Shake down cruise and fishing trip

The second fishing trip was not quite as good as the first; however, we did not get skunked!

As you may see, with a magnifying glass, the catch was as long as the bait.  Our mate for the day, and my buddy, Bob Pino said "snagging counts!"

Spring is here

Spring has arrived so Lea and I are almost ready to try another attempt at going for a boat ride.

Lea has been sick for more than a week and I am suffering from broken ribs and beat up side.  It seems Lea's and my excursion to Branson, Missouri was hard on us both.  I broke my ribs doing the dead man's waltz in the bath tub while Lea chose another torment in the form of a bronchial infection for herself.

With my auction coming up next weekend Lea and I haven't done much to ready ourselves for the cruise.

Tony took the Gliding Gander out of the water again to complete some work on the scuppers.  Scott Hyland is returning this week to do some final adjusting to several of the new systems we installed on the Gliding Gander.  Long Cove marina will be doing some final projects and then we hope the boat will be ready to leave around the end of May.

Do to the June arrival of the hurricane season in the Atlantic, we are now planning to turn north toward New York City, then the Hudson River, then the Great Lakes and on down the Illinois River from Chicago to the Mississippi River.  We cannot get to the Gulf before the hurricane season is over in November.  We then plan to enter the antique and classic boat show in Key Largo on December 3, 4, and 5th.  From there we hope to proceed to the Bahamas and then into the Caribbean for the winter.

Last weekend was the opening of the Spring Rock fishing season in the Chesapeake.  Jesse and I took some of our buddies and gave it a try.

Evan caught the first fish of the season at 34" with first mate Eric Liebig to his right.

 

Thomas brought in the second fish at 42".

Dan caught the third at 32" with Jesse looking on.

Bob Pino, fishing consultant and general good guy who worked very hard all day long trying to get a fish on.

If you follow the orange line you may see the orange planer board 100' out toward the Bay Bridge.

Tony Van de Wal passed us while fishing on his boat.  You can now appreciate how rough the water was.  With average seas at 3'-6" to 5"-6" and occasional waves to almost eight feet made for a very difficult day.  Notice the entire cockpit of Tony's boat was below the wave tops.  If you click and enlarge this picture you may see the tops of Tony's fishing rods on the stern of the boat.