Spirit of Adventure - October 15-23, 2019

the very first day i ever set foot on the spirit of adventure was august 31st, 1997.  i remember because that was the day that princess diana died.  since then i've been on the boat every year except for two.  21 trips over 23 years.  it's not the biggest boat, but i think it's one of the best.  starting 5 years ago, i've been running a charter myself through this website.  this last trip was number six!  

october 14th, 2019 - is starts out the usual way.  driving from the san francisco bay area to san diego takes 7 hours.  





traffic was nowhere near as bad as we had expected.  



we pulled into the vagabond near the landing.  





we met for dinner at miguel's cochina, then off to club marina for more drinks and a game or two of pool!





just a hint.  don't play pool for money with the new guy, tracy!




october 15th, 2019

breakfast at denny's is always how we start the trip.



the SOA came back with quite a few wahoo from the previous trip.  



already in line!



annemarie keating handles all the paperwork and all of the money.  no trip to guadalupe this year, so no $250 surcharge.



the rod racks fill up fast!







the first stop always the bait receiver.  this year the sardines will be miserably small.  most were not much bigger than jumbo anchovies.  it will make fishing difficult.



our chef, david, put together a sandwich bar for lunch.  



i got my personal gear set up first.  the lighter stuff was penn torques and custom phenix black diamond hybrids.  the heavier gear is penn international visx's and custom united composites.  





never mess with the united states navy!



once you get out of the harbor and out of cell phone range, it really kicks in that we are going fishing!





it was salmon with a dill sauce for dinner.







october 16th, 2019

today will be a full day of travel.  on these boats, you always get a full breakfast, a full lunch and a full dinner.  figure you're going to gain a pound a day!



it's a good time to decompress.



just another beautiful sunrise!



lunch is here before you know it.





today it's a taco bar.



we are hoping to get into wahoo at the ridge.  that means rigging up wire leaders.





the day passes pretty quickly.

















october 17th, 2019

morning.  another few hours and we'll be at the ridge.





wahooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!  one lure will catch 6 out of 7 wahoo today.  it's the pink mag track lure from magbay.  we named her fifi!







towards the evening, we started picking up yellowfin.






october 18th, 2019

wahooooo!!!!!!!







gotta stop to eat!



or not.  









finally gotta stop!








october 19th, 2019

i know it's common enough, but i never did understand biscuits and gravy.



wahooooo!!!!!!










october 20th, 2019

just another beautiful sunrise!



just another beautiful wahoo!



joel is 80 years old!!!!!  another fish caught with fifi!







afternoon snacks!



mike caught a nice yellowfin!



mr. and mrs. dembski!







brendan!







carne asada!














october 21, 2019

at this point, we're pretty much done with fishing.  time to wind down!



eddie and i got photo bombed!



sloppy joes!



tracy apparently didn't get the message that we were just goofing off the rest of the day.  he stuck his first yellowtail ever!



ok, now we're just goofing off!







chicken!



the final count!




october 22, 2019

taco bar!



the last night!



fish count wise, it was slow, but this is not the hardest fishing group.  weather was great, the guys were great, and the crew was great.  looking forward to next year!  

and the best quote of the trip is from my brother, ed!  "gentlemen, put your hands together for fifi!!!!"

So what's a trip like that cost?

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Wow!!!  Yeah how much a trip like this go for?

figure $3k!