Tuna

Well, I wish I could say that my first tuna trip out was a complete success. The forecast was building it as a nice flat day. I went ahead and took the day off and rounded up a crew.

Things started off in a bad way. My crew got stuck in traffic and arrived late at my house. This put us in Westport at 9:30. We went ahead and splashed the boat in the dark and looked for a slip - that in itself was bad. I almost got hit by a commercial boat. I was almost to float 5 and this things comes out of nowhere with it's lights pointed right me which basically blinded me. I couldn't make out which was he was going. Duane yelled to turn to starboard. My response was a little late as I was still trying to figure out which way this boat is coming from. I was able to avoid this thing and finally got the boat in the slip. By the time I climbed in the cuddy to sleep it was basically mid-night.

We wake up at 4:30 a.m. Both Duane and I didn't really get any sleep. Nevertheless we motored to my pre-selected destination. The boat moved along at a good pace for the first 40 miles. The last 10 miles the water and the wind picked up. We were in 62 degree water so I decided to go ahead and get the lines out.

No more than 5 minutes after I set the starboard outside rigger, it goes off and our first tuna was soon on the deck. Nice albie at 27 lbs. We still didn't have all our lines out when the port rigger goes off and Cliff gets a yellowtail on board. Cool, we have an "exotic" and started to think things are looking better. We get bit one more time and Duane gets his first albie of the season. After this, no more bites came our way.

The seas were building and the wind wasn't letting up, so I made the call to head in at 11:30. 4' - 5' wind waves with 3 foot swells at 11 seconds. 4 hours later we were back in Westport! I was exhausted from driving the boat. There were some tense moments and my confidence out in the big blue was tarnished as I don't think I drove the boat well in that sea state.

It was a good learning experience and I hope to do better in piloting the boat next time.