Hunting Report--The Rest of the Story

Do Granny and Grandad still listen to Paul Harvey? We spent many lunch hours on the Julie Ann listening to his silly news report under the old "equal time" doctrine that applied to the boat's sound system. I was always a bit shy about playing any of my teenage music in front of Granny and Grandad. But not Marshall. Crew favorites in the mid to late 80's included Motley Crue, A Flock of Seagulls, The Thompson Twins, and Toto. Also Prince, until after Granny grew weary of a song that included too much screaming and declared that the Prince tape would never again be played on the boat. On Grandad's side, we got a large dose of Mitch Miller and Johnny Horton, which may have been the only two cassette tapes Grandad owned. Granny usually stuck with the accapella gospel favorites when it was her turn.

Grandad, being a natural storyteller, seemed particularly fond of the Paul Harvey news report. We prompted Grandad into telling a few stories on this year's hunting trip. Some fell into the category of old favorites. These included the story about a tranquilized Woody chewing up the car on the ferry and the story about the ill-fated Coast Guard boarding where the Coast Guardsman jumped into the slush tank and came out with water pouring from the barrell of his gun. Others were stories I had never heard before, such as when Grandad shot two deer at the same time and one fell almost right on top of the other. And who knew that Granny had shot a deer? Are there any 2nd or 3rd generation Pitcher women who have followed in Granny's footsteps in slaying a deer?

Before finishing the hunting narrative, a word about sleeping arrangements: The Julie Ann has an estimated 150-175 square feet of indoor living space, which makes for tight quarters with six grown men. Regardless of Jay's good attitude, the hold should not be considered indoor living space. On this year's trip, Jay and I agreed to sleep in the hold. It was chilly and there are a lot of night-time noises, including various pumps, drips, and splashing sounds, that made it hard to sleep my first night in the hold. We gave Larry a senior hunter exemption and allowed him to sleep in a bunk the entire trip. This left Jim and David to play a nightly card game for the right to sleep in the remaining bunk, with the loser left to sleep on the floor in the main walkway next to Grandad's couch bed. After the first night, Jim reported there had been five night-time bathroom breaks causing people to pass through his area. Jim had an unfortuanate cold streak in his cribbage game, resulting in Jim spending all but one night on the floor.

On Tuesday of the hunting trip Larry shot two deer while in the woods by himself. He got both his deer back to the trail near the cabin at the lake and was reportedly very happy to run into David and Jay on the trail.

Tuesday night turned out to be the unexpected high point for adventure on the trip when the perfect storm (well, at least some 40-50 mph winds) hit Karta Bay. At some point in the night, the flapping of the tarp became so loud that Jay and I both ventured up out of the hold. We found Jim, Larry and Grandad already up and studying the navigation equipment. They concluded that we were dragging anchor. Jim and I did a flashlight inspection of the shore, and it appeared we were very close to the beach. Grandad ordered that the anchor be pulled, and Jay and Larry ventured out to the bow at around 3:00 a.m. for an anchor pulling that included plenty of rain and fresh air. They harvested a commercial crab pot that was well-secured to our anchor. I joined them on the bow as we attempted to figure out how to get the crab pot off the anchor. After what seemed like a long time, we were able to get the pot free from the anchor. Larry pulled it aboard with a Herculean effort. By the time things calmed down, it was close to 5:00 a.m. I went ahead and made coffee, but everyone was able to go back to sleep for a while before the day's hunt. David, who made only a two minute appearance from his bunk during the anchor dragging, declared himself to be very well-rested.

Jim shot a buck on Wednesday, while the other two hunting teams (Larry/David and Jay/George) saw only does. Larry and Jim each shot another buck on Thursday, bringing the trip total to six deer. We returned to town late in the day Friday and finished the trip with another good dinner at Granny and Grandad's.

Thanks again for the invitation. The week-long hunting trip probably isn't going to become an annual thing for me, but I enjoyed it enough that I would like to bring Jack up to try it sometime. Maybe in a couple years when he's 12.

George