Our Man in Europe/dave delacroix/ "Antinious and the Sea." (Part 1)
(dedicato: Georgie Gold)
...Tiring of Winter in the PO valley, south of Milano-Italy, I had the good fortune to secure a rustics cottage on the South shores of Scilly, by ................... South of Modea.
Sicilian communities are ALL embracing IF?.....Use ya common sense: Bar owners, fishermen, local
folks who chanel food produce to your Cucina (kitchen), all are to be respected.
A Boatswain who I had regularly encountered at Cafe ............. responded to my request: "Can U rent or sell me a small sail boat for "fishing", etc.? -"I'm an Englishman and the Sea is in my blood...?"
A 12 footer was found. A blanket of sail. 3 foot rudder, stern seating, almost water-tight, single 10 foot mast-erect like an agitated Marsupial's penis! Consummation with my Sea-faring ancestors was assured (€300).
...Mediterranean Sea Winter's, incidentally, can be atrociously, "OH FRICK! ROGUE WAVE!!!", but once in a while they "becalm" in a fog, mist or frigid chill. OH! OH! OH! I named my boat "ARGONAUTS" after a Liquor store in Denver, Colorado and - suitably? - always set off on my marine flurries with a full Cooler/ice box of "brewskies" and Box-vino: Drink da "brews", catch some fish for supper, put da suckers in the-then empty beer cooler-thingy. And I NEVER sailed out of sight of land and this weekend/week-day pastime became a pleasurable tri-weekly routine.
The "locals" (fishermen) weren't affronted or fiscally intimidated by my daytime marine pre-ambles? They mostly fished under the MOON for Squid; commercial catch, far out at sea. A whole fleet! Where-as I, after an afternoon's hour of "bobbin' up and down, slugging brewskies would sail around the indigo beach bay, bag a couple of "minnows", show off my meagre catch to the SALTY PROS then talk about da - BIG THANG!!! - da one dat got away!
...And then one night, at the Cafe .......... a local PRO-fishin' buddy told me about "Bottom-feeders" -with whom - to MY mind - I had had some experience of in Hollywood, California and doubted their edibility?
PRO-fish Amico sez: "Bello! Mangari, Davida!" -"M'bara!" He says: ("M'bara" is Sicilian for "Fratello"); "M'bara?" he says: (I translate:) " DON'T fish. TRAWL!. By the shoals, on the sandy sea bed with the Oysters, they thrive!... Skate, Flounder; Il Grande Super-mercato!"
So he sold me a Trawl net (€50), and the next clear weather day I weighted it down with stones (technically, it wasn't perfect), set sail - "con whiskies/case of beer/box vino cooler-chest", cruised about a mile offshore, figured I was in a good spot, chucked the whole god-damn Trawl net-rope thingy over the side -only just managing to catch the rapidly disappearing tow line and secure it without spilling my can of beer!
It was a weird day. The sea was quite Pacific. In advent of a glorious sunset, the cumulus cloud on the horizon could have been Mount ETNA; a chain smoker, like me.... So, I'm dragging/trawling along, singing Sea-Shanties (all concerned with some Wanton in Swansea) when the boat (the Argonaut?) kind'a "stilts?" bow up on end? -struck, like I'd just dropped a major-league anchor off my stern?...And an odd-ball swirling, double-helix mist enveloped my boat!
...I had to take off my Shades...!
(Antinuous & the Sea, Part 2, to be continued, next Sunday.)
c 2014/dave delacroix/ourmanineurope/ piacenza-Italia.
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