Monday, June 1, 2009

A HARROWING CROSSING!!!!!!

We got up on Saturday and checked out wind (you know...lick your finger and hold it up in the air) and weather predictions and it looked like the wind was calmer than the day before but would be even calmer on Sunday. Since the previous fishing day was really rough wind wise and Sunday looked even better than Saturday I was leaning toward "hanging out" one more day in Bimini and looking up Sherry for some conch salad. (We did make it back up to her place Friday evening for a drink and a hug but no conch salad.) Well, CTM doesn't "hang out" very well and I could see the darned handwriting on the wall. There were a couple of fellows from Miami that were in a smaller boat than ours and were heading out. We asked them to call us back on the VHF and give us sea conditions. I was secretly hoping for "NO WAY!" But, shortly they called back and said (as they say in the Bahamas), "NO PROBLEM!" Darn! We scurried around and packed up, paid up, and headed out. NO PROBLEM my - - - !!!!! Soon we saw that it was going to be a loooooong day because we were heading straight into the wind and Gulfstream. To make matters worse the storms soon fired up when it was too late to turn around. At one point I suggested to CTM that we "PUT ON OUR LIFE JACKETS!!!" and "WHERE IS THE DITCH BAG?????" Rain, wind, lightning, and at one point we even saw a TORNADO hanging from the clouds!!!!! I'm pretty sure that I have a ruptured disc from that 9 hours of pounding!!! If you look close at the GPS screen you will see FF III right in the middle!



Well, obviously we made it back and we are fine. We crawled out of the boat, showered, went out for some red meat, and were in bed by 8:00 p.m.! Doing laundry, packing, cleaning, and heading north soon. Might just "hang out" today and might go for one last day of fishing. Oh dear, I can see that darned handwriting on the wall!!! Catch you on the flip flop.

ACJM

2 comments:

  1. By the way, sometime along the "Harrowing Crossing" we passed by a Frigate bird acting much like the one that was following that monster bull dolphin in Bimini. It even dove for the water once at a flying fish that obviously something had chased out of the water. It was "CLASSIC". It looked like something Guy Harvey would have painted. Of course ACJM would not let me stop and check it out. Also did any of you Mizzou fans notice the colors flying over my head in the picture?

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  2. M-I-Z - "coast guard approved"!

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