Buy your own.

I always got a kick out of the college kid that went fishing with us one halibut opening and started trying to tell the skipper where he thought we ought to fish.

He thought he had joined up into some kind of democratic venture where everything gets voted on by the crew. Or at least he acted like it.

The first time the skipper listened to him and acted interested and receptive to his ideas. When the kid was finished, the skipper simply said, "Buy your own."

I always wonder about people like the kid.

They have nothing invested in something yet they insist on telling someone that does how to run someone else's  operation.

This was in the early 80s and the skipper/owner had a million bucks tied up in his boat and about the same tied up in gear. The kid had a $10 crewman's fishing license tied up as his investment and even then it wasn't the boat's license. It was the kid's and he could take it anywhere he wanted. He had the option of simply staying ashore and done something else had he chosen to and all he would have lost is his lousy ten bucks. Or he could have simply found another boat to fish on.

The skipper had no such option if he wanted to keep his boat and gear. He had to work it. If no fish are caught then boat payments are not met and he loses everything.

During the trip the skipper asked me for an idea or two which was his option. Truth is it was pretty much rhetorical and I knew it. I knew he just wanted to get his brain flowing. I shared a couple ideas and left it at that. I really didn't have much useful to give him and I knew it. He was simply brainstorming.

Some skippers do that from time to time. They ask the greenest crewmember for suggestions figuring that in their ignorance might uncover something they have been overlooking for years. It's looking for a fresh point of view.  I've done it myself.

When it was all over and done with, I walked away from the trip with a pretty good sized chunk of change and the skipper made his payments.

He gets the credit for that and that's the way it is. He made the call as to where we fished and he told us where and when to set the gear and the entire ball was in his hands.

There are those out there that would gripe that the crew shares should have been bigger but the truth is they don't have a clue. They had nothing invested in it. The skipper, being an owner/operator did to the tune of a couple of million bucks. That's a lot of fish he has to catch to pay for all of this.

The complainers should buy their own boats and see how their attitude changes.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY