MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IN HOPE TOWN....

You can't be in the Abacos and not go to the Sunday Pig Roast at Nippers so we loaded up in Dave and Leann's Albury they had rented and cruised over to Guana Cay. Beautiful beautiful setting overlooking the Atlantic Ocean....

From 2011-05-30

Dave and Leann...well Leann...got her Bahamian pedicure :)

From 2011-05-30

And...the day wasn't complete without a stopover at the infamous Cracker P's....

From 2011-05-30

Enough of the foolishness and time to go fishing :)

From 2011-05-31

Is that Emeril Lagasse???? Oh, no, it's Dr. Dave!!!!

From 2011-05-31

After enjoying fresh Snapper for dinner, someone a/k/a Dr. Dave, suggested we walk over to the lighthouse and watch the caretaker fire it up. When we got there the visiting hours were 8 - 5. But, Jeannie spotted the caretaker at the top of the lighthouse and with a damsel in distress voice (oh wait a minute....she was at the bottom of the lighthouse :))she persuaded Jeffrey to let us go up. Our gracious host, Jeffrey....

From 2011-05-31

This picture doesn't do the view justice but here it is anyway.....REALLY COOL VIEW!!!!

From 2011-05-31

101 steps later...at the top!

From 2011-05-31

Happy Birthday to Don today....we plan to celebrate in style....like we need an excuse :)

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

THREE DAYS IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE :0

We decided to blow off Grand Cay and stay one more day at the West End to chill....my favorite thing to do :) So...Thursday we rode our bikes "downtown" and enjoyed some cracked conch and cold Kaliks...

From 2011-05-29

"Well, the wind is blowin' harder now fifty knots or thereabouts. There's whitecaps on the ocean and I'm watchin' for water spouts!" Yikes!!!!

From 2011-05-29

Friday we said "goodbye" to John and Lori (they will catch up with us at Hope Town) and the West End of Grand Bahama and made the 88 mile run to Spanish Cay.

From 2011-05-29

Luckily, the "Wreckers Bar" on the oceanside had just opened so CTM and I hiked over the hill for a Goombay Smash :)

From 2011-05-29

I got my Bahamian pedicure a/k/a a walk on the beach.....

From 2011-05-29

And...after 10 days I thought it was time for me to take care of some other grooming :)

From 2011-05-29

Saturday we trolled our way to Hope Town. Caught a nice Wahoo, a couple of Blackfin Tuna, and a Mr. Barry Cuda. While making our way there we got a call on the VHF from the "Donkey Master" a/k/a Dave Kinscherff! Dave, Leann, Don, and Jeannie were waiting on the dock at Hopetown Hideaways when we arrived!!!!

From 2011-05-29

After cooking Wahoo on the deck we jumped in their skiff and headed over to Hope Town so we could experience the "First Night in Town Syndrome" for the fourth time :)

From 2011-05-29

From 2011-05-29

From 2011-05-29

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

The First Week

We have now completed our first week out. It was a 107 mile run from Islamorada to Bimini. We fished in Bimini 2 days for a total of 62 miles. Yesterday we left Bimini for the West End of Grand Bahama. We had a very rough 68 mile ride across the Northwest Providence Channel. We have now traveled a total of 237 nautical miles which equates to about 280 statue miles. We got to wet a line on the trip across the Gulf Stream which resulted in a couple nice Dolphin on Billy Baits of course. We had a great reef day catching a pile of snapper, a nice AJ and some assorted other fish. We worked our tails off trolling for grouper which had a great ending. And since it was so rough crossing the NW Providence Channel yesterday, we slowed down to a troll and drug a few baits behind which also resulted in a very nice Mahi on a rigged ballyhoo this time. We have only been keeping enough fish to eat so have been on a steady diet of fresh fish so far but have been too tired to cook so have had a "cook your catch" dinner every night :):)

Here are a few assorted pics of some of the first week......

Here is what a BIG GROUPER can do to a 10/0 heavy duty hook.

From 2011-05-25

Bimini Blue Water Marina's dock repair crew.....kind of reminds me of Matt & Josh :)

From 2011-05-25

I gave the owner of this trailer Norman Eubank's phone number as he was wondering about some warranty work :)

From 2011-05-25

We say goodbye to Bimini and the End of the World Sand Bar.

From 2011-05-26

CTM

JIMINY CRICKET AND THE FRIGATE.....

Wednesday we said "goodbye" to our beloved Bimini and Freddie and continued our journey to the West End of Grand Bahama.

From 2011-05-26

We knew it would not be a pleasant run as the winds had kicked up :( Once we got underway we found that running about 9 knots was a lot more comfortable than our normal 20 knot cruising speed. CTM said, "Well, as long as we are running 9 knots let's throw a couple of lines in the water and troll our way there." I agreed.... Well, if you have ever been fishing with CTM then you know it is always "just 5 more minutes" or "just one more pass by that bucket" or "let's back up to the bucket so I can do a little spooning." After about 2 1/2 hours of trolling the seas had calmed somewhat so I suggested we reel up and run for a while. "Well, there is a pinnacle about 4 miles up that I want to troll over and then we will." So....an hour later I said, "Enough....reel up!" The winds were picking up, we still had about 40 miles to go, and it was the worst part of the trip....across the open part of the ocean, the Northwest Providence Channel with winds out of the due east and NO protection. Five minutes after we were underway I spotted a Frigatebird circling. For those of you who are fishermen you know a Frigatebird is a sure sign that there are probably big fish there. Suddenly I heard a voice and looked over at my shoulder and that danged cricket, Jiminy, was sitting there! I reached over with my thumb and forefinger and tried to flick the little b------ in the water for fish bait but he hung on for dear life all the while shouting, "LET YOUR CONSCIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE, CJM!" So...I shouted to CTM that I had spotted a Frigate and away we went. A good fight later we had a nice mahi in the box! CTM and the fish had a real battle once the fish was in the boat and it looked a little bit like we had butchered a hog by the time CTM wrestled him into the fish box :) For those of you a little faint at heart....skip this pic!

From 2011-05-26

And...thanks to Jiminy Cricket and CTM we had fresh mahi once again :)

From 2011-05-26

We are now at the West End of Grand Bahama but pulling out this morning for Grand Cay. For those of you who have followed our blog in the past, Grand Cay is the "real Bahamas" and where on Mother's Day of 2009 CTM's Mother's Day gift to me was repairing our head so I didn't have to be a Girl Scout any more :) The internet is sketchy there so if we don't post for a few days.....not to worry.....we haven't been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. We are at Rosie's Place in Grand Cay!!!! Catch you on the flip flop.....

CJM

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE...........

I saw a sign entering the bathroom at the newly remodeled Bimini Big Game Club which read something like this, "When the well runs dry you shall know the value of water." It was a quote from Benjamin Franklin. Here in Bimini and all of the Bahama Islands we have been to, water is the most precious commodity. I'm not sure beer is cheaper, but close. I am sure rum is not as valuable. I think it is the ice in the rum drinks that make them cost so much. Here at Blue Water Marina in Bimini they have their own, state of the art, reverse osmosis water treatment plant. They charge 60 cents per gallon. Not too bad if you don't drink any more water than we do on these trips, but when you are washing down the fishing deck after landing a big fish or rinsing the boat after a day out fishing or cruising, you learn to be conservative. There is a city water supply as well, but the locals don't drink it. All of Bobby's friends, the owner of Blue Water Marina, can get their water bottles filled for free.

From 2011-05-25

I guess the 60 cents we pay helps offset his generosity. These days we Americans have no idea of how to conserve water. We water our lawns, wash our cars and use way to much water washing dishes, clothes and ourselves. I guess our wells will have to run dry some day for us to ever appreciate it's value. I'm trying to do my part on this trip by taking fewer showers and drinking only beer to make up for the water I use rinsing off the fishing deck. :):)

CTM

SOME GOOD ADVICE FOR YOU, MR. GROUPER!

"Keep your mouth shut and you won't get caught!"

From 2011-05-23

Successful day trolling for Grouper :)

From 2011-05-23

YUM!!!

From 2011-05-23

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

CHILLIN' IN BIMINI....

On Saturday, after hauling our bikes around for two years we finally got them out, aired up the tires, and rode them down the island a ways to try out the highly recommended Conch salad place....shhhhh......don't tell Sherry!

From 2011-05-23

Trying to get that "secret" recipe from Michael....

From 2011-05-23

Enjoying a cold Kalik while waiting on the final product....

From 2011-05-23

Obviously they have made a few conch salads here!

From 2011-05-23

CP....we found out that Freddie likes something besides Coke!!!! CTM and Freddie plotting Sunday's fishing strategy at the End of the World Sand Bar....

From 2011-05-23

We caught up with Sherry but didn't tell her we had conch salad somewhere else :)

From 2011-05-23

No Saturday in Bimini would be complete without a stopover at Big John's....

From 2011-05-23

Finally got to go fishing on Sunday:) Lori had a struggle with a really big Ocean Triggerfish but got it in with Freddie's assistance :)

From 2011-05-23

Final report.....a 30 pound Amberjack, a four foot Mr. Barry Cuda, 37 Yellowtail Snapper (yum) and 4 huge Ocean Tiggerfish.

From 2011-05-23

Took some of our catch to the End of the World Sand Bar for dinner.....DELISH!!!!

From 2011-05-23

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

:( :( :( :(

Doc and Sue Klayman were to join us today. However, their flight was cancelled out of Springfield on Friday. American Airlines rebooked them for 5:55 this morning which would have delayed their arrival until tomorrow. Just got an e-mail from Sue and their flight was cancelled AGAIN! So....they have cancelled their trip and are heading back to Pontiac :( We were SO looking forward to showing Doc Klayman a thing or two about fishing !!! :) We will leave that up to your imagination as to how that would have gone :)

Our good friends from California, John and Lori, made their crossing on Friday and joined us in Bimini.

From 2011-05-21

Bimini Big Game cooked some of our bootlegged mahi last night for the four of us. It was delish! CTM and John caught up on all of their boat repair stories! It took several rum drinks to get through all of them :)

From 2011-05-21

We have been carrying our folding bikes now for two years and have yet to ride them. So....last night after several rum drinks the four of us make a pact that we would drag our bikes out (John & Lori have bikes identical to ours) and ride down to the infamous "Joe's" for some fresh conch salad. Word has it that it is even better than "Sherry's on the Beach!" Stayed tuned for that report :)

Catch you on the flip flop.....

CJM

FINALLY....BIMINI BOUND!

We have been working and waiting for this day for almost a year now :) Woo Hoo....we were Bimini Bound at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday!

Naturally, CTM could not pass up a weed line just off of Key Largo so we stoppped and caught a couple of nice Mahi for dinner.....

From 2011-05-20

When approaching Bimini CTM spotted a school of dolphin...this time Flipper dolphin not Mahi dolphin.....

From 2011-05-20

"Islands in the Stream".....sounds like a good title for a book, huh!

From 2011-05-20

And, speaking of Hemingway....this is what is left of his favorite hangout, the Compleat Angler.

From 2011-05-20

The Compleat Angler burned January 14, 2006 just seven months before we made our first trip to Bimini with our good friends Gary and Cindy Peterson. We never got to "belly up to the bar" there :( We fell in love with Bimini the first time we set foot on Bimini, Bahamas and have returned here every year since and sometimes more then once a year :) When we win the lottery CTM wants to buy this property and rebuild Captain Morgan's Compleat Angler!

We are staying at Bimini Blue Water Marina until Saturday at which time we will move over to the newly renovated Guy Harvey's Outpost Resort a/k/a Bimini Big Game Club. We are looking forward to the arrival of Doc and Sue Klayman on Saturday. We are going to show Doc Klayman a thing or two about fishing offshore :) Will let you know how that works out!!!!! In the meantime, however, we did make our way over to Bimini Big Game for some rum, a cold Kalik, and cracked conch! I have been waiting a WHOLE YEAR to be able to say that!

From 2011-05-20

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

THE KEYS!

Believe it or not, we were really not big Jimmy Buffet fans until we got our sailboat. Sailing, the ocean, and Jimmy just kind of go together. I was listening to his music and reading his books when I first figured out there was a place called the Florida Keys. After adding a second axle to our trailer I was eager to try it out so in the spring of 1997 we planned a trip to the Keys. Roger Long and I towed the boat down and were going to spend a week on the boat and Johnna and Lanell flew down a week later. The four of us rented a house for a week with a dock. Prior to the girls' arrival Roger and I found a place, basically a vacant lot, to park the boat and slept on it every night. We also spent every night checking out the local bars :) One night before the girls got there we ventured all the way to Key West. Somehow we made our way into Sloppy Joe's Bar and there was an act coming on we had never heard of. The way everyone was acting and with security everywhere we thought it must be someone special...we thought maybe even Jimmy! Low and behold it was Pat Dailey. This was the first time I ever heard Pat Dailey and well, you know the rest of that story!!! He plays at Sloppy Joe's Bar every year about the same time in February and early March. CJM and I have not missed seeing him there since. When the girls arrived we went sailing one day and caught a land breeze, one blowing out from shore, and sailed several miles out, drinking beer and having a great time until we tried to turn around :( We could not sail into the strong wind and the boat was too small to buck the big waves. We dropped the sails and tried to motor in. The waves were engulfing the motor and coming over the transom and onto the floor of the boat. This was our first inclination that we needed a BIGGER boat with BIGGER motors.

We made a second trip down in the fall that year and we booked the same house the next year for a full month in April. Caldwell was in college then and it was the first time in our married life that we were able to take off more than one week! We took off a WHOLE month! CJM had to fly home for a week in the middle of the month and take care of some business and I stayed behind. Worried about what I was going to do I called Bettie Geroff and asked if she had gotten Chris anything for his birthday. She had not so I suggested she give him a few days off to join me in the Keys. She said "ok" so I booked Chris and me some fishing charters. Let the fishing begin!!!! Our first saltwater fishing trip......

Heading to the Bahamas tomorrow morning so will continue this saga later after we return :) Stay tuned for Bahamas 2011!

CTM

MIDLIFE CRISIS

After chucking my engineering career in 1976 CJM and I moved to Pontiac. I worked alongside my brother and dad for a couple years, but it wasn't working out. My dad really wanted to retire and my brother wanted to get into the heating & cooling business. So, on May 1, 1978 we made a deal to buy out my dad & brother and take over the dock. Now we had lots of boats all to ourselves but we needed to rent them and there was no time to go out anyway. During those days at the dock we had 6 aluminum boats with small motors, a ski boat and a couple pontoons. We also got in the boat and motor business in 1985 so now had some new boats on hand. However, they really couldn't be used and there was still no time to use one. Besides not having the extra money for a personal boat it just didn't make sense to have money invested in a non-income producing asset. My motto was "if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense." CJM's dad, John Henry, started running Champion bassboats when we were a dealer. He was in his 60's now and always wanted a boat that would run his age and then some. That trend continued until he was about 75 and the boats just couldn't keep up :)

Our first personal boat, one that we did not have to share with other family members or was not for rent or not for sale did not come until 1996. I was working the St. Louis boat show in February that year. I had been thinking it would be fun to have a sailboat but didn't want just a small kicker motor. I was cruising the show one day before it opened and low and behold I found it. A 26' MacGregor motorsailer. You could trailer this rig and it would handle up to a 50 hp outboard. Just what I was looking for. CJM and I went to Florida a little later that year and the guy showing the boat in St. Louis actually lived in Coral Gables and his dealership was there. We stopped by and looked at the boat and ordered one that day. MacGregor's are built in California. The dealer had a guy that would drive out and pick boats up for him in a Cadillac with a hitch on it. The dealer met the delivery guy in Pontiac and rigged up the sails, etc. and a couple days later we launched it. He showed me how to raise the sails and gave me a 15 minute sailing lesson and we were on our way. By the way, this was the first time I had ever been in a sailboat. We appropriately named it "Midlife Crisis."

We learned to sail the summer of '96 on Bull shoals Lake or at least enough to keep us out of trouble or maybe just enough to get us in to trouble. Dave Relyea was the sailing guru out of Pontiac and every time he saw us out he would sail circles around us and yell advice to us. Once he bailed off his boat onto ours to give us some hands on advice. When he thought we were OK to go it alone he bailed back off our boat and Loudonna picked him up.

We took the boat and the kids, Jabet now 17 and Cal 15, to Sanibel during Thanksgiving for our first adventure to the ocean with our new pastime. Being in the marina and boat business for years, I had trailered boats all over Missouri to boat shows and deliveries and thought nothing of heading out for Florida with MLC. Before we got to Mountain Home I knew we were in for a long, long, long, long, LONG haul. After a grueling first day, we made it to Nashville. We thought, if we could find a place to store the boat we would leave it there and pick it up on the way home. The boat had been trailered all the way from California on it's single axle trailer with brakes without incident. Of course we added a 60 Hp Mercury and loaded it with gear. We were towing with a suburban which should have handled it, but it was all over the place. We decided to stick it out, so we redistributed some of the weight and two days later we arrived at Sanibel. We were anxious to get the boat in the water, but we found when we tried to raise the mast that one of the bolts that holds it when traveling had seized and we could not get it loose. We didn't have a hacksaw, but we did have some wrenches. I just could not get it loose and a really big guy walked by and asked if we needed some help. He twisted the bolt in two and we were on our way. By the way, I now have a hacksaw in my tool bag on the boat. The rest of the trip was great, including the sailing. We spent Thanksgiving Day on the ocean sailing and had turkey sandwiches for lunch. The trip home was also not nearly as bad with the weight better distributed, but the first thing I did when we got there was put a tandem axle on the trailer. Next up...THE KEYS!!!

LIZZIE BETH, TOM SAWYER, & CJM

Sometime during the late 1960's, after my graduation from high school in 1967, my family traded for a 16' Mark Twain ski boat with a 120 hp Mercruiser. Not new, but a really nice boat. The seats were back-to-back seats which folded out to make a bench seat or in my case a bed on each side. My parents were living in a one room cabin (currently Matt & Jabet's living room) with a utility room and pantry. I slept on the couch when I came home from college. In the summertime the bench seats came in handy as I would crash on the boat quite often and I was close to work the next morning. Mary Elizabeth Caldwell was my maternal grandmother's maiden name and they called her Lizzie Beth when she was young, hence the boat name "Lizzie Beth." Obviously it's also where TCM got his name. I was dating a girl named Beth about that time and most people thought the boat was named after her but it was really named after my grandmother. Sue Ann Luna Jones was a good friend and was also going to Mizzou at the time. We skied together along with some other kids from Gainesville from time to time. Beth lived about 30 miles away and was not really a lake person....so a double negative. I asked Sue Ann if she knew anyone that I might date that lived closer. Low and behold she said she had a younger cousin who also loved the lake AND was a water skier AND her parents had a houseboat in the cove just over the hill from the campground AND she was also planning to go to Mizzou in the fall. "Perfect," I thought. Entered CJM and the beginning of a very fun although sometimes tumultuous relationship that continues on today. Our third boat........."Lizzie Beth."

CJM's dad, a/k/a John Henry, knew that if he was going to live in Ozark County he had to wear many hats so was in the boat and motor business among many other things. He sold Larson boats and Johnson outboards at the time. CJM's family had a 16' ski boat with a 60 hp Johnson. Kind of a slug compared to our Mercruiser....HA (couldn't pass that up). I never skied with John Henry, but Sue Ann tells that he always wanted to take off from a sitting position on the houseboat and return to it without getting wet :) CJM has confirmed that story and says she saw him do it MANY times!!!

CJM's family's next boat was an inboard Century. It had a lot of power and made a lot of noise. I think they now had the fastest boat. We skied together almost every day the summer of 1971. We skied double a lot and would cross from side to side. I made quite a wake and was the tallest, so I always had the longer rope. We partied a little (well maybe a lot) along the way. I remember one day that summer CJM was going to be cute and locked us guys outside of the houseboat with the cooler inside. There was only a screen door between me and the cooler so as you can imagine I made short work of the screen door :) I did, however, make sure I put it back on before John Henry showed up!! What a summer we had.... When summer ended we both headed up to Mizzou and CJM did not bring much luck to the Tigers her first year. Our Hall of Fame coach Dan Devine had just left for the Green Bay Packers and our new coach Al Onofrio led our team to a 1 & 10 season :(

In the summer of 1973 I proposed to CJM in the "Lizzie Beth" with B. J. Thomas playing on the stereo :) We then traded off "Lizzie Beth" for an 18' Tom Sawyer boat with a 115 hp Mercury outboard. We had it when I graduated from college in December. CJM and I hooked up the Tom Sawyer and headed to Knoxville, Tennessee where I had landed a job with Tennessee Valley Authority. There are lots of nice lakes around Knoxville and we did enjoy boating on them while living there. TVA is very similar to the Corps in that area. Between the "Corps like" TVA and all of those darned SEC fans we did not last very long in Knoxville. By the summer of 1975 the Tom Sawyer was back in Pontiac and by the summer of 1976 so were we. Our fourth boat....the Tom Sawyer.

Stay tuned....things were about to change....

CTM

"MY LITTLE JOHNSON"

From Drop Box

This 1958 5 1/2 hp Johnson is like the ones we had when Dad first bought the dock. It looks like it has seen better days, but it's best days are yet to come. Stay tuned for more on "My Little Johnson!"

CTM

IN THE BEGINNING.....

A side note....I started writing these next series of posts back in June of 2010 and am just now getting around to publishing them...

After returning from our Bahamas Cruise 2010 I was wondering how I would fill my time until May 2011 and our next Bahamas Cruise. And, I was thinking about how lucky I was to be able to do the boating we do and also how lucky I was to have someone, aka CJM, who not only goes along but is a true cruising companion, so I thought it might be interesting to look back and take a look at how we got here.

It was a cool October evening....the year was 1950. Alice said to Joe, "It's time." NO, wait a minute, I don't think we need to go that far back. Anyway, my parents loved to fish. They actually went to Minnesota on a fishing trip for their honeymoon. My dad was a St. Louis policeman. Mom said after the war being a cop was not what it used to be so they decided to chuck it all and move to Pontiac just before my third birthday. They built a little "mom & pop" resort in Arkansas called Indian Point Lodge about a half mile past Cactus Ridge Resort. As is still the case, if you want to live here, you need to have a couple of jobs to be able to survive. Dad did several things, he was a fishing guide, he sold TV Guide, paperback books, and encyclopedias and in 1962 they decided to operate the Green Trees Cafe, now Just Jackies, for Clyde Oberlin. Our whole family worked at the cafe. Dad cooked and the rest of us waited on tables, washed dishes, and cleaned up. We did not have a boat of our own so we decided to save all of our tips and buy one. By the end of the first year, we were able to buy a used aluminum boat with an 18 hp Johnson. It wasn't big enough to ski with but Dad made a surfboard, a piece of plywood with a rope attached to the boat, that we all enjoyed. Our first boat.....

In 1964 after 2 years running the restaurant and 10 or so years in the resort business, Dad decided that if he could sell the resort for enough money to get out of Pontiac, he would. George Labuta owned the dock at the time. Dad and Mom and George made a deal for us to buy the dock. We now had LOTS of boats...50 rental boat and 16 motors. These were however rental boats, not for personal use. Included, however, was a 16 feet long aluminum boat with a closed bow and a 30 hp Johnson. The catch was that the old Johnson didn't run very good so a couple years later we traded it for a 65 hp Mercury. Now we had a ski boat. I learned to ski behind it as well as most of the rest of the kids in the area. I had a friend from West Plains named Skip Callahan who also had an aluminum boat with a 40 hp Johnson. Once we pulled 4 skiers up with our boat and then added 2 more to the spread making 6 by handing them off from Skip's boat. One day we were headed to our favorite spot to ski from, Reaper's Island, the little island just east of the state line Marker Bluff. Just outside the marina cove I was driving Skip's boat pulling him on skis and my brother, Dan, was making a big circle around us when he struck a submerged log and flipped our boat. No one was injured other than a few scrapes and bumps and bruises but it spoiled the day and our ski boat was laid up for quite a while. Our second boat.....

Next..........How the 2 Captain's met.

CTM