Last week in Marathon - more new friends and old friends too

Well since our last posting we have been having a wonderful time.  Erwin got an invitation from Steve to go back out on his mom's boat to go fishing.  There were 4 guys and they caught black fin tuna but they were really a long way out into the Atlantic.  Erwin had his hands full with this rod and reel as you can see.  They slap a belt on you to hold the reel and you crank for a very long time as these fish are deep and are fighters.

I was thrilled that we were able to get some of the tuna and it was so tasty and fresh.  The interesting part of the day was that Steve got a fish on and he started to fight it.  He is the most experienced on the boat so it was a good thing that he had the rod.  After 45 minutes of a battle with the fish the tension changed and there was no great pull.  When Steve pulled in the line, well.  Here is Steve fighting the fish.

The other half of the the story, so to speak is pictured below.  Yup, a shark was on the line and had tried to steal the tuna.  Look at those jaw marks!

We were getting the scuba tanks back to the boat after the scuba trip and we met a great couple from Kansas City, MO, Susan and Robert.  They had a new puppy Abbie with them.  We talked a little bit and Erwin asked it they would like to go out on our boat and dive off the reef.  They were excited about that so the next good day we headed out.  Well as usual the weatherman had not totally predicted the waves and wind so it was a little lumpy which made it a less than great trip for the ladies.  Lucky for the guys we totally support their hobby so we "toughed it out" while they went diving on a wreck that is now a permanent spot for the fish.  Here are some of the great underwater pictures that Erwin and Robert took.  I have to say, this was Robert's first time to use a camera (Erwin has two so it was perfect) and he did a fabulous job.





After a fun day of diving, we met our old friends from our home port in Muskegon, Casey and Edith.  We all took our dingys over to a local restaurant on the water called Dockside.  It is a local hangout and everyone loves to listen to the bands.  The night we were there a musician by the name of Joe Mama performed.  He did a great job and we finally got to see this place that several of the boaters hang out at.  It was a lovely evening.  Casey and Edith came back to our boat and we showed them our pictures of the summer cruise we enjoyed on Mike and Lynette's boat.  It was fun to tell them about our adventure on a boat in the northern latitudes.

We focused on getting our boat and ourselves ready to leave Marathon and head back up the east coast to home.  We topped off the propane for cooking, the gas tanks for the dinghy, the water tanks for fresh water, the diesel tanks for the big boat to get us there, laundry, and of course enough groceries for a least 10 days.  Well, we had one more dive trip planned with Susan and Robert.  It looked again to be a good weather day by the weatherman.  It turned out to be a very warm day with threatening thunderheads in the morning.  Well, poor Susan decided to stay back with the dog Abbie so that she would be comfortable and not stuck in a hot cabin, plus Abbie had been under the weather so they wanted to be sure she was OK.

So Robert, Erwin and I went out to Sombrero Reef and there was hardly any waves, just a few and not very big.  The water was crystal clear.  Actually so clear that from the boat I could see the fan coral waving from the bottom and it was 20 feet down.  Here is the guys as they first left the boat.

The guys were down for almost and hour so I knew that they were having a great dive.  I amused myself with feeding a few pretzels to the fish and just watching them on the surface.  Because it was so clear, I could not only see the yellow tipped fish and the grunts, but I saw a couple of parrot fish that were green and brown and also a couple of smaller barracuda (about 3 foot or so.)





Like I said, these guys had a great time and took a lot of pictures.  They saw the best variety of fish and conditions were perfect for Erwin to get some wonderful shots with color as his new strobes work better than ever.



Check out the purple and yellow green at the bottom

This guy looks transparent in all of the pictures









He is about 4 feet across, look carefully as he hides himself well on the bottom.



Here is Robert looking at the giant stingray

OK, so I actually did remember to get a picture of our new friends.  Here they are at our boat.  We had them over to look at the new diving pictures and of course, our Alaska trip pictures.  It was great as  Susan brought the popcorn and a yummy homemade key lime pie.  What a fun evening we all had!



Hopefully next week we will have pictures of Key Largo and points further north.