01907 Summer 2021
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this discovery when he recalled the happiness<br />
he felt while being on a boat and lobstering<br />
with friends, so he decided to do<br />
that full time and stay on the Swampscott<br />
police force as a reserve officer, picking up<br />
details when needed.<br />
He officially retired from the Swampscott<br />
Police Department two years ago<br />
and said that he was quite happy with his<br />
decision to make a career on the sea.<br />
"My office is beautiful, being out on<br />
the water all the time," he said. "It doesn't<br />
really get old."<br />
Although the ocean and the views are<br />
spectacular, not every day out at sea is a<br />
good one.<br />
Gambale and his friend Mike Tuffy<br />
recalled lobstering in the winter:<br />
The two went out on a freezing, windy<br />
day, figuring they'd never know how bad<br />
conditions actually were until they went.<br />
Some days, when Gambale didn't want<br />
to go out on the boat, he said he would<br />
recall advice from an old friend named<br />
Lou Williams, who told him, "you never<br />
know what you're going to get if you go<br />
out, but you do know what you're going to<br />
get if you don't."<br />
And so, Gambale, Tuffy and another<br />
friend went out to sea. Gambale said<br />
the wind and snow were so bad that day<br />
that they couldn't even see through the<br />
window at the ship's bow. It was so cold,<br />
Captain Mike Gambale shows a female lobster with<br />
a cluster of eggs that he caught off the coast of<br />
Swampscott. Female lobsters that are capable of<br />
breeding will be marked on the tail and returned to<br />
the ocean.<br />
Gambale and Tuffy said, they had to put<br />
the lobsters on ice so they didn't freeze to<br />
death. The waves were so big that Gambale<br />
said he was standing near the back<br />
of the boat when he saw Tuffy, who was<br />
driving, go up into the air and hit his body<br />
vertically on the roof.<br />
Gambale said after the wave passed<br />
Tuffy landed on the ground, and Gambale<br />
and his friend thought their companion<br />
was dead. Tuffy was, in fact, not dead —<br />
he quickly jumped back up and said he<br />
was ready to go again. When asked if days<br />
like that ever make them seasick, Tuffy<br />
said no — "only sick of the sea."<br />
That experience, they said, was one of<br />
the worst lobstering days they'd ever had.<br />
Neither lobster in the winter anymore.<br />
With the bad comes a lot of good, and<br />
Gambale said he still has a smile on his<br />
face every day — or most days — as he<br />
heads off to work. Driving through the<br />
harbor, Gambale knows all of the other<br />
lobstermen and waves at them as they<br />
pass each other. He knows the names of<br />
all of the islands, too, including Children's<br />
Island and Pigs Island, where he said<br />
people used to take their boats to go party<br />
back in the day.<br />
He knows which areas to avoid because<br />
of rocks near the surface, as well as<br />
where the best views of the coast are.<br />
After a long day at sea, Gambale hooks<br />
his boat up to its mooring at Fisherman's<br />
Beach and takes his small motorboat into<br />
shore. He has a walk-in cooler space at<br />
the Fish House where he is able to store<br />
lobsters as he cleans up from the day.<br />
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