Debra and I spent the night aboard and the Stellmans joined us Sat morning at the reasonable hour of 8. First time out in the big boat in MANY months. The CLipper race was headed off on their 8 month adventure.

Was a bit sporty under the bridge but not bad at Baker beach where we dropped off two rounds baited with chicken parts in 50 ft and two hexagonal hot whammy traps in seemingly calm 120 ft spot.

Off to Southhampton for some mimosas, makers mark  and trolling 12 ft of water in really nice weather.

Couple of skiffs out. Crew put out 4 light setups with flashers, procure and popsickles. No action in an hr so we headed to Paradise and stumbled across the entire fleet. At least 6 PB’s and an equal number of sixpacks mixed with every skiff that had been blown off the flats. Few nets flying but slow for a couple of hours. Debra put out some amazing sammies with corned beef, turkey etc we had picked up from Millers East Coast West on Polk St.  Out came the red wine and Stellas. Jerry and Leanna combined to get the skunk off. Of course more red wine to celebrate.

Out the gate around 2 or so to the shallow pots. They were right on the marks. It was rocking and rolling pretty good but  we got both pots located and they yielded a couple. These two guys kicked ass on the manual labor stuff whilst I guided us through 6 ft rollers with an occasional 8 thrown in.

The 120 ft pots unfortunately were out of site in the current since it turned out we dropped in the potato patch LOL. So  we did the rodeo thing for better than an hr trying to scan the whitewater for buoys. Crew starts grumbling and rightly so. I decided to dash over to Bonita cove where we were grateful for a respite from the wind. Played freighter tag on the way across

Sure enough an hr later the pots popped back up and we were out of there with a handful of crustys. Both pots had walked a 1/4 of a mile trying to join a little graveyard of lost pots in the the corner there.

Nice ride back

Long day but had this to show for it.