Donna's Drift

Donna & Dad

I have different memories of the StarStream II than my brothers and sister. I was the "black sheep" of the fishing family. I tried to like it but I just couldn’t get past the seasickness. I remember the first time I went out blue fishing. I don't remember for sure how old I was, I am guessing around ten. I remember standing in the bow going through the bay saying to myself this aint so bad...I can do this...then we left the inlet and advanced into the monstrous ocean and I said to myself..."hey what happened to that flat water we were just in" I stayed in the bow and let the cold air hit my face as the front of the boat banged down on the water with every passing wave. The waves seemed like 100 feet high to me but within ten minutes of this joy ride I was barfing. I was so sick that day. Luckily my dad was the captain and had a nice bed waiting for me in the wheel house..that bed and the life raft just outside the wheel house became MINE whenever I was brave enough to go out and try again. So most of the times I went out on the Starstream, I spent a good part of the day lying on my back out in the fresh air hoping I could make it through the day without throwing up...you could say I was a salt water bulimic...it was a great way to keep my figure during my teen years. I got some really good suntans out in that life raft as well. I always wondered how much money I could have made in tips wearing my bikini top and serving beer to all the fishermen. If I only coulda got those sea legs I could have put myself through college and medical school like my brother Stevie and sister Lorraine were able to do. I had to find jobs working in the medical field. Instead of cleaning up blood, vomit and other excrements on the boat, I did the same at Mercy Hospital ,on the med/surg floors. I do feel that I missed out a lot on that boat and relied on my siblings to fill me in on the stories and mischief that went on all those years. I also wished that the business lasted longer so that my kids could have experienced a day out on the ocean with Grandpa.

I had two incentives for continuing to try to earn my sea legs. One was to spend time with my dad. Because he worked so many hours, seven days a week, I never really spent any quality time with him. He left way before I got up and when he got home he was usually in a bad mood or very tired. I remember one Christmas Eve I decided to go cod fishing for the first time....it was my dad's birthday and I thought I would give it a shot...what the #@$*&^$ was I thinking. What a huge mistake. I remember curling up next to the heater by my dads feet the whole entire day freezing, sick, nauseas, moaning to go home. All I wanted for Christmas that year was for a helicopter to come out there in the ocean and pick me up and take me home to mom. So much for quality time with dad.....and who cares if I ever catch a cod. Whenever I thought about going fishing I would constantly look at weather report and watch the winds and ask dad the weatherman. .”Is it gonna be rough tomorrow?” Most of the time I would chicken out, but when I didn’t I usually spent the day in my cozy life raft catching some rays. I would stare at the horizon watching it move left to right while listening to the crowd of fisherman yelling… “one on, get the gaff, two on”……. and so on. There were a few times I would get up the nerve to stand up and pick up a pole when the fishing was good…it is really fun to catch a bluefish. I would usually come back to dock starving and I remember the taste of the burger and fries from Marty’s diner (Dockside Luncheonette) across the street that I needed to fill my empty stomach.

My second incentive for continuing to try to earn my sea legs was boys. What a great place for a teenage girl to meet boys. Not the kind that mom or dad wanted me to meet, but it was fun anyway. I dated a few and I will leave it at that. I even attempted a night fishing trip for a boy. I should have listened to dad on that one to stay away from those kinds of boys. Being Capt. Richie’s daughter earned me the special nickname with the crew “SPECIAL K”. I guess I was special because I was different from the rest of my siblings in the fishing world at least. Also being Capt. Richie’s daughter, it gave me something to talk about with the boys at school. I was kinda shy in my high school days and I thought it was cool that a lot of the boys knew my Dad and his boat. Starstream was a very familiar name in Baldwin.

My fondest memory was the yearly trips to New York Harbor for fourth of July fireworks…I could handle that trip with ease and I got the bed in the wheelhouse on the way home anyway. My second fondest memory was when my mom made food on Christmas eve and we brought it down to the boat and had a little birthday party for my dad. We did this a few times. I also have great memories of family outings with other captains that my Dad befriended through the years like the Westerlands, the Josephs, and Speedy. I also got a kick out of listening to my dad on the ship to shore radio talking to the other captains while they were out on the water trying to catch the fish …sometimes I even got to talk to him…”come in Starstream, this is honeybee base.”

So I hope you all enjoyed the history of Starstream from a different perspective. I miss those days riding my bike to Woodcleft Canal at 4 pm to watch my dad bring the Starstream back to the dock with the catch of the day and saying to myself, glad to be on land…I like it better this way.

Ship out to: Fishermen's Tales