And it's one, Two, THREE fish I caught!

Morning arrived very very early, and we were picked up and whisked off the Hadicurari Pier for our 4 hour deep sea fishing adventure with Captain Jamie, expert fisherman Swa and crew Alejandro. I was excited to go fishing and I explained that I had never fished before, they assured me that it was quite easy, but queried if I get seasick. Uh, no! I been on boats, mainly of the sailboat variety since I was a kid and had never been seasick. Ellie responded the same. So Jamie set a course to the west side of the island, a tad rougher, but better fishing. Bring it on! I just wanted to try fishing, catch one fist and eat it for dinner. And to be able to see the California Lighthouse too....sweet!

So, I intently watched Swa work at getting the bait and lines ready...and took LOTS of photos of him w
working.

Here we are motoring far away from land......

Jamie, tying the bait onto the lines....(or something like that!)

So, the lines were baited....but...nothing...... We had 4 lines baited, and were 6-8 miles offshore in water 200-500 feet deep in 6+ foot waves....and nothing. So, we just kept going round and round in big circles....and I just kept documenting the day with my camera and fiddling with it and looking here, there and everywhere.......and then suddenly, I really didn't feel all that great. Oh my, it couldn't be....I had even worn sea bands (I'd heard horror stories)....I quickly handed off my camera (and binoculars) and ran to the rail......oh my...... Fortunately my pop tart breakfast didn't come up and it was just stomach acid. Still, ewww. Serves me right for screwing around with the camera and not keeping my eyes to the horizon....

I swear, not more than 10 minutes later a fish was on! Swa was hollering for one of us to come down and reel it in. Ellie was urging me to go first, but not knowing what the hell to do, I insisted that SHE go! (Plus I had not yet learned my lesson and wanted to get some pics)! Here she is reeling in the 1st fish, a wahoo!  



She hadn't even got it in the boat yet, when Swa started hollering again! Crap...my turn.....I got into position and after it was apparent that I had NO clue as to how to properly hold the fishing rod, the put it back into the holder and instructed me just to keep turning the reel clockwise until he came back. Although my arm got a little tired, I could handle this! Here's Ellie's fish about to be brought in, Swa is grabbing the club to knock it out, and you can see me a little in the background turning the reel.

Here's me......it took a little while and it was sort of heavy and...wow...the folks that land fish a few hundred pounds must have massive arm muscles!

I'm not sure who's wahoo this was.....but we both landed a wahoo on the first round. So, I made it back upstairs, Ellie was right behind me..then we took a nasty wave, and she didn't quite have her sea legs on yet, and took a nasty fall on the deck. Yikes! The men helped her to her feet quickly and all of us were quite concerned but thankfully she was ok and even laughed it off! So, I went back to taking photos and such, she was chatting, we made another loop....and then everyone started asking me if I felt "ok", and not just once! I assured everyone I was ok, really, I'm not the one who had just wiped out! Well, about 5 minutes later I was again racing to the side....apparently, they had noticed a distinct color change in my complexion! So, with more chocolate chip pop tart chum trailing behind us...a few more minutes and 2 more lines went taut!

Ellie wound up with 2 tuna (one right after the other) and I landed another wahoo, despite my poor technique.

Back upstairs we went, me feeling better, Ellie this time wiping out on the stairs in an even nastier spill!! I can't say how happy I was to learn that she doesn't have brittle bones and bounces well, especially being in a foreign country! One more loop around, I was satisfied to go back already, but we were on a roll. I put the camera away....relaxed, chatted a little....now I swear every time we got to the southern end of the loop and made the turn to go north THAT is what made me sick! Up and off to the rail again.....this time I was so grossed out I just started sobbing and Swa just patted my back and gave me napkins and water...I wasn't settled down 5 minutes and both lines had something on again! I really had enough at this point but Swa made me come down and reel it in! Ellie got another wahoo......and I had a barracuda on my line! EEK! Those teeth! They knocked the wahoo out, but the baracuda they just threw in the cooler.

Ok, now I was REALLY done....I puked 3 times, we had 7 fish between the two of us...I asked Ellie to beg them for mercy and let us go back earlier than our planned 4 hour....surely it must be close to 12 noon! They motored on a bit more, but they agreed to go back...THANK GOD! They advised me to sit on the back deck in the chair so I could get some fresh air....watch the horizon...and soon we hit calmer water.

All of a sudden...there was pounding coming from the cooler and the lid started to open and close...the tail of the barracuda soon was waving in the air...I SCREAMED!!!!!!!! Swa hurriedly came down...as I frantically told him I was about to be eaten alive by the baracuda that he didn't knock out with the billy club! He calmly looked at me, slowly opened the cooler, said something to the fish and then patted my hand and told me it was ok, and then went above. Oh my! All I could think of was it leaping out of the cooler and latching on to my foot or leg (and being in a foreign country with no insurance!). So, I watched the cooler intently. Several minutes later it lifted again a few times, so I grabbed the arms of the chair, like I do when I'm at the dentist, and was ready to make a run for it if I had to! Thankfully, that was its last hurrah. By the time we reached the dock, I was no longer green, Ellie could walk without falling, we had 7 fish and a crowd awaiting our catch!