DA PLANE....DA PLANE!!!!!

We took Sunday (March 13th) off.  The kids played on the beach, rented a golf cart, and did some shopping for their kiddos.  We had to say "goodbye" to Matt and Jabet early on Monday morning and Caldwell and Kate and Megan and Patrick on Tuesday :(.  The Wades hopped back over on the conventional puddle jumper but the Morgans and Werners took the seaplane back on Tuesday.   We caught this photo of their seaplane aka "Da Plane"  arriving for their pick up just after sunrise.....

We now had seventeen days to kill before our next group arrived.  What to do...what to do....  HOW ABOUT WE GO FISHING!!!! Stay tuned for that report :). 

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

BEST....DAY....EVER!!!!!!

O.K....so it was now Day 4 of Adult Spring Break and time to go fishin' again :).  And what a day it was!!!!!   Four Wahoo, one Mahi, and a 300 pound BIG BLUE MARLIN!!!!  All of the boys got in on the action catching the Blue!  

First Patrick.....

Then Matt....

Then Caldwell....

Here he is....

Forty three minutes later it was a clean "catch and release!"

We finished up the day with 4 nice Wahoo and Jabet had a nice Mahi....

BEST....DAY....EVER!!!!!!

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

ADULT SPRING BREAK DAY 2 & 3 (March 10 & 11)

After the "First Night In Town Syndrome" the kids were happy to spend Day 2 of their spring break vegging on the beach while CTM and I continued to address our battery issue.  Addressing the battery issue involved a few phone calls to the manufacturer in the US and a phone call to Smalley.  We needed to get the charger from New Jersey to Smalley in Miami.  Smalley said he would then fly it over the following Wednesday, March 16th.  Since we would be fishing and that would keep the batteries charged all we needed to do was to get the battery charged so we could use the toilet, lights, and start the engine....very important when living on a boat and planning to go fishing :).  We spent the day with a portable charger on the battery.  By late afternoon we were good to go...batteries charged and charger on it's way to Miami!!!  

CTM told the troops to be here bright and early on Day 3 so we could head out early.  We caught one Mr. Barry Cuda, one Wahoo, and had a Blue Marlin hooked up for about 30 minutes!  Yes....a BIG ELUSIVE BLUE!!!!  After 30 minutes he spit the hook and swam away...ALAS!!!  :(

Catch of the day....

We took some of the Wahoo up to Bimini Big Game's restaurant and they whipped up some fresh Wahoo salad for an appetizer......YUMMO!!

Obviously it was DELISH!!!

Catch you on the flip flop.....

CJM

RUM, SMALLEY, AND CHICAGO HOPE :).

Well, I certainly had to drink a LOT of rum while waiting on Smalley to show up with the new battery charger but yesterday HE FINALLY DID....eight days after he said he would....just sayin'!!!!!!!!

We had decided to take the day off of fishing so CTM got up bright and early and headed to the basement to work on installing the new battery charger.  About 30 minutes into the project I heard him yell for me.    I was relaxing and checking Facebook and really didn't want to be bothered.  With that "what do you want now" look on my face I peeked into the basement and all I could see was blood gushing EVERYWHERE and there didn't appear to be any stopping it :(  I yelled for Cisco, the Dockmaster, for help.  He loaded us up in a golf cart and away we went to the ER!!!!   I think Cisco wanted to be a race car driver when he grew up as I had no idea a golf cart could go that fast. Here we are on our ambulance ride...just like in Chicago Hope :). 

Naturally, today being Good Friday the clinic was closed but thankfully Nurse Diana was "on call" so we waited patiently on her....

Nurse Diana finally showed up, stitched up CTM (without lidocaine I might mention) and announced that they only take CASH!  What Obamacare wasn't going to pay??????  Figuring that would be the case I had thankfully grabbed a wad of cash on the way off of the boat.  Since we had screwed up her day off I asked her if a gratuity was appropriate and she was happy to take it.  I am pretty sure this is the only time we have tipped a medical professional.   Oh, and I did ask her if I could take pics of her stitching CTM up and she politely said "no." I guess I should have waved that gratuity under her nose sooner :).  Here is the finished product....

We are going fishing tomorrow so we'll see how that works.  I don't like to reel in fish and CTM can't reel them in so it could be an interesting day.....  

I know this is a little out of sequence as I still haven't posted about Adult Spring Break but that's up next so stay tuned!  

Catch you on the flip flop....

CJM

ADULT SPRING BREAK :)

CTM and I arrived in Bimini at 9:30 a.m. onMarch 9th.  We headed to the boat and ALAS....the battery was dead so none of our lights worked nor our head.  Now, I could do without lights kinda sorta but the head is a MUST when in Bimini :). CTM got busy diagnosing the problem.  He found that our battery charger was on the fritz.  After tearing it apart he discovered there was simply a blown fuse.  Well, that would have been simple except we did not have the exact fuse on board that the charger needed.  The rep at the manufacturer assured us that the one we had would work, however.  So....CTM got busy replacing the fuse.  Fingers crossed I flipped the switch and ALAS...IT BLEW AGAIN!!!!!  CTM was convinced that if we could find the correct fuse that might solve the problem.  Well, we thought finding that specific fuse on this island would be a daunting task.   EUREKA!!!!! We found the fuse at Elinor's Bimini General Store.  Honestly, she have saved our bacon more than once.  Convinced that this would solve the problem we practically ran back to the boat anxious to put in the "correct" fuse to correct the problem.   Fingers crossed I flipped the switch and ALAS...IT BLEW AGAIN!!!!!!  Well, to make a long story short CTM and I spent the rest of the day talking to the manufacturer in New Jersey and trying to figure out how to get a new battery charger from New Jersey to Bimini as fast as possible.  When asking around for the best way to get it here everyone said, "Just call Smalley.  He will bring it."  We made arrangements to have the part shipped overnight to Smalley (it was shipped ground) so he could fly it over on Wednesday, March 16th (it is Saturday, March 19th and we are still waiting on Smalley :( ) Smalley says he is coming today so we have decided to stay in from fishing to await his arrival.  And....by the way, once we started fishing the engines have kept the batteries charged so another good reason to go fishing!!

Here is my plan for the day......if Smalley doesn't show up I am going to start drinking rum :). If Smalley does show up I am going to start drinking rum :).   Since I have no desire to rule the world and since "Rum Is The Reason Pirates Never Ruled The World" I am good to go!!!!

Honestly, my main goal today is to just stay awake until 7:00 as our favorite singer, Stevie S, is playing at the Bimini Big Game Club tonight :).  

Back to the title of this post.....  Katt, who would be the kid's landlord and who I had been communicating with on their rental and pending arrival and referring to them as our "kids", sent me an e-mail during the day while we were working on the battery issue and waiting on the kids.  She wanted to know if we would be here while our "kids" were here since she just realized it was Spring Break in the U.S. and they don't typically rent to Spring Breakers :).   I assured our that the youngest of our "kids" was 34 but since they would be spending the week away from their own "kids" I couldn't guarantee they wouldn't act like Spring Breakers!!!!  She got a kick out of that and said she would be sure they didn't embarrass us :).   Katt picked up the kids at the ferry dock and delivered them to the cottage right around sunset.  LET ADULT SPRING BREAK BEGIN!!!!!

Catch you on the flip flop.....

CJM

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS :).

Some of my favorite sign observations in Bimini :)

Catch you on the flip flip....

CJM

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS (PART 2)

And a few more of my favs :)