Sea wife is sea witch

TWITTERS:

---Early morn. Leaving for Kona today. Afternoon fishing. 12:10 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---Driving along north coast of big island. Up and down thru forests, jungle...blue ocean whitecaps to my right. 02:48 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---Boarding 'The Sea Wife' for fishing. 04:53 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---From the deck of the Sea Wife: still no bites :-( 06:15 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---Fm deck of Sea Wife: shipmate 'calling the fish' (puking overboard), so maybe a fish will strike soon! 06:33 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---Fm deck of Sea Wife: 'seahorse shirt guy' just keeps puking overbd. No fish yet:-( 07:30 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---Fm deck of sea wife: guy called the fish (puked) enuf that we finally caught a couple wahoo. 08:58 PM April 18, 2008 from txt
---The SEA WIFE is a waste of $, time, suncreen and dramamine. I feel ripped off. 10:00 PM April 18, 2008 from txt

Got up early to drive the 3 hours to the other side of the island. We had a fishing charter booked out of Kona.

Warning: if they advertise themselves as "the only ship in the fleet that is Coast Guard certified" do NOT book a trip. Back away!

Mike grew up in Miami. He's been fishing more times than I've been in a corn field (that's an Iowa joke, people). Then for 4 years, we lived on Cape Coral and went out fishing all the time. Charter boats typically take six fishers out at a time. It's called a "six pack." News flash: Apparently, if a boat is "Coast Guard certified" it gives them dispensation to take 12 -- yes, 12, one dozen -- people on board. Something neither Mike nor I knew until we boarded.

What a total rip off! They put 12 people on the boat and then went around in circles in the bay. Everyone had to draw a number for a CHANCE to fish. Only 2 people got to touch fishing poles the whole, long, boring, afternoon trip.

Of my 11 shipmates, one was a newly-married couple on their honeymoon. She was 3 months pregnant and not feeling too great. So she stretched out for a long nap on one of the only two benches on the boat. Most of us just stood on deck the entire time.

Another shipmate was "seahorse shirt guy," a small Asian man wearing a t-shirt with several different varieties of sea horses on it. He was puking overboard the entire time. We were hopeful that would draw an unwitting fish (it usually does the trick). No such luck.

The first mate was a real trip. He spent most of the trip down in the hold, playing his PSP.

First time in my life I've gotten off a boat and seen Mike NOT tip the mate. He was steaming mad.

Again, in case you didn't get my main message: Do NOT go on the Sea Wife out of Kona.