“Why do fishermen leave so early in the morning?” is a question that’s asked repeatedly. Skippers who are just out for the day like to be on the fishing grounds, ready to go, at first light. It can take 2 or 3 hours to steam out, so leaving port at 4 am makes sense. On the larger North Atlantic trawlers that can take 12 hours or more to reach the fish and stay out for days, I’m not sure, but I’ve never left port in daylight.
Fishing boats are dangerous places, especially at night. Far out west, off the coast of Shetland, a Scottish skipper once warned me, “If you go overboard at night, you may as well be in outer space because we’ll probably never find you, or you’ll be dead long before we do”.
The day after, he threw an inflated carrier bag off the stern of the boat, “If you go over, that’s as much of you as would be visible above water…tell me when you can’t see it anymore”. I lost sight of the white bag within thirty seconds. That was in daylight.
‘Saturday 27th July. Anzac RY56. Skipper – Cam Watterson.
That was the calmest day I’ve had out at sea for years, yet I still managed almost to fall overboard. Still dark, taking a leak off the port side, mid flow, the boat tipped – it was either go over the side or drop to my knees and piss all over the inside of my waterproofs. I chose the latter. I need to go and pick up that new life jacket from The Fisherman’s Association tomorrow…’
Images from Anzac RY56 and James Lee RY57.
Phil Kneen 
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