Wednesday February 12: Time to Fish, Sew and Polish

So Saturday and Sunday - I don't know where they went ... really.

All I know is that Monday morning it was a 'perfect' day to go dinghy fishing under the bridge. So why not?

The tide didn't change until later in the day so it was a relaxing morning aboard and off we went.

Ok - I'm not the best nor patient fisherperson alive. In fact as you may recall, I prefer to be a catcherperson not a fisherperson.

It was a very slow day - in fact the biggest thing we caught (me, that is) was some kind of spotted moray eel!

It was the strangest thing - all we wanted to do was to get it off the hook and all it wanted to do was to tie itself into a giant knot on my fishing line!

Very strange but eventually Steve got it off of the hook and back it went. Mmmm ... wonder how toasted eel is???

The fishing (catching) was slow but just being out on a relatively calm day between the new 7 mile bridge and the original bridge (on the left here) was nice.

Beautiful day, low winds - just wanted more fish!

But tomorrow is another day, right??






Literally. Tuesday was another perfect day to fish. So off we went again. Today I was the grouper queen!! No fewer than 5 grouper - which number 1 are out of season and number 2 were WAY too small!

Steve thought the size minimum was 2 feet - they really grow to be huge fish. Sadly, all went back but still - fun to catch.

After all was said and done, we ended up with 4 keepers: 2 knobbed porgy, 1 grunt (I WILL NOT clean any more of these! Bone structure is terrible and not much left even with a skillful fillet job!) plus 1 cero mackerel.

Nice enough for a couple of dinners.

Now on to the work phase of the last couple of days. It was, I decided, finally time to tackle making the new canvas for Guppy (the small boat in Canada). I have a pattern (thanks to the canvas we purchased 2 years ago) so no issues, right?

Why it needed replaced after two seasons is another story. But regardless, it still seems to take me several days to think about how to approach what I want to do. I've had the new material for 2 months but am now just getting to the point where I'm ready to tackle the project.

First - buy an iron! Really? On a boat? Who needs an iron, right? Well, to fold under and do some seams the right way it was a necessity.

Off to K-mart and for $10 I was ready to start.

Meanwhile, Steve was up on the flybridge working on polishing our brass clock. It was pretty much neglected since the last time he polished it (last October at Matt and Wendy's place) and boy was it bad.

Several hours later with much hand polish along with much dremel polish, it was looking like new!!

Steve's comment: we really need to put this on the maintenance list of thing to do!!

This is how bad it looked before he started - and on the right is how great it looks finished and on the wall!!





Tonight was party night at the point with the MTOA (Marine Trawler's Owners Association) group to which we belong. About 50 folks attended with appetizers and music. Werner and Kathy came over from Boot Harbor so it was good to see them again.

Tomorrow: more work on the canvas for sure - otherwise? Who knows!