Day 93: Thursday, December 6, 2012
Port to Port: Bill and Kate’s Marina and Spa to Three Rooker Bar
Underway: 7:10 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 23.7 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: First time fishing and I actually caught something too; First time shelling – Cindy collected a bucketful.
Mile to Mile: Well, the visit with Bill and Kate ended the way it started – with hugs and extreme generosity. We got to say goodbye to Kate before she left for work. Bill has fished a lot on the Gulf so I wanted a few pointers. In addition to some valuable fishing instruction, we ended motoring away with a fishing pole, a reel, several fishing lures and an amazing number of great memories. We will definitely cross paths again one way or another. Thanks for everything Bill and Kate. We’ll remember our visit forever.
Today is a welcome short day. After getting through the channel and turning south to Tarpon Springs we had a choice to make – should we fish or should we sail? There are still a few crab pots to avoid so we can’t make it too complicated just in case we need to take evasive action. So we decided to fish. Well, I cast out the simple rig that Bill had set me up with at 6:30 am this morning and expected a long boring morning. Within 10 minutes I had my first hit – a nice 15” mackerel that surprised me and immediately fell off as I tried to bring it into the boat. Wow. That was fun. Let’s try again. I’m hungry. Five minutes later I landed my first fish of the trip – a nice 14” mackerel. Five minutes later I caught another 16” – this is ridiculously fun. We have enough for dinner now. We won’t starve. I texted Bill – he was proud. After resting for a little while, I decided to try for one more and after a whole 15 minutes, I caught the biggest one of the morning and decided to throw it back. I’m tired, I need to rest now.
After a fun and quick trip we were soon anchored 300 feet off a beautiful white sand beach at Three Rooker Bar. We enjoyed a long walk along the Gulf side of the island picking up a bucket of beautiful shells and soaking up the sunshine. We returned to Aurora with our treasures and had an amazing lunch of fresh caught, blackened mackerel, boiled red potatoes, island salads and champagne. Life is tough on the Great Loop.