The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger

This nobel is based on a true story of a swordfishing boat sank in the storm "Hurricane Grace". Hurricane Grace was so strong and terrible. Unfortunately another storm moved toward Hurricane Grace, and they hit on the sea.

They became more terrible than anyone can imagine. That was a perfect storm. A swordfishing boat named Andrea Gail was hit by this perfect storm and sank.
This nobel describes people around Andrea Gail, crews and their family, friends, etc.
I thought this is an adventure story at first, but it was wrong.
This is a story of phantom on the sea! I was scared because I go fishing on the lake so many times!
Are there some phantom in the lake, too???

Points for understanding

2-1 Swordfisherman put "lightsticks" on the "gangions" which are attached to their mainline. What are lightsticks and why are they used?
Lightsticks are clear plastic tubes which give out light. As swordfishing eat at night, fisherman use lightstick. Swordfishes come near to it with curiosity and eat fish bait beside it.

2-2 On September 20th, when the story bigins, Billy Tyne has had a lot of problems. Who is Billy Tyne and what problems has he had?
Billy Tyne is a captain of the Andrea Gail. He has had a trouble of vacancy in crew. He asked some people to go with him, but some refused.

The Perfect Storm

This book was very interesting for me. This story is nonfiction and some people such as the crew members on the Andrea Gail, on a boat named Satori, and a lot of rescuers really fiercely fought against the perfect storm.
The most exciting scene was chapter 8 and 9. I’ve finished reading these chapters quickly. All members except Ray on the boat named Satori did their best to survive, but the violent storm discouraged against their efforts. For example, first, the rescuers tried to rescue the crew members by dropping a raft into the water, but due to the big waves, they couldn’t because the boat made a big hole in the raft. Then they changed their plan. I don’t want to disturb someone’s interesting for reading this book, I’ll stop to explain the continuation.
Before reading this book, I didn’t know the meaning of the title “The Perfect Storm”. The perfect storm means that three powerful weather systems hit each other like a huge bomb exploding out at sea. In other words, the perfect storm means a very very awful dangerous strom. The perfect storm consists of three powerfull weather systems which are a front of cold air moving south from Canada, the line of clear dry air moving east from the Great Lakes and Harricane Grace moving north up the US coast. From this, I wonder we can use the word “perfect” for something. For example, can we say “The perfect food”? Maybe this has not only bad smell, dirty looking, but also awful taste, further more, dangerous to health....... :-)

Masao Kuroda