Episode #44: I've Been Deep Sea Fishing Twice - My First And Last

 This story is a lot more fun to tell than it was to experience and I will never forget that day I went deep sea fishing twice on the same trip since it was my first and my last. I fought the sea, and the sea won.

It was in the early summer and the year was 1998. A vendor buddy of mine who owned a company that chips out the harden concrete from the drums in the concrete mixer drums invited several of his customers to go on a deep sea fishing trip and since I liked to fish and had never fished in the ocean outside the bay, I was ready to go. This trip consisted of a 12 hour excursion which would be about 70 miles off shore; 4 hours out, 4 hours to fish, and a 4 hour return trip.

Me and my buddy Virgil Walker worked until about 3pm that Friday afternoon and we jumped in my truck and we made our way to Freeport Texas which was about a five hour drive south. Once we were checked in we would grab a quick bite of a light meal and turn in for the early start the next morning. When we got there that evening there was a lot of beer drinking going on and I am thinking this might be a bad combination, since the boats leave at 6am, but they are grown men so they should know better. We chat for a few minutes and I head off to my hotel room.

A few days before this adventure I made a call to my family doctor and told him what I was going to do and asked for a recommendation for sea-sickness medication. He gave me the name of a product that had just recently gone from prescription to an over the counter product that had worked well for a lot of people he knew. The directions were to take one at bedtime and one in the morning so I did. 

At 5:30 am I grab a light breakfast of just a bowl of oatmeal and nothing more then head back down to the marina only to find a couple of these guys are still drinking beer from the night before. I am hoping I am not on the same boat with these guys, because I have an idea that is gonna be ugly! We divide the group into equal numbers on the two boats and we head out about 6:15 am. Our host Keith says the water is going to be pretty rough today and asks everyone if they want a dramamine, I thanked him and said I have something that should be better than that. Virgil says he doesn't need anything and Keith insists, so Virgil politely accepts and we are off. As you will read here, I did not have the opportunity to take many pictures, the one I posted below will give some kind of idea as to how the boat ride went that day.

To quote a line from Seinfeld - "the sea was angry that day my friend'. The picture above was not the gulf at its worst that day, as the swales got deeper and the waves got taller before we arrive at our fishing location which was sunny and calmer but by then, the damage was done. After about 2 hours of heading into this action, I start getting sick. At first I am able to fight off the nausea and suppose the pills I had taken are helping to keep me from getting full on sea sick. We reach our destination and the waves have subsided some, but now that we have arrived, I am completely sick. I will skip the graphic description for the sake of those with a weak stomach. After four or five trips hanging my head over the side of the boat, all I want to do is lay down, so while everyone else is getting ready to start fishing I find a bench and lay down and literally pass out. 

After languishing there for about an hour and a half, semi-conscience and wishing this day was over I convince myself if I can just get up and get a rod and reel in my hand I will make it. That was an incorrect supposition. I try again an hour later and get the same results. I give up and resign myself to that padded bench I had gotten to know so well in the covered area called the cockpit just behind the helm. The fishing was apparently pretty good, as I would awaken from this death grip of sea sickness I could hear the others talking about the one they had just gotten and going back for more.

At the conclusion of the four hours, they fire the boat up and the smell of the burning diesel makes me wish I was anywhere but here. But at least I know we are now only four more hours from Freeport. I am still somewhere between semi-conscious and in the throws of sea sickness hell and this trip back to land just keeps getting longer. I wake up one time and the first mate is cutting open one the fish that were caught and as the boat rocks up and down over the swales and waves, with several fish awaiting their turn to be turned into fillets, they all slide down floor of the boat toward me and then up on the bench I am passing in and out on. I remember thinking 'the hits just keep on coming'.

After what seems like an eternity, which in reality was only about three hours, I am finally beginning to feel more alive than dead and can sit up. By now it is almost 6pm and getting close to land again and I am so very glad of it. We get back to the marina and the boat shares the days' catch equally among everyone and we ice down the share that Virgil and I get in a big cooler I brought and get ready to head out. Virgil says, 'dude you have been sick all day, do you want me to drive?" I said, no thanks I feel great now, but I gotta tell you I am freaking starving to death! We find Luby's Restaurant and eat like I haven't eaten for a week. We finish up and head north. 

By now I am ready to get home and lay the ears back on that F350 Ford truck and I am doing nearly 80 in a 65 and top a little hill and there sits a cop in the median. He lights me up and I pull over. The one cop comes to my side and the other goes to the passenger side. He asks me where I am going in such a hurry on a Saturday night and I tell him and give him my license and insurance. He tells his partner to get Virgil out of the truck and interview him. I tell him this whole wretched story and somehow he finds it humorous and he laughs. He tells me to just here sit in the truck and the two cops meet to see if our stories match up, which of course they do. He comes back to me says "if you show me some fresh fish, I will let you go". I pull the cooler full of iced down red snapper and shark meat to the tailgate, open it up and he sees my evidence and that my story is true. He looks at me, hands me back my license and insurance and says 'get out of here man, but get out slower". 

We drive straight through and I let Virgil off at the concrete plant to get in his truck to head home and I split for my house and I pull into my driveway about 2:45 am. This adventure taught me that I will fish in the bay anytime I get a chance but I will never... ever go deep sea fishing again! The lesson hath been learned.

Epilog-

When we get back to the marina and split up the fish and get ready to head out, we thank Keith for an unforgettable experience. We shake hands and head to my truck. After a few steps, Virgil stops and yells at Keith and says, here I told you I didn't need this and hands him back his unused dramamine pill. I am thinking to myself, I wonder if I should have taken that too. I will never know and will never need to find out.

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