Technical DifficultiesSaturday 4/26/08

My friends with boats told me it would be like this for the first few trips but I guess I just did not believe them. Now I see they were correct, and I have to admit it’s a little frustrating.

Sorry there will not be any fishing pictures or any pictures for that matter, as my outing was once again cut short.

Here’s what happened:

I woke up early again, eager to fish, more confident than the last (Even though the seas would be rough) time and filled with anticipation. I was out of the house by 4:15 AM, I stopped to pick up some ice, the bait, and a little something to eat and, and I was at Matheson Hammock Marina before they opened the gates at 5:45 AM.

It was blowing pretty hard, I knew it would be rough out there, but I have gained a lot of confidence in my little boat because it handles the rough water so well. I felt no apprehension other than that I was alone, and fishing or boating alone is never really a good idea, more so when seas are rough. Still I was committed to making the trip and I would be a little extra careful because I was alone.

I put the boat in the water, parked the car and trailer, and was off again before sunrise. I recently invested in the Garmin G2 Vision card, an accessory for my chart plotter that allows for more safety when navigating because it plots the safest possible course for you automatically. I selected a heading to Marker 21 with plans to catch my live bait there.

It was slow going with the bait fish; it took me around 40 minutes just to catch a little over a dozen. Mostly pilchards, but I got lucky and pulled out 2 pinfish and a little jack. I picked up anchor headed for bug light where I thought the chances of catching bait would be better, but there must have been 30 or more boats around the light so I said screw it and kept going. My plans were to do some jigging anyway, and livies were a bonus, so what I had would do since I was not planning on being out all day anyway.

I was running south for a wreck that my friend mike gave called the Blue Fish, it’s in around 100 feet of water and I thought it would be a good place to start. The Sea’s were rough, mostly 4’s and 5’s, with the occasional 6’s mixed in. Half way to the wreck I noticed my chart plotter was giving me a warning, it said “Sounder lost.” I slowed down to idle, and pressed OK. No big deal I thought probably just a glitch because of the high seas, and the bouncing. I tried everything I could to get it back up and running, I turned it off and on again twice, I disconnected and reconnected the wires, I even took off the front panel to get a look inside the center console to see if I could figure it out and nothing worked.

I knew that without an accurate reading of the bottom I would be fishing blind, and that was a good recipe for coming home empty handed. I did not give up though; I headed for Bluefish anyway hoping to get lucky. I tried fishing the general vicinity for about and hour, there were other boats in the area, some flying Kites, other trolling and others doing what I wanted to do drift fish. I didn’t see anyone catching any fish so I did not feel so bad. I thought about heading for the next spot but then I thought better of it and headed home.

So for those of you keeping score, still no major fishing to speak of on my boat. I hope to get the kinks ironed out soon and I can have a nice story and some good pictures to show you.

Till then…

Family Outing

Sunday 4/20/08

Nothing for you fishing fans here this week, I did have plans to fish with my friend Hector and Mundi on Friday, but the wind just would not stop blowing. Saturday was a little better, but I had a previous commitment and was not able to make it.

I got a text message from Hector Saturday night, Sea’s are glass on Sunday, let’s get out there, your cousin Freddy is in. I had already promised the kids a day at the sand bar with their cousins on Sunday though so I had to say no to the fishing. OH well, we’ll try again next week.

Sunday morning we woke up with the sand bar in mind, my cousin JC (Actually married to my first cousin) and his family were supposed to be coming along but there was a glitch that could be keeping them at home. His mother in law (my Tia Any) was there and she is neither a fan of boats, nor of the ocean. But with a little prodding, some guilt from her grand kids, and the prospect of her ruining their day on the water, and she came around.

We were headed for Matheson Hammock, but JC called (Aquiles) one of my best friends and a long time friend of the family, and now he was in as well. The thing is Aquiles has his boat in dry storage at the 79th street Marina, so for us all to go together we’d have to drive to 79th street. No big deal, so we drive a little further and we all go out together. I called my brother who was coming as well and told him where to meet us.

When we got to the Marina and I backed the boat down the ramp. I jumped on to fire up the engine and OH OH! Dead battery. Ouch! I forgot to charge the battery, and worse I did not fire up the engine before leaving the house. No biggie, I never panic, there is almost always a solution if you are just patient and take your time. “Hey buddy any chance you have jumper cables in there?” The first guy I asked and he had them, great Omen. So JC backed his boat up we hooked up the cables and the engine fired right up. Problem solved, it won’t happen to me again though, I will definitely check the battery before leaving home from now on.

So we were off, we headed for Haulover beach; it turns out there is a nice big sand bar just South and West of Government cut, there were lots of boats anchored up there, but not so overcrowded that it was uncomfortable or anything. JC and I arrived first, as Aquiles was running a little behind; we picked a spot and anchored, and soon the kids were in the water. I turned the engine off a little hesitantly, but the batteries had charged up just fine and the problem was solved.

After a while of shifting back and fourth with the wind and the tide we decided to tie the boats together so we could go from boat to boat and the girls could talk. Aquiles pulled in some 30 minutes later, and look who were with him, Jorge his business partner and his wife. Aquiles and Jorge brought the boat right in next to us on the other side of JC’s boat, tied up, and they were soon in the water.

I am new to this sand bar thing and I saw something that made me laugh at first, but then I thought damn this is brilliant. It was just another example of creativity, entrepreneurship, and the American way. On the water floating amongst all those other craft was a floating roach coach. Just like those food service trucks that visit construction sites on a daily basis, but this one floats. Not only that, they have a kid riding around in a zodiac with a small gas engine that makes deliveries for those who don’t want to walk to the little barge. Anyway, we (Aquiles, Jorge, my brother, and I) walked over to the barge where Aquiles who arrived hungry but swore that these burgers are fantastic ordered up some food. I had a late breakfast and wasn’t hungry, I did not bring any cash with me because I knew I wasn’t going to get anything, but my daughter showed up asking for Ice Cream. I told her she could not have any, but Jorge over heard and kindly asked if he could buy her the Ice Cream. At first I said no but Jorge kindly insisted, so I let him buy her the ice cream.

Anyway, it was a great day on the water; we were there some 3 to 4 hours I’d say. The kids played in the water, and the men also got a little ocean time, but the girls all said the water was still too cold. We headed back uneventfully around 3:30 PM and back home to rest up for Monday.

Here are some pictures…

That's my Brother (Fiti), can't get away from work and the Cell Phone

My Boat, my lovely wife (Tania), and my brother still on the phone

JC's boat, My Tia (Any) waving

My Son (Albert) off JC's boat CANNONBALL!


My daughter (Alexa) My brother stuffing his face with Doritos, and my wife.

My cousins (JC) Relax Bro Hang Loose

That's me (Pardito)

Alexa

My Brother Chillin in the water

That's my daughter (Angelina), cute and she knows it. Now I know what your thinking, "what beautiful hair." Yeah right try runnig a brush through it.

My son... WHAT DAD?

My Wife tanning

Jorge and his Wife

Aquiles and Jorge the Cigar Magnates. They are the owners of Sabor Habana Cigars. Seriously, if you enjoy a good cigar, go check them out, they have three stores, one in Doral on 87th ave, one on Sunset and 99th Ave, and another in the Gables.

I Hope you enjoyed this weeks entry and the pictures, hopefully I'll have some fishing stuff next week.

Till then...

First Time Out

Saturday 4/12/08 –

I went out early with my Son, (Albert Jr. 8 years old). I was on the water before first light, excited and even a little intimidated; it was my first time going fishing by myself in the open ocean, in a new boat, still learning, and knowing that boating and fishing can be fun and exhilarating, but also frustrating and dangerous.

I headed out from Matheson Hammock Marina and I selected a waypoint (Marker 21) with numbers that my friend Mike gave me in hopes of catching some bait for a day of fishing.

The weather service had predicted light sea’s, generally 1 to 3 feet, but as is too often the case, they were wrong. The breeze was pretty stiff and the ocean was fairly rough even inside the bay. I started out slowly because it was still dark, but in the general direction of the spot I had selected on the chart plotter. As the light began to fill the sky I got a little more confident and speeded up a bit. I was running about 4500 RPM and my boat was cruising beautifully at 24 mph. The heading had me going just South of the Boca Chita pass; I was a little worried about the pass out to open ocean because I am a rookie on the water and I know those areas are tough to navigate. To make matter worse, the Chart plotter showed Green on the screen in the area through which the course had me heading instead of the estimated depth it had shown so far. Luckily I powered the engines down almost to no wake speed because just seconds after that I was in about a foot of water. My boat is equipped with a Jack plate and Luckily I was able to bring it all the way up to just nip some of the rock underneath. I trimmed the engine up and slowly turned around and made my way back out to deeper water in the bay. Whew! Close call, good thing I erred on the side of caution, as I think it would be prudent to always do.

I turned the engine off, always a risky thing to do especially after a scare like I just had, but I had to take a look at the engine to see if I had done any damage. I trimmed the engine up all the way and inspected the Prop. I did not see any damage, but I new I would not know for sure until I was back up to speed. I turned the engine back on and luckily it fired up quickly as expected. I powered up and ran the boat at medium and high speed for a minute or so and felt no vibration or any other signs of damage so I decided to continue with my trip.

I sat back just outside the pass and waited for a boat that I saw coming towards me; he was about to navigate the same pass and I thought I would follow him through. That was a smart move; the boat was moving pretty fast, but I powered up quickly and fell in behind him at a good distance but still able to see the track of his wake. It turns out to navigate that pass I needed to hug the island with the light house around its right edge and out to open ocean. Even so the water was not much more that 4 or 5 feet deep and dropping to around 3 feet just on the other side before deeper water could be found.

I felt a lot better once we were out in deeper water, though the ocean was quite a bit rougher than I expected. My boat a Caracal 18 Catamaran handles rough water like a champ though, especially for a small boat. I don’t really mind the choppy seas either, and my son seemed to be enjoying the jumps so I had some fun listening to him shouting "Wooo Hooo" every time we caught some air.

I started to realize that the direction my chart plotter was taking me in did not seem to be to a position in which live bait might be found; in fact, I realized it was taking me out to open ocean. I stopped the boat and called my friend Mike to see if I might have recorded the wrong numbers on my plotter. Nope the numbers he gave me were correct, as he was approaching that very spot himself.

Unfortunately I realized there was a problem and my chart plotter had some kind of glitch. The skies were gray and ugly, and I could see storm cloud just a few miles off shore from where I was. A little nervous and frustrated at this point I considered just heading back in and calling it a day. I told my boy “Hey Papi my Chartplotter is not working right, I think we should just head back in and go home." The look of disappointment on his face was excruciating, I had promised to take him fishing and now I was dashing his hopes.

The poor boy had barely slept the night before in anticipation and it was our first fishing trip together as father and son on our own boat. He begged me to not give up so I just let the boat drift for a few minutes while I assessed the situation. I played with the chart plotter and realized it was a matter of faulty coordinates, the information on the screen and the locations were still accurate, it was just the numbers that did not add up.

I decided to appease him as I did not think there was any danger. Without the chart plotter working correctly though I new that fishing would be tough if at all possible. I headed back in to shallower water, figuring he would be happy if I just let him catch some grunts and at least he could get home thinking his first trip was a success.

When I got to around 85 feet of water I slowed to an idle hoping to find some decent bottom, and I found a nice little rock or so it seemed at around 65 feet. I marked it on my plotter and came back around. We anchored up and I put a chum bag in the water. I saw clouds of fish about mid way up on the screen and new immediately it was baitfish.

My son was super excited to see so many fish in the water, though he did not understand that they were just bait fish. OK I thought and I put on a #6 Sabiki to catch some bait; it never hurts to have live bait, and even dead is OK to store for the next trip out. The #6 Sabiki were no match for the huge Speedos that were grouped under my boat by the hundreds maybe thousands, so I put on a little bigger rig. That did the trick, and before I knew it the Live well was overflowing with huge Speedos.

Soon I had Ballyhoo behind the boat as well, and even caught 6 or 8 of those on the Sabiki as well. My Bait well (30 Gallon) is not big enough to handle so many large speedos and they started dying off so I put them on ice in hopes of using them in the future.

I abandoned the bait in hope of getting my son on at least a few grunts. I dropped down a small #1 hook tipped with Squid and no sooner than it hit bottom he had his first Grunt. He did this for a while and I decided to try jigging a little with a king fish rig. On the second cast I hooked a nice Spanish mackerel and brought it on board and into the Ice box.

I thought my son might have a nice time battling one of those so I cast out again hooked another one and I let him reel it in. He had a blast working a little bigger Mackerel than I had caught, and I had a great time just watching him.

In the end it turns out every cloud has a silver lining, my son got to catch some fish and I found a new spot that obviously holds live bait.

The wind was still blowing pretty good, and I saw no seas off shore under 3 feet all day, in fact it was mostly 4’s and 5’s with 6’s mixed in their every now and then. I decided it was time to head back around 1 pm much to my son’s dismay, but after I explained it to him he was OK with the promise of a future trip.

The voyage home was uneventful, I took my time back in through the shallow water and had no problems. Once back at the Dock I ran into to a friend of mine from Work (Jerry), he was kind enough to power up his GPS and give me his coordinates, my plotter was way off his numbers which were reading correctly as I confirmed with another boater.

So my first trip out was a little bit of a mission, but all in all it was a good day on the water with my son. I hope next time to do much better, I’ll update this site again next Monday.

Till then…