Log 105; Day 292; Mar. 9, 2009; Marathon, FL.

I spent most of the weekend fishing.

The next 3 pictures are all on Sister creek

Lots of beautiful homes on Sister Creek

One more Sister creek shot...this is NOT where I go fishing

This critter was perched on the piling next to us. The locals say they climb up here, and then walk the ropes to the boat, so they can get to shore. It makes you think about keeping all the hatches closed!

Log 105
Day 292
Monday, March 09, 2009

7:30 AM EST
Location: Sombrero Resort and Marina, Marathon, FL.
Weather: 68 with light winds out of the East...the forecast is for 80 today with light winds

Sunrise today is 7:39 am, and just as it was starting to get light, there were several boats leaving their slips (and moorings) and heading out. This is the first day in some time that the winds are light, so many boats are taking advantage of that. You can tell it’s that time of year when boats that have been here for the winter are heading north. More are leaving each day.

The last couple of days have been all about relaxing. Deb and I are in to a routine that we work Monday through Thursday, and then take a 3 day weekend to do whatever we want. I know that may seem a little crazy (because we are retired and live on a boat), but this seems to work for us. We plan to do boat chores during the week, and then we don’t feel the least bit guilt about playing on the weekends. Anytime we talk about needing to do something on the boat, we say “we’ll do that during the ‘work’ week”. Hey...works for us.

Fishing...I have had a blast for the last 3 days catching fish. Friday I went out to Burdines and got 2 dozen live shrimp and tried to go out to the 7 mile bridge, but it was too rough, so I came back into sister creek and went back into one of the mangrove creeks. I fished for 4 hours and caught 10 fish. Nothing huge...but all nice sized and fun to catch. I caught a couple Pinfish; a couple Red Drum; a Grunt; a Jack Cravelle; a Lookdown (very cool fish...incredibly flat, and bigger than my hand); a couple of Spotted Sea Trout; and the last thing I caught was a Barracuda. Saturday was more of the same, only I caught about 15 fish in the same area. One quick, cool, story from Saturday. I was about out of shrimp on Saturday afternoon, so I looked in my tackle box to see what artificial bait I would use, and saw my biggest lure, which is a J-plug I use for salmon fishing on Lake Michigan. It’s a big green lure, with a silver belly. Anyway...I put the lure on; made my first cast; yanked on the lure to give it a little “life” in the water; and BAM...a huge fish nailed it. It turned out to be a big (I’d say 2’ long and about 5 or 6 lbs) Spotted Sea Trout, and for the next few minutes it was a lot of fun. On Sunday, I had run out of shrimp, so I decided to head out and try just artificial lures. I caught about 6 fish...mostly Ladyfish, and nothing large, but lots of fun, none the less. Fishing in salt water is great. You never know what you’ll catch, and each time you cast it’s a different experience. I love it.

While all this fishing was going, on Deb seemed to be enjoying herself as well. On Friday and Saturday, when I came back from fishing, she was sitting in a chair on the back swim platform, reading her book. Both times, I had called her to say I was coming back, and she said “don’t hurry back on my account...I’m doing just fine”. Everyone has there own way of relaxing. Thank God.

This week...Deb and I both have our to do lists to work on. Nothing huge, but just a list of things we want to get done before we leave Marathon. On Wednesday, we will have some company. When we lived in Delaware (1984-1988) our Daughters best friend (Carrie) was also our neighbor. Through the years, we have all stayed in touch, and she, and her husband (Donnie), will be heading to Key West and stopping by the boat. They are both great folks...and we look forward to seeing them. I can see a dinghy ride down to Burdines for a great cheeseburger in our future.

Our plan to leave...at this point is on Friday. The weather forecast looks good for a few days, and the highest winds predicted are 12 mph...and not until next Sunday. Our plan is to stop for one night in Islamorada, and then to head to Miami for a couple of nights. Then on to Ft. Lauderdale, where we plan to spend at least 2 weeks...maybe longer. We love Marathon...but we can’t wait to go cruising again.


I’ll keep you posted.

Bob