"Sigh, if I were twenty years younger, I would definitely follow you guys!"
Village Chief Fu sighed with regret, saying that thanks to Fu Wan, this was the first time he had ever seen such a magnificent fishing boat.
Upon hearing this, Boss Fu laughed heartily, "Uncle, if you want, you can come with us now!"
Old Village Chief Fu shook his head. He was self-aware enough that people living by the sea often have weak knees as they get older. Fu Wan bought the boat to fish and make money, so he couldn't cause her any trouble.
Fu Wan was unaware of the old village chief's regrets; she was currently saying goodbye to Ye Xiaocui.
Because she was going to be away for several days, Ye Xiaocui was a little worried. Fu Wan originally wanted to take her with her, but someone had to look after the chickens and ducks at home.
"I've prepared over ten kilograms of Chinese cabbage for you, as well as both cooked and raw pork and ribs. Make sure you eat them on time while you're on the boat, or you'll forget to eat when you get busy."
Fu Wan held her hand and patted it comfortingly.
"Don't worry, Mother, I know all that. There are so many people on the ship, how could we forget to eat?"
You, on the other hand, need to be careful at home. Why don't you come stay at my place? Wangcai is a good watchdog; most people don't dare go in!
"Alright, alright, I know about this. Your third uncle and the neighbors are all here. Besides, I'm not someone to be trifled with!"
Coming from a hunter's family, Ye Xiaocui was quite daring. When Fu Wan and the others weren't home, she always kept a knife handy in her house.
Seeing that it was almost time, Boss Fu gave a call, and everyone boarded the boat.
The sound of the ship's horn was different from that of ordinary small fishing boats. With a deep sound, the "Sailing Through the Waves" slowly sailed away from the dock.
Fu Wan and the others stood on the deck watching the people on the dock slowly turn into small black dots until the dock disappeared into the sea and could no longer be seen. Only then did she let Fu Ming, Fu Liang and the others go to assign rest cabins.
The ship's rest cabins were all on the second floor. Fu Wan and Fu Ming discussed it and decided to use the middle staircase as a boundary, with the left side for the male crew members and the right side for the female crew members.
Because Fu Wan had taken a walk around beforehand, she found that the rest cabins on the right were more spacious, and even offered single and twin beds.
Most importantly, the rest cabin on the right has a separate toilet, which is much more convenient for clean women.
Fu Ming and the others didn't care about the left or right sides, because in their view, as long as there was a place to sleep, that was enough.
Fu Xiaochuan walked around the rest pod, his face full of excitement. It's no exaggeration to say that after living in a shared dormitory with his brothers for over a decade, this was the first time he had a bed all to himself!
Even if that bed is just an ordinary iron-framed bed, at least no one will be able to kick him off while he's sleeping.
Seeing the men's excited expressions, Fu Wan remembered something and pulled Fu Ming aside to instruct him, "Brother, you have to tell them that they still need to pay attention to personal hygiene. I don't want the whole ship to smell of stinky feet!"
Fu Ming chuckled twice, touching his nose, then patted his chest and assured him.
"Haha, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on this. If anyone dares to enter the room without washing their feet, I'll throw them into the sea, wash them clean, and then pull them out!"
Fu Wan laughed when she heard this. This was too exaggerated. If you knew he was joking, you would think he was going to rob and kill you!
Fu Wan had already chosen her cabin. This ship truly lived up to its reputation for using imported ship components; even the windows were exceptionally large.
She put her luggage inside and then sat down comfortably by the window.
The weather was nice at the time, and the waves at sea were small. Because the ship had a deep draft, the rocking sensation while sailing was not particularly noticeable.
After enjoying the sea view for a while, Fu Wan made a pot of honey water and then headed towards the main building.
Before she even stepped into the helm room, she could hear the voices of Boss Fu, Chen Balang, and a few others chatting.
"I'm not kidding, but if it weren't for Brother Xu, we really wouldn't know how to sail this boat."
"Yes, I can't even read all the words on this control panel. Brother Xu, how many years have you worked in the shipyard?"
"Haha, I've worked in the shipyard for almost twenty years. I'm not bragging, but I've sailed at least a hundred, if not a thousand, ships."
Fu Wan heard it clearly; the last person to speak was Xu Jiafu, whom Fu Laoda had lured onto the boat.
Seeing that they were chatting happily, Fu Wan did not disturb them. Just then, Ye Lin and the others came down after putting their things down, so she told them to bring out the trawl net in preparation for setting it down when they arrived at the destination.
"Ah Wan, shall we prepare for longline fishing now?"
Since not so many people were needed to trawle the nets, Fang Min started looking for things to do herself.
Fu Wan glanced at the sun in the sky. The sun was still shining brightly, and the temperature of the seawater was probably not low. At this time, the sea fish preferred to hide in the reef area to rest.
So she shook her head and said, "Let's not release it now, but you can prepare the bait first, and we'll release the line and hook when it gets dark."
"Alright."
Fang Min nodded in agreement and turned to lead Fu Qing to prepare the bait.
Knowing that she was going out to sea today, Ye Xiaocui went to the dock early in the morning and bought nearly ten catties of small fish and shrimp.
This stuff is cheap, five cents a pound, ten pounds would only cost fifty cents.
Whole small fish aren't fishy enough, so Fu Wan usually cuts them in half and piles them in a bucket for a few hours before the fishy smell kicks in.
The stronger the flavor, the more seafood in the sea will like it.
While they were busy working on this, Boss Fu's shout suddenly came from the entrance of the headquarters.
"Ah Wan, come here for a moment."
Fu Wan responded and quickly went over, entering the helm room, where there was still a lingering smell of smoke.
It seems that Boss Fu knew she didn't like the smell of smoke, so he opened the door beforehand to dissipate the smell.
"Father, what's wrong?"
Boss Fu beckoned her over and then pointed to the red dot on the control panel for her to see.
"Ah Wan, take a look at the map. This is the new ship's first time at sea. Where should we try our net?"
This is a topic that Boss Fu and the others just discussed.
However, they disagreed. Chen Balang wanted to try his luck at the place where he had previously caught ribbonfish, while Boss Fu preferred to trawle in the deep sea.
Xu Jiafu supported both ideas. In any case, he was only responsible for keeping an eye on the control panel. As long as the ship could sail normally, he could go wherever he wanted.
Unable to make a decision, Boss Fu had no choice but to seek help from Fu Wan, since the boat belonged to her and she was the one who decided where to cast the first net.
Looking at the various data displayed on the control panel, Fu Wan realized that this ship was not only large, but also equipped with a detection instrument that was relatively rare in this era.
This detector can not only detect the water depth of the area while the ship is in motion, but also detect whether there are reefs or schools of fish under the ship.
According to Xu Jiafu, this device was built into the Soviet ship itself, and the principle of the detector is very simple: it uses echoes and small sonar to obtain data from the seabed.
However, this technology was not particularly mature in the 1980s, and sometimes there were problems with inaccurate data due to positional deviations.
Moreover, even if schools of fish on the seabed can be detected, the display screen cannot show the specific species of fish, but for Boss Fu and his group, this is already very advanced.
Fu Wan observed the data for a few minutes and found that there were basically no schools of fish in this area, only a few scattered spots.
"How about we go out to sea and take a look?"
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