graceland's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

..when the sun came up, their were 5 men left, bobbing in the water

This may be disjointed and typo laden, I am typing from vacation, on a friend's imac notebook. I am neither a laptop user nor a mac user.

Yesterday we went deep sea fishing, 10 of us, with about 10 cases of beer and liquor.

We rented a 45 ft. fishing boat with two lounges and a captain and first mate and left out of Atlantic City.

We were leaving at about 7:45M, but I was up around 5:00am. I had taken these herbal pills the night before and didn't really sleep.

At 5:30am, I woke and dressed and decided to go out and buy some dramamine as a procaution for the trip. I rode my bike about 9 blocks to the 24-hour grocery store but they were sold out, same with the neighborhood deli. Apparently the manufacturer has been out. I headed home on my bike, jittery from last night's ills and this morning's anxiety of being seasick.

Around 7:15am, I called a friend who was driving us to the boat and asked her if she had dramimine at her place. She did and promise to bring it. I felt better.

We jumped in the car and took off. I took the dramamine and got into my head about the trip. Seasickness for me is hit or miss, the last two times I was in the clear, but you always remember the time before that.

We all met up at the dock and boarded the boat, which was dope. I climbed all over it and we jetted out of the dock.

The ocean was rough. The first 45 minutes we were tossed and chopped by the ocean. The boat went from side to side, at one point I was thrown from my chair, across the upper lounge, banging my shinbone into a wooden coffee table and tumbling over it starksey-and-hutch style onto an L-shaped red velvet couch. That broke skin. Band-aids were broken out.

I felt sick for the first portion of the trip, so I focused on staring at the horizon and was fine except for the girl next to me who seemed to treat her nauseau with more noise - her prattle - about bullshit - that went on and on even when no one was around to listen. Blah Blah Blah. I wanted to lift my fist and end it all, but I was too focused on the horizon, my rock.

We hit about 14 miles out, a spot where there's another fishing boat and you can see land, and began to troll. No bites, so we opted to go further for the big fish. We wanted big fish,

We headed out, speeding against the current, huge wake left behind us, to a spot 30 miles out. One of our group was violently ill at this point and no one but the crew could maintain equilibrium enough to walk from front to back. It was rough.

I climbed to the top of the boat and stood next to the captain while looking out of binoculars. There were two ships out there with us, one was a huge Coast Guard ship and another a giant cargo carrier.

It took us a long time to get 30 miles out and when we di, I looked around. Thoughts went through my head.

I remembered how the captain had told me that they had just spotted 4 great whites out here a week or so ago, and I both relished and feared a great fight with one. I also thought about how he had seen blue whales a little further than we were just days before, and how he had said that if they had flicked their tails, they would have capsized the boat. You can't right a 45" boat, it's not a sunfish, And you're 30 miles out. I think 75 laps in a regulation swimming pole is 1 mile, so I can't imagine 30 miles. And that's IF you pick the right direction, If. That's big if.

So, I thought about that and I noticed that there was no one else to swim to if something happened and there was no chance of us swimming to a shore and we were in waters warm enough to pull a great white and I thought, Fuck it. Let's do this.

So leapt out of the cabin, gained my sealegs and took over a corner. I called dibs on about 3 rods and I put them in their holders and I waited.

In the end, it was my friends' husband who caught the first and the biggest fish. Nothing to write home about, just a bluefish, but it ended up being bigger than any of the pathetic fish the rest of us caught.

I caught a small striped bass that we ended up throwing back in, after I posed for a photo squirming away from it on my line as one of the boys trying to get it in the frame but not so close to me that I would freak out. I was grimacing in the photo anyway.

The trip was a blast. Trolling in the deep, charcoal grey-blue water, letting the wake whip up and slash us as we turned the boat, sliding across the deck, me rehearsing the famous JAWS USS Indianapolis ( or was it Indiana) speech for all the passengers, drinking, smoking and hanging out.

That trip made me realize that there aren't a lot of people I'd be interested in being in that position with - 30 miles out to sea in shark waters on a relatively small vessel. You have to really like a group of people. You have to really trust them.

Those are my people.

12:28 a.m. - 2003-08-05

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

notes

DiaryLand

contact

random entry

other diaries:

Sullivan40
CubicleGirl
Toastress
isingsolo


powered by SignMyGuestbook.com