Our Trip to the Big Island

October 2006 Nate was working in Virginia and to occupy myself while he was gone I trained for the Nike Women's marathon. I decided to train because I had nothing better to do and my cousin Yvette was training for the same marathon. Since we would be meeting up in San Fransisco to race together Yvette and Don invited us to go with them on thier family vacation to Hawaii after the race. We decided to make it our belated honeymoon trip and booked our flights.

While in Hawaii we chartered a boat for some deep sea fishing off of the coast of Kona. Nate has chartered a boat to catch Marlin in Cabo San Lucas on 2 different ocassions. The first trip they had a boat for a full day and caught nothing, the second trip they went up the coast to the East Cape and chartered a boat for a week of full day fishing and caught only 2 Dorado the whole time. So this time when we went out for 1 day and each caught a Marlin It became Nate's best fishing trip ever!

It was amazing fishing! Nate started the trip by catching a Mahi Mahi, Then he caught his first Marlin. This particualar catch was very exciting because he had to fight like hell to get it to the boat which meant it was either a monster or it was foul hooked and not likely that he would keep it on the line. It turned out that it had been hooked just behind the dorsal fin and with his amazing fishing skills (hee hee hee!) and crazy determination to conquer that first Marlin he got it to the boat!! woohoo!! It took nearly an hour!

Only a half hour passed after Nate had reeled in his prize and ANOTHER fish was on the line! I caught my own Marlin!! It took 20 minutes to reel it in and although it was a much less exciting fight than Nate's I realized what a powerful creature I was dealing with. Feeling pretty great about the day and tired from the workout and excitement we headed back to shore. This is when Don finished the day tremendously by catching 2 wahoo at the same time!! We got to fly 5 flags from the boat that day... Awesome....

I thought my fish was bigger and razzed Nate the whole time that I got the bigger Marlin but I was proved wrong back at the dock. He had me by a mere 4.5lbs. I guess he gets his glory.

Apparently Kona it is some of the best deep sea fishing in the world. It has something to do with the trade winds creating a calm area which becomes a feeding ground for fish. I don't really know all the details ...what I do know is that it was one of the most unbelievable days I have ever had and I would be decidedly converted to the sport. Nate says I shouldn't count on it being like that again. I say he should just consider me a goodluck charm ; )