Another boat makeover has begun.....


Today, Jack took the kicker (nickname for the stand that holds the 2nd emergency engine) off the hull of the boat. We do not have a 2nd "backup" engine, so that was not an issue. I have no idea what he'll do tomorrow while the boys and I school. Life is fun for us this way. Jack is spontaneous and I am not. However, we have learned the past 15 years to meet somewhere in the middle. So, I may have a lot of news on the makeover progress...... and then maybe I won't.
Our CFOA anglers club is having a ladies and junior's tournament Sept 15th. I'm interested but it's not likely w/o a boat.


The cobia are migrating back through the Atlantic Ocean, heading south to the Keys for the winter. I sure would love to be out there looking for them.


Also, Sept 1st starts the beginning of snook season for Florida. I suppose it is a wonderful month for men who love football and fishing. LOL. Keeping snook is illegal during the summer months. For many fish, summer is a time for spawning and so this makes sense to allow a healthy population of fish. I wish there would be more restrictions like this for some species. Mangrove snapper also have more activity during their spawn and are much easier to catch during the full moon. Unfortunately, it is also the time that so many end up in the fish cooler. And while I'm on the subject, I'd like to see an upper-size limit on the Grandaddy Size Grouper.


Grouper are special in the fact that the 30+lb fish of the group is the only male in the area. He will keep a "herd" of females to himself. When that male is taken by fishermen, that leaves the females without their 'guy'. At that point, the next largest female will spontaneously change into a male and take over the "herd" of females. It's strange, I know. But during that time of change, there will be no little baby groupers, which is bad for the grouper population.

Warsaw grouper in the picture to the right. This is a large teenager - fyi. However, I picked this picture because it is the size of the large ones of other species.

In the meanwhile, since fishing from a boat is out of the question, I have decided to put in a winter garden. At this point, it is half the size I want it. I threw in mostly herbs and then some seeds of brussel sprouts and carrots. Goodness, this picture makes it look so pitiful. I haven't had a chance yet to build up the wooden boxed sides. The black tubing on the edges is my hose with the holes running every foot. The plant on the right is Green Bell Pepper. For another 5 ft to the right, I will have 3 large tomato plants and 3 cherry tomato plants. That should entertain me for a little while.

Last but not least, we saw this exquisitely huge spider in our front yard this morning. We still haven't identified it yet, but we will soon. It is over 2" long.
We had a lot of fun schooling today while we finally got some much needed rain; however, this spider takes the cake of the most interesting part of our day.

Happy Fishing,
Robin


Edited to Add: http://home.att.net/~larvalbugrex/argiope.html
Black & Yellow Argiope, AKA Banana Spider - non-poisonous, most likely a female. They are in the Orb Weaver Spider family.

Family Fish Market - almost open for business

We had 2 offers yesterday for buying our excess fish. I had never thought of selling our excess. Honestly, we're just so thankful that we even have excess some months that we've never considered it. With the boat about to be put under the spray paint gun, we're glad to still have some snapper put back in the freezer for the next month.

Possibly God is letting us know that we'll become better fishermen after the boat is painted and we can make some deals with friends. Wouldn't that be nice?

I think we may be at the point this weekend that we will start disassembling some of the teak wood from the fiberglass. That will all be sanded and coated with protectant by yours truly while Jack works on fiberglass repair and painting.

It will be so worth all this effort once the boat is put back together again.

River Cruising

This is going to be our last ride on the boat until it is done being painted.

Universal Studio's Island of Adventure!!!!

Food Network had the Seafood Challenge cook-off today. It repeats again all week.

If you love to cook seafood, you'll want to look over these recipes. We make cooking an event at our house. Jack and I both get in there and get creative. Our kids are food critics. They love to determine what fish they are eating. They love crabs, clams, calamari and most fish. They weren't too fond of the dryness from Wahoo or the oilyness from the Mackeraels. For me, one of my favorites is Tripletail which made it's debut on the cook-off. I'd have to say the Mahi Mahi is a close 2nd. Then, the Snapper, Blk Sea Bass, Cobia, certain Groupers all fall into a tie for 3rd. Dead last is shark. First, for conservation reasons. Secondly, if a shark is not prepared correctly right from the boat (you don't want to know), it can leave the worst smell & taste in your tastebuds. Below are 2 recipes that I will be recreating from our kitchen (minus the Caviar).

Seafood Challenge cook-off

Pan Roast Louisiana Blackfish with Corn, Crab and Caviar
(by Chef John Besh - Louisiana - took 1st place)

Uncle Bubba's Seafood Pot Pie (by Chef Paula Deen - Georgia)

They were missing the 1 recipe I really wanted with the Red Snapper from N. Carolina. Looked delicious.

Thanks for visiting!

Robin

8/17/09 Indian River Laggoon fishing & picnic

This past Friday, I was tired. Tired from the heat and tired from cutting the grass & breaking ground on a garden Thursday. The furthest thing from my mind was expending energy in another 95+ deg day, fighting big fish on little sleep. So, Jack didn't give me the 6am wake-up call and came home around 8am from work.
W-E-E-K-E-N-D!!! Well, as you can see from the first photo, it was a beautiful day and the water was like glass. I was game for a picnic on the water if I didn't have to work too hard.

Instead of sandwiches, chips & the usual fishing day cooler foods, I packed fruits, hotdogs, chips & salsa. We didn't even take a fish cooler with us, so there was extra room on board. We put in the ramp just 2 miles from our house which saved us 20 min of driving. That is a power station behind my son's head. He is showing off his gator trout & red fish t-shirt.

We headed a couple miles up the river, sight-seeing along the way. We saw numerous manatees, dolphin, jellyfish and even divers searching for clams.

We parked under the Hwy 405 bridge for shade and because we weren't fighting current. Jack tied us to one of the pilings and we let the kids fish with their kiddie poles.

My oldest was first with a fish. A juvenile whiting. I'm a bad mom for not getting the picture. I really don't have a good excuse except that I was "working" for the kids.

A few minutes later, Little Man hooks something nice but it wrapped itself around the piling and we (meaning, I interferred w/ too much pressure) were cut off from the fish with the sharp barnacles on the piling and Mr. Fishy got to see another day. Probably a keeper gator trout (i.e. large spotted trout's nickname).

Bites were slow but Little Man ended up picking up this juvenile spotted trout. The picture above, you can see him reeling it in and then here, he's holding it. All fish were released today.

After this, we stopped to have our picnic lunch in the partial shade. It sure was nice to have the fruit. I don't usually do that. Our pineapple plant had finally riped its fruit and so I had cut it up that morning. It was so sweet!

Also, in our area, the local legend is that bananas are not allowed on boats for the bad luck. Well, we don't believe in all that but still Jack doesn't let me pack it for offshore trips. (hmmmm?) It has been debunked over and over again. Some think the smell may affect the fish. Whatever, I say. It used to also be bad luck to have women on board ships but I don't buy that for a second either.

We moved up the river another couple bridges north and found this old railroad track bridge. It was loaded with Jack Crevelle which were attacking the glass minnows. Poor things were running to our boat for cover at one point. Unfortunately, none of us got any bites even with all that visual.

As you can see, the wind is picking up a little bit and putting ripples in the water.

As we left that bridge, Jack took a picture of me sitting on the pulpit. Oh, it was so fun to ride up there. I could see all the needlefish darting out of our way.

We had a pair of manatees cross our path right before this picture.

A couple quick miles back to the ramp and we were home. As you can see, it was shallow water (1.6 ft) as we approached the ramp. Jack had to raise up the engine a little to glide on in.

We were home by 2:30pm and in the pool by 3:30. Sometimes I think that we've got live too good. We certainly do make a point to have quality family time and enjoy our lives. We love each other and have found the best family hobby in fishing/boating.

Soon, the boat will be disassembled and painting pictures will begin to appear on the blog. We're still gathering all our materials at this point and watching to see what Hurricane Dean is doing.

Enjoy!

Robin

r.a.dKIDS testing day!

Here is the first video with both boys. Big guy gets to do his kneeing into the mat and then smiles for the camera. Cute ham! Little man then is up and he does some low-back-hammer's to the mat. It's hard to get clarity but you get the idea of what they're doing.



Here is a slightly more close-up version. First little man is blocking hits, then taking a kick on the red mat, then I turn just in time to see big brother hitting Bob with high-hammer fists.



This one is 2 min, but it shows you the overall view of the room & various moves they learned over the course of 3 days. It would be hard for me to describe which 2 are my boys so I won't even try. They are in there.

Here the entire class is posing with Bob. Big guy is on the far left and Little man is right behind Bob's head (blonde).

update on Malachi 3:

Jack came in the door this morning saying a friend at work is giving him a paint sprayer - brand-new, in the box, never used. He's had it for years and didn't see the point of keeping around something he wasn't using. Another friend is loaning Jack a big air compressor. A man at the local marina showed us how to put our boat on blocks for when we get her ready for painting. Things are coming together at a very rapid pace. I'm so excited.

On a separate note, Jack was given 2 free tickets to Universal Studios to celebrate his company's major anniversary. Well, the secretary had 2 extra tickets that somebody else wasn't able to use and gave those to us as well - so we're doing Universal Studios for free in a couple weeks. Another blessing!

God has been so good to us.
Robin

Malachi 3 - God loves boats too!
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

And so Jack and I test the Lord in this and are teaching our boys this lesson...... Not always is it so tangibly visible in material things but this week it was. Sunday night, after we got back from church, our neighbor came over with a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes and unworn sneakers for the boys. Wonderful blessing.

That night, Jack went in to work and he still had the boat show on the brain. He was mentioning to the parts guy that he decided to paint our boat in the relatively near future. The man says, "This is your lucky day." No... there is no luck about it. It was divine appointment set up by the LORD Almighty. He poured out a $900 blessing's worth of aviation paint, accelerators & something else (I don't know my paints, except I heard something about 3-step linear poly???urythane??). The parts guy ordered all the wrong paint for a jet and was told to dispose of it, which would have cost him money since paint falls under toxic wastes. He just gave it to us. Amazing. It is a nice clean white.
So, Jack tells me that the boat may be down for a while. He's going to work on all the fiberglass cracks and my job (like I need another job) will be to work on restoring the teak wood on the doors & little pieces. It is more labor intensive than costly. Our friend is loaning us the hoist for the boat engine. That will have to be taken off relatively soon in the entire process.

I hope this project isn't near as frustrating as the work we did on the fuel tank; but somehow, I think I shouldn't get my hopes up. Jack's goal is to have this finished up by the time the winter fishing gets cranking up. Don't worry, I'll still have fishy blogs as Jack fishes with other guys.
Happy Fishing,
Robin

Psalm 23:1 "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."

Central Florida's Hot Summer Boat Show 2007 in Orlando

Prov 7: 19-21 "For the husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey; He hath taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed. With much fair speech she cause him to yield...." (It is so hard not to fall in love with every boat there. The prices were certainly a reality check.)

Big man picked out a cruiser for his favorite ride.
Little man went for the ski boat in lime green.
The world's smallest kitchen. Actually, it isn't small considering it is in a cruiser boat.
This is the one that almost came home with us. 2008 Proline 23ft CC. Honda 4-stroke engine. Sweet! Proverb 4: 25 "Let thy eyes look right on, and let thy eyelids look straight before thee."

Psalm 121: 6 "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." It was 108 deg when we got in the car and 102 deg after we were driving along the Beach line.

We did have a delicious lunch at Bahama Breeze on International Drive. It was my first time and whoa, was that shrimp linguini delicious! Capt Jack had Jerk Shrimp appetizer (for the meal) that had salsa that was addictive!! I'm not sure who's meal was better.

I tried to catch a picture of the big jumbo jet that crossed our path as we were driving to Orlando. Instead of having the setting on "picture", it was on "movie", so it didn't turn out right.

After dinner, the boys and I went out for an evening swim in the pool. The water was like a hot sauna. What a perfect way to end the evening. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE living in Florida?

Happy Fishing!

Robin

PS: The seas were beautiful the past 2 days. I'm almost regretful that we didn't fish.

8/3/07 Fishing Report & 8/11/07 Boat show

I didn't have a lot of time to report this week that Jack, Bill and John had gone fishing on Friday. The short story was that they had trouble finding snapper. Lots of sharks were caught & released. They did find some nice black sea bass and triggers. They kept only 3 bsb and 1 large trigger. They went out to 140 ft to start and worked their way back in to port. No rain that day. The heat, as many of you know, was unbearable. We cleaned the fish on Saturday and had fried fish. Yummy.

This weekend, instead of fishing, we're heading to Orlando for the Central Florida boat show , being held at the Convention Center. No, we're not selling or trading in our boat, but we do want to step on the other boats and check prices for a new trailer.

More than 300 boats representing over 50 manufacturers will be on the show floor, ready to be boarded for a closer look, including: Fishing boats, family boats, cruisers, wakeboard boats, sailboats, sportboats and yachts Runabouts, pontoons and deck boats Marine electronics, motors and accessories Personal watercraft and canoes.

The 18th Annual Hot Summer Boat Show has a reputation as being a fun family show. Each year our incredible Kids Zone becomes more elaborate and creative, making the show a great enticement for fun family entertainment, all included in the price of admission

Last night, the shuttle took off and we were preparing for our Team Kids Revival, so we were at church. Many of our early showers also ran out of the church to catch a glimpse of this spectaculuar sight. Captain Jack set his alarm clock and watched it from the driveway and then went back to sleep. It is never something I want to get bored of seeing.

Behind the car, you can barely see a Fire Station. On the roof were 3 firemen. I wish I had had the zoom ability to capture that.

Have a wonderful family weekend,

Robin

PS: I'll have boat show pictures for you next weekend. I'll be sitting on my yacht, of course. ha ha.

Miscellaneous pictures from the week.....


These are from 7/29's fishing trip. While poor Jack had to replace the fuel filter, the kids and I walked the dock and came across this young sea turtle taking a nap. I woke him up to feed him some squid (not w/a hook attached).

Here is Jack in the full Florida heat working on the fuel filter. We were back underway by 10am.

This is the ride back home after some unintentional shark fishing. My eldest is getting a lesson in using & reading the instruments, including the GPS. I think we cruised back in to port approx 31-34 mph.


If you think car miledge stinks, you should try getting 2-4 mpg in a boat. Because of the resistance water gives, boats get NOTHING close to what a car gets on the road.




Somebody turned 11 this week!! I can't believe it. Little brother took the picture.

Celebrate life. Rejoice in all things. God has been good to us.

Robin
PS: Updated on Ashley's World Record. I believe it is a done deal; however, the pictures finally came back and I'm sorry to post how disappointed I am in my "hero". I guess it is another reminder for what a world we live in. If you let a young lady hang out with a bunch of men, all night long, boozing it up while billfish fishing, I suppose you get some very unlady-like behavior. That's all I'm going to say about it.