The Stats

Here are the stats on the cruise. The trip was 1019 nautical miles long (about 1200 statute miles). We cruised about 100 hours with an average speed of 10 knots. About two thirds of this was just cruising from port to port and one third was fishing. I'm not real thrilled about the ratio, but Mariah would not cooperate. It took about 1500 gallons of fuel. We spent 30 nights on the boat. 28 of them were at 8 different marinas and 2 nights were on a mooring (anchor). It took 25 cases of beer (we had some help drinking the beer), a 12 pack of diet coke, 2 regular cokes (for Freddy) and about 30 gallons of water for drinking, making coffee, etc. For fishing we used 6 dozen ballyhoo, 6 pounds of squid, 60 pounds of chum, numerous hooks, sinkers, etc. on the reef, 3 Billy Baits were lost and we broke one rod. We reef fished 5 times, 3 of which were fantastic. We fished offshore 6 times and only got skunked once. We cooked fish on FF III that we caught 8 times and had our catch cooked 5 times in restaurants. We had only one major mechanical problem if you don't count the toilet holding tank situation and the little hole in the water pain in the @#%. We did have to pump up the dinghy 9 times. We went to many interesting bars and restaurants. We witnessed a wedding and got in the middle of a Hooter's photo shoot. We walked on many uninhabited beaches and visited many quiet harbours. All in all a good time was had by all and no one got hurt or sick.