Looking back at setting day 2019
Setting day. A meaningless phrase to most unless you live on or come from Prince Edward Island or some other place where lobster fishing is a primary industry.
On P.E.I., setting day is a phrase fraught with considerable meaning and not just for fisher folk. It may mean you’ll be selling more goods as the fishers earn their pay hauling lobsters. Or, it may mean your early morning restaurant will be busy with fishers looking for a hot breakfast before they set out to sea. Or perhaps you’re one of those who is looking forward to that first feed of the sweetest lobster this side of paradise.
Even those not on the Island but of the Island will often be thinking of setting day, whether they are in the oil fields of Alberta or the forests of British Columbia.
No, there is nothing meaningless about setting day on Prince Edward Island. It is a rite of passage that occurs in the spring on the eastern end of the Island and overtakes the whole area as surely as the snow melts and the grass begins to green. If one listens carefully, you can almost hear the “buzz” of preparation for setting day as the wharves come alive with lobster traps being deposited and boats being slipped into the harbours the week or two before setting day.
Yesterday (May 3, 2019) was setting day on the Island. It was one of those days that took its own sweet time to arrive this year. It should have been April 30, but mother nature decided otherwise. The winds were much too strong for the boats to sail.
The fishers impatiently waited almost a week for the day to finally launch. Every day the traps sat as silent sentinels on the wharves reminding all that money wasn’t being made. It’s the months of May and June when most fishers on the eastern end of the Island make the bulk of their income, so every fishing day lost is a serious loss of income.
Yesterday couldn’t have been a better day for setting day. The sun rose bright in the sky. The winds had calmed, and just as mother nature had not previously co-operated, she now co-operated on May 3 as though she was competing for mother of the year!
For me, the first sign of setting day is when my nextdoor neighbour moves his fishing boat from his yard and launches it in the harbour.
I am immediately reminded that there is danger to the business of fishing. Darren fishes with his brother. They have the boat hauler come to his yard, load the boat on the trailer and then Darren’s brother gets on the roof of the wheel house of the boat where he stands all the way to the harbour so he can lift the electrical wires in the streets to prevent the boat from tearing them down!
Every time I watch Calvin standing on the boat my stomach does flip flops! The first time I saw this, I followed them all the way to the launching place at the harbour and watched them slip the boat into the water. It was amazing to watch how precisely they performed this operation without a slip-up, as one wrong move could have proved deadly.
Yesterday, the fishers rose early to complete the loading of the lobster traps on their boats. Every boat was loaded to the point it was hard to see the boats for the number of traps on them. It’s not uncommon for friends and family to gather at the wharves to see the fishers off on setting day. Everyone extends good wishes for calm seas and a good catch for the season.
The boats quietly slip out of the harbour one by one in a majestic swoop that has been replayed for more than a hundred years.
There are only a few differences on this setting day from when my grandfather fished in a time when they would have been sailing in boats of wood they’d built themselves. The fishers also wouldn’t have had the sophisticated navigational gear they now possess. I remember as a child being on my uncle’s wooden lobster boat built by his own hands. Sometimes, he’d take us out in the empty boat and open up the motor and go like hell! I can remember hanging on for dear life while he’d be at the wheel laughing like a madman!
There was an amazing video circulating on Facebook yesterday of setting day on the Island. It was picture perfect, catching the shimmering sunrise, the boats gliding in the water and one woman can be heard shouting, “Be careful, Michael!” When I heard that, I thought, “She is embodying the thoughts of all Islanders.” We have thousands of visitors who come to our bucolic Island to see the tapestry of colours God has woven which make this unique picture of fields and ocean and red cliffs so delightful. What many don’t see is surrounding what is often referred to as “the Gentle Island” is a mostly calm ocean that can turn into a treacherous and lethal sea. Last year, the sea claimed four of our fishers as its own – one only 19 years old.
So along with the joy, anticipation and eagerness of setting day, Islanders know too, the angst and unease of what another setting day can bring. Hence, we pray for bounty, but perhaps even more, we pray for safety. May this beautiful setting day be the auspicious beginning of a bounteous catch bringing only blessings to all involved.