Just for the Halibut

I couldn't help myself.  I love puns.

On the morning of the charter, we got up around 4:30, took a few minutes to enjoy the view one more time out of our hotel room, and headed out to the harbor to catch our charter.

Can I move here? I just want to live at the Land's End hotel. 

Despite being exhausted, the view was too nice.  I could have just sat at the boat docks taking pictures all day.

After a quick walk down the dock, we found our boat (the only one up and running at 5:30 am).  Here she is - The Foxfire.  Andy decided that if we ever had a boat he would probably call it Titanic II or Unsinkable.  I would prefer a pun, but I feel like most of the good ones are taken.  Want proof? Check out this incredible list. "Prawnto" is pretty fantastic.  But I digress...

Mom apparently read somewhere that there would be coffee provided on board.  She shared this information with Andy and Dad and they made the decision not to purchase any before we got on the boat.  When we settled into the boat, there was no coffee.  This was how they felt about that:

This look is probably why guys didn't want to date me in high school.  Also because I was/am a huge loser. 

 The deckhands told us they had time to get coffee before we left.  They ran to get some and they quickly turned those frowns upside down!

Mom didn't get any coffee and she was pretty smiley...for the time being (more on that later).

The trip out was great.  It took us about 90 minutes to get to the fishing spot.  The scenery was amazing, as I've come to expect from Homer.

The seas LOOK really calm, but they weren't - especially as we got farther and farther out to sea.  When we stopped to drop anchor, mom was the first casualty of sea sickness - followed by just about every other person on the boat except for maybe five out of the 16 passengers.  Thankfully, Andy, Dad and I did not fall victim to the rolling seas and many barfing passengers around us.

Despite all the vomiting, there was some great fishing to be had!

Here's my first catch! I think I was the first one to bring up a fish.  Sadly, he was teeny, so we tossed him back.  I didn't mind letting the little ones go, but it was SO DIFFICULT to bring up even the small fish that it was disappointing to suffer all that pain just to let the fish go.  I think my arm is still a little sore over a week later!

This is probably one of the bigger ones.  Our fish were all probably around 15-20 lbs.  Not the monster 300 lb trophy fish some people get, but these are good and tasty!

Andy's happy!

Mom also caught a big cod.  I caught one too - we didn't keep them.  These are not the good eating kind.

The fishing was physically difficult, but I think we all caught a fish every single time we dropped bait (herring heads - yum!).  Our spot was so hot, we had company after not too long.

Can you see the name of the boat? That's the "Nauti Lady."  GOOD ONE! 

After about two hours of fishing, everyone on the boat had caught their limit, which was only two...but they're pretty big fish, so that's some good eating!  We each had color-coded zip ties to help us know whose fish were whose.  We had the bright yellow ones.

Here's most of the haul.  Not too bad for a bunch of tourists!

This was my favorite deckhand, Drew.  He helped me fish when my arm hurt, and he seemed to like me because I was the only female on board who didn't barf (sorry mom).

We got to pose with our catch:

Dad's picture is the best.

I was the only person who kissed the fish.

Okay, mom's picture was also pretty hilarious.

After we got all our pictures, it was time for the deckhands to break out their filleting skills.  Some fish unfortunately required the bat before the knife.  Sorry fish!

It was amazing to watch them fillet the fish.  It would have taken me the whole trip back just to figure out how to take out the cheeks.

We weren't even halfway back when they finished cleaning the fish.

At one point on the trip, the boat slowed almost to a full stop.  I ran to the bow and caught pictures of the reason for the pause - a humpback whale!

I just caught the tail...

Sadly the whale did not come back up and we had to keep heading back to shore. (The people who were miserable and nauseous in the boat did not mind I'm sure).

Most of the way back we were chased by opportunistic seagulls:

and greeted by otters who were not at all fazed by the passing boat:

I did not zoom this with the computer - they were RIGHT by the boat!

This one is waving!

We passed by our hotel room on the way back to the harbor:

I got a really nice picture of mom and dad - you can't even tell she was sick on the boat.  Trooper!

We got back to the harbor, grabbed our fish and headed back to Anchorage.  We had to get home fairly early to pick up Ripley from doggy daycare where he spent the night before.

Deliverance is not a good boat name.  It is a GREAT boat name.

Even though we were in a hurry, we had a minute to stop at the Russian Orthodox Church to snap some pictures.

We got home by the mid afternoon and were exhausted after our whirlwind trip (sadly we came home to some doggy drama, which I'll fill you in on next time).  We had an absolutely awesome time fishing in Homer and will definitely be taking people back there - so if you have a strong stomach come visit us and we'll take you out to catch some halibut!