Cali Adventures: Part Deux

We decided to take the trip of a lifetime and try our hand at Deep Sea Fishing, "we" being, myself, Hoss, milE, Lapple, and UncleT. Let me just start out by saying, My name is Rose and I have never been fishing! Not kidding, no never, not once. So in all my idiocy and of course my daring nature (Ha!), I decided to take my inaugural fishing trip on a boat, in the middle of the ocean. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but it was an adventure to say the least. Needless to say, the morning stared out with rise and shine at 4am, arrival to the boat about 5am, and a scheduled departure for 6am. We all popped a couple of anti-motion sickness pills, took a stop at the bait dock and off we went. The gentle up and down lull of the boat and humming of the motor were kind of relaxing. MilE and I just kept one eye on the land in the distance and enjoyed the fresh air and ocean breeze. We made it to our first stop, dropped anchor and attempted to bait our hooks. Okay, milE attempted, she is so much braver than me! No way no how was I sticking a hook through the nose or gill of a sardine or a anchovy (Yup, they are two different fish. In all my ignorance, I thought it was called a sardine when it was alive, and an anchovy after packaging in those cool metal tins with the roll back lids!). Besides baiting the line, there was no orientation on how to use a fishing pole, and no one took it upon themselves to teach (husbands!), so we were kind of left to our own devices, and a little help from the deck hands. We learned that it is very important to have live bait, unfortunately for the bait fish, many died without cause dangling from the end of our lines. Up until this point we were doing just fine, then without warning the stomach started churning just a bit, a little sweat accumulated on the upper lip, and palms started to feel slightly clammy, these feelings were brought on by a combination of staring down at my line and the boat bouncing up and down up and down up and down up and down... MilE sat down on deck first, I soon followed, my bait was dead anyway. The captain kindly offered us water bottles, which we were charged for later. The rest of this experience really has no words, good thing Lapple was so understanding and caught it all on film!

Here is milE post-wretching and ralphing, and I am soon to be in the throws of it, though I tried desperately not to look at milE as she puked over the side in an attept to avoid the ripple affect of vomit. Lapple said "smile" and we did. Well, milE smiled, I don't think I quite made it.

Here is the beginning for me, the dry heave is the worst! At this point, the vomit is inevitable, I just wanted it to be over!

And here it comes. I don't know why milE is laughing, wasn't she just doing the same thing? She really has a strange sense of humor, or utter lack of empathy!

Still smiling, what is her deal? Whew, glad that is over. Maybe now I can start smiling too.

Just Kidding! Apparently, I have a little more to share. MilE likes to watch.

After this was all over, we both hopped up on the upper deck behind us and laid in our misery. Where were our husbands? Yeah, we don't know either. We took a little snooze, and poor milE ended up having a second bout of sea sickness, which we unfortunately didn't catch in pictures. This all happened before 8:30 am, only 4 1/2 hours to go. We were awakened by cries from the other side of the boat, where Lapple was having the fight of his life...with a fish.

This is before it got really tough, about 5 minutes in.

Hoss and UncleT just fishing and watching. 10 minutes.

Hoss decided to try his luck closer to Lapple, 20 minutes.

Ah, I think his line got caught in some seaweed. 30 minutes.

Still fighting. No one else was catching anything, so everyone started following Lapple around the boat to watch his incredible braun in action. His arms are really starting to burn!
35 minutes.

This fish has taken Lapple almost full circle around the boat. See the giant bamboo pole? That is for poking the sea lions, who are particularly adept at eating your fish just as it breaks the surface and leaving only the head on the hook. 40 minutes.

The end is in sight! Wow, my big bro is the strongest guy I know, well besides my Superman, Hoss. But what incredible endurance. There is speculation on board that this is a Halibut, or a Tuna, maybe a Bat ray! 45 minutes.

50 minutes.
Well, unfortunately, I think it is safe to say that the fish won. It was a good, honest fight, one that will go down in the history books. Too bad it was probably 400 lbs of seaweed (says Hoss).

The day wasn't a total loss. Despite never having fished before, milE and I both reeled in a fish. Let me be really specific here, we reeled in a fish. UncleT couldn't bare for us to go out on the boat and not catch anything, so he did the dirty work, baited the hook, cast the line, waited for the fish to bite, and then passed off the line. What a great guy.

How does this thing work? 30 seconds.

Can you see it? 1 min.

Woah, I guess I should start turning the, ah, reel?! 2 minutes.

There is my fish. Pretty Cool. Now what? 3 minutes.

UncleT: Kiss it! It's your first fish!
Rose: Are you kidding! There is no way I am touching it, let alone kissing it!
4 minutes.

Okay, this is as close as I am going to get.

It really isn't fair that in less than 5 minutes and minimal labor I "caught" a fish, and after nearly an hour of fighting, Lapple had nothing to show for his work except a broken pole. Maybe next time. I think this is going to have to become an annual tradition, well, at least the vacation to San Diego part.

Blog Bonus: A taste of lil-mil and his fantastic pre linguistic skills...and his good taste in lip gloss!

Imitation is a critical step in the development of language!
How do you rotate a video, anyone?