I spent a very long day on the Excel many years ago. Very nice boat. We were in San Diego for a convention and the trip was arranged by one of the locals. It was a very windy day and some of the folks backed out at the last minute when they saw the flag at the hotel standing straight out and flapping like crazy. Everyone on the boat got seasick but kept fishing. I never picked up a rod.
I spent a lot of time below deck in one of the bunks and only came up for air when I had to chum the water.
My memory says I spent over 125 days at sea over 16 years. Of the 16 trips, we dodged 7-8 hurricanes, ducking behind islands until they passed. We would wrap our arms around our plates when eating to keep the plates from flying across the galley.
I only felt sick on one day that I recall. I never once saw anyone hurl. Safety was paramount with fishing second.
I have two memories burned into my brain from the trips. The first was a bud was fighting a yellowfin that clearly pushed the 100# mark. Just as the fish was coming to gaff, a 16' great white slowly came from underneath the boat and inhaled the fish up to the head. His mouth flared and in one bite, the head was retrieved. I was no more than 10' away.
My second was on one of my first trips. I was fishing 40# leader and had in excess of 400 yards of line. I pitched a live sardine out and immediately saw a silver flash. Over the next moments, I watched my line simply melt away.
Deckhand just laughed and said I needed to get ready to buy new line. I used 60# hollow spectra with a short top shot of flouro. With maybe 10 wraps of line on the spool, I clapped my fingers on the spool in hopes of breaking the leader.
Well, I was able to turn the fish and got several dozen wraps back, but then he turned and left again. I applied my blistered thumbs back on the spool and when the leader broke, there were two wraps left.
Captain watched the whole thing from top deck from bite to break. He said I did everything right, I was just overmatched. He guessed the fish was in excess of 150#. I was more excited than disappointed. I was still new to that sort of fishing and the experience confirmed I picked and hooked a good bait, I had made the connection from the spectra to the leader correctly and tied a solid knot.
The only sadness was at checkin. I would have won the jackpot and about $1,000.
