The next morning when I woke up I took a quick shower and my dad after me. the girls were still asleep but at six o'clock my mom, my dad and I were off to pier 19. My dad although was worried that we might miss the ferry. "The ferry usually departs 3 times and hour, or something like that, but only one time per hour in the middle of the night," he told me. I was video taping everything. I even got the name of the ferry boat we were on. But we had no trouble with it at all like my dad thought we would. We both decided it was time to take our adrenilum pills so we wouldn't get sea sick. After that, my dad asked me if I wanted to go to the front of the boat. We looked at boats in the distance and talked about the day in front of us. As a boat road across our path, it made a series of waves that the ferry road over. I saw one particuarly big wave and tried to point it out to my dad. He was staring off at the jetties or something when we hit the wave. My dad and I got wet because of it. Dad just smiled and said, "I guess thats the first of many today."

We were at pier 19 just an hour after we left. The sun was now in mid sky. There was a small booth there where two men behind the counter took reservation for the New Buccaneer, Cavalier, and the Texsun II.. When we looked where there board the ship, we did not see the New Buccaneer, but the Texsun II. Many people were already aboard it. It looked to be a little smaller than the ship we were set to go on. A man in the speaker called out, "Last call for the Texsun II... if you made reservations for the Texsun II this is your last call..."

My dad stood in line behind about 5 or so people. When we were inside, I saw lots of pictures on the walls of some of the biggest catches made on these ships. It was amazing to see this one photo of two men hold one large fish and it had "Monster Ling" written beneath it. On the other wall there were brochures for every ship that departed at that place. I wasn't paying much attention but my dad had already left the booth and he was outside tell me to com'on. When I walked out I heard a loud horn sound and a lot of people jumped. I turned to see what it was and there goes the Texsun II. About 5 minutes after that I could see our ship coming. There were rust stains below the holes on the side.

We stood in line waiting to come aboard. Dad turned around and handed me a ticket that had number 11 on it. The line started to move and the lounge was filling up fast. We were lucky the even get a seat. it was right by the snack bar. They had and onboard grill, coffee maker and a refigirater. My dad had me save the seats while he went to go see where we were going to fish. When he came back five minutes later, he told me that our places were near the front on the boat. We could hear the captain on the intercom tell everyone that fishing in the gulf wasn't what it use to be. Then we hear the sound of the horn and we were off. I saw a glimpse of my mom through the open door as the boat started forward. Then it was closed.

It sure was dame noisy towards the back of the boat. I had brought my portable CD player but I could hardly hear anything so I just kept it off for the majority of the trip. I got up to go to the bathroom. You can really feel the boat jumping up and down now that were outta the port. The bathrooms were pretty small and there wasn't any soap. On my way back to my seat I saw the deck hands cutting squid into chucks. it was still frozen and you could see fog rising from it. Those knifes must've been sharp sense they could cut so smoothly and easily though the frozen bait. I just sat back down and talked to my dad a bit. He pointed out a measuring cup handing on a nail on a support board. It had the words "Ruff-O-Meter" on it. I guess whenever the waves got rough, it shook about.

So for four hours we waited. During the wait, my dad and I decided to feel the breeze. We went to about where our fishing spots were. There weren't any rods yet, but my rod holder was occupied by a portable gate. The Captain didn't want us at the front of the boat. Which made sense because of the angle we were at, it made it difficult to walk about. So I just sat on the benches that was outside the lounge. After awhile, I began to see things. It looked to be like birds flying away from the boat as it passed by and then they dove into the water. My dad thought so too. I learned very quick that what I was. "A flying fish," I told my dad. It sure was neat to watch them perpell outta the water and gently glide over it. If a wave skinned their belly, they just go through it. Some fly sort flights, and other go about 15 feet before diving back in. My dad said that he thought it was kind of odd a seagull this far out to sea. A group of people sitting down a little ways from where we were thought that it was the coolest thing.