Yes, today is Thursday, but, to summarize the Wed. activity: They're back! Last week Steve Ross and crew tried the swordfish drift outside of the Banda Bank and were attacked by those greedy Humboldt Squid that will eat anything that moves or glows in the dark. But no swords. They had squirters up to "50" pds. And a sport boat out of Oceanside had them up to the boat at dusk. We didn't weigh ours but that last one, above, stripped 80 pd line with ease. I suspect it was close to 40. And no - no sign of the swords. They must have seen us coming. The weather? couldn't have been better. Less than 5 knots of wind, flat seas, minimal rocking, and not too cold. I went out in shorts and planned to change as we got settled in, but it never got too cold and I shorted out the week-end. It's a straight shot out of Mission Bay ( we fished just below the 178), so we're calling these the 1st of the Year for the San Diego fleet. Actually, Harry had the first and wasn't that anxious to keep it. But I volunteered to do the cleaning and cranked in the last two. The last one (as pictured) was a real "toad." I'm still sore from the pull. So I had the pleasure of cleaning all three. Calamari anyone? 

But there is another part to this story. When I climbed up to the flybridge there were some Pigeon feathers and a few twigs lying around. And a few droppings, of course, but nothing like those f------ sea gulls. I think that they are born with diarrhea. But as I approached the helm seat I noticed a pile of twigs jutting out from the seat on the right (Star board, that is). My thought was: "S---! They are trying to build a nest." So when I leaned over to pull out the pile there sat Mrs. Pigeon (unrelated to Walter) warming at least one, possibly two, good sized eggs. She blinked, I blinked, but she didn't move. I was less than 2' from her (?) and I as I moved around, started the engines, reached across for the various instruments, etc there she sat - blinking away. So off the three of us went for all that excitement on the High Seas. Throughout the evening I checked and there she sat.