Tuesday February 26: Fish and Work

It's amazing how fast things grow when you don't want them to! The potatoes we left on the kitchen counter certainly didn't waste any time - maybe growing these eyes so they could run away?

Anyway, now that we were settled back in it was time to head out for a day. The weather predicted was just about as good as it's been the whole time

we've been here. It was just an overnight to the bayside again but there was fishing in Steve's future again!

First a nice grouper (small, really for a grouper) that was out of season so back he went after a picture!

Next was a small shark caught once we were at our anchorage for the night at Horseshoe Key.

Doesn't he always look happy with a fish?!!

And the fun didn't stop there although we never did end up with anything that was edible and large enough.





As the night wore on and the sun was setting, Steve was still fishing. He even tried using oatmeal to entice the larger fish to find the tempting shrimp he had on his line.

No takers - guess these are not dumb fish!! The sunset was really pretty (this was Saturday night) - once again making us think it might be the best we've seen. Of course I think we say that just about every night :-)

The water was the clearest we've ever seen it on the bayside. It was so calm we could just look down into the water as we moved. Quite a few sponges were there and we also saw a sea turtle swimming right next to the boat at we moved.

Also saw a nurse shark that was probably 5 - 6 feet long - just swimming along as we came by in the boat. It didn't seem phased by us at all - nor were the 2 remora that were attached to it. If you want to know more about these fish, click here.

The challenge for the day was to see if our plan to lower the mast would work. We needed to go under a 19 foot bridge to get to the ocean side but with the mast back up, our height is 20' 3".

Solution? Remove the boom (horizontal part) then lay the mast down using a rope over the front of the flybridge to the anchor post to hold the mast at a minimum of 41 degrees down (don't you just love trigonometry!!) to achieve a height of 18 feet.

In theory this should work!

And it did - just as planned :-) At right is the mast down and secured to the front with a line and also secured to the sides with small lines.

Definitely a success! And once under the low bridge, we dropped the anchor and in 10 minutes had the mast back up where it belonged.

The mast actually serves two very useful purposes: it has our anchor light on it (which must be lit all night so other boats don't run into us) and we use it to lift the engine onto the dinghy. Of course Steve would also list holding the steadying sail as a purpose also ...

The full moon was SO bright that night I don't really think we would have even needed the anchor light - shadows at night? Cool ....

Once on the ocean side, the fishing poles came out again. Again it was shark! I had it on the line probably 3 or 4 times but it always cut the leader, bent the hook - everything but get caught!

So Steve fixed my pole up so it wasn't going to get away again if I could get it hooked again. Success!! My first shark :-)

The rest of the fishing trip was not very good - couldn't even pick up anything trolling from the fishing spot all the way to Sombrero Reef - which is unusual.

The reef itself was crazy clear AND calm. I don't think it has ever been this good in the many times we have tried snorkeling out there. The sun was a good angle even though it was 3 o'clock before we arrived and were tied to a mooring ball.

The Keys have really made an effort to minimize the damage that can be done to the reefs by boat anchors. Installed are a system of buoys that all we need to do is tie our line to the big yellow line that is tied to the buoy. This lets boats be over the reef without the dangers presented to both the reef and other diver by boats using individual anchors. What a great idea!

Just to temper the fun of being on the water for a day, jobs were to follow!

Paint the anchor (Steve), resplice the anchor line to the anchor (professionally done by Splice is Nice Duane!) with Steve backpacking 15 feet of chain and 150 feet of line to the city marina (Steve), taxes (me), appeal denied claim for Steve's shoulder surgery (me), replace macerator pump for aft head (me), planning for the next few months (me)..... mmmm... seems like a lot of "me's" going on here!!

Of course my jobs all involve being in the air conditioned boat as it is in the mid 80's and very humid today. Truth told? Steve does 90% of the work on this boat .... but you probably knew that :-)