Wednesday morning Dean and I snuck out at 4:30am to go on our much anticipated deep sea fishing trip. There were 20 of us Leavitts signed up to go and some of us were more prepared than others. Half of Dougs kids were in sandals and bare feet and it was COLD! We had been warned about seasickness, so we took Bonine the day before and the morning of to curb any issues, but unfortunately that didn't seem to do much for me, but we'll get to that in a minute. Spence went into the shop to get all our licenses and soon after they had us board the ship. The crew went over the rules and how we would be fishing and then we took off for the open ocean. Dean and I stood up front and I was right next to a guy who goes out on these trips several times a year. He brought his own gear and was clearly more seasoned than we were. They would have us keep our poles out of the water and taxi us to a spot they could see fish below us and then tell us how many seconds to count as we dropped our lines in the water. We'd fish for several minutes and then they'd move us to a new location. That morning was VERY foggy, and very choppy on the water. I think that added to my issues. I did manage to catch one fish, but it wasn't quite big enough to keep and then I just felt the pukes coming on strong. I tried to hold out, and threw up over the edge a few times, but it just wasn't stopping. I was cold, and sick, and absolutely miserable so I made my way into the cabin to sit with a bucket. I proceeded to throw up for the remainder of the five hours except for the moments I managed to fall asleep to escape the up and down motions of the ship. I wasn't alone though, poor Ruth did the same, and Chase joined us for most of the time too. Brandee did her share of throwing up too, so at least I wasn't the only one.
Despite my disappointing experience, Dean had the time of his life yanking one fish in after another. He even managed to catch an albatross by the foot, which is apparently more common than we thought. The crew was incredible, and as soon as they saw something on your line, they would swoop in behind you and scoop your fish right up. They came and freed Dean's bird and it took off like nothing had happened. I was pretty surprised to find out that our Captain was wheelchair bound when he requested a crew member to come help him go to the bathroom. At the same time we heard, "we have a bird!" (Dean's bird) and so the Captain had to wait while they ran to help Dean. The pro-fisherman I was originally standing by was thrilled that he could catch to his hearts content and use the rest of our limits to cover his fish. I certainly wasn't using mine, so that was just fine! Haha! It was definitely something I'm glad I tried, but not something I'd ever like to repeat. Once we were back on land we paid professionals to fillet all our fish. It was crazy watching them fillet these massive fish in under a minute. They are definitely good at what they do, but they had no concern for their surroundings and blood and guts were flying everywhere. The one redeeming thing from the day was eating the fish that night for dinner. Ruth took on the challenge of prepping it all of us and it was YUMMY! And we also brought some fish home with us to eat at Mom and Dad's once we were back in Utah. I am grateful for the memories, and to know that I don't ever need to go on a boat again! Hahaha!
I felt sick for the rest of the day (even blogging about it now I can feel that rocking motion all over again!) and had to miss out on the Whale Watching Cruise that afternoon we had booked with the boys, but Dean was a champ and took them without me and Alan was happy to take my ticket so it didn't go to waste. Unfortunately the foggy conditions that day also meant they didn't really see any wildlife. There are some reports that they saw one whale, but the jury's still out on that one. Bridger also didn't seem to fare too well on the boat and took a nap in the cabin while they were there. But lucky for him it was a one hour tour not a five hour one and he didn't throw up or anything.
I slept for hours while they were gone and once they got back I tried to rally in order to redeem the rest of the day. We had been told about Agate Beach which is covered in sand dunes and lots of fun, so we drove down the coast a little ways to find it. By time we got there Bridger had konked out in the car, and I still felt like the whole world was rocking, so I offered to stay back with him while Dean and the older boys went to explore. I went to sleep too, and had no idea that Mom and Dad came by and joined them on the beach. Awkward to think of people watching me sleep and I had no clue. Haha! The boys were raving about how cool the sand was and Dean was nice enough to take a bunch of pictures for me. I was kind of bummed how sick the fishing trip made me and for everything I missed for the rest of that day, but I'm glad they all had fun despite that.
Deep Sea Fishing:
Puking profusely put a damper on my picture taking, so I stole these pictures from Adam
Whale Watching Cruise:
