What to do when your assistant is seasick!

Well, what can you do? As soon as we passed beyond the breakwater in the dark and in this little trawler smelling of fish and diesel he went down! I cant blame him it was rough I mean double double rough with a kind of massive roll…boy oh boy it was bad! I hung on for my life up in the wheel house with the window open but my poor assistant was hanging over the side! To be fair the captain did offer to turn back….

So we sailed like this out into The North Sea for 2 hours to the fishing grounds and then it came to getting my camera out of the box, this was not easy, firstly I had to wait until I was considerably higher than the box and then run at it unlock it, and grab the camera. After several attempts I had the camera with lens in one hand and then hanging on with the other hand, I bashed my body and head on pipes and stuff until I got a vantage point on deck. There I safety hooked myself onto the railings and the best I could do was kneel down.They put the nets down and we waited 4 hours as they dragged along the sea floor with the little trawler roaring and the cables vibrating. There was no where to sit, the only seat accessible was the captains and there wasn’t much else to sit on and there was no working toilet.

After 4 hours there was great excitement as the net was drawn up and I got busy with the camera in one hand, there were so many fish in the net! The net was brought round the side of the trawler and winched up so the fish could be tipped into the hold and then they got on with processing the fish.

The net went down for another 4 hours, I hung on for dear life and my assistant laid unconscious on the deck below.

Then the nets came up again teeming with silvery fish….amazing catches!

Then we sailed 2 hours home! Not the best shoot I’ve ever done but the pictures sell and its a great story!

Sometimes you really have to suffer for your art! My assistant made a full recovery only 20 mins after stepping onshore!