Cold Fishing Trip AGAIN!!!

[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.

[gja1000]

Brrrrrr...... I've been out fishing on a day like that and the memory is not pleasant!!! My hubby is a died in the wool hardy fisherman - but even he wouldn't be happy with those conditions. Actually, I would have been sick, with the wind whipping up the swells, I don't do well with that!!!

Hope you never have to do that again!!!

[DianaB]

I think that I would have canceled with conditions like that! For one, I would have been so sick that it would have been an awful day for me!!! You're one tough girl to have stuck it out!!!!

[2tiredmom]

You are one brave woman. There's no way I'd go out on water like that.
It has to be at least 80 degrees before I'll even get in the boat.

[Marilyn]

I wore a transcope patch to prevent sea sickness, or I'd have never made it. Now I'm getting a fever blister on the edge of my lip. I know it was triggered by this trip. Just hope it's not going to be a big one. I use Abreva to minimize the effect, but I really don't know if it helps much.

Oh, well, all I can say is live and learn, and never again!!!

[judy]

Obviously, this was a business related day. Having been a teacher, and not involved much in corporate life, I don't really get the whole thing.

It seems to me that if the weather is bad, the fishing should have been postponed
and something more fun planned. I guess it doesn't work that way. Who makes these decisions?

I would never make it as a corporate person. You know I would have called the CEO and insisted that the plans be changed. If I got a "no," I would have called him an idiot, just like I called that judge last year. Then, I would have been fired and have to collect unemployment while looking for another job in this economy!

I give you credit Marilyn! You have the stamina for this.

[Marilyn]

This trip was a fishing tournament put on by a professional organization. Many of my customers are on the board for this organization. I'd already paid the entrance fee and booked the guide service. The tournament was supposed to happen in September, the day after Hurricane Ike hit Galveston, so had to be rescheduled. I was hoping they would reschedule in May or June of '09, but no, they decided to do it in November. We have some beautiful days in November and the day before would have been perfect, but Saturday was not a good day.

Last year, was a day of heavy thunderstorms, so my team backed out. We got no refund and had to pay the guide his expenses for getting his boat ready and buying the bait.

One thing, I gained a lot of respect from my guy customers for being a trooper and going through with the trip this year. I am paid well for what I do, so when something like this happens, it's kinda like I'm earning that pay, so really shouldn't complain.

No one would have really given me a hard time for backing out though. My upper management would have understood, and so would my customers, so I don't plan on doing this again. From now on, fair weather, or we don't go.