Saturday February 9: Fishing and Friends ... And Relatives :-)

It was a beautiful day on Friday and the winds were the lowest they have been in several days so we headed back out to the ocean side.

Dave and Joyce joined us in our quest for the 'big score' of fish. One of these days it will happen but it wasn't going to be this day!

The award for the coolest (and heaviest) fish caught went to Steve. He pulled up what we hoped would be a huge something edible and instead pulled up a big stonefish.

Kind of really cool looking but is one of the deadliest
poison fish ever!  (Click on the link for additional information about stonefish)  Good thing they were extra careful not to get poked by one of the spines.

We've seen these before when diving and it's crazy how hard they are to see when sitting on the bottom as they blend in so well with the surroundings.

The day was not a total loss though as we ended up with a couple of cero mackerel. Good to eat and VERY easy to clean.

Steve ended up deciding not to snorkel or dive on the reef as the waves were more than what we considered to be comfortable to be on board the boat at anchor. The rule of the day was definitely hang on!!

I really think that being out on the ocean side with these wavy conditions should count as a total exercise program all unto itself ... really.... seriously. Just being able to stay in a seat is a challenge.

I'm sure Joyce would back me up on this .....

The real excitement of the trip was trying to bring up the anchor from a depth of 90 feet. Apparently we were really stuck on ???. I was ready to just cut the line but Steve had the patience to work on getting it loose. Good job, Steve :-)

Regardless, we returned to home port early enough to greet John (Steve's brother) and Daisy who had arrived for the weekend.

First order of business today was of course breakfast!

We went to a place on the Bay side that is too far for a bike so it was nice that John and Daisy could take us by car. Variety is a good thing :-)

Dave and Joyce invited all of us over for dinner this evening to their condo for a new vegan potato pizza made in a crockpot! (It was EXCELLENT - but more about that next post.)

In the meantime, John helped Steve track down our electrical issue so there was some time spent taking apart and cleaning the connections in the shore power hookups.

We continue to work on that issue but in the meantime, life continues to be good .......