Even MORE things I learned while fishing

This week-end was the Wine, Women and Fishing event in Virginia Beach. I was greatly anticipating this week-end because 1) I secretly think off-shore fishing is really cool. Please don't tell anyone 2) Sue and Mike needed a fun and relaxing week-end. The funeral for George and taking care of Lisa and the kids has really worn them down.

So I drive down Saturday afternoon. Very uneventful except for the fact that the traffic at the tunnel was so slow I actually could knit while driving (I have decided that when you are going under 3 miles per hour it is OK to knit). I drive to the docks like I have been doing it for years thanks to my handy dandy Molly Magellan. Sue, Christine, and I go to Harris Tweeter (it's really Harris Teeter but we think we are so funny when we call it Harris Tweeter) which might be the greatest grocery chain ever. We bought way more stuff than we ever needed, which came in handy later.

OK. Back at the boat all our tournament team mates arrive and we go over to the tournament Kick-off event. Please keep in mind that the name of the event is Wine, Women, and Fishing. We are there about 20 minutes and they run out of wine. WHAT? Not a good thing to announce to a crowd of women who forked out serious money for this event. The mood was UG-LEE. I decide that I will drink a beer and have a Land Shark. Great beer, and hilarious name. All I could think of was the old Saturday Night Live skit.

We have dinner and hit the boat to go to bed because we are setting out at 5:30. Yes, my little possums, 5:30 in the morning.

At 5:30 off we go with a song in our hearts and great plans to catch THE BIG ONE. I take Dramamine so I am sea worthy, thank the Lord. we go 72 miles off shore because big fish need big water. Someone should have told the fish that that is where they needed to be. We did not catch a single thing all day. Nothing, nadda, zip. We did see lots of porpoise, whales, sea turtles and flying fish. That was very cool!

At 3:00 the tournament is officially over, and we have had a fabulous time making up all kinds of fish dances, wearing a fish eye (A fake one. We didn't poke the eye out of some bait and wear it on our foreheads. Good grief people!) in the middle of our foreheads (The All Seeing Fish Eye). That was an interesting site of 6 women doing all this nonsense! I even yelled SOOOOOOOOO-EEEEEEEEEEEEEE Fish. But alas we were fishless.

At 4:15 on the way back in, (we are taking our time because why do you want to be back early if you LOST?) we hear an odd noise coming from one of the engines. Very odd. So odd that Mike comes flying down from the bridge and orders us out of the stateroom. He open up the engine room door and black smoke comes pouring out. Even in my non-nautical state, I know that this is not a good sign.

The boat is shut down. Words in combinations I have never heard come streaming from Mike's lips. The port engine is blown. Bear in mind that this is the engine they just had rebuilt at the tune of $23,000. I would have come up with interesting combinations too. Actually I think I would have gone into the state room, laid down on the bed and sucked my thumb. Sue and Mike are more pro-active than I. They chose to tell the engine what they really thought of it and its ancestory.

Now we have one engine to limp 62 MILES back to shore with. This is where the over-shopping at Harris Tweeter came in handy. We proceed to eat. And eat.

After about an hour, we get a call from a boat who has heard us contact the Coast Guard. They are heading our way and will pick up any passengers who need to get back sooner. Carol and I decide we will go back since we have to work on Monday. The boat pulls up, we hop on, and away we go.

Turns out this couple is from Yukon, Oklahoma! She went to OU! He went to OSU! She is Henry Bellmon's niece! We are friends for life now. We have bonded like only Okie's can. Carol and I are sending them a "House Divided" flag to thank them for the ride.

We get back to shore at 8:35 p.m. and I load up and start for La Plata. A three hour tour (insert Gilligan's Island music here). I straggle in at 12:05 a.m.

So no fish were caught, precious little wine was had, but it all makes a great story now, and I am glad I went.