Crawfish 'n Crawgators-PHOTO IN the fish we DIDN'T weigh

Fourchon, Louisiana

Crawfish to Crawgators----
Don’t’ get no better than that……


This will not be short, but keep in mind, I am leaving out A LOT of stuff,
Lets just concentrate on the fishing aspect first, and sea where it goes.

Pro Event,
we are in the back of the pack in the pro’s,
so just plan on winning it,
points will prob not do us that much good, but cash will.
Day one awoke at 2 am with a high fever,
apparently loads of folks showed up there earlier in the week with a virus, and I somehow ran myself down enough to catch it,
re:new Orleans a few days before????,
I tossed and turned with fever and naseau till 4 am, then fell asleep on the bear, literally, on the bear.
But it helped me sleep, for the remaining hour,
yeah, I was delirous, for the remaining hour,
but I got on the boat, quietly and tried to will it out of me.
I rallied at check out, as we had 5 foot blow up big bird balloons for our good buddy Big Bird, (CK Blanton, chris, buddy, electronical genious! man of many names!)
crancked up the sesame street live cd, and tossed big bird t shirts, and swim rings
(for safety of course)
to them, and we all danced around the boat to the sesame street theme with our giant big bird balloons-very funny,
very, very funny!
as we all put up our stuff to go check out, we bumped up towards another boat and it was Team Donzi,
our friends
Dan Upton,
master of the boat building business,
Jack Woods,
the master of winning kingfishing,
and
Cammo,
the master of having a good time.
They laughed at our antics, and Cammo walked up to the bow of the boat, and blew me a kiss and did the ceremonial king fish wave to our team, the
‘catch a good one, and have fun’
wave,
and I bowed my head to him, as he smiled his big ‘ole smile.

We ran a long way, and stopped to catch bait, I participated for a dozen or so blue runners, then as I struggled with them I struggled with the fever,
Fever attacking the extreme heat and humidity,
I tried to shake it off, but then the beautiful shiney sun turned black with sparkles and broke into a million swirling pieces,
as I started to faint, my boys set me down, got me water and told me to take a time out.


I flushed water, Gatorade,aand Tylenol all morning, and fought fish when I could,
but nothing like some big fish to make you feel better. Finally about 1 pm my fever broke, tnd the heat chills subsided,
though still weak I was feeling so much better,
and gladly,
we then got into some really big kings and monster wahoo.
We found a spot where kings were diving out of the water like Jiffy Pop-it was way cool.
We had caught a 40ish fish, and were just still trying for one a little bigger, and enjoying the effort, it was a pretty scene.

With 30 minutes left in our day, we suddenly
saw and heard the water explode,
as a super big king skied up out of the water, missed the bait, but as he flew sideways we saw every inch of him,
wow,
he looked big,
but its hard to tell, they all look pretty big when they surprisingly sail through the air,
so Mike perfectly and calmly fed back the bait to him again, and then
WHAM,
he came up again, this time in the opposite horizontal direction,
this time getting the second hook perfectly lodged in his mouth,
but not to his knowledge, he retreated back in the water,
and
CA BOOM
came out for a third time, this time, heading straight at us,
blistering out of the water like a bullet,
bait flying in the air inches from his mouth, as he swallowed it,
but he was so big and long, and so high up in the air,
and so determined to eat that bait fish,
that he was heading airborne straight for our transom,
as we watched, his tail wagged twice, back and forth,
like he was propelling himself through
the wind like he would in the water,
super duper cool,
and he was even cooler as he hit the deck and slid into the fish bag, and

THEN,

he did not fit,

how pretty is that!

his entire tail had to be zipped around,
He was skinny, but the longest fish we have ever boated,
We high fived and made the long run home,
But not without incident,
We ran into oil pressure problems,
as the seas had gotton big, and we were more than a little bouncy
and almost 900 horsepower powered though the 5 foot gulf slop,

By the time we go to the weigh in line, we were down two flippers (engines) with 10 minutes to spare, we made it but-ARG!

Yes,
51.81 pounds,
2nd place after day one,
Right on.
Only boat ahead-crawgator, local cagun oil fishin’ guru
-the dali lama of loiusiania-this guy is GOOD!

But we can, and will, take him out.
Rule number 74-never take second place!

But also weighed in, between the euphoria and the sadness,
Great fish-bad day,
but a bunch worse for a lot.
As we found out a dear friend, and a friend to many dear friends,
A person who has just smiled and waved,
That would be Cammo on Team Donzi boat,
Left the rest of us and took a journey,

And we will see him, and feel him,
In fishing infinity.

Long story short, not really……

Scottie B worked on boat till after midnight,,
He and we,

Crossed our fingers and set out first thing in the am.
Could feel the win,
Felt 1000 % better,
Had slept for 4 hours,
Felt refreshed and flu-relieved.
The only remaining fever,
was the fever of the win!
It was Time,
To Finish what We Started.

As we diverted our competition,
We lost another flipper,
ARG,
We could not travel such a way, in such a remote area,
With anything less than 100%,
We had to get home safely,
And Captain Safety,
Said,
No go,
If we lose the other weak engine,
We won’t get home till next week,
We were gonna play it safe,
Limp around,
And find and fish or chalk up another to bad luck.
Not that it had been good so far, ‘cept for one big fish.

Still determined,
We kept on strong,
Discouraged, but determined.
We caught little fish,
And kept moving and jumping rigs,
And trying to find that ONE fish we needed.

By the time we got to the end of the day, we were back at 1 ½ flippers,
Blew one engine out completely,
And showed up at another somber weigh in.
We scored a 36 ish,
Not the 48 we needed to take the prize hone,
But based on our handicapps, and the bite was slower day two (thank fish gods!)
We were not hurt as much as we could have been.

Won 5th and a bunch of others.
Chelsea, thanks for the monkey bank that I said I would
fill with winnings this week.
Did I forget to mention at weigh in day two,
The boys decided to tell Captain Happy that they wrecked the truck last night,
His truck,

Not the best timing, but it had to be done.

Not that HE had not done the same thing earlier in the week on the way to the tournament,

‘I’ve a very good driver, I get to drive in the driveway on Sundays’

Well,
It took the heat off ME for a minute or a day.

But, as always,
I missed my friends,
Especially the Chases’ who had planned on fishing this event with us,
And my other friends,
But as I hugged, laughed, and cheered,
With many of my other friends,
And made a few more,
go figure,

I remembered one of my favorite songs,

Don’t worry,not gonna sing it,
love y’all too much for that!
But read it, and feel it.

‘TAKE A LITTLE TIME,
FOR SUNSHINE,
TAKE A WHOLE LOTTA TIME FOR LOVE,

TAKE TIME TO THANK,
HEAVEN UP ABOVE,

TAKE YOUR LIFE,
AS IT WILL COME,
CUZ BOY IT WILL BE GONE SOON,

TAKE A LITTLE TIME
FOR HOWLIN’ AT THE MOON! “

Sam Bush

So probably the longest,
and most boring post,
but know how much you all mean to me-

Peace, love, and fishing.
susanK

a pirates life for me........

'going where the climate suits me clothes'
I know I have used that before, but it just fits.
So I hopped in a truck with a buddy, and trekked out of west palm, heading to key west, yes not really planned, but here's to living in the moment.
He had to film a possibly 7 species fishing show for Cabella's and needed a driver,
I felt like the chick in Forest Gump, when the guy pulled up in the VW microbus, and said, anyone wanna go to san francisco? Yeah!
I got in the car and went. Mike carried the boat home and hopped a flight to come meet us, while a super unusual substropical storm was churning around the nc and sc coasts, we got blown out on tuesday, and mike and I enjoyed a key west afternoon, with a late waking up, a nice lunch, and happy hour at the pool bar and a sunset (can never see too many of those in key west!) We stumbled to the condo to meet the rest of the additional crew of cameraman, AlaBama ! could not understand a word he said, and I had just come from a week in wilkesboro nc at a bluegrass festival in the mountains where it was ALL redneck-speak, talk slow and add 4 syllables to every one-it was pure country prairie jibberish! I decided to join him in some dark rum, maybe it would make more sense that way,
the second member of the add-crew, was a fellow fisherman, a legend in south florida and tortuga fishing, a man above water, able to leap waves in a single bound, it was, it is, a man I had rarely met before, but his reputation proceeded him,
he is, da da da dummmmmmm INVINCIBLE MAN Rob Hammer!
It was officially Hammer Time.........
As we drank rum and formulated a plan of attach to wind and water creatures,
the three of us who were drinking the rum talked to two sober boys into just going to the tortugas and staying the night,
we would save 80 miles of running per day, more fishing time,
blah blah blah.......
our boy scouts in charge were nervous, they had not prepared for this,
we need supplies they said, so we all wrote down three necessary things,
mine were rum, beer, and flashlights,
our fearless capt monkey uncomfortably agreed to the boisterous wishes of rum drinkers, we each headed out with out lists.......
I forgot the flashlights, so I doulbed up on the rum, and headed to duval street to hang with friends at Capt Tony's, (no Capt Tony that night or we might have added oxygen tank to the list and brought him along!)
Although I was one of the three rum drinkers, mike had become mikeey that night, as about a dozen margarita's were entertaining him, we stumbled up and down duval street to get our supplies, and found our way back to the westin for some ice cream and some sleep. The ice cream was awesome and I could not sleep, I was way too excited to go-I would be 80 miles south of key west, check that out on a globe,
in the middle of nowhere, a dream with a million stars above my head,
to be one with the fish of the day and the stars of the night.
As I packed my heavenly bed from the westin to sleep on the boat
(a princess has to be comfy....)
we took two boats, for safety and better video, its fairly rough and nasty but cleared up great by mid day, once we stopped the boat, I recorded in my mind,the begining of one of the most amazing day in my life.

chapter whatever....
we pulled up to a shrimp boat, anchored, and asked to barter beer for by catch, as we pulled up to these 'pirates' we passed buckets of buds, in exchange for fresh 'trash' of chum, it was very exciting to me, these guys looked just like the dudes from Pirates of the Caribean, you know the guy with the wooden eye,
just like them, and we were cautius and ready to get out in a second, but it set the mood for the day that would be more like an ernest hemingway story, than an actual day in my life. I wanted to take photo's of them, closer up, but I dare not, for safety sake, not the best place for a girl and didn't want to know what barter that would bring. We took the chum and went on, then pulled up to another shrimp boat that Hammer knew, and we chunked chum out the back of it and the boys jigged up the most amazing school of black fin tuna, they were diving out of the water, and giant, I mean GIANT porpoise protecting them, I drove as the boys created some awesome footage, Mike was about 1/2 a mile away, driving the da da da dum INVINCIBLE boat, and enough film was shot, Mark let me hook up two or three tuna's in a row, and wow, that's a fight! It was awesome! I put a hurtin' on them, as they did me, but it was way cool and they were way cool as they hung on ice-fisherman 10 tuna 0. So then we did the same thing a bit away with kingfish, we got a few mediocre ones, then it got flat, seas and bites, so we waited it out with telling stories, and telling jokes, ya know, captain monkey loves the jokes! All the while we were just goofing, we kept looking over to Capt Mikeey, about 1/4 miles away in the da da da dum INVINCIBLE, and he was fighting fish after fish, right and left, with no crew, no live bait, and only two hooks, and no drinks-we kept calling him on the radio asking what's up, he would only answer with 'nothing to see here folks, just catching some stripers!' It was too funny, his mojo was on, hmmmm.
We finally caught some monster kings and got to use the underwater camera, should be some awesome footage!

Yes, it continues.........take a break, use the restroom......
an incredible day of fishing, and then we start to head in as the sun slowly starts to fade in the west, we pull up to fort jefferson. Its a former prison, an Alcatraz in the east, federal regulations keep you from pulling right up to the docks, so we stop just short and swim our gear and tents and coolers in, wading with supplies above our heads. Hammer, da da da dum, mr INVINCIBLE, quickly hurries us to the rum and a quick tour, although the park is closed, and gladly,
he knew every detail, like a trained historian, we snuck in and learned a history lesson in the crimes and criminals of the bunks, including john wilkes booth, horrible crimes of history, put off to rot in a most sacred beautiful place,
to rot in the sunshine and die-what's up with that? Hardly punishment to fit the crime, it was more than amazing, in less than a week I had traveled and learned stuff in two different points of reference, the mel fisher pirate museum on my off day in key west, and now ft jefferson, WOW i felt smart!

I then enojoyed a steak dinner, and more rum and stories, and the most amazing sinking sun I have ever seen, it hit in a cloud, lighting up each protruding beam of light, it looked like angels reaching from the sky to the water, then when it came out of clouds for its final descent into the ocean, it looked like maybe two balls of fire, sinking into the waters of the night.

Then it all started to come together,
the fish,
the seas,
the feeling of just doing what you please,
it all came together in a million maybe more, stars,
planets, meteors, jokes, and laughter,
all surrounded byt the roar of the ocean and the surreal
sound of the migrating birds on a dying island.
I felt like I was surrounded in a sea of music, though our ipods did not work,
is was us, and naturally the sea, the sand, the friends and of course the sailboat, adrift maybe 1/4 away, rockin' . When I awoke at 3 am, all was still,
'cept that sailboat, still rockin,
two stones throw away, I went and got a Fiji Water, and sat on the front of the boat, serenaded by the ocean, the birds, and the intermittent sounds of the bear growling in his sleep, and the sound of the boat softly hitting the pylon it was tied to, it was erractic, but smooth, as I sat with my head at a 45 degree angle to the seat, staring at what must have been a dozen shooting stars, not unusual when there are a gazillion (or a brazillion) fo them, I have honestly never seen that many stars, I tried to count them but after two or three times on the fingers and toes, I got lost,
so I just stared, and wondered.

If every person could be this content and happy,
for one day, for one night,
and could see the world, the people and animals in this world
for the beauty they possess,
I think random acts of violence would be as distant a memory as the former inmates at fort jefferson,

the next day, my alarm clock of rolling tarpon by the boat,
and giant, I mean GIANT Jewfish under the boat (see photo)
made me jump up, and again we did the shrimp boat thing, more pirates, more chum, and then we went site casting to permits,
wow, that's a strong fish, my aches and pains from those tuna's on the previous day were surfacing, as the small yet forceful and powerful permit, took us all to school, we finally landed some and wrapped up the day.

I expect all who read this to pledge,
come away with me,the this newest, and oldest place,
and most fantastic place.

PS
I did get a new nickname
Bobo, as in Mike the Bear is Yogi,
his sidekick apparently is Bobo,
got to check THAT out....

PSS
I cannot even put into words, though i tried,
the experiences and memories I captured in the last few days,
I do not know where to begin the thank you's to the people
that made it happen, made it real, and made it so special
my eyes were opened to how considerate and real people and nature can be.
And how strangers can become a part of your life through a common bond.

zig or zag ? ? ? ? ? ?

So West Palm, we zigged where we should have zagged.....
end of story. Weighed a pair of 23's, not so good boss ! ! ! !
Second day we went north, then got called to go east, then got called
to go south so we ran back down now like 100's of miles round trip,
we were acting like true 'fish hunters'
but we caught our 'biggest' fish on day two with less than 15 minutes to spare,
so we did the death defying run back to the scales, made it in time, and
then got ambushed by the retalliating troops on other boats armed with
water balloons gallore! We were hit, hit hard, so as we were unprepared,
we had to resort to gorilla warfare of hose and buckets,
it was on time and very funny!
Amenities were flowing though,
in the form of nice hotel with marina right by checkout,
rocking pool bar with an incredibly good spin on a Mojito,
don't try this at home folks, deadly,
after two I was done, asleep by 8 pm.
Then Karen, ground crew, showed up for second day of fishing and fun,
at least this year now, we have no pressure,
all we can do is improve.....
so off to more interesting adventures......

Moons Over Mi-Hammie

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO..........
SORRY I HAVE BEEN SLACK, BUT C'MON.....
THE WIND BLEW SO HARD IN MIAMI IT ABOUT KNOCKED MY SHOES OFF MY FEET AT THE HOTEL!
Could really not believe they had the tournament,
it was rough folks,
had a great capt's meeting though,
big fun,
then we had an awesome dance party at the dock,
and well,
fishing wise,
we got sh*&t on again,
and Jimmyjam can vouch for that with his escapades at the dock
before we went, dookie down with no bathrooms-arg!
moons over miami tells it all,
rough as snot, ran everywhere,
lost a fish,
yada yada yada.....
drove home, went to allmans in nyc the next day,
had a great time at the Bear, preparty fun,
met some outrageously fun people,
knew most of the security, bartenders, and vip's by nights end,
crazy lovable Tom Cheffo showed up mid first song,
and rallied with me and steph and jason and the brothers till late night,

caught a photo of shea stadium on my way to airport next am,
then got on plane with bill murray (caddyshack) next to me,
I said, hey I am a big fan,
he said of Caddyshack right,
I said hell no, riverdogs baseball dude!
i proceeded to listen to my ipod and laugh out loud to my newest
jimmy buffet book,
till he finally said,
why were you in new york,
i said, allmans brothers at the beacon,
he then said,
what are you listening to,
I said, Elvis-duh!
and went back to my book,
saw him laughing to himself as he fell asleep......

got home and went straight into bridge run madness,
see chelsea run,
run chelsea run.......

all is well though,
spring has sprung,
off to jen's bday,
thank god one of my friends FINALLY caught up with me!!!

lol-
sk

Southern Snowball Fight

Southern Snowball Fight

Ok, so day two started of better than not, weather was flat, warm, sunny,
Ocean looked like the blue glass of a bottle of tequila, what flavor was that adorning the sports bar at the hatteras house, who knows, but----top shelf folks,
And speaking of top shelf, the Chases’ showed up-Harley style,
Yes, they drove the Harley all the way from Michigan. They got hung up in Jacksonville with crazy Charlie, and Chris said, I cannot do this, we will never make it to key west by the tournament, and it is a long scary and quite dangerous endeavor, sorry Jan, we must hold up here and just go to Daytona for a day. Of course, Jan said sure, then apparently the story goes as such:
One of the other hog riding folks, said, well Sally, if you can’t do it then you should not. Chris was perplexed, and lay awake all night pondering the question,
Had he become an yuppie yankee named Sally?Where were guts, glory, and a sense of wild abandon for a high seas adventure?
They got on and rode hard, and manged to get to Key West just before 5 am and got on the boat,
Let the fun begin!

We cruised past the marquesa rocks at lightening speed, and watched as the full moon in the sky be replaced by the orange fire sun coming up over the horizon. It was quite amazing to see a nighttime rainbow called a full moon over the water at 4 am and listening to the local rooster squawk-very cool! We then began having the same luck as the previous day, and decided to go for hero or zero, and just get out of the pack of boats and go farther, and then a bit farther, and find that goliath kingfish we had seen in January, there was only one spot to find it and we went. We saw good fish caught but were yet again, luckless and fishless, so go farther!

We found a little spot with a just a few other boats, and began just wailing the fish, though still small, it was fun. We then had a hit, probably 50 feet down, SMACK! This fish was cruising, Mike had the rod as we were alternating angler duties as my foot was still mostly broken, and we were catching so many fish. The fish ran us almost 2 miles-we called one of the other boats, a friend, and asked him had he seen or caught any big bull sharks or amberjacks, he said, no, just big kingfish! Mike kept putting pressure on it, this was one big fish! The fight went on for almost 45 minutes, then the truth, we saw the big whitish grey mass begin to surface,
CRAP another bull shark, maybe 10 foot, maybe just shy of a million pounds, and still swimming, leave it to us to catch the biggest crap fish while everyone else caught good fish.

There was actually the Mad Fin Shark tournament going on,
Guess we should have put a few bucks in that entry also, we would have won by a landslide!

Last few minues we hook a decent fish, 26 pounds or so, not really decent in these waters, but it beat day one,
We took it to weigh in, and found an hour wait in the harbor.
Fortunately, our monkeys had gone and bought a bag of 100 balloons,
So we spent our time filling them up and hiding them under the gunnels,
We pulled up close to our buddy Big Bird, aka C K Blanton aka Charlie aka My Boat out of murrles inlet and dude responsible for our electronics and music system on the boat,
I said ‘let me get a photo of your team with your new silk team shirts on’
They looked so cute and innocent as they got together and smiled,
Then gary, jimmyjam, chris and jan came out from behind the console and absolutely nailed them with about a quarter of the balloon ammunition!
We soaked ‘em!

They quickly retaliated with the same, only they had a slingshot and had a little more firing range, but no aim. All the boats were honking and laughing as we continued the pirate attack, probably the most fun I have ever had on the boat not winning----comradery and giggles, though I have been warned for the set up that paybacks are gonna be brutal-

Bring it on boys!
Next event, this week, entertaining my niece Erica and her roomie from Bowling Green University for spring break!

Next fishing tournament, Miami, march 25ish!
Stay tuned fish folks!

hey, if you get a chance,
nail someone with a water balloon
or an open cold hose,

smiles-
skk

Team Sebago

So I arrive at Key West to find beautiful weather, cold drinks, and fun as usual, haven't seen capt tony or gary yet though, but did hang at Irish Kevin's and Hogs Breath with the crazy crew of Lured Away till all hours of the am wednesday, that is the photo above of mike and I, he was forced to wake up from a nap and go hang out with me and chico, albert and his wife, it was big fun.......
Day before the tournament we all go out to breakfast at Pepe's where Jimmyjam has a squarepants spongebob tea party set up, with each tea cup with a different happy or grumpy face, you do the math there......
we laughed and were being silly, then the guys went to get bait and I went to sign up and get groceries etc.
the day goes by fairly normal, we go to the captains meeting, and all is fun, then we go to the team fountain at this restaurant and the table we were sitting at outside was uneven,and I stood up the same time the table raised up, and well, it came down crushing my pinky toe and the top of my foot.
So today we were captain brokebone foot, the colors of my foot when the sun came up matched the blues and greens and depths of black in the ocean,
yep, kinda hurt,
but we are champions, play through the pain.......
the pain got worse as we could not hook a decent fish,
we watched all the boats around us catch fish, and we were just getting skunked!
we finally got a whopping 15 pounder, an embarassing fish in our home waters, but riduculous for Key West in March.
our good buddy Darren is in fifth with a 43 pounder, caught literally right next to us,
BUT
OUR BOAT WRAP LOOKS FABULOUS! AND WE WEIGHED IN OUR POOR LITTLE FISH TO SHOW OFF OUR BOAT AND SPONSOR-
SEBAGO FOOTWEAR,
AND WE WORE OUR SHOES PROUDLY,

tomorrow we only need a 84 pounder to get back in it,
should be a walk in the park since the world record is only 72 pounds!
but it was caught a thousand years ago in these same waters!!!!

hope all is well with the rest of the world,

tomorrow,
Tortuga goliath fishing with hopefully guest crew the Chases,
they got stuck in a bottle of rum in jacksonville and missed today!!!!

peace love and fishing folks...........

susanK

Leaving Las Vegas.....

LEAVING LAS VEGAS…
Finally, I might add……
Great week with a poor ending, here’s the lowdown of the festivities…

Saturday,
Arrived to phil’s (stink eye phil from Maryland, not reno phil)
Had an awesome drinks, dinner, and a pillow fight with the girls
It was his happy happy birthday!!!

Sunday
Rested and gambled all day, met at the tequila bar and hung with rick and joey till we headed to house of blues Mandalay bay, to our box seats onstage with bob weir from grateful dead. We were greeted at the box office by george, bobbie’s t shirt guy, and other friends in the business,then filled the velvet room with vodka, amstel lights, and great friends,
Rachel p, Karen my sis, missy,steph and Jason, Erica, erin phil;’s catalog model, phil, mike , crazey loser michele from wine country, and of course, tom cheffo-we danced all night!
It was a super night and we had a fabulous time!

Monday
Rested and rode roller coasters-big fun! Started the day at the house bar playing video poker, and I hit four deuces on deuces wild for a whopping 1000.00-after splitting it with mike, and tipping the bartender for opening a whole bottle of grey goose to make us all morning cocktails, I still had play money for the week!
Finished out Monday with tequila bar fun again, then a stretch excursion limo to our fave Mexican restaurant outside of town where the owner does a dance and makes homemade guacamole in front of you while the mariachi band plays, and we celebrated erin’s bday.

Tuesday
First day of work,
Good day, got a lot done,
Then went on to well, the tequila bar for pre party,
Then to bellagio for private event mardis gras style as it was fat Tuesday,
I was way excited because I bought feather mardi gras masked in new Orleans,
Pre hurricane Katrina and have had then since waiting for the right occasion,
So I carried them in tissue all the way here, we walk in and they have table set up with
COMPLIMENTARY MASKS! Just as cool as mine, so now I will carry 4 back! We dined on steaks, Cajun mac and cheese served in a martini glass, and other cagun delites,
Same group as the rest of the week, then the Neville brothers showed up to play,
And I got to meet and hang with one of my favorites artists, Stanley Mouse, cool cat, so to speak. Another great night!

Wednesday
More work-arg! Finished the day with a big beer meeting at Crocs, that was fun! And then went out for a super yummy Italian dinner and went gamblin’ with Stephanie and Jason, as they really enjoyed having a built in babysitter with them (steph’s mom)
Thursday
Last day, and was the day I was looking most forward to,
Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show, preceeded by dinner at Braziliann steakhouse,
We finished work early, and I tried to walk around the town a bit with Erica and got a little light headed and tired, so was gonna head back to room to rest before dinner. Got half way through changing clothes for the big night out, and got sicker than I knew was possible, sent crew to dinner without me, hoping to catch up to them in time for show,
By that time got here, I was mostly dead. By the time Mike and Tom got back from the show about midnight with Gatorade for me, I was so feverish I was seeing birds flying around the room, and people kept walking through, talking. This lasted until late Friday nite, early Saturday am, could not get out of bed, more less get on a plane, so cancelled flight and stayed in my room, never been that sick ever, think it was norovirus, which contaminated over 200 people here,
Now make that 201 because mike got a slight strain of it. He took such good care of me, as did Tom, so thanks to you both!

Friday/Saturday
Ginger rail and Gatorade, and sleep, and hallucinating

Sunday
Hoping to get home,
Great week with great friends and family though,
Thanks for a real good time…………..

Shoes Shoes Shoes

Been in fabulous las vegas at the world shoe association, can you imagine thousands of al bundys all talkin' feet!
have really enjoyed myself though,
worked hard, smoozing like i have never before,
and i have to tell you,
michele and I are the hottest people in the shoe business-
there really is no competition except bald guys,
but we are having fun.
went to the private party with the show, open bar, great food, then a concert for about 200 people, legends of rock n roll,
chuck barry, jerry lee lewis, booker t and the mg's, little richard,
and the m.c. was jim belushi,
its a fundraiser for 'soles for souls'
we danced, me and giorra, the 78 year old manager of the factory in israel,
and the girls from abbadaba's in atlanta,
and of course, tom and michele-it was a rockin time!
the next night michele and i threw an impromtu brand party at the tequilla bar,
we had people from every brand, germans, israili's, surfers, crocs, etc
it was so much fun!
rick played an extra hour for us, oh, btw, when i was checking into the hotel i heard my name, and i looked up and it was rick,
getting to be harder and harder to hide in this world!
runner up in the design award, that stunk, but received an awesome gift of a silver encrusted with diamonds shoe pendant
won 265 on the blackjack tables, hit 19 or 20 almost every hand,
almost won the parley on the super bowl game,
finished working and made it to the sports book to watch the last quarter,
pretty rowdy casino's last night!
off to the venetian to relax with friends,
78 degrees here, not rushing to the airport just yet!
just need to get home to get back on a plane sunday and return with partying collegues in tow, and mike and philly steak and cheese,
its gonna be fun!

smiles and blues

Smiles and Blues

How quickly peace, love, and fishing became smiles and blues!

We had the best fun ever fishing,
But had rough seas, lost the winning fish, and oh well,
Has the worst dumb luck we have ever had in 48 hours fishing,
No REALLY!
The best and the worst!

We awoke day two to:
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY
That really means, small craft stay home,
Big craft fall hard, many times!
But rule #78 prevailed,
No quitters,
Play like a champion!
And ARG
We did!

The sweet sound of thunder and rain cockadoodle-doing in harmony with the westin rooster at 4 am meant nothing but ahhhhhh, its gonna be right today!

All that in thought,
We still tried to go as far as we needed, till we found that lucky fish from yesterday,
That shattered our dreams of victory in the quick slice of a snap swivel-
We would find him despite any conditions!
ARG

Well we cruised like a missile through the back lakes of the gulf, skirting the seas, and watching the lightening show as we bolted through the water and past other boats like a cloud to ground strike, only black, and faster!
It was awesome!

Then we hit the ocean,
Reality set in
In the form of 6 footers coming from every direction,
The boat propelled by soon to be 900 hp,
I gotta go faster folks,
Could barely walk, and certainly not run,
We slowed and took wave after wave,
Up one 4 feet,
Down the other side 6 feet,
Then sideways,
Then over the top,
The sunroof we created the day before provided us all for a nice saltwalter shower at 7 am!
To add insult to injury, the Sirius satellite radio encompassing the cd player also,
Broke earlier in day one,
I, we, all tried to fix it with no avail,
I couldn’t fish another day in silence,
I know I had the wind and the crashing waves blocking most of my hearing,
But I needed more,
So jimmy, gary, and I sang the entire day.
Our fave tune was
‘michael row the boat ashore, halleiyeiya!’

What else can you do? You all who have heard me sing, know the pain I put on my crew,
Of course, it was easy to dance, as the boat tossed me from one side to the next, so I just kept shakin’ my hips to that,
Bruises where there should not be bruises folks!
We made up songs as we went along,
Fishing songs,
Songs about really whatever mike or one of the other 4 boats radio’d to us,
We would make up a song or the words to a song,
It was ugly and so much fun!

By high noon, we had one more hour till that fat lady sang,
So jimmy and I got into the costa Rican rum he brought,
Kinda made the sea legs a little less wobbly!~~~~~

Went in and cleaned up,
Now the wind was crossing the water like a knife through butter,
It was the low pressure front itself, a mini hurricane, passing over our heads,
For over an hour we felt the extreme force of nature
In wind and water………..
It was awesomely horrible!

Ended the day with, well,
Shopping for me, naps for boys, and then dinner was some super cool people,
My giant david van lent, his crew who are very fun,
And newfound friends, to me anyway, bobby on lured away and his group,
We ate and drank at pepe’s and as we were leaving got called into
Irish Kevin’s to pick up chico, bobby’s little elfin’ magic man,
And well,
The day/night went south from there~!
Tequila, dancin’, and jello shooters, and OH HEY,
Hook m dano and reno phil aka cobia cowboy showed up,
I had already been missing my bean bag buddy,
Who got to hang with me while I snored and snuggled on the bean bag we shared for the first few days,
I sleep so well on the boat………
Anyway,
They neglected to fight the seas and fought happy hour instead, not sure who won that battle yet, but……
Big fun ahead!

Night ended at capt tony’s with our good buddy gary,
Did anyone know he and gary on our team were twins by different mothers,
That’s why they are both named gary!

Red bull and vodka ruled from there, and the super fun vamoose boys and oh I forgot,
Ty cobb Showed, yep, alive and partying on duval street,
I love baseball, and I love even more being almost taller than someone,
and the evening got worser (sp?)

I finally pulled the plug, as there was a girl making the major moves on me,
And my crew only egged her on,
Shame on them-it was ugly,
Really, it was UGLY!
And it was the 3rd event of such that day,
Gotta learn how to turn off the charm-ha ha!

Love to all,
Off to vegas now for shoe show and to de-tox,
Has anyone ever actually gone TO vegas to de-tox and sleep!!!!!
Maybe get a massage, try and hold your arms above your head holding on to something for ,well, almost two days, I feel like I just battled greg maddux, randy Johnson, and john shmoltz! And then did 1000 squats!

Peace out cub scouts!


sk

Get the Monkey off my Back!

Go Fishing!
Well, rough day, the seas were 4 foot to 6 foot,
we ran 80 miles or so,
took one over the top,
ripped the t top canvas in half,
about floated me and my bean bag out the boat,
first hour, bait gets crushed,
i was on the bow taking water in the face,
the fish was flying, I have never heard the reel get into third gear the way it did,
then it went dead,
a shark came up and ate my big fish,
the head weighed over 30 pounds,
this went on all day, we had a tail cut,
a missed hook, and then we had a fish over 60 pounds,
eat the short bait right at the boat and it hit it so hard,
it swallowed the 5 pound bait fish, which is like an 18 inch long swimming bait fish,
swallowed it whole and bent out the swivel, breaking it and swimming off right in front of us,
it was the biggest fish I have ever seen,
we ended the day with a brutal run back to the dock that took over 3 hours,
but we did enjoy goofin on our buddy mark, with our monkey suits and more to come on that later,
poor guy was so embarrassed he left after today and drove home!
never try and trick a stecki,
they are craftier than anyone,
so GAME ON for the pranks,
tomorrow is supposed to be rougher, windier,
and yes,
thunderstorms,
oh boy!
off to sleep now for a few hours,
more tomorrow folks!

team lucy
lucy, a bear, and two monkeys signing out......

PEACE, LOVE, AND FISHING

Go Fishing!
or is it,
STINK EYE PINK EYE !
Yep, guess i gotta little key west funk in my eye,
thanks missy!

so yes,
last night was cool!
First, paella at the cuban restaurant for 18 people-
WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO WITH ALL THIS PAELLA????????
seinfield.....

food was amazing,
cold, windy and rainey all day, kept us at sloppy joes
where a new guy was playing,
oh hey it was gary!
he said he moonlights there but is it still
moonlighting if its an afternoon gig?

got to capt tony's to find gary after dinner,
and lo and behold,
capt tony showed up,
a day early....

we are getting married on saturday after i catch the winning fish,
you know he opened the bar in 1933,
and he is now 91,
and quicker than ever to grope and grab,
fortunatly the oxygen tank only reaches so far!!!

ska founders jack and dionna showed up as well as the
that's my dog team, ian, and we all danced the night away.

I made the call to pass the Jaeger shots that were being bought,
and glad of it,
woke up and went to pepe's for bfast/lunch
and went to sign up,

three cd's for fishing,
are
peace (simple songs of peace)
love (beatles love soundtrack)
and fishing,
a D J Suzie K mix,

more later,
tomorrow we win,

missy,
thanks for the material!

miss you all!

s

cobia cowboy

Go Fishing!
big phil, now carrying this years version of the stink eye, aka: black eye,
poor countertop didn't stand a chance the other night/morning!
fished hard for bait yesterday, laughed and had a great time,
nevada phil, now also known as 'cobia cowboy' hosted us at his condo with the hook 'm's and prepared and incredible meal of stuffed filet mignon, potato's, and satauued squash,
fished hard today,
13 hours on the water, went about 80miles south (east/west-who really knows here!)
caught a few monster kingfish,had one eaten at the boat by a giant bullshark,

ran into gary again tonight,
oddly enough, at his job!
i told him about the new ugel arrival, and he said,
oh, dylan's family!
he was very excited for phil, kelly, and dylan and the new baby born today,
travis was equally excited talking about his new baby girl, cadon (sp?)
and i bragged about jackson, gary thinks that name rocks!
he played 'ripple' i just danced, and sang on the inside!

I MISS MY FRIENDS!
Jan Chase and Chris were supposed to be here today, but a family ER came up,
so its me, myself, and I-arg!

SO GLAD BOOTSIE CAME HOME MISSY AND BRITT!

hey, why does a bear wear a fur coat?

becuase he looks ridiculous in a denim jacket!

let the bear jokes begin!!!!!

sunrise and sunset photo's-
amazing,
watching the sun skidding across the horizon....

tired, back on the boat in the am. 6 ish

btw-
i walked into capt tony's last night - they knew me,
walked into pepe's tonite,
they knew me,
getting to be a real hassle to disappear in this world!!!

more to come.....
off day on thursday!!!

sk

going where the climate suits my clothes......

Go Fishing!
so we made it,
to key west,
of course, not without incident!
caravaned with hook'm and travis,
they stayed in florida city, we went onto key largo after
hearing boats were getting stolen in florida by our best friend of the law,
catastrohpe!
could hardly park the boat, hotel sucked,
and got pulled over by border patrol thinking we stole the boat
and/or had aliens in it,
i said, no, just bears sir!
anyway, got in to key west next day, yesterday,
sunday,
early,
no check in yet, so we go to the airport,
mike said he is renting me a car so I won't wreck his AGAIN,
ok,
they have no cheap cars, so we do the walk out,
and they give us a ford mustang convertible for the week for less than
200.00,
perfect,
its grey, even better,
so we go to the boat parked at murray marine,
in front of the famous fence of last year,
and we park,
we get out,
parked again, same place along the 'fence',
i now call it the key west bermuda triange,
i get back in the car,
and within 30 seconds,
locked the keys inside,
whoah, the bear was mad,
but all i could do was laugh,
the more he yelled the more i laughed,
anyway,
hours later, the locksmith came and let me in,
travis was cool enough to assist mike with putting the
boat in the water,
got back checked in to a super fabulous room overlooking the harbor
and the sunset,
went to capt tony's and danced played with hook'm and gary and nevada phil till late into the night,
will fish hard tuesday.....
more later
78 degrees and muggy here....
hee hee
xoxoxox
sk
p s
just got the work from hook'm that phil fell down in the kitchen apon arriving home to condo, and travis invented a new geyser called beer, colts, ,and jeagerbombs,
straight up!
wow,
photo's are me in the bermuda triange,
sunset from hotel bar,
view of gary playing from 'our eyes'
and view from my room
more later....