7-15-2021 - Thursday
We all slept in a little this morning. Bridgette decided to drive into Vero Beach for an exercise class at 9:00 but that was more energy than any of the rest of us had.
Its not supposed to rain for the next 2 days. Of course, we all know how reliable that weather forecasting here is. When Joe got up at 9:00 (with a little coaxing from me), I gave him a morning update -- Suns lost, Bridgette had gone to Vero Beach, it isn't supposed to rain today. He headed out the door for his coffee (we had set our coffee maker outside so John could get a cup every morning), and said "it's raining!" So much for my update. We entertained the kids again with Mexican Train, then Andrew started lining up all the dominos, in order, which was good because he had dumped them all yesterday on the dash of the RV and we weren't sure if he found them all. That was right after my cake disasters. Just before he finished, his dad came in and something happened that made them all fall, even though Joe had John coming in very carefully.
When Bridgette got back, they decided to drive over to Sebastian for lunch, then to go out on the water, swimming and fishing. We got on the water about 2:15 and played for an hour or so, just to cool off.
John had thrown a fishing line in from the boat, and when he checked it later, a catfish had managed to get on his hook. Joe finally decided to get in the water, and he just started fishing right away. He caught a catfish too, then he hooked into something big. It took a little while for him to get it in, John grabbed the net, and Joe finally brought it in -- a 10-12 lb catfish.
That inspired the rest of them, so more fishing lines hit the water.
Andrew caught one then.
As captain, John gets to spend a lot of time taking fish (especially catfish) off hooks, tying hooks back on, etc. The kids usually do get their own bait (shrimp) though. Joe caught another one, and came dragging it in over his shoulder. It was just a normal size one though.
And another one.
Meanwhile Andrew got distracted -- he's over picking crabs and other sea creatures off the post until his dad gets a fish on, then he rushes over and cranks it in.
I finally couldn't stand it anymore, I got my pole out and headed over to the hotspot. I caught one pretty quick. So I drug mine in over the shoulder too. But Joe was the only one that caught the big one. John guessed we might have caught about 15 catfish there.
We continued to fish until about 5:00, but then they quit biting so we loaded up and headed back over to Cap't Hirams for dinner on the harbor. We got a little damp on that drive. Then we headed to the mangrove area we fished yesterday, which is just past our campground a little ways. This is a pretty ride through the tunnel of mangroves, but it gets pretty buggy back here. There are always lots of big birds here, including osprey.
Joe got to cuddle with the kids on this ride.
We stayed here until about 8:00, almost dark. John managed to anchor the boat right in the hotspot again and the kids were bringing in the fish one right after another. Joe and I each just caught one (his bit his finger). Mine was so little I gave it to John for bait, which was a mistake because it led to another boatride back to the inlet where we had seen the sharks the other day. Bridgette likes to fish with live bait fish for sharks. So, just before dark, we headed down the lagoon, getting soaked by the splashes, to get back to that spot. I did get a nice picture of the sunset.
She got one big hit but missed it, and of course it took her bait fish, which was an Atlantic Croaker. John informed us that it is illegal to use game fish for bait, but this particular fish is not considered a game fish, so it was ok. So we felt our way back to the campground in the dark. We had more bug bites, on top of the ones we got the last couple days, so we were pretty miserable. And we were very tired.
Our week here is fast coming to an end. The weather is miserable, but it certainly helps to get in the water. Playing games inside with the kids has been a lot of fun, and a life saver for us because we get to stay in the air conditioning. I'm just not sure where we can go to find cooler weather when we leave Florida.
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