Walter, the permanent house guest

I realized that my posts have been a little melancholy lately, so I thought it was time to lighten things up.

This is the story of Walter. Walter resides in my home office...

We were on a family trip to West Palm. I thought it would be fun to take my son on a deep-sea fishing charter. My wife decided the whole family should go. So, I rented a boat and a captain for a 7am to Noon adventure. We boarded the boat, bought the bait, and by 7:10am we were on our way down the channel. Our oldest, Melissa was sitting on the bow of the boat singing Broadway show tunes. Our youngest daughter; Stefanie was sitting starboard side, smiling from ear to ear. Our son Tim, was next to me, and my wife (Robin) was leaning over the edge of the boat watching the waves go past.

As we left the channel, the water got a little choppier, Melissa was still singing show tunes, Stef had stopped smiling, Tim was staring straight ahead, and Robin was puking over the edge. The Captain stopped the boat, and baited our hooks and within 5 minutes, I had hooked a 35” barracuda. A few minutes later, we hooked a 40” barracuda. Melissa brought that one in (she named it Walter ) then went back to singing. Stefanie was throwing up all over the deck and Robin was still “feeding” the rest of the ocean, when Tim brought in a 39 incher. The captain was busy washing the deck down with chlorine bleach. It was now 7:45am.

A few minutes later, the captain told me he had been informed by radio that the sailfish were hitting about 1 mile away. He asked if I wanted to take a shot at them. I looked at my wife who was now as green as an artichoke. I looked at Stefanie who was “on empty” but still heaving. I looked at Tim, who was working hard not to be sick any more. The Captain looked at Melissa and asked; “Is she going to sing like that all day?” I said, let’s head back to the marina.

We arrived at the marina at 8:15am. Stefanie fell to the ground and kissed the boardwalk. Tim, wobbled off to a park bench, Robin layed down on the ground. Melissa was still singing the opening number from “Annie”.

I tipped the captain $100. Paid $600 to have Melissa’s catch mounted (it was the biggest), paid the balance of the charter; (another $600), and we all went back to our beachfront condo and slept for the next 8 hours.
“Walter” resides on the wall in my office.