The British Virgin Islands

Quote: Evenbob

Hemingway was a man's man fisherman. He caught
fish of a size that don't exist anymore, the kind
you fought 2 hours to land. When he was drunk,
one of his fave methods was a Thompson sub
machine gun. He used it on sharks. Hey, it was
80 years ago, times were different then. Don't judge.

I'm always amazed, and sometimes saddened, looking back at the history of fishing. You're right; times were different. Fish like that rarely exist anymore.

Alligator gar the size of a pickup. Musky the size of full grown men. Old black and whites of an entire family, great grandfather to great grandson, all with cane poles and a stringer of 40 cats, all of them 20lbs and up. Didn't have to worry about creel limits, size restrictions, or the fear of contamination from heavy metals. It's a shame that so many fisheries have been damaged the way they have.

I don't judge that he fished that way because it's "unsporting", but I do judge that it's not very smart. A Thompson fires .45ACP. Remember the Malaysian Jet thread? You said that plane hitting the water was like hitting concrete.

.45ACP -
900 ft p/sec
x 60 sec p/minute = 54,000 ft p/min
x 60min p/hr = 3,240,000 ft p/hr
/ 5,280 ft p/mile = 613.6363... mph

Even the slow and sluggish .45 is traveling a bit over commercial airliner speed, and yes, it'd be like hitting concrete. That bullet ain't going but a few feet in before it's totally stopped.

Ever see bullet forensic fingerprinting? They fire a round into a water tank no bigger than a household aquarium. Stops it dead. And that's fresh water. Dense sea water would be even worse.

He would hit sharks with it if they were
near the surface. No regulations on
anything in those days.

Hemingway's custom built fishing boat the
Pilar, in the 30's.

Quote: Face

I'm always amazed, and sometimes saddened, looking back at the history of fishing. You're right; times were different. Fish like that rarely exist anymore.

A while ago I had posed a question to some Caribbean vagabonders about how much fish they ate while in Bahamian waters. Their response was that fish was about ten percent of their diet but they would dearly have loved it to be 90 percent. Spear fishing is illegal and local's locations for catching lobster are kept secret. The only thing they could harvest in abundance was coconuts which apparently are usually free for the taking. They seemed to eat staples purchased in the USA. I somehow think the locals eat far more fish than ten percent of their diet! My vagabonder friends didn't even know how to make Pirate's Rum, the fools probably buy their Bahamian booze.

Hemingway was a fishing nut. Both fly fishing
on streams and ocean fishing. In the 30's he
made the 90 mile trip from Key West to Havana
many many times, and ended up moving to
Cuba in the early 40's.

Like Face, he was an outdoor nut and his many
injuries from being a outdoorsman led to his
eventual suicide. They were mostly hunting related
injuries while he was in Africa, like 2 small plane
crashes that resulted in head injuries.

Like Face, he loved fishing and lived in Montana
in the summer for many years in the 30's just to
take advantage of the superior river and stream
fly fishing.

So... keep practicing my writing...keep drinking heavily... I could be the next Hemingway.

It's as good a goal as any ;)

Great travelogue Face, I really enjoyed it. Brought me back some great memories of cavorting around the Caribbean. In fact, not too long ago I told the missus that I would like to give up all our earthly posessions and move to the Caribbean to become a full time beach bum.....needless to say, it didn't go over very well. I'm still scheming though.

Some of my favorite spots, most definitely The Baths but there was also another beach resort type place on the other side of Virgin Gorda, I cannot remember the name. Beautiful beaches. It may have been somewhere in Little Dix bay?

The trip over the mountain in Totola is truly something to savor. You just keep on driving and the people will endeavor to miss you....mostly :)

St. Thomas is a delight but just too many tourists. Magen's Bay is truly a sight for sore eyes. Also the location of the very fist time I had ever tried Cold Stone Cremery ice cream. I'm now a VVIP member :)

The entire island of St. Barts is just magical, pity about the French :) Seeing the planes land at that airport is like putting your little kitty cat into the middle of the local I95 and just waiting........but the cat always seems to find a way out of the traffic.

I need to head on over to the Caribbean again poste haste!!

Thanks for the memories!!!

But how did it end? Did Face get the girl? Did
he die from all his wounds? Did he come back
from paradise or is he still there, living his life
out in the islands, fishing and drinking every day..

Quote: Evenbob

But how did it end? Did Face get the girl? Did
he die from all his wounds? Did he come back
from paradise or is he still there, living his life
out in the islands, fishing and drinking every day..

There must surely be worse things? :)

Quote: Tomspur

There must surely be worse things? :)

Hemingway did it for 25 years. He'd write till 10am,
then spend the rest of the day drinking on the boat
and fishing. Or fishing the streams of Montana.

He was an early riser nut. His favorite saying was,
he'd seen every sunrise of his life. He was rarely
up past 10pm.

Quote: Evenbob

Hemingway did it for 25 years. He'd write till 10am,
then spend the rest of the day drinking on the boat
and fishing. Or fishing the streams of Montana.

He was an early riser nut. His favorite saying was,
he'd seen every sunrise of his life. He was rarely
up past 10pm.

Sounds like my kinda guy, apart from the drinking though. Fishing, getting up before sunrise, beaches, babes (stole that one from you Bob). Now you can see why I tried to convince my better half it was a good idea :)