A Steem Island Adventure

Steem Island – a peaceful Island with 45,000 citizens, located right at the coast.
Most people on the Island are fishermen, driving out into the ocean with their boats everyday, trying to catch as many fish as possible.

I’m @Sirwinchester , and just finished by Fishing Academy a few weeks ago (graduated with a grade 7!) and just moved to Steem Island.

It was 7am, and my alarm was ringing. I hate this piercing sound! But if I change it to a nicer ringtone, I know I would probably never get out of bed…
I was very tired because I have been preparing a special bait yesterday night. It was called “The hidden powers inside yourself”. So I got ready for the day, full of confidence, because I knew I could actually catch some big fish with today’s bait!

When I arrived at the Harbor, I first noticed all the newbies standing around, trying to get their first boat.
Like always, some of them were pretty ladies that tried to get the best boats through flirting when introducing themselves, others were just waiting patiently. And some looked like ladies, but are actually fake – I call them Ladyboys, because they act like being someone they’re not.
Only a few days ago, there has been a scandal on Steem Island, because one woman called @moonflower had disguised herself as somebody else. (as uncovered here : https://steemit.com/steemit-abuse/@sirwinchester/re-warning-scammer-with-reputation-score-7-user-moonflower-is-fake-yet-a-7 )

I continued to walk along the Harbor Promenade (my boat is laying a little further in the back, I couldn’t afford the VIP berths). Then I came across a huge crowd of people, taking pictures, cheering etc, in front of a very big boat – more like a Yacht!
At first I didn’t realize what the people were waiting for, but then I saw a whole crew of people with masks walking to the boat. And leading them, was @stellabelle , also known as the creator of the “Secret Writer” bait – if she and her crew go fishing, they never come home empty-handed.
I’m a big fan of her, the only level 9 fisherman there is. I heard that the first thing she held as a baby wasn’t a baby bottle, but instead a fishing rod.

When I finally arrived at my boat, it was time for me to attach today’s badges to my boat. The badges are important because they give you permission to fish in certain areas. I was short on time because it took me so long to pass by the crowd of people, so I just quickly chose the most popular badges - I thought this would be a safe bet. So I took the badges (hashtags) steem, steemit, health, introduceyourself, writing, motivation, attached the badges to my boat, and drove out to the ocean.

I arrived at my fishing destination, and threw my special bait “The hidden powers inside yourself” into the Ocean. Only minutes later, lots of minnows had already bitten into it. So I pulled them up, squeezed the Steem Dollars out of them and into my bucket, and let the fish back into the sea. Only moments later, bigger fish and dolphins started to bite my bait.

This was way better than I had imagined – not only was the weather great, but I had found the perfect spot to fish with my special bait. The other fishermen were already staring at me from their boats with envious looks. But I didn’t pay any attention to that, because I was so busy collecting all the Steem Dollars from the fish.

Suddenly, I felt my boat moving, and I was being lifted up into the air. At first I thought that it must be a huge wave, but I stayed up there! So I looked down, and saw that a gigantic whale had lifted up my boat.
It was @smooth (8), one of the large whales in the Steem Ocean! I have heard of him, but obviously never seen him live. I was still in shock, and then he shot out a rain of steem dollars from the whale’s blowhole!

All the Steem Dollars fell down into my boat, and I couldn’t even believe my eyes. And this wasn’t even the end! Smooth had brought his brother @smooth-witness and more friends with him - @steemit200 , @au1nethyb1 and many more! I even saw @stellabelle ‘s Yacht in the far distance, and she was giving me a thumbs up.

I rubbed my eyes because I thought maybe this was only a dream, and my alarm was about to ring soon ?! I was really working hard on my bait for hours to make it perfect, but I never would have thought to get a reaction this big, and even attract whales!

So this continued for some time, and different fish bit into my bait. When my boat was completely filled with Steem Dollars, I wanted to return to the Island to exchange the Dollars at the market.

But then, I saw something enormous in the distance. It was even bigger than the Yacht!
At first I didn’t know what it was – something that moved, something grey and large. All the smaller fish suddenly disappeared around me. They were probably scared.

When he came closer, I realized that it was @dantheman himself.

The King of the Steem Ocean.

I heard legends that when he bites into a bait, a rainbow appears above the boat and the Steem Dollars pour out of it. But maybe that’s only a fairytale.

I was already getting excited he might bite my bait, and thought that this was my chance to finally buy a new boat! But then I watched what he was doing, and realized that he actually destroyed many boats in front of me, by jumping on them.

And from that point on, I knew that he was in his Flag Mode.
But I didn’t even have time to think about it, he already swam to me with such a speed, and jumped high into the air, directly above my boat.
My boat was filled with Steem Dollars, almost 2,500, and was already shaking from all the huge waves he was creating. So now he was directly above me, and I had only one choice – to jump off my boat, into the ocean, and save myself!

So Dan landed on my boat, crushed it, and all my Steem Dollars poured out into the ocean.

I was screaming at him “Hey!! Why did you do that?!”
But he didn’t have much time to answer, he was in his Flag Mode. He simply said “Wrong badges.” That’s it. And he left.

So I was slowly swimming back to the coast, without my boat and with almost no Steem Dollars left. Some people were even laughing about me as they saw me swimming past their boats – they thought I had planned to catch fish with my bare hands.

At first I was very upset about my loss, but I came to realize that I couldn’t change it anymore, and also that the King of the Ocean was just doing his job. Afterall, I could’ve chosen different badges so it was my fault too.

Now I have to prepare new bait and buy a new boat, to catch some fish again.

- To be continued -