In the last two weeks I have had the opportunity to go on two fun trips. The first trip was a chartered fishing trip from Tilghman Island, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. The second a sailing trip on a co-workers sail boat from near Gibson Island, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. The two trips could not have been more different if someone had planned it that way!
Our first trip started on Friday evening at Harrison’s Chesapeake House. It is an “inn” for fishermen awaiting their early morning push offs at the dock for their chartered fishing boat trips. Apparently fishermen do not require the most lavish overnight accommodations. However, this fisherwoman does and it was a challenge. I knew that the “inn” had rough accommodations, and we prepared ourselves for this, but our last trip was in October when the air conditioning was not required.
My room was hotter than the seventh level of hell. I thought that by turning the air conditioning on at the start of dinner time – 6p- on at full blast that by the time we were done eating, laughing, talking, drinking, and doing karaoke-around11p - we would have nice cool rooms. Apparently five hours was not nearly enough time to cool down my room. It was now only as hot as the third level of hell. Sweat was just pouring off of me. I tried a variation of locations on the bed in an attempt to get the most air conditioning near my skin as was possible. It was just never enough. I was concerned about possibly becoming sea sick (although I had no problems the last time) so I got a medicine patch for behind my ear but I was so sweaty it wouldn’t stick. I had to use band-aids to keep it in place. I had no original intention to shower becausethe water smells like rotten eggs, but sweating all night did not give me a choice. My shower gel did counter act the rotten egg smell, so that was good. I brushed my teeth with bottled water. I couldn’t stand the thought of that taste in my mouth.
On a real positive note - one really great thing about Harrisons is their food – their buffets. Friday evening we had a seafood buffet with snow crab, shrimp, calamari,oysters, and it included other food items like macaroni & cheese,vegetables, and prime rib. Always delicious! Their horseradish was divine on the prime rib. I also got anon-alcoholic pina colada and man was that good!! I loved it. Dessert was a tropical bread pudding. It sounds bizarre but it was additively delicious.
Our first trip started on Friday evening at Harrison’s Chesapeake House. It is an “inn” for fishermen awaiting their early morning push offs at the dock for their chartered fishing boat trips. Apparently fishermen do not require the most lavish overnight accommodations. However, this fisherwoman does and it was a challenge. I knew that the “inn” had rough accommodations, and we prepared ourselves for this, but our last trip was in October when the air conditioning was not required.
My room was hotter than the seventh level of hell. I thought that by turning the air conditioning on at the start of dinner time – 6p- on at full blast that by the time we were done eating, laughing, talking, drinking, and doing karaoke-around11p - we would have nice cool rooms. Apparently five hours was not nearly enough time to cool down my room. It was now only as hot as the third level of hell. Sweat was just pouring off of me. I tried a variation of locations on the bed in an attempt to get the most air conditioning near my skin as was possible. It was just never enough. I was concerned about possibly becoming sea sick (although I had no problems the last time) so I got a medicine patch for behind my ear but I was so sweaty it wouldn’t stick. I had to use band-aids to keep it in place. I had no original intention to shower becausethe water smells like rotten eggs, but sweating all night did not give me a choice. My shower gel did counter act the rotten egg smell, so that was good. I brushed my teeth with bottled water. I couldn’t stand the thought of that taste in my mouth.
On a real positive note - one really great thing about Harrisons is their food – their buffets. Friday evening we had a seafood buffet with snow crab, shrimp, calamari,oysters, and it included other food items like macaroni & cheese,vegetables, and prime rib. Always delicious! Their horseradish was divine on the prime rib. I also got anon-alcoholic pina colada and man was that good!! I loved it. Dessert was a tropical bread pudding. It sounds bizarre but it was additively delicious.
We woke up at 5
:30 am. Anyone who really knows me understands how challenging this is for me. I cannot truly function that earl yin the morning at all. Plus add in the sweating and lack of sleep it was a miracle that I dragged myself to the restaurant for a light breakfast; just in case I was to get nauseated and (fill in the blanks)… We boarded the biggest boat at the dock. Captain Buddy is a well-known local personality and he was taking us out personally. His boat is 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. We boarded around 6:30a. Immediately we could see that this trip was going to be a bit different from the last one. On the boat was a barrel of fish. Never thought I’d see a barrel of fish- ever, anywhere. I kept thinking of the saying, “Like shooting fish in a barrel.” These were real live swimming around in the water fish. They were going to be bait. Oh man. Apparently Rock fish in August in Maryland are downing spot fish. They are on the hunt for them. So, that it what we had to use for bait. Sigh. As we made our way to our first fishing location all was well with me and any possible sea sickness. It didn’t last long. My thanks to God above and all other heavenly bodies that I had that medicine patch on, other wise I would have been chucking my guts all day long.
We got
to our first fishing location. They baited our rods, we cast our lines, and the second I looked down into the churning water, my stomach almost fully rebelled. I handed off my rod immediately and sat down on one of the outside couches. I basically stayed there, unless I was braving moving around for a shot on my camera. The Chesapeake Bay was so choppy there were white capped waves – all of the men handling our trip agreed that it is rare for a day with the water so dramatic. The waves were tossing our big boat to and fro. There were much smaller boats out there and I wondered how they didn’t capsize.
:30 am. Anyone who really knows me understands how challenging this is for me. I cannot truly function that earl yin the morning at all. Plus add in the sweating and lack of sleep it was a miracle that I dragged myself to the restaurant for a light breakfast; just in case I was to get nauseated and (fill in the blanks)… We boarded the biggest boat at the dock. Captain Buddy is a well-known local personality and he was taking us out personally. His boat is 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. We boarded around 6:30a. Immediately we could see that this trip was going to be a bit different from the last one. On the boat was a barrel of fish. Never thought I’d see a barrel of fish- ever, anywhere. I kept thinking of the saying, “Like shooting fish in a barrel.” These were real live swimming around in the water fish. They were going to be bait. Oh man. Apparently Rock fish in August in Maryland are downing spot fish. They are on the hunt for them. So, that it what we had to use for bait. Sigh. As we made our way to our first fishing location all was well with me and any possible sea sickness. It didn’t last long. My thanks to God above and all other heavenly bodies that I had that medicine patch on, other wise I would have been chucking my guts all day long.We got
to our first fishing location. They baited our rods, we cast our lines, and the second I looked down into the churning water, my stomach almost fully rebelled. I handed off my rod immediately and sat down on one of the outside couches. I basically stayed there, unless I was braving moving around for a shot on my camera. The Chesapeake Bay was so choppy there were white capped waves – all of the men handling our trip agreed that it is rare for a day with the water so dramatic. The waves were tossing our big boat to and fro. There were much smaller boats out there and I wondered how they didn’t capsize.We were out from 6:30a to 12:30p. In six hours combined our boat of eight people caught 17 fish. A great haul! There were other unfortunate boats with upwards of 15 people on them who only caught 4 fish. I reeled in one fish between my bouts of nausea. A couple of times I was offered a snack to help settle my stomach. I declined the food with the philosophy that I would rather be empty than emptying.
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