Another classic Tom story: When I was in high school I used to work with Tom on the infamous "Gail Force". Tom always wanted to be a big game fisherman and bring in a trophy marlin, tuna or shark (that's a dream that never came true). I had made the trip to the Hudson Canyon no less than 10 times. I think during all of the trips we caught maybe 4 tuna collectively. Most times we came back because we broke something, forgot something or just ran out of Pepsi and Tasty Cakes. One particular trip, there where several boats heading to the Canyon. We where all planning on departing around midnight to make it to the fishing grounds by 6AM. The weather on the first night was suppose to be a little rough. Tom never enjoyed rough water because he would get sea sick. That's where the nickname "captain puke" came from. Tom was a little nervous heading out because he didn't want to be sick for 2 days in the Canyon. We both grabbed a Tasty Cake, he had a cup of coffee and I grabbed a Pepsi and we headed out with the rest of the boats. When we cleaned the ocean avenue bridge, jetties and drove for about 5 minutes, Tom leaned over to me and said "I shouldn't had the cup of coffee". Within 20 minutes Tom was puking over the side. I stopped the boat and asked him if he wanted to go back. He told me "NO" and that it was not sea sickness it was either a bad Tasty Cake or the milk was bad in his coffee. So we kept on heading out. He was laying on the bench that was in front of the helm as I was driving. I said to him "Let's head back, you dont look good", he told me "no way the guys would make fun of him". I told him he looked dehydrated and yellow and that it had nothing to do with being sea sick. He ask me "how do we sell the story to the other boats ". Just as we where thinking of the excuse, the loran (navigation device like a GPS) broke loose and smashed on the lower deck. Just like that we had our excuse..... Tom radioed the other boats to inform them that we had just lost one of our Loran's and we did not feel comfortable heading out with only 1 working. The other boats told us to come anyway and that they would not lose sight of us. He said no and we headed back in. As soon as we cleared the ocean avenue bridge we busted out laughing, broke out another batch of Tasty Cakes and swore we would never tell the guys the truth. I loved him...