Day 6 turned out to be the most exhausting day of the whole adventure.
Keith and I had been invited to fish at Islamorada for a daytime Sword fishing trip. This link will get you into the story, what it did not tell you was that it would be blowing 30mph and would make us badly.

It was a 5am start and we made our way up the main highway to Islamorada, some quick introductions and we were on our way with the wind howling, it was borderline as to even going out with a 35 mph wind howling.

This was to be brutal fishing, we spent a short while fishing at the Sea Mount and caught some bait in the form of Albacore, we hooked a couple of Tuna only to have them eaten by monster toothy critters. It was a job to stand up let alone fish even though we were on a 52’ Carolina Custom Sport Fish Boat.
Photographs at this stage were out of the question.

We ploughed on to the target area some 48 miles out in the Gulf Stream known as the canyons. It is an incredible 1800ft deep. Richard our expert day time Sword fish Captain had already told us that this would not be fun and the odds with the weather were stacked against us. He had developed some amazing rigs for these monsters and it was down to us to try and land one.

We had our trusty cameraman Radomir with us (lucky you), who was already looking a little pale due to the conditions (ah...shame). 1800 ft is a long way down, to give you an idea of how deep it can take as long as 15 minutes just to get the bait to the bottom.

We put Keith in the fighting chair and just hoped. The miracle happened we had a bite and Keith was in to a Sword Fish. Keith cranked away on the heavy outfit putting every ounce of effort into it. You can see by his face that this was hard work and far from fun.

According to the article that Roy sent the link for "As of Oct. 7, Stanczyk's streak stands at 53 consecutive daytime swordfishing trips with at least one catch" - That's another unbeaten run down the drain !

After what seemed like an age the leader was visible and we could see our Swordfish lighting up, it was all excitement. Only 20 ft from the gaff and it just came off, words could not explain our feelings. But Keith’s face could.
We had one more bite when I was in the chair and to be honest I was a bit frightened having seen the state of Keith after his battle. Words like hospital job were on the cards and possibly the best thing under the conditions that I did not hook one.

After 12 hours on the water we were back at the dock, conditions had been so bad that the Massive Party boat had returned early. It had 26 anglers on board and 17 were seasick. An incredible experience but not for the faint hearted.

Meanwhile back in calmer waters at Key West our fellow teammates had seen some great action.
Robin and Lemon Geoff had been Sail Fish fishing and landed 7.

Robin Morley took this stunning photo of a leaping Sailfish. I guess that Lemon Geoff was on the other end of the line.

Robins picture of a leaping sail must be one of the best pictures of the trip.

Terry and Joan caught some great Amberjacks and were made badly by some nasty sharks.

Stewart posing with an Amberjack

Terry with an Amberjack - Nice Shorts !

I have not mentioned Harry The Rat, he was somewhere but no one had any pictures of him. He has been forgiven and is no longer a scum as Roy is after some sponsorship.