Five of us went halibut fishing yesterday. When we got to the beach, all the tractors that back your boat into the surf were working, and we got launched with no problem. We motored out to my favorite spot; I have it marked on my GPS. It took us about 20 minutes. I threw the anchor overboard, but it wasn’t fastened to my rope, and I now had no anchor. The tide swings are so severe here in Cook Inlet that it is very difficult to fish without an anchor. We were right at the beginning of slack tide, so we decided to give it a shot. Slack tide is when the tide changes from going in or out. There is about a two-hour period with no ocean current, so the boat doesn’t drift. During that two-hour window, we caught 8 halibut, with several big ones. When the tide started moving, the fishing was over, and we headed back in. After we launched, I forgot to turn the lights off in our rig, and the battery was dead. But we were able to borrow some jumper cables, and a guy helped us get it started. We hooked up the boat, and we made it home in time for dinner. When we were raising our kids, camping was one of our main parenting tools, because anything that can go wrong does go wrong when you are camping, and then you teach your kids how to cope, solve problems, and choose to have a good attitude. Now my new saying is that when you are fishing, anything that can go wrong does go wrong. So now it is a matter of solving problems and choosing to have a good attitude. Life is a challenge and an adventure, so enjoy the experiences.