Dave Morin

After a full night of organization and photo editing my biggest photo post ever is up @ http://davemorin.com/travel. Basically it consists of random pictures from 3 different cameras throughout the trip. Some are good, some arent. Whatever. Enjoy.

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Hope that everyone had an impressive spring break and that you had a chance to expel some of that pent up student procrastination energy where it counts. I know that I’ll never forget the opportunity that I had to hang with 5 of my best friends in the world. Not a moment that sucked and laughing so much it hurt. Rex and our coveted favorite Sink drink incarnation the “Adios Motherfucker” (thanks Pete!). Lido deck and room service. “Mmmm unesscessary fat content” and “I’m a big supporter….HA HA HA”. “Hey Dave what did pirate chingy say when he saw land?…It’s over thurrrr.” (Laughin’) The awesome people that made the trip everything and so much more (you know who you are…M96). And not to forget the many adventures of the top deck and watching the lights of Miami come in. Amazing.

More to come shortly after I pear down the 600 some pictures and video from the trip.

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Here I sit waiting to continue my journey home, loathing the departure from such an amazing adventure. More to come in the absolute ridiculousness of the cruise et al. But right now as I walked past the gate from which I left to Santiago last summer I was randomly reminded of how american sandwich companies/bakerys just can not do bread right. I think I should probably do a bit more research as to why this is, but it’s killing me right now. Probably just endless travelling and hunger killing me, but I’ve got a serious craving for these wonderful baguette sandwhiches they have in the UK. I think the place is called “Upper Crust.” It’s just your run of the mill fast foodish sandwhich chain in britain, but damn they have some good bread. Check it out next time you are in the UK.

That’s the random Dave thought of the evening. Always something new

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Let’s sleep late. Tired and hung over not from drinking but from nearth death experiences with the sea. It’s a strange and powerful force not to be reckoned with. But we managed to drag ourselves out of bed to the beautiful views of green plam on blue water. Spent the morning cleaning the boat of hazadous salt water and laying by the pool. Dropped the jet ski into the water later and took turns running it around the bay harassing the locals. We also managed to find water skis, a wakeboard, and a kneeboard. Towed each other around on that for awhilie, entirely too much fun. Matt’s also got a navy seal style zodiac boat, so we decided to take the snorkels and the wieght belts and look for lobster about 5 miles out into the open ocean. It was a pretty solid effort considering how rough the seas were today, but alas the bottom was too murky and we couldn’t get at the little bastards today

Les, is an eccentric fellow from cleveland who lives next door to Matt. You know the type of guy. Loves to fish, comes to florida every month or so. Also loves to live vicariously through a bunch of college guys next door. He informed us that his buddy down the way has 6 college girls in town for spring break and that if we’d help him move a 400 pound table, he’d send them over. So we happily oblidged. Thinking that they probably wouldn’t show anyway, we decided to take the zodiac and a cooler full of corona out to a sandbar quite a ways off shore and hang out while the sun was still out. It was one of the most amazing things I think I have ever done. Powder white sand, emerald water, yellow corona, and all of us just sitting in 6 inches of water and enjoying the good life. Dare I say incredible again? We had no cameras with us, so that one will have to stay lodged in memory, but good times and good friends will never be forgotten.

So, upon our return we learn that the girls did in fact stop by and may be back later. Sweet. We put together all of our fish and began to cut up some sushi fillets for dinner. You really can’t get much more fresh than catching it and filleting it yourself. I will have to say that it was argueably the best sushi that I have ever eaten. We deep fried all of our snapper, made hush puppies and ate it out on the patio, listening to Buffett and the Beach Boys. All topped off with two key lime pies

To cap the night the girls ended up coming over so we fired up the power on the boat, turned on the “hi-fi” and decided to put a line out the back and try to catch a shark. You basically do this by dumping a bunch of blood in the water, throwing a dead fish out on a really big hook made of titanium and hope that they smell the blood, come into the bay and damn near rip the rod into the water. So, after a couple hours of partying the line on the rod goes ripping out into the bay, and everyone is clamering to get a look and get into the zodiac to chase the thing out into the bay. Matt gets on the road, and the other Matt is driving, with Mike videoing. And, literally after a 2 hour fight with it, Matt brings it into the bay by the boat for us to see a 10 foot 150 pound bull shark. One of the coolest thing I have ever seen up close. More pictures to come on the website. I’ll keep you guys posted after we get on the cruise tomorrow Jigga!

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An amazing last couple of days in one of the most beautiful places I have visited. We have had the amazing opportunity to stay at one of my good buddy’s place in Duck Key, right outside of Marathon, Florida. A great little spot right on the water with enough room to sleep six of us very comfortably.

We hung out on the back of his boat the first night drinking corona and listening to Buffett in true Key style. The next morning we bought our shrimp bait and loaded up the boat. Adorned with all of the most lavish chrome fixtures and anything that you could ever need for an ocean fishing expedition, it is one of the most amazing boats I’ve had the chance to fish from. A huge thanks to Matt’s parents for allowing us the use of both the boat and the house. So, after loading up we headed out about 15 miles off shore to a reef known for great yellowtail snapper fishing, stopping along the way in a couple of spots to try our luck. Spent the better part of the day filling our storage with yellowtail, catching a few grunts and dodging needlefish as well. All in all a very productive morning and early afternoon, gaining enough bait for baracuda and sharks later. On the way back we stopped back at a spot we had hit earlier in the day and chased a few baracudas. One of the most impressive fishing experiences I have had. You toss a yellowtail out and these things hit like a freight train, searing the thing in half and pulling the line out so fast you almost go in with it. Absolutely incredible.

Late afternoon brought rest and the load up for our night expedition to come. The expedition was to entail tuna fishing on the “hump” and swordfish fishing after dawn 35 miles off shore. Conditions were pretty sketchy as we headed out, three to five foot swells. On the hump we began trolling and setting lines. As soon as we were setting lines out we were getting hits, it was absolutely incredible. We were getting hit so many times, we had 4 rods going and couldn’t keep them out long enough to set them again. Caught almost 40 blackfin tuna in 45 minutes. We ended up keeping about 20, some for sushi later, and some to send home.

After our tuna massacre, we headed furthur our and had the opportunity to watch a beautiful sunset over the water. You can catch the pictures from the sunset and the other adventures posted on travel.davemorin.com. With dusk approaching we began to get lines ready for the swordfish. Matt had informed us that most people don’t even have the chance to catch a swordfish in their lifetimes because they are so rare due to overfishing by commercial operations. So, we put together two lines with live bait, and one with squid and left ourselves to drift.

Now, I don’t know how many of you have had the chance to be on a small boat in the ocean, but it can be one of the most nausiating things in the world. Imagine motion sickness of anykind and multiply it by ten. Remember now that this story I am telling is happening at night. Now multiply that by ten, and take away all sense of sight considering there is no moon, clouds out, and no stars. That means no horizon, nothing to fixate on. Throw in 5 to 7 foot swells that look like they are bigger than our already pretty big boat and you’ve got one of the most nausiating experiences on the face of the earth. It was even phasing out veteran guide Matt. So, we decided that the swordfish would live to die another day and we would begin our 35 mile trip back to shore. Halarity and craziness ensued with the boat going airborne several times, Matt screaming into ocean “IS THAT ALL YOU’VE GOT!!” as gallons upon gallons of water crashed against the front of the boat. The mission concluded about 1:00am with a crew of extremely nausiated guys and luckily no puking.

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