[Marilyn]

Well, the fishing trip is finally over!!! It was very cold, and so horribly windy. As soon as the guide gave the boat the gas, a huge thermos of coffee one of the guys brought slid off the console and into the bottom of the boat. Coffee and thermos glass went everywhere. We had to stop and clean it up. Then the guide ran the boat aground on a sand bar and they guys had to roll up their pant legs, put on water shoes and push us off the sand bar. One of the guys got his jeans really wet, and one of his socks fell in the water, so he was wet and cold from much of the trip. Most of us got splashed at one time or another during the day, and with the wind chill, it was really, really cold.

We cast off at 6 a.m. and returned to the dock at around 2:30 p.m. Weigh in was at 3 p.m. We caught some trout, but it was a hard day fishing. The wind was gusting much higher than predicted. We're guessing around 40 mph, and the swells on the bay were around 3 feet. We tried to stay in sheltered areas, but the anchors wouldn't hold us in that wind, so we kept drifting way too quickly and having to fly back around and drift again.

I don't ever, ever want to do that again. Three fishing trips this year and every one of them cold. I did bring a nice flounder home for the freezer, but other than that, this is not a redo.

I need to take some guys out fishing, but we are doing it when we can pick a nice day, not a required tournament day like this one.

My face and lips feel so chapped from the wind. Will be so glad when my face feels normal again.