Virginia

I made it to Virginia on Wed. 02/04. Mika and I picked up the Captain at the train station - she was sooooooo excited to see her "daddy". I was glad to see him too - I was tired of driving. lol

It took us until the 13th to get the boat ready for her first excursion with her new Captain. We had to get the gear ready to go "Squidding". It was quite the experience. Mika loved being on the boat - while we were docked anyway. The weather was wonderful most of the time. Shirt sleeves.

Then we were off - it kind of stopped being fun and started being work. I had to do all of the cooking, most of the dishes, and also worked on the deck. I didn't have to haul back or set out the gear, but I did sort fish. It was a good thing that Mika and I took motion sickness meds - we never found our sea legs. One of the interesting things I found out was that the squid were not as big as I thought, but we couldn't keep anything under 4" or the price would go down. So, the guys told me that if I lay the squid across my gloved hand and it covered it, that would be long enough. See - size does matter. In other words, "under a handful - throw it back" - for gals "over a mouthful is waste"for guys. You have to see the squid to get a clear picture. The picture I'm showing isn't really a good one. Some are really limp, but other's are a little more "sturdy".

We didn't make any money that trip - we had a fire on the boat (more about that later) and had to go back to the dock without a complete trip - so what squid we got didn't even pay for the fuel or groceries.