Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay Paperback - 1999

First line

When spring comes to the wide delta between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, the ice breaks off the rivers; the colors of the sky and water run sharp, chromatic, clear like crystal.

From the jacket flap

The Waterman is the story of Clay Wakeman, born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay. When his father is lost in a storm off the Eastern Shore, Clay drops out of college to take possession of his father's boat and of his work as a waterman--that is, as an independent commercial fisherman.

Since the old boat constitutes his sole inheritance, it means everything to Clay. He renames it the "Miss Sara" after his mother and recruits his oldest friend, Byron, to join him in a start-up crabbing business. From here on in, he must rely on his sense of the water--through the twists and turns of weather, the unpredictability of his tormented partner, the guilt of forbidden love, and the very bad luck of pulling up more from the water than just eelgrass, jellyfish, and crabs.

For just as Clay and Byron are breaking even, Hurricane Agnes roars in to ruin the salinity of the eastern Bay waters, forcing them across the Bay to crab along the Virginia shoreline. It's in those unfamiliar waters that their real troubles begin. Clay falls irrevocably in love with the already spoken for Kate; Byron's post-traumatic stress kicks in with even greater vengeance; and, out in the Bay, the partners stumble onto a drug ring. Lines are drawn on all fronts. And, at the very end, in a riveting boat chase, Clay comes too close to losing the battle...forever.

In The Waterman, souls are on the line--the soul of the mighty Bay, its way of life as fragile as its ecology, and the soul of an appealing young hero.

Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 07/01/1999, Page 1922
• Foreword, 09/01/1999, Page 52
• Kirkus Reviews, 07/01/1999, Page 987
• Publishers Weekly, 07/12/1999, Page 71