"What?! To international waters?!"
Chen Balang was the first to exclaim in shock, while Boss Fu fell into deep thought, and Xu Jiafu, standing to the side, looked at Fu Wan with a scrutinizing gaze.
This girl is quite bold!
These days, the high seas are not so easy to navigate, because although the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was adopted in 1982, it has not been implemented for a long time.
The high seas are full of unruly scoundrels and shady characters. Apart from those people, the only legitimate vessels operating on the high seas are the large ocean-going fleets of various countries.
So when Fu Wan suggested going to international waters, Chen Balang was the first to object.
"Ah Wan, the high seas are not like ours here, they are too dangerous, we can't go."
He habitually took out a cigarette to light it, but Boss Fu next to him grabbed his hand that was reaching for a match.
What are you smoking for? Can't you see his daughter is here?
However, Boss Fu also disagreed with going to international waters.
“Ah Wan, I also think we shouldn’t go to international waters. It’s our first time sailing this ship, and it’s not good to just drive around recklessly.”
With both elders disagreeing, Fu Wan had no choice but to abandon her decision.
She wanted to go to the high seas because she thought that the camp and the coast guard had recently wiped out the pirates, and the fish resources on the high seas might be more abundant.
But everyone disagreed, so she could only wait until her boat-handling skills were more advanced before considering it.
"Then let's tow it around in the high seas, a few hundred nautical miles south. We haven't worked there before."
Upon hearing this, Boss Fu and Chen Balang breathed a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Fu Wan would not listen to their advice and would insist on going to international waters.
"Okay, we'll keep an eye on things here. Let everyone rest for a bit, and we'll start trawls once we get to our destination."
Fu Wan agreed and turned to inform the others who had made preparations.
Time on the boat was actually quite boring; apart from fishing, they mostly slept. Fu Ming had planned to bring a deck of cards on board to pass the time, but Fu Wan discovered this and warned them not to gamble or be greedy.
Because many people get carried away when playing cards, and if they lose money and get into a fight on the ship, it would be very dangerous at sea.
After hearing what Fu Wan said, Fu Ming had no choice but to give up. Since he was bored anyway, sleeping was the most reliable option, since he needed to be well-rested to work properly at night.
Fu Wan also went to her room and took a nap. When she woke up, it was already dark outside.
She went down to the first floor and entered the wheelhouse. Chen Balang was steering the boat, while Boss Fu was drinking tea beside him.
"Uncle Chen, are we at our seats?"
"Almost there, about ten more minutes, Awan. The terrain in this area is pretty good. Tell everyone to get ready to set up their nets!"
At first, Chen Balang couldn't understand the data on the display screen. It was only after Xu Jiafu patiently explained it to him several times that he and Boss Fu finally understood.
To be honest, Fu Wan had considered sending Fu Laoda and Chen Balang to take the captain's certificate exam, but the two of them hated reading and recognizing characters the most. As soon as they heard that they would have to take an exam, they immediately shook their heads like rattles.
They're both getting old, and in five or six years at most, they plan to retire and go home.
Therefore, Fu Wan could only plan to have Fu Ming and Fu Liang take the exam for captain and crew member certificates. Of course, she herself also had to take the exam.
These days, there are no permit requirements for fishermen going out to sea, since most fishermen operate in coastal waters. But Fu Wan bought a large boat and will inevitably fish in the open ocean, so it's never a bad thing to learn more.
Fu Wan glanced at the blue display screen. The water here was much deeper than the sea a few hours ago, nearly two hundred meters deep. There were also many white dots at the bottom of the screen, which meant there were schools of fish.
It had been almost a week since she had gone out to sea, and seeing so many schools of fish made Fu Wan inexplicably excited.
She quickly left the wheelhouse and pressed the button for the ship's external bell.
As a piercing bell rang, the crew members who were sleeping in their rest cabins heard the noise and came downstairs.
Fu Ming and Fu Liang ran the fastest, and as soon as they came down, they yawned and asked if it was time to go offline.
Fu Wan responded and then arranged for them to either set up nets or use longlines.
Of course, she wasn't idle either. She led Fang Min and Fu Qing to find all the bamboo tubes and then placed them down one by one along the side of the boat.
"Ah Wan, can we catch an octopus by putting a bamboo tube down?"
As Fu Qing placed the bamboo tubes, he asked Fu Wan a question. Fu Wan nodded. Unexpectedly, after the bamboo tubes were placed, Fu Qing ran off somewhere and dragged out a burlap sack. Fu Wan wondered what it was, but when she got closer, she found it was a pile of seashells.
"Look, Wan, this can catch octopuses too!"
She held up the conch shell like a treasure, and Fu Wan was immediately amazed after examining it.
"Aqing, you're so smart! Who taught you that?"
Fu Qing pointed to himself, his face filled with undisguised smugness.
"It was Aqing's own idea!"
Just then, Fang Min also lowered all the bamboo tubes and floats she had into the water. When she saw Fu Qing bring out the conch shell, she couldn't help but laugh.
“It’s been hot lately and we’re worried about snakes, so Aunt Wang won’t let Aqing go into the bamboo forest to cut bamboo. I don’t know what she was thinking, but she suddenly went to the beach and collected a lot of snail shells.”
Most of these shells belonged to hermit crabs. Fu Qing picked out the larger ones, washed them clean, and then, from who knows where, he got a nail and started drilling holes in the shells.
But she didn't know her own strength; when she threw the brick, the nail went straight through the conch shell, and the shell immediately shattered into several pieces.
Fang Min couldn't bear to see it any longer, so she helped her put the seashells in the water and used the water pressure to reduce the pressure of the nails, which allowed her to drill holes in all the seashells.
After the holes were drilled in the shells, Fu Qing pestered Wang Xiuer for a bundle of hemp rope, and then pulled Fang Min to string the shells together.
Actually, this works on the same principle as Fu Wan's bamboo tube trap, except that the bamboo tube has a larger interior space, allowing even larger and more octopuses to crawl in.
Although Fu Qing's conch shell trap is not as spacious as the bamboo tube trap, it is more than enough to accommodate a small octopus.
Fu Qing was eager to try out the conch trap she had made. Fu Wan noticed that she hadn't tied any floats to it yet, so she went to the pile of miscellaneous items and found a few more floats for her to tie on.
Only after completing these steps was Fu Qing allowed to personally place the conch trap into the sea.
Whether we've made any progress or not, we'll know when they come over tomorrow morning.
They just trawled the net, nothing else to do. After observing from the ship's cabin for over half an hour, Fu Ming and Fu Liang went to the kitchen to heat up some food.
There was no fresh fish or shrimp for this meal, only braised pork, dried fish, and green vegetables prepared by Ye Xiaocui. After a simple dinner and a short nap, it was time to haul in the nets.
The trawler's nets are much larger than those of the previous fully loaded trawler, so the trawling time is also longer.
The net was dragged on for a full four hours, and as a huge net slowly rose from the sea, the people on the ship couldn't help but get excited.
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