Fishing Trip for Marc

My friend Marc had his bachelor party aboard a fishing vessel this past Saturday, and then that evening was dinner and drinks at a bar in he and Linda's new town of Dobbs Ferry, fifteen miles north of the Bronx. I forced myself to skip the dinner and drinks, having had my share standing in the sun and not catching fish, but all in all it was a good day. I caught a train home while they partied.

This was our boat, named Riptide III. It was spacious and nice, had an interior seating area for when we were jamming to a new spot and it was too chilly to hang out on the deck. Our mustering time was 7:30 Saturday morning, with a launch time of 8. Her dock is on City Island, in the Bronx, way up near Pelham Bay Park, the same I wrote about earlier. Now, as committed fishermen know, certain supplies are necessary, like:

We were pretty good to go. I am a very competitive person; this usually makes up for a lack of skill in certain things, but card games, board games, sporting endeavors...you name it, and I hate losing at it.

So this day was particularly tough for me, as I caught ZERO fish all day. We were entered in the ship's pool, as well as having our own pool (there were 11 of us out for Marc's day). Ten bucks each, from eleven people, gave the pool size at $110, which we decided to break up as fifty bucks to the biggest fish, fifty to who catches the most, and ten to the first to puke. I think the ten dollar prize was claimed later, after we'd gotten back to Marc's place and before we left for the bar. I won't name the winner on that one, other than to say it wasn't me. Marc won both biggest fish and most fish. His first of the day came in third for the boat, but first in our group.

Later on in the day, I noticed that my camera was nearing its own milestone, the 3000th picture since Corrie got it for me at Christmas 2007. Once I saw it was getting close, I made sure to get into the frame. Here it is:

During the day, some of us were dealing with some philosophical questions, like, if you don't catch any fish, are you really fishing? But I had a good time, dropping my lure to the floor of the Long Island Sound and reeling it back in as fast as possible, trying to fool the fish into thinking it was another smaller fish (we used no bait), and drinking about 25 beers. The next day, I had corrie take a picture of my sunburned neck...I wore lotion, but not enough, or I didn't apply it enough times...but I think it's funny that my necklace shielded a line on my neck that was burned around it, and you can see it in this picture:

This Saturday coming up Marc and Linda are getting married at Grand Central Terminal, on the east terrace, surrounded by beautiful New York City aura, family and friends. I am happy for them, happy that they found each other, happy they're making it happen, happy for them that it's almost over.