Fishing Season begins...

Although we still have a healthy number of cruisers passing through we are seeing more and more sport-fishing boats coming in from Florida.  The boats are anything from 40 to 80 feet in length and are typically captained. The crew brings them hereabouts to wait for the owners who fly in for a few days of deep sea fishing.  They want Marlin but usually come back with Mahi Mahi (Dolphin) and snapper.  These are Dolphin.

The crew gave these to the marina dock-hands.  This one is Michael.  Great guy and always happy and friendly with a wicked sense of humour.

  We have been given so much fresh fish we are done with it for a while.  Until they start catching Grouper.  Can't resist Grouper!

The marina skyline is slowly filling with Tuna Towers.  That picture was taken when most of them were out fishing.  I spotted a couple up on top enjoying the view and used my 400mm lens..

Some of the fishermen bring their motoryachts and tow a 30 to 40 foot centre console boat to fish from.  Sometimes they don't tie them well.  This one almost took on water at low tide.

One of our new found friends here volunteered to let me have a new black water gauge shipped to his wife's hotel while she was away on business.  I have tried three different gauge technologies which have failed.  This one, thankfully worked just fine.

I mounted three gauges.  One for the black water and two for battery consumption which I will connect later.  The black water transducer bounces a sound pulse down to the water surface and back to the transducer and measures the time taken.  It then converts it to a voltage that can be fed to a standard gauge. Simple and, finally, effective.

Another common indicator of American sport fish operators is the crap they bring and put on the dock.  The guy behind us with the dolphin shown in the picture above brought multiple Yeti coolers, plugged a freezer in, put his spare props on the dock and generally made himself at home.

Sometimes we get an interesting boat or two passing through.  The following pictures of "Statement" are nothing if not interesting.  Whether you like this kind of statement is up to you.  Yes it's reptile patterned vinyl.  And it's called Statement and the boat brand is Statement.

Only three 300HP engines.  Why "only", you say?  Let's try four 300HP engines, also custom painted like Statement's three.

No, it's not a Photoshop..

They are travelling together of course.

Yesterday was a double celebration.  Not only was it my birthday but it also coincided with the start of my first pension.  A tiny one from Philips in the UK for whom I worked just 8 years before shipping out to Canada.  Every little helps.