the international dateline, our days off are Sunday
and Monday, to coincide with days off Saturday and
Sunday with the folks in Huntsville AL. But, this
Saturday, yesterday, I decided to take off and go
fishing with my fishing partner Paul Allas. I had
been scheduled for work on Monday on a special
project, so Saturday off seemed like the thing to do.
As it turned out, Paul's bathroom plumbing broke, and
the plumbers were coming in at 12:30, so he couldn't
go fishing. So I called Dr. Tom Jack and helicopter
pilot Scott Davis, who replied that they would go
fishing with me. We arranged to meet at the Kwajalein
Small Boat Marina at Noon, rent a Twin Vee, and fish
for Wahoo and Tuna. I got there at Noon, and neither
of them were there. Some friends of mine, Dave and
Barb Doeries were there taking some TDY folks out
fishing for the afternoon. They offered me a spot on
the boat, but I declined and told them I was waiting
for Tom and Scott. By 12:20, they were leaving the
SBM when I got a call from Tom and later Scott, saying
that they couldn't go fishing. One of the Chopper
pilots had an emergency and Scott had to go to work.
Tom got called in to work over on Ebeye, at the
hospital where he is the part time administrator,
besides his regular job working for the US Dept of
Energy (The folks that take care of the Marshallese
affected by the Nuclear Testing in the 50's. I should
have gone out with Dave and Barb. By 12:30 they had
entered the Pacific Ocean through SAR Pass and begun
trolling using two 14/0 Penn Senators and two had
lines. 4 minutes into trolling, they hung into a
Black Marlin. If I had gone fishing with any of those
guys, guess who would have hung into that fish? By
1:00PM, they landed the fish and radioed the SBM that
they were returning with the catch. The asked if I
had left (which I hadn't) and had them ask me to wait
so I could clean the fish for them. Don't that just
add salt to the wound? They came in 15 minutes later
and weighed in the fish at 149 lbs. Put the marlin on
the stainless steel table, and I started cutting on
it. Then they left the fish with me, and went back
out to fish so more! Now, that's rubbing the salt in!
I cleaned, gutted, cut, and bagged the marlin into
30+ gallon sized bags. Each gallon ziplock bag had a
three to four pound chunk of fish meat. The head and
bones were taken by Marshallese working there. The
tail, entrails, and sawed off bill went back in the
water to feed the sharks and crabs. Although it was
the right size and was very edible, I didn't take any
fish. Instead, per their instructions, I gave most of
it away to anyone that wanted. I did take 5 bags over
to my wife's work place to give to her friends. She
said I was stinking! Well, Hello! Blood all over my
shirt, sweating in the afternoon sun, the only one to
clean the fish...who wouldn't be smelly? I suppose it
did seem sort of inappropriate dress to be in the
accounting and payroll department. But the boss there
was very thankful for the fish as she had a party to
potluck for that night. She didn't care what I looked
or smelled like. Come to think of it, the other folks
didn't care either....only the wife.
So to summarize: Sad because: I didn't get to go
fishing, somebody else caught the fish probably meant
for me, then asked me to clean it, which I did, and my
wife said I was smelly. But I have a good sense of
humor, so I had a good laugh at myself!
If they send me the picture, I will post it.
Les Saulibio
Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands
PS: When they came back in later, they had caught 4
wahoo and 4 Mahimahi. There absolutely ain't no
justice in this world!
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