Last week I had an eye opening experience. A group of
friends and I chartered a boat and went sail fishing off the Florida Keys. Six
guys on a boat, four of which, including me, were sail fishing “rookies”. By
noon, all four rookies had each caught and released a 6 to 7 foot sailfish
ranging from 35 to 75 pounds. You would have thought that we were the most
excited people on the water, but we weren’t. While I stood on the bridge
watching the crew, all my attention was on the first mate. Here’s a guy who had
been sail fishing since he was six years old and probably caught and released
over a thousand fish in his life. But as he stood there, passionately giving a
play-by-play of how the fish spit out the first bait we threw at it but took
the second, I hollered down jokingly, “You act like it’s the first fish you’ve
ever caught.” The kid just held up his hands which were still shaking with
adrenaline, shrugged, and said “I always get this fired-up sail fishing.” A
better first mate and future captain, you couldn’t hope to find anywhere. What
struck me, and why I’m writing about the experience, was that at the same time
this first mate is giving us the time of our life and earning our loyalty for
any future trips, the captain’s attitude towards the first mate was doing the
opposite.
