Tuesday, June 25, 2013

#2013-30 The Cal Poly College Roommates Arrive

June 24, 2013

This afternoon three of Alex's college buddies arrived in Sitka for our annual fishing cruise on Wild Blue. Willie Benedetti, Joe Cebe. Mike Celentano and Alex are alumni of Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, members of the 1970 and 1971 graduating classes. As expected we did have fun in college, and each year we reflect on those wild "learning" times. Surprisingly, all of us ended up in business for ourselves: Willie runs turkey ranching, restaurant and poultry products business WillieBird.com; Joe runs a specialty chicken ranching business selling live chickens to the Asian and Hispanic markets CebeFarms.com; Mike has a CPA Auditing Practice for governments and non-profits, and Alex has a real estate and lodging business BensonProperties.com.  This is our 4th time crewing together on the Wild Blue.

As always, Willie arrives with a GIANT cooler full of food: smoked chicken, duck breast, chicken thighs, prawns, salad shrimp, seasonings, salad dressing, croutons, ribs, steaks, whole chickens and a couple bottles of his favorite beverage, cranberry juice.  Seems we're always running out of cranberry juice on the the boat when Willie is around.  He leaves all this food behind in hopes of filling his cooler with fish.  To that end Alex breaks the news to the new crew: the local fishing sucks but we found some good spots in Whale Bay.  So provision the boat tonight with fresh food, bait, hooks, leader, nose clips, lots of ice and beverages and we'll get an early start tomorrow.

June 25, 2013

We're on the way by 8am headed for the Bay.  The last hour in the Gulf, the seas are 5 feet but coming from the starboard aft quarter so the ride is OK.  We arrive and begin trolling out in front of Port Banks, an area that is protected form the ocean swells.  Soon we have 2 kings aboard both over 32 inches.  Later we move down to King City and land a 33-inch King.  We're done for the day and head over to anchor on the eastern shore of Port Banks.  As soon as the boat is anchored Willie is ready to serve a delicious baked chicken dinner.  

Surfbird shared the fish with us in Whale Bay.  A nice group charter boat.
Willies Baked Chicken
Salad with shrimp topping, potatoes, and dressing accompany
the half chicken.

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