How to twist my arm...

Step 1) Call me when I'm neck deep in snow and my back is breaking from shoveling, and tell me that its nice and warm and sunny where you are...

Step 2) Tell me you have a huge problem...

Step 3) The problem involves getting your super fancy 52-foot sportsfishing boat the 650 miles from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Miama, Florida just as fast as you can get it there - and then take another boat 200 more miles on to Key West and then a few days later, bring them both back again!

Step 4) Tell me you need someone to basically navigate using a state of the art moving map GPS system, stow gear, tie lines, check life jackets, put stuff in the microwave now and then, and set up some 300+ sailfishing rigs...

Step 5) Tell me you won't pay anything but airfare both ways, but I get room and "board" on-board a boat that makes my house look like a mongolian yurt...

----------------------A friend of my Dad's best fishing buddy has a boat that the owner uses for billfishing (marlin, sailfish, swordfish) tournaments and unexpectantly lost the services of his deckhand and a whole bunch of phone calls later...

...I found myself hurrying to the airport my aching back "sort of" forgotten - I had a boat to catch. In my rush, I forgot to bring a whole bunch of stuff including my camera - but my cellphone camera worked pretty good, except in the dark.


It was dark when I got there and it was quite dark when we left the dock not long afterwards.


Not that I cared since I was tending things below decks - I wish my house was as nice!


I only got to look at this bed, I slept on the convertible sofa in the "living room".

A very long night and half a day later, I helped navigate the boat through the inlet into Pompano Beach, Florida where I was kicked off the "tournament" boat and onto another boat to wash it down, stow in food, and prepare it for a trip to the Bahamas. This boat was the owner's "little boat" (it was "only" 47 feet long), and no, I wasn't invited to go on that ride - the boat owner and the boat captain were going there after the billfishing tournament was over.

The Pompano Beach, Florida Billfishing tournament lasted 4 days, of which I saw absolutely nothing except the boat I helped bring down from Myrtle Beach come back into the dock last day (February 21, 2010).


While the tournament got organized to start, and after getting the second boat set for a relatively short 90-mile voyage to Freeport, Bahamas, I went with the Owner's son in his boat down toward Key West, Florida. The son wanted to scout out the annual World Sailfish Championship "grounds" (waters?) being held on April 13-17, 2010. Last year, there were $1,013,000 in prizes.


I got to go ashore and sit on the beach for a few days while the son drove the boat all over the deep blue sea. I enjoyed the quiet, the warmth, and the fact that the ground wasn't heaving underfoot at all hours of the day.

...but then... I got a hankering to go fishing... so I caught up with another friend of my dad's, Captain Jeff of the Tarpon Time.


It's really uncanny how Captain Jeff manages to "park" the boat over the fish. I had a fish on within 3 seconds of putting the bait into the water. I think we caught about 50 fish this day (we released all but 4 of them) including Cerro Mackerel, Yellowtails (Jacks), Mangrove and Orange Snapper, a 'Cuda, Amberjack, and black, red and nassau Groupers. The largest one I caught, a red Grouper is pictured - I think it was about half mouth!


I kept only what I was going to eat. Ah, fresh fish, there isn't anything like it. If you think you don't like fish, you have never had it fresh enough - as in caught an hour ago!

The boat that won the Pompano Beach tournament, the Owl's Nest, got a check for $122,625.00! The boat I helped bring to the tournament won enough to pay it's (and my) way even though it got about one (1!) mile to the gallon of diesel fuel.

I'm so far behind with things - I might never catch up - and its snowing here once more with another foot snow forecast tonight and into tomorrow.

Why did I come back?

:)