Tuna Fishing

So about 2 weeks ago Rich, his brother, Robbie and I all went tuna fishing out on the open sea. We went about 70 miles out and started fishing. It took about 3 hours or so to get out there and it felt like we would hit China pretty soon (I was almost positive) if we kept going. There were 14 of us on the boat and I was one of only 2 girls. On the way out there, I was looking off to the side of the boat (to keep from getting sick) and everyone was looking out at the other side and they got all excited because they saw two whales blowing! I couldn't see thought all the people and fishing poles so I just kept looking out my side. I'm glad I did because as I was sitting there about 50 yards from the boat I see this huge side fin of a whale and it's side like it was waving at just me! A little while later we were looking out the boat some more and all of a sudden we see these gray dorsal fins poke up out of the water and then sink back down. This happened 2 or 3 times and I was thinking...what is that? And then we hit a little wave and two porpoises came splashing out of the water! They were swimming with us along the side of the boat. They came and visited us a number of times for the rest of the trip.

So, on the way out to our "destination" the swells were getting big (8-12 feet) and the boat was rockin' and rollin' making almost everyone sick. I made it the whole way out without getting sick!! I was pretty amazed but I didn't make it out unscathed. I was told that I had a mild case of hypothermia because I got soaked by one of the waves that hit the boat. I had to go inside the cabin area and get warmed up and put dry clothes on (which I didn't have with me so I ended up wearing a mix-match outfit made up of random pieces of crew members' clothing). Now, anyone that has been on a boat on the ocean knows that if you feel sick the last place you want to be is inside a little tiny cabin...that just asking to be sick! Well, the captain made me come inside and made me stay there most of the day until I got warmed up. As I said before, if you're feeling sick you don't want to be in the little cabin area because it just makes things so much worse...and as you can imagine, I got sick. Luckily I was sitting right next to a little bathroom and it was a whole lot closer than the side of the boat (plus it was nice to have a little privacy. It can get a little embarrassing when you're trying to hold up your pants (which are really someone else's sweats) and avoid the boat and other people...) After I was sick for a minute or two, I felt great! I ended up sleeping for a few hours and didn't miss anything.

Anyway, back to the fish catching part because I'm sure no one wants to read about me being sick...

So, there were 14 of us on the boat and we were all ordered the same way that we signed in. Rich was #12, I was #13 and Robbie was #14. Well, when we were fishing we were going over some stuff and the crew was saying that we would be catching fish in the order we signed up so we should remember our numbers. When we would have a fish bite, the first person on the list would reel it in, when the second fish would bite, the second person would reel it in, and so on and so forth. Well, we were out there for quite a while (7 hours to be exact not including the 3 it took to get out there) and there were only 11 fish caught. Oddly enough, Rich caught a fish out of order! He was sitting on the deck and he noticed that there was a fish on one of the poles and so he told the man sitting next to him that there was a fish on, but the man didn't want to reel it in for some reason. After sitting there for almost a minute, Rich decided that he was going to need to reel it in if it was going to get reeled in at all. So he heaved and he hoed and he heaved and hoed some more and up came a tuna! We ended up splitting it between us and Robbie so that he could take some home (it's not fun to go home empty-handed).

The ride back to shore was just fine. Fairly uneventful compared to the trip out there. I heard that there were some whales off to one side of the boat, but I didn't see them. That was okay though, because I had my one whale friend wave to me on the way out.
After our whole deep sea fishing experience Rich and I decided that we were never going to go again. We didn't really have that great of a time and since I was cooped up inside the cabin sleeping and he was stuck outside so he didn't get sick, we didn't get to spend much time together. At least we got a fish! Here are some pictures of the trip and Rich hauling in the "big one".

Warning: Some images may slightly 'graphic'