Back in the U S of A

Hi All,
We made it, pretty much as we planned the day. Alarm went off at 2:30, anchor up at 2:50 and we headed west. It was a bit bumpy, especially in the Gulf Stream, but not too bad.

The highlight of the day may have been when we encountered a pod of 15 spinner dolphin that swam just off of our bow for 10 or 115 minutes. Susan and I stood on the bow and watched until one by one they peeled off and went on their way. It's like being a little kid again when they're around.

We fished all the way across. Had one strike that might have been a wahoo, but it spit the hook out pretty quick. We caught the biggest mahi mahi I've ever seen. It did a neat dance on its tail just out of the water before he stripped all the line off the reel and was gone. Then we were down to one line in the water. As we were motoring along I saw just off the side of the boat a mahi mahi chasing a flying fish, it was just a flash. About the time our lure got to that spot we had a strike and got a mahi on. He put up a good fight but we got him on board and went to filleting him. After he was in the refrigerator it wasn't to much longer and we had another strike and another mahi. This one put up an even better fight, I'd say it took us 30 - 45 minutes to get him on board, Susan and I taking turns reeling. As we got him close to the boat we saw a second mahi swimming with him. Mahi hang together in schools and when you catch one, if you can stop (we couldn't), you can catch several by leaving one in the water until you catch the next one. Anyway, we only had one line and Susan rightly suggested we didn't really need three. Two mahi in the refrigerator and our fishing dry spell was officially over.

We got to Fort Pierce and anchored at about 4:30, next to Drew and Sharon on Z-Raye who have been here a couple of days. We were just getting settled when we were hailed on the radio by Fugue (Ralph and Beverly) that we met and had dinner with in Galveston just after we bought our boat. Talk about a small world! They left this morning so we didn't get to talk with them but they're going the same direction we are so I'm sure we'll catch up with them again in the next week or so. Drew and Sharon came over for a mahi dinner and a bottle of champagne before we collapsed.

Today we're going to the Navy Seal Museum here in Fort Pierce. Today or tomorrow we'll rack up some tremendous bills at West Marine, Walmart and Publix getting restocked with everything.

That's it for now. (posted without Susan's edits so excuse any grammatical errors) Take care.
Brian