score!

This morning I left with Stephanie to take her to the Key West Airport, and Donnie left with Kenny for a day of fishing.  The fishing has been few and far between this year.  It seems to have been unusually windy, with small craft advisories happening far too often.  It's left Kenny in a bit of depression (sad face).  It blew hard out of the N/NW all night long.  In fact, it was good that Donnie had put out extra lines to keep us from banging the dock all night long.  Luckily for the guys, the Atlantic side is to the south, and the sea conditions continued to improve as the day wore on.

The weary fisherman returned about 5:30pm...well?  How did they do?

Score one for the tuna!  Nice job, Ken!

Scored some nice yellowtail snapper :)

Ken scored a realllyyy nice mangrove snapper- love at that smile!

Ken is giving Cap'n Donnie a lesson in cleaning a tuna and cutting steaks.

Donnie was happily cleaning the snapper :)  He also
caught some nice porgies, grunts, and then undersized
yellowtail, rock hinds, and a remora- which means
a shark was somewhere in the area.  They fished
in deeper water today, 65-85 feet. 

While the guys were cleaning up the boat, Sugar was
giving Ken (yep, another Ken!) lots of sugar- silly pup!

The snowbird season is quickly coming to a close.  Lots of folks have left already, and last weekend it looked like a boat parade making their way east to the Bahamas and beyond.  Two more boats left from Banana Bay on Sunday.  I can't wait to join in that parade myself.  There are several boats from here that are looking to leave around the first of April, as soon as we get the right weather window.  It's exciting stuff, and also a little daunting, trying to get everything situated.  We are planning a picnic and final pool party/dominoes game for this Wednesday as my in-laws leave for Indiana on Thursday, and Ken & Lucille (Fran's sister and brother-in-law) head for home on Saturday.
Things are quickly winding down already. Tomorrow Donnie & I have to go back to Key West to meet with Customs and Immigration to secure the proper paperwork and cruising permits for the Bahamas.  That will bring our plans one step closer :)

After I dropped off Stephanie, I picked up Willis' Frontline treatment on the way home, and got the grocery sale ads for this week.  I'm down to the last of the provisioning, and really don't want to buy fresh produce and such until the last possible minute.  We did bite the bullet and purchased a Yeti cooler, the Cadillac of coolers.  It will hold ice for seven days, and we needed a fish cooler, for all of the fish we plan to catch!  While I poured over the grocery ads making my lists, I did five loads of laundry, basically washing everything on the boat that wasn't nailed down.  While I am planning for this trip across the Gulfstream, I also have to be thinking about storing all of the extra linens, bedding and such that was used during the season here. I vacuum sealed all the extra stuff and carried it to the Jeep to store while we will be gone.  The Marquesa/McDaniel B & B is offically closed to guests; the owners are leaving on vacation!