The ocean moves from a balmy 74 degrees to nearly 80 as the Blue Fin bounces ten miles from the Hatteras coast toward the Gulf Stream. The water’s change in color from brown to blue signals a rolling boil below the surface, caused by the warm front sent up from the south meeting the cold northern waters.
Against this impossible blue a yellow buoy rocks, signaling the lurking ruins of the USS Monitor. Launched by the Union army in 1862, the Brooklyn-built ironclad engaged the Confederacy’s Virginia in the world’s first battle between two armored warships. The Monitor went on to support several campaigns until, on its way back to North Carolina, it succumbed to a violent storm off Cape Hatteras and sank on New Year’s Eve, 1862.
Later, the Monitor’s demise would be imputed to the crew’s holiday drunkenness. There is no such celebratory spirit to blame for our crew’s similar state today. Can after can of Dale’s Pale is consumed as we wait, with waning optimism, for the yellowfin, wahoo and cobia for which these waters are known. Technology may advance and speed may increase, but for all that, we still cannot explain why the fish will or won’t bite on any given day