get anywhere close to what the big boys on deck put in on any given day – 14 hours plus – but we are making strides towards actual productivity on deck for short spurts of time. Scrubbing fish is a task he can do with ease and satisfaction, and for chunks of time, he was all over helping out. That’s a huge jump from the six-year-old we had on board with us two years ago, the one who struggled to transport slippery fish from tub to freezer. But his main fascination on deck still lies with the seabird fans of the boat. Feathered Tantrum groupies follow in our wake, happily feeding on the excess bits and bobs not fit for human consumption. Innards are some of their favorite sea-snacks and Rex aims to please. He finds hours of entertainment in the stern, watching and tossing entrails to the groupies in between his intermittent spurts of enthusiastic fish-scrubbing. Perfect for a boy of eight!

The Return of the Crane Truck

And what would a fishing trip be without a great beach story? Captain Bruce isn’t too keen on the idea of me writing this for an audience, but I think it’s too good a story to pass up. A few seasons back, while beachcombing on a day off, we came across an abandoned crane truck on shore. At the time, 3 or 4-year-old Rex was mesmerized by the big truck and longed to bring it home with us. It made for a day of unforgettable play, digging away with “his” own crane truck, this incongruous bit of machinery seemingly provided for his pleasure, miles away from any sign of civilization. Fast forward to the present, and luck would have it that we would find ourselves back in the same inlet with “the crane truck.” Not only were we anchored there for the night, but gale winds made it impossible to fish, leaving us with a free day for seaside exploring.

Treasure Hunting for the Twilight

This time, it’s not only the boy on board who’s so excited about this happy return, but the boy’s father who’s tickled with the idea of seeing this crane truck again. You see, after our previous visit, this captain committed to memory the make and model of the engine of the dead truck and knew that it just so happened to be the same make and model of the engine of his newly acquired, future-semiretirement boat, the Twilight. Clearly, no one is coming back for this poor old truck, and Captain Bruce sees an opportunity. Why not repurpose some of those old engine parts and breathe new life into them again? Let us reuse! The captain had a mission, and the crew had a job: salvage usable parts for the Twilight. At the end of the day, three and a half “boys” motored back to the Tantrum with grease on their hands, smiles on their faces and loot in their coffers. Pirates successfully digging up buried treasure couldn’t have been happier! X marks the spot!