Following a seamless arrival, disembarkation, and departure from Cabo San Lucas, our journey up line commenced as the flat calm weather that set up two days prior continued. Typically, the ride home is long, tedious, and bumpy to say the least as we spend three full days in motion clawing for altitude against the prevailing wind and seas along this coast. I can't say that many of these transits fall into the enjoyable category. There are those rare occasions however when the ocean shows the serene side of her temperament and the uphill portion of the ride is of little consequence. On those occasions the long and tedious description still applies but is accompanied by a huge sense of relief. In my practiced opinion any flat calm day on the high seas is a good day to be appreciated and enjoyed.

As such we enjoyed the opportunity to tend to small projects and tidy up while steaming northwest in grease calm conditions. Of course the standard movie marathon commenced and admittedly there was plenty of loafing around as the crew and I wound down following the past seven day stretch of going hard at it nineteen hours a day. Following their tremendous effort and a job well done the boys earned themselves a good break.

So other than a couple more days to work our way up the line there will be very little happening on board worthy of mention. It sounds like the fishing outside is similar today with plenty of fish crashing around but wary and reluctant to bite with any kind of abandon. The most important feature to report is that the overall sign of fish is still tremendous for sport fishing with individual fish in varying size classes seen jumping all around the area. Additionally, the water temperatures are so perfect it is almost hard to believe as we are now approaching Christmas and still seeing surface temps in the 75 - 77 degree range. As I have said this bodes extremely well for the upcoming trips.

Look for reports to continue tomorrow as I am sure I will conjure up something more to say. In the meantime enjoy today's near perfect photo of the man himself, Bart Ryder, with an early morning 231 interestingly highlighted by the rising sun . Shot number two features Bob Palatella pulling on what turned out to be an incredibly spirited, tackle busting 198 that put us through the ringer employing nearly every trick in the book to win it's freedom. Fortunately we prevailed and Bob landed the tenacious beast about twenty minutes after I took this irresistible sunset photo.

Tim

Photo Here...
Photo Here...