April 2nd: Things are Winding Down at Banana Bay

At the end of March people cruising back north start watching for a good weather window. We saw some good weather coming and knew people would be heading out. First thing Saturday Paul and Colleen were the first to head out, back to the Chesapeake where they own a home. Next Kim and Steve left on Maya.

Maya following Colleen and Paul out of the marina

Given the low winds, and Randy and Cindy planning to leave Tuesday to store their boat at another marina in Marathon for the summer, Cindy and I decided to go for her final fishing trip. We worked very hard to catch 3 nice fish, Bermuda Chubs. They are very hard to catch as they are great at stealing bait without getting caught. We probably fed 50 fish but succeeded in catching 3 nice ones.

The Bermuda Chub were very hefty fish so we decided I should try to cook them over charcoal Dominican Republic style.  I made slashes in the fish every inch or so and rubbed in an olive oil, lime, basil and cilantro marinade. I barbecued the fish until they looked almost burnt and they were delicious. As you can see from the picture there were no leftovers!

We had some live shrimp bait left after fishing Saturday and saw that the weather was going to again be favorable Sunday morning.  So Cindy and I decided we might as well go fishing for a couple hours again Sunday morning to use the shrimp. I caught another nice Bermuda Chub and Cindy caught a large Blue Tang. The Blue Tang is a very pretty, very hard fighting fish, not meant for the dinner table. So it went back in the water after a quick picture.

Cindy's Blue Tang

Randy and Cindy were planning to cruise 3 hours on Tuesday to the marina where they are storing their boat for the summer,  Randy was watching the weather forecast Sunday morning while Cindy and I were fishing, and saw the winds would be nasty Monday and Tuesday. Consequently, as soon as Cindy and I returned from fishing Sunday morning, Randy and Cindy headed out on Love You More. We'll miss them as well as Gidget and Cricket but at least they will be staying with us for a few days while they finish putting their boat away.  Gary and Karen, our friends from Little Current, Canada, likewise decided it was time to go based on the weather and also left the marina Sunday.

Randy and Cindy heading out on Love You More

 It is always fun to see the wildlife at Banana Bay. We have manatees and sometimes dolphin coming into the marina. We also have a large number of Florida lobsters living within the rocks around the marina. Randy counted 47 lobsters behind one of the boats. Lobstering in any marina is prohibited so they do quite well.

So for now we're still settled in waiting for Linda's surgery to fix her left hand. April 14th - still a couple of weeks away. Basically the same surgery with a 3 month time frame for complete healing but this time the final two months in the outrigger splint will be on Guppy!!