Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns To The Sea (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Seaworthy, Linda Greenlaw 2010This is an account of an updated swordfishing expedition with Linda as a captain coming out of "retirement" from blue water fishing. I never saw a reference to the year specified, but this action occurs roughly 10 years after her retirement and her entry into lobster fishing.Linda Greenlaw is an excellent writer, and in one reference she indicated that she had been encouraged to attend law school. Offhand, I would not picture a professional commercial boat captain as having her literary skillset. Her writing ability to be comprehensively descriptive of facts pertaining to a particular lifestyle situation or event that occurs in a limited time frame, is what has made her books a worthwhile read. In this book, she describes a unique fishing trip in an antiquated boat, with a hand picked experienced crew. The distinguishing feature of the trip is an arrest and fine by the Canadian fishing authorities, handled by the Canadian coast guard, for violating the 200 mile limit.The only significant issue I had in reading the book, is that she was too repetitive in mentioning that she was 47 and it had been 10 years since her last professional offshore venture as a boat captain. Everyone nows that a decade of wear changes a person's physical capabilities and their mental outlook. State the fact once, make it abundantly clear that she had questions of current capability, and move on with the story. If the fact bears repeating more than once, then label it with a catchy acronym "GOWN"-"getting old and worn out", and use the acronym: ie. Because of GOWN I didn't kill the idiot who... .The repetition of time on the skillset had me wavering on a 3 star rating, but the descriptive narrative picked up pace during the arrest, and the following effort to fill the hold while fishing. Greenlaw, a former blue-water sword fisherman, has spent the last ten years of her life living on an island in Maine, Isle Au Haut, lobstering and writing books about her fishing experiences. An old friend offered her a chance to captain his boat for another season of sword fishing. The trip was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The boat was poorly equipped and in bad condition. They were delayed more than once in their trip to the Grand Banks to begin setting their lines. Then Greenlaw was arrested and jailed for crossing in to Canadian territorial waters. And all that was only the beginning. In all, she says, the trip was “a bit hardier and saltier than I had hoped for.” I enjoyed reading the book, but I got tired of her musings about how she was ten years older now and could she really do this, but she had been the best at her job earlier and she could probably do it now, etc. etc.
What do You think about Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns To The Sea (2010)?
Wonderful - 10 years after The Perfect Storm and writing some great books she returns to the sea.
—BONGI
too much language for my taste. I didn't finish the book.
—Kimberly
