10am, I leave from Berlin.

9am the next day, I’m on a boat miles off of the Florida coast fishing.

How absurd.

We went fishing for all sorts of stuff, but didn’t catch much. What we did catch, we immediately ate – making it the freshest sushi you could ever have. A little Red Snapper, some soy+wasabi and you have yourself lunch. We only caught enough for a nibble, but we had the foresight to bring beer, so no one complained. Then, we went shark-fishing. With a kite. Hard to explain, but basically, you throw out a big kite from the back of the boat. Then, you string a few fishes on a fishing line, which is attached to the kite line. You let out enough line so that the fish barely touches the water, flailing. Making noise. Which drives the sharks nuts. Supposed to, at least – we jumped each time a swell came over thinking ‘surely’. It was just big water.

We drank more and passed the thousands of lobster pots along the way home. A month earlier, a drunken local had told me he’d ‘take me out raiding some pots’ and I took him seriously. I asked our Capt. how easy it was to do.

He looked at me the way the fish must have been looking at our bait.

‘You’ll get shot’.

‘Ha ha – oh yeah?’

‘I’m serious.’

‘You’re joking’.

‘I’m not’.

‘Shot?’

‘Yes. Absolutely. And the FWC wouldn’t even bat an eye’.

‘Shot.’

‘Yes.’

…I didn’t ask any more after that, but thought it extreme. I mean, c’mon – he’s a fisherman. They’re known for their colorful embellishments.

A few hours later, while sitting outside sipping on a Key West, our ‘lobster guy’ drove up and said hi, placing his margarita next to his beer in his cup-holders.

‘I’ve shot 3 boats so far with my flare gun, setting them on fire’.

‘Really?’

‘Really’.

‘What about real guns?’

‘Oh sure, the usual thing people do is take a shotgun out and hit their boat right at the water line’.

‘This is normal’.

‘Yup’.

The things you learn in RV parks.