BOATING ALONE

Captain Skip Bradeen is a local charter boat captain that has a radio show on twice a day here in Islamorada. His show is often broadcast from his boat while fishing. He gives us updates on weather and fishing. When Jimmy Johnson, the famous football coach is here fishing, he fishes by himself.  Captain Skip often comments about Jimmy fishing alone and wishing he would take someone with him or at least wear his life jacket.

I've never thought a lot about that until this trip. FF III and I had not been out since September. How is that even possible? After arriving this time (see previous post) I cleaned her up really good. I got the tackle squared away and fired up the engines to make sure she was ready to go. Now what? CJM was not here yet and it looked like there was one calm day in the next several. I had to prove to myself that I could do it. Just disconnecting all the lines and the power cord and getting her ready to go is quite an ordeal. Not to mention backing it into the slip and catching all the lines and getting her tied back up without banging into something. So, what the heck I decided to go for it. I decided to leave really early while it was still very calm.

The departure went without a hitch. I was soon running out into the blue water. Now for the first big test, setting the fishing tackle up. No big deal, just put her in autopilot going very slow and go down below and put the lines out :-) That's when it dawned on me....if I stumble going down the steps or if I slip when I'm leaning over to put out the lines on the riggers....it's over :-( Sailboaters that sail single handed use safety tethers to attach themselves to the boat anytime they move around. That is why sailboats have those cables that run pretty much around the perimeter of the boat, an easy place to attach your tether anytime you need to. Guess what, fishing boats don't have those. That's when I decided to get out a life jacket. I did not want to wear the old May West type around in case anybody saw me so I dug around in my ditch bag and found a wearable inflatable lifejacket.

Things were going very smooth and then I found a weed line, Oh boy:-)

I fished up one side and down the other side of this weed line and there were no fish :-( Only fish I did see was a huge shark. He was cruising the weed line probably eating the fish that I was hoping to catch. He was at least running them off. That's when I had the next revelation.... If I fall overboard and my trusty lifejacket inflates, I'm going to be bobbing around this weed line waiting for somebody to pick me up or for this shark to eat me. The fish weren't biting so I decided to reel up and head in. Not saying I won't do it again if the opportunity arises. I may have to rethink that tether idea though :-)

These pictures are for Karen Eubank. This is the life jacket you can wear if you ever become brave enough to climb on FF III. Not too obtrusive but will do the job. I have a spare cartridge so you can fall overboard a couple times :)

CTM