Visiting relatives begins on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
Feng Ye first took his son and accompanied Ye Qingling to stay at her father-in-law's house for a few days.
After returning, I visited the homes of my uncles, aunts, and other relatives.
He would occasionally entertain guests at home, but it was usually at the old house. He only entertained relatives from Ye Qingling's maternal side at his new home.
That's how Chinese New Year is: a bunch of relatives come and go, eating and drinking...
The New Year celebrations aren't truly over until the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
However, just after the tenth day of the lunar month, the weather turned bad, and it started to drizzle, with the temperature dropping sharply.
It really is a cold snap in early spring!
The light rain lasted for five days, and finally stopped on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month.
The New Year is over, and if the weather permits tomorrow, it's time to go out to sea to work.
However, there is still some preparatory work to be done before that.
The Rising Sun has been at sea for a year, and its waterline is overgrown with barnacles, oysters, and other creatures, so it needs to be cleaned.
In the vast ocean, there is no shortage of various parasitic organisms.
Barnacles, in particular, like to attach themselves to the surfaces of hard objects such as the bottom of ships, reefs, and dock embankments. Some even attach themselves to living creatures such as whales and sea turtles.
Ships that are constantly submerged in seawater inevitably carry barnacles, oysters, mussels, and other marine life, whether moored on the shore or sailing on the sea.
Moreover, the longer these things are not cleaned, the more they grow, the larger they become, and the stronger their adhesion becomes.
They increase the roughness of the part of the ship below the waterline, thus increasing the resistance of the ship during navigation.
At the same time, it also increases the ship's weight, which leads to a decrease in the speed of ships and vessels and an increase in fuel consumption.
Therefore, regardless of size, every vessel needs to be cleaned regularly.
Fishing boats are usually cleaned once a year.
In later generations, the cleanup was carried out during the fishing ban period.
But there were no fishing bans back then, so you could go out to sea to fish all year round.
This led fishermen to schedule the cleanup work for the beginning and end of the year when they were resting.
Cleaning is a hassle, but it has to be done.
At midday high tide, they steered the Rising Sun to a designated spot to dock.
Once the tide recedes, it will be stranded there.
This place is a bit special, as it is located between two reefs.
Every year after December, families with boats would work together to place corrosion-resistant logs between two reefs.
This way, if the fishing boat runs aground here, its bottom won't sink in, but will remain suspended in the air, making it easier to clean the debris attached to the bottom of the boat.
Moreover, this place is just the right size for fishing boats to pass through, and the tide can recede, making it a natural small dock.
Seeing that the time was almost up and the tide should have receded, Feng Ye and A Can took their tools and prepared to clean up the Rising Sun.
Feng Xuan had gone out to sea early in the morning with the Harvest, so this task could only be done by the two of them.
Today is high tide, and there are many people going to the beach to enjoy the sea breeze; the beach is packed with people.
Because school hasn't started yet, there are especially many children, who are excitedly running around on the beach, picking up stranded seafood, digging for clams, and the like.
Halfway there, they saw Feng Yanmei and her brother Feng Xidong. Feng Ye quickly called out, "Yanmei, Adong, come here, come with me."
Since the eldest brother isn't here, it wouldn't be bad to have the two younger ones help out.
The two siblings heard the shouts and ran over.
"Uncle, what brings you and Uncle A-Can here? Are you here to fish too?"
"No, your Uncle A-Can and I went to clean the bottom of the boat and asked you two to help pick it up."
"Okay, okay..."
With something to do, why wouldn't they be happy?
"Uncle, can I ask other people to come along?"
"Okay, but you have to be obedient and not run around."
"We'll definitely obey..."
The two siblings turned around and went to call their respective friends.
Before long, each person brought back several friends, all of whom were around their age.
They followed excitedly behind the two of them, heading towards the place where the Rising Sun was stranded.
"Ahhh, there are so many oysters under the boat..."
"There are also many mussels..."
"And barnacles..."
As soon as they arrived, they rushed over and crawled under the boat, taking out small shovels and shoveling up and down the bottom of the boat.
But they were too weak to shovel up the tightly attached shellfish.
"If you can't shovel it, then stop. Come on, we'll shovel it, and you can help pick it up later."
"Okay, okay..."
One by one, they emerged from the bottom of the ship, eagerly awaiting their arrival.
The bottom of the boat was covered with a dense mass of shellfish, all sorts of things.
However, the most abundant creatures are barnacles that resemble small volcanoes, as well as oysters and mussels.
The bottom of the Rising Sun ship was not painted red, and these shellfish are edible.
To reduce the adhesion of marine organisms, antifouling coatings are usually applied to the hull below the waterline.
These are special paints, such as cuprous oxide and mercury oxide.
These paints effectively resist the invasion of marine life, driving away or killing those creatures attached to the bottom of the ship.
However, it should be noted that these paints are toxic.
Therefore, it is generally prepared in red according to international practice to serve as a warning.
While antifouling coatings are effective, they cannot completely prevent marine organisms from adsorbing them.
The barnacles, mussels, and other shellfish that adhere to this coating are also toxic and cannot be eaten.
These days, antifouling paint isn't cheap, so small fishing boats that go out and return on the same day generally don't use it.
Despite being sixteen meters long, the Rising Sun is still considered a small fishing boat and therefore doesn't have this kind of paint.
In other words, all the shellfish scooped off from above are edible.
This is why he called Feng Yanmei and her brother to help; they couldn't let the opportunity go to waste.
"Everyone step back a bit, don't stand so far forward, or you might get hit."
The little ones were all huddled together, standing so close together, making it difficult for Feng Ye to maneuver.
The shells of these shellfish have very sharp edges; it would be bad if they were shoveled down and hit on the head.
Once they had dispersed a bit, he targeted a small patch of densely packed mussels and used a square-headed shovel to dig them up along the bottom of the boat.
In an instant, the small patch of mussels was scraped off, revealing the metallic hull beneath the boat.
Upon seeing the mussels that had fallen to the ground, the children immediately swarmed around them, scrambling to pick them up.
"Mine, mine..."
"I saw it first..."
"I already got it, and you're still trying to steal it..."
Feng Ye looked at the children scrambling for the food and shook his head helplessly: "Stop fighting, all of you step back first, I'll scoop up a bit more, and you can pick it up slowly."
"Then hurry up."
"What's the rush? Look at the bottom of the boat, it's packed full of stuff, you can pick some up..."
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