Memorial Day Fishing Trip

Memorial Day 2008

I had assembled a crew of 4 for this trip to go 20 to 40 miles off-shore looking for some Sea Bass. I figured that would be a better choice than dealing with hundreds of yahoo’s scrambling to get their boats and jet ski’s in the water on a Holiday. Way too many first time boaters and people that only seem to launch on Holiday weekends. My plan was to stay away from the crowds. It worked; I don’t think I saw 30 boats all day.

Any way, the day before, my main fishing buddy called to back out of the trip. He gave some lame excuse but the result was one less on the boat. No problem, the other 3 were still in. So I thought! The next morning, about an hour before we were to depart, one of my other crew members called to cancel. He had a better excuse than the first, as this guy had a recent operation on his shoulder and was in way too much pain to be bouncing around on the boat. So then there we’re 3.

The plan was set and the shortened crew was assembled. We launched after a quick stop at the liquid gold station (gas).

Now everyone that knows me, knows what a huge supporter I am of the weather forecasting profession. :-) I call them Weather Guessers. I won’t get into it but I will point out that the forecast was for a SE wind between 10 and 15kts and 2 to 3 ft seas with a 12 second interval. This forecast was supposed to hold until around 4pm in the afternoon when the winds and seas were to pick up dramatically. I planned to be in long before that was to happen. Not!

We made our way out in a solid 3 foot chop, nothing the new hull can't handle. By the time we were 20 miles off shore, the winds were blowing closer to 20kts and the seas were 3 to 4 ft and sloppy. After wasting time looking for a couple wrecks that I thought I had good numbers for, we ended up moving in to one I knew was good. We drifted over it a number of times picking up small Sea Bass and wondering how much higher the wind and seas were going to get. With nothing but short fish to show for our trip so far - we moved.

That turned out to be the right choice. We started working a reef closer in and the fishing was much better. Still a lot of short Sea Bass but we did manage to put a few keepers in the box. The calamity of the day occurred when Dave (Mr. White Boots) dropped the hatch to my fish box on his foot. While Kerry and I were laughing and Mr. White Boots was cussing his bone headed move, he opened the lid to the fish hold just in time for me to step forward and then down into a pile of ice! This, of course, caused another outburst of laughter and for about 30 seconds took Mr. White Boots mind off his hurt foot.

That pretty much was it. We headed in, loaded the boat and carried her on to the house. After cleaning up the boat and our measly catch, we enjoyed adult beverages with our wives and my other neighbor well into the evening while Dave’s wife provided us all with some much needed dinner. Another Memorial Day in the books. Now it’s time for the boats initial service.

So, initial service; When you buy a new boat, unlike a car, you have to put it through a break-in period. Usually the first 10 hours of operation, never running more than 5 minutes at any one speed. After that, you can run the engine however you like. Somewhere between 20 and 40 hours, you need to bring it in for an initial service. The dealer changes all the fluids along with the fuel and oil filters, checks to make sure everything is operating properly and repairs any flaws that the new boat owner might have found.

So why am I boring you with this detail you ask? Because I have just hit the 30 hour mark on my new boats engine. This means I have to take it in for service. I cringe because taking a boat in for service is nothing like taking a car in. You take your car or truck in and you will likely see it by the end of the day - next day at the latest. When you take a boat in for service, you might not see it for a week. Maybe even two! I’m thinking I’ll be landlocked for about a week. I bought my boat from a very good dealership so I’m pretty sure they’ll get me in and out as quickly as they can. Only problem is, they are two and a half hours away and I don’t like being without a boat!

Wish me luck!