Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Trip

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought that I knew way more than I did coming into this. Not the case. I am getting schooled on a daily basis, and stoked. Slowly, and not always smoothly, I am transitioning into a serious fisherman. I have not yet set foot on land. 11 days into the trip and we have caught over 30 marlin, and countless yellow fin tuna, dorado, and wahoo. I am the man in the cockpit; rigging all rods, pinning bait, gaffing fish, and leadering marlin by hand. It is intense and extremely exciting.

Today I had to take the "donkey knocker" (a plastic bat full of lead), and bash a dorado's head in after it got into the boat so that while flopping around on the deck, it didn't hook one of the people in the cockpit, or damage the boat. The aftermath included blood spatter worthey of Dexter.

Other then brutally murdering sea life, I have seen a lot of great things. Paddle boarding the small but extremely long waves at Santa Maria, snorkeling, watching dolphins ride the wake off the bow of the boat from the pulpit, epic sunsets, 80 degree water, and eating like a king, have all been great additions to the rigorous fishing schedule.

Unfortunately the weak connection here has rendered me incapable of adding photos or video but I will get it up soon. Until next time.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

AT LAST


Finally I can post something from my travels abroad. On Thursday I left Newport Beach and this evening we reached our destination at Turtle Bay. I can't believe that I am as fortunate as I am to be doing what I am doing. Right now it is my captain Bob, the wild Hawaiian chef Lane, and myself. They have already taught me so much.

The first night we motored all the way thru, all taking shifts on watch. The following night, at midnight, we anchored off the coast of a small mexican island inhabited only by those that worked on the salt mines and fisherman. After bartering with the local fisherman for some beer and T-shirts we ended up with 29 lobsters. Lane and I proceeded to clean them all to get ready for some feasts in the near future.

Later in the day we got radio from the Tigress, whose firstmate is my buddy Tommy who got me this job. They were on their way back up from Cabo and found some great fishing. We saw eachother in passing as both boats pulled in unlimited amounts of yellow fin tuna. We murdered 13 good sized tuna and decided to leave the rest to the multi hundred porpoise pod that were traveling with us for about an hour. One of the new things I learned today was that you must put tuna on ice immediately, not because they will spoil, but because they fight so hard that they can cook themselves from the inside out.

When we finally got to Turtle Bay, Lane and I set up shop to clean all of the tuna. It took a few hours but we ended up with the pounds vaccume sealed and frozen, along with freshest sashimi I've ever had. Now we are resting and getting ready for whatever tomorrow brings. Life is good.