Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Mal de Mer

I get seasick. Even wearing a Scopalomine patch, I get seasick. Even on a day when the sea is flat, I get seasick. I knew all this, and until yesterday have mostly succeeded in avoiding going fishing with Ron on the Sea of Cortez. He wore me down, and I went, just to get it over with. Possibly never again. I hate nausea worse than I hate pain and spiders.

We took our neighbor Jack with us, too. Our boat has had more than its share of mechanical breakdowns this year, and I prefer Ron has a second set of knowledgeable hands on board. Plus I love Jack.

Left home at 5:30 AM, were launched and at Ron's "spot" at Isla Estaban at 7:30 AM. So far so good.

Cap'n Ron

Jack

Sunrise
The first hour or so of slow trolling for Yellowtail (tuna) was fine. We were surrounded many times by huge schools of leaping, cavorting Dolphins, SO much fun to watch but difficult to capture with the camera. And I finally learned the difference between a Dolphin and a Porpoise: Dolphins have that curved dorsal fin and a definite beak. Porpoises are smaller, have a triangular fin and a rounded snout, no beak.


See the curved fin?

See the beak?


At 9:00,  Jack hooked and landed a Yellowtail, maybe 10-15 pounds. I had begun to feel a tad queasy at this point, but not too bad. Yet.

Hookup!

Ready to net it.

Nice fish, Jack!

I decided to go lay down in the tiny "cabin" for a while, try to feel better.



Dozed off for over an hour. When I woke up, I felt worse, but apparently the patch was keeping me just shy of actually vomiting. I went to sit in the back of the boat, and suddenly the rod in the holder next to me jumped, whirred, and nearly caused an accident in my pants.



Fish On! At 11:00, Ron landed his Yellowtail, maybe 15-20 or more pounds.


Nice fish, Ron!
There was just one more fish, a small skipjack or bonito or something (which they kept to use for bait for bottom fishing), and I'm feeling worse and worse. Convinced them to cut the day short, and they were both OK with it. Trolled a bit on the way back near Isla Turner, then back on the trailer by 2:15 PM.

It took a while to gas up, wash down the boat and wait for the workers to clean our fish, but just being on land again, I felt a bit better.Was home at 3:30, and my friend Jan had arrived! We had large Gin and Tonics to celebrate, and by bedtime, I felt OK.

Never again.


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