Shrimps
Due
to the heat the sea had warmed up. As a result the bay was full of
water plants. You could hardly see the horizon behind the flowers
that bloomed all over the surface.
The
water was almost too warm. It was hardly refreshing to go for a swim,
particularly when the plants got stuck to your arms and feet.
A
fishing boat nearby was getting ready to go. I jumped along the vessel,
a white wooden boat, very traditional in its design. Aboard the ship
there were a number of German students. They cast their nets in the
sea, even if we were still by the shore.
The
water was clear so the visibility was good. The students lifted up
large quantities of crabs, prawns and shrimps. The deck was full of
crustaceans up to our ankles.
In
the heat the uncooked sea food started to decay quickly. Warming up
the dead crustaceans turned white and started to smell.
The
stinking pile of shrimps crushed beneath my feet. I kicked them back
to the sea. There were so many of them that the sea bed turned white.
My
friend Tadeusz was aboard the ship. He said we shouldn't kick the
crabs into the sea. "The last time we did that, we didn't catch
any the next year." A German guy, Jochen, replied, "It's
not the kicking. It's because of the excessive fishing."
The
air in the deck was so foul that we went indoors. In the officers'
mess we played all kinds of amusement arcades. Particularly Golf was
popular. Jochen put his mouth to a hole, and another player tried
to hit the golf balls in there. In the screen you could see Jochen's
entire set of dentures. The balls hardly hit their target but bounced
off from his front teeth.
In
the monitor I could clearly see that Jochen should visit a dentist.
The upper and lower teeth had grown wrong so that not all of his teeth
quite fitted into his jaws. The teeth were in two rows one after another.
Obviously it was almost impossible to keep them clean.
