5:45pm and we Finally decided to head to the hill from 14 miles out. Get the boat up on plane, get the radio cranking, and about 2 miles in an alarm sounds. I shut it down........Crank back up and get on plane and alarm starts again. Quick google on my phone says temp or oil supply. I check the oil reservoir....empty. I check the reserve on the motor. At the lowest line. Darn I just put a gallon in before this 2 day trip. No extra oil on the boat. Time to call SeaTow on the VHF. They answer right away and say they will go buy some oil and bring it to me. Sunday evening on the water can be lonely. 6:15...2 boats in sight, one to the East and one to the West. Now only one boat to the East. 6:45...Now he’s leaving and its just us bobbing in the lonely ocean with no other boats in sight. I keep looking East waiting to catch a glimpse of a yellow boat coming our way. My eyes played tricks on me twice thinking I saw a boat, but it must have been a wave top. Now our 2ft seas have increased to 3. 7:20....i think I see someone....but are they coming our way. Why yes its Seatow to the rescue. Suddenly my frown turns into a smile that won’t go away. He sells us a gallon of oil and we are on our way. What a fun ride in knowing we have a buddy boat watching us just in case.
8:15....We hit the canal and turn the corner and there is Mr Green Jeans sitting in his 30 ft center console. “Ya’ll catch any fish?” No we’re out here snow skiing. This is the dude that wrote me a $300 ticket for having 2 triggerfish per person when the limit had been changed to one earlier in the year. However they never updated the QuickChart. Anyways thats another story.
The Big Jerk, as I’ll call him, has a buddy in training and he sends him onto my boat like a Black Lab in a wood duck hole, to check out the fish. I tell him where they are located and he’s quickly up to his shoulders in ice and slime trying to find a violation. But low and behold we are legal....fish wise. He checks our licenses and I forgot to get the free reef permit on my daughters license. He says he will cut me a break and just write up a warning.
8:45....we have the boat loaded up ready to go back to Presnells then drive 2 hours home. Get to Presnells and look in the boat. Uh Oh. You see my wife bought me 2 matching bean bags for the boat, and gave them to me Sunday morning, but there was only 1 in there now.
This was them in the new chairs waiting on SeaTow. I was full of nervous energy so I was eating all the snacks.
9:20.....She jumped in her car and back tracked all the way to the Mexico Beach canal, but someone had already snagged it off the side of the road.
In the meantime, my daughter goes to shower before our ride home and drops her iphone and shatters the face.
10:30 my wife shows back up from her wasted trip to the canal and we get packed up.
1:15am and we pull into the driveway with a filthy boat, and a fish box full of fish. That will have to wait til Monday morning. I get our bags unloaded from the truck and my head finally hits the pillow at 1:45am.
The End
