Monday, September 4th, 2017
4am Rise and Shine (well not so sure about the shine) 5:15am Head to Pacific City (hubs doesn't wanna be late!) 5:30am Pit stop .... it's gonna be a few hours before I can go again ... Lol 6am Meet the Captain, Bob and group (Vido, Mark and Bob) at Pelican Pub 6:05am Load up in the boat (yes I was able to climb over the edge), receive safety instructions and get geared up. I'm starting to shake a little now.... I'm the only girl in the boat. Captain Mark and Bob lay out what the launch is going to look like, tell us where to stand, how to position ourselves. We take off heading across the sand. It's not quite daylight but I can see just well enough to see all the boats on trailers lining up in the surf. It's an incredible sight! My heart is starting to pound now. This is so exciting!! I look over at my husband, as we celebrate our 30th anniversary, and am loving that he brought me on this adventure! I was in the back of the boat. Captain Mark and Bob are giving each other verbal signals in getting the boat headed in the right direction out thru the surf. The motor fires up and off we go. Powering up over the first wave, then the second, then the third! OMG! This is one of the coolest things I have over done!!! We dropped our first line for Black Sea bass in what seemed like less than 5 minutes. There were 5 of us fisherman on the boat and we limited in a short period of time. Then we were off for salmon. Captain Mark was awesome! He gave instructions when needed and I noticed that he made his way around the boat chatting it up with each one of us - no one was left out. It was obvious he truly loves and lives what he does! The salmon were a little stubborn so Capt. offered and we agreed to stay out a little longer. After our salmon catch we ran over to the crab pots. When the first pot was raised I was in shock! It was a beautiful sight! The pot was full with big, snapping, clawing crabs! 3 more just like the first!! Captain Mark gave us instructions for coming ashore .... stand up, hold on, get a solid foot plant forward. The horn sounds and we jet forward. I gotta admit, I again was a little nervous - I've landed on the sand (on accident) before. We glided right up onto the beach like a hot knife going thru butter. Our experience didn't stop there! Captain Mark invited us back to his place where he cleaned our fish, cooked our crab and his wife, Linda, vacuum packed the fish. She even gave us a recipe sheet for the crab and fish that I can't wait to try. The wives of the men in our group all met up with us there. We hung out, ate hot crab out of the cooker and made some new, lovely friends! Thank you Captain Mark, Linda and Bob!! This was truly an unforgettable anniversary! Ladies, this is not an experience you will want to pass up!