Log 94; Day 254; Jan. 30, 2009; Key West

This is Susand and Andy...from the Nordhaven 55 (Maggie May) that we have met a couple of times

HQ at her slip in A&B Marina

Deb and I took a dinghy ride to the city marina...this is a little mangrove water way just off the main channel

These fish are tarpon and these shots taken from the bow of our boat

This gives you an idea of the size of the tarpon compared to the pelican

Log 94
Day 254
Friday, January 30, 2009

7:30 AM EST
Location: A&B Marina, Key West, FL
Weather: 71 with calm winds...a cold front is coming through this afternoon

The dew each morning has been so heavy, you wonder if it rained overnight. The humidity at 7 am was 94%, so we are running the a/c to make it more bearable. This is not a complaint...just a fact. All of this will change this afternoon as a cold front will pass through...and another one forecasted for sometime Sunday. The high temperatures will only get to the upper 60’s or lower 70’s...about 10* cooler than the last 3 days.

Yesterday...at about 7, I was sitting on the back deck working on the computer, I looked up to see the local fishing guide (John) wave at me. When I walked out he said “hey Bob...are you going fishing today...it’s going to be great out there...you need to go today”. That’s all I needed to hear. He also had me bring my charts out and showed me exactly where to go, and said to come over to his boat and he would show me exactly what to fish with. I walked over to his boat and he showed me a good sized white jig with a clear looking tail on it, and said “take this...this will do the trick”. He also said I could find more of these at the bait shop (the one with the beer on draft) so off I go. Between getting supplies; a pump out; and a couple of phone calls, it was almost 10 by the time I took off in the boat. It was almost 13 miles to Jewfish Key, where he told me to go, and most of it in waters less than 4 foot deep. I was skimming across the water at about 18 mph, and just knew at any time I was going to hit something and run aground (but John said it was safe, so I kept going). At some places you would go between 2 sticks stuck in the middle of no where (put there by the locals to guide you) and it would be dry land on each side of the sticks. Keep in mind I was 3 miles from shore. Somewhere along the way I forgot all the “turn left at this stick” and “turn right at this stick” because instead of turning right (which I later figured out I was supposed to do) I went straight. Bad deal. The water went from 3 feet, to 2 feet, to nothing but sand and weeds. At this point the boat started to slow down because the prop was getting full of weeds, and there was no water coming out of the engine discharge, meaning that sand had filled up the impellor and the motor would shut down because it would be too hot. All I could do was stop the boat and try to get out of there. The water was only about 1 foot deep, so I got out of the boat to try and drag the boat back to deeper water, which was when I sunk into the sand and weeds over my knees. At that point I said, out loud, “this is not good...not good at all”. I was in the middle of no where, with no help, and no way to paddle or push the boat. Well it took about 30 minutes to get the boat back to water deep enough to use the engine again. What I would do was put all my weight on the dinghy (so I would not sink in the sand) and then use my feet to inch the boat along. It was hard to do, and very tiring...but it worked. When I found deeper water, I realized what I had done wrong, so after cleaning the sand out of the engine water discharge, I was able to slowly work my way into deeper water (2 to 3 feet) and able to get the boat back up on plane again.

Jewfish Key is a cool spot. In the middle of nowhere, there are about 10 islands with some deep spots between them, where the bigger fish hang out, looking for the bait fish that are in the very shallow water. I ended up catching about 6 or 7 fish...ranging in size between 6 and 18 inches. It was a great time, and the way back was not near as scary. It still seemed like I would hit ground at any time, but I knew that there was enough water, in the spots I was going, to make it back without a problem.

Today...no plans yet. The calm winds and hot and humid temperatures are supposed to change about 1 pm today, so I don’t think there will be any fishing today. But is past time to make a dock walk and see what all the other boats are up to...so that is the first thing on the agenda. From there...we’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted.

Bob