Chapter 6: Boating

I was surprised when Robin and Ed showed up at the house five minutes early. When we arrived at the marina a bit before 8:00 AM Matt and his date were waiting for us. We rushed the girls to the boat saying we could talk once we were underway. Matt had brought an ice chest with cold drinks so we put it aboard. Walt already had the diesels warmed up so once everybody was on board I helped him by casting off.

I went to the flying bridge with Walt to observe his handling of the boat. The rest of the group remained on the stern talking. Just as we cleared the harbor entrance Walt looked behind us and said, "Damn! They are planning on following us."

I looked and there were three boats, in single file, coming out of the marina too. "Walt are you sure they are following us?" as we turned south and picking up speed.

"They have in the past and what are the odds of all of them turning south the same as us?" Walt asked by way of answer.

I had also noted that they had all turned and were now in line behind us. Before I could answer, Walt said loudly, "Hang on folks lets make tracks and opened the throttles. We quickly picked up speed and could see the other boats also pick up speed, but only one seemed to be keeping pace with us. Walt chuckled and pointed saying, "That would be the commodore!" but he did not slacken speed.

About a half-hour later, Walt slowed down and stopped once we were out of sight of the other boats and the Commodore and his wife pulled along side and we talked for a few minutes. Walt told the Commodore we were going about five miles north of where they fished Wednesday and the Commodore said he was going back to Wednesday's spot. Walt told him if he did not have any luck there he might try further out and north by two miles.

Once we reached our fishing area, Walt climbed down to the stern, greeted everybody, and was introduced to Marsha, Matt's girl friend. Marsha seemed to be designed after Robin but with fewer curves. Her personality as I was to find out over the years was extremely sunny and her wit good. I can't remember a time when she could not find something funny about what ever was going on.

An example of this; would be when April was going down an older street, which had been made into a three-lane one-way. April was in the center lane and there was a car on each side of her. As if given a signal, they both turned towards the center lane in preparation for their turn and sandwiched April just in front of the rear tires at the same instant catching her rear bumper and pulling it off. Later when April was complaining about this Marsha said, "I don't know what you are complaining about you always had a fantasy about being sandwiched between to guys!" with a straight face.

Walt only allowed the use of four poles while we were trolling. When we hooked a fish, the other three poles were reeled in as quickly as possible to keep their lines from tangling with the line the fish was on.

I spent a half-hour removing a bird's nest tangle from the reel Robin was using when it spun out of control as she was letting line out for the first time.

Walt had a good method for determining who handled the pole with a fish on it. We drew cards to see who would go first, second, third and so on. Robin and Matt were able to catch two fish while the rest of us only caught one a piece. The second fish Robin caught was a shark between 3 and 4 feet long. When Walt was going to cut the line I asked him if that species of shark was good eating and he said it was so we brought it on board and I now understand why Walt had been a little reluctant. That darn shark was still trying to flop around when we were back in the marina.

Walt pulled up to a cleaning pier, a special pier, where you could tie up temporarily to clean your fish. I insisted that everybody clean his or her own fish. Walt showed everybody how to do it by cleaning the shark. April and Robin got right after it while Marsha was a little hesitant and required a little coaching from Walt but shortly we were done and we pulled over to the refueling pier and topped off the tanks before returning to our slip.

We spent the next hour cleaning the boat including washing down the deck after we unloaded the fish to the cars. I invited everybody to the house Sunday afternoon for shark. Ed asked if his parents could come and I agreed and even Walt said he would be happy to join us.

Once home Robin and Ed took their fish to his parent's house. I spent the next few minutes cutting the Shark up into steaks and disposing of the head and tail. I filleted the Red Snapper I caught and we baked it for dinner. April asked what we were going to do with all the fish we caught. I explained that I did not expect to catch this many every time, but that she should ask around work if anybody would like a fish and make a list and then we could give it away as necessary.

Later, during our post lovemaking cuddle April warned me about Ed's parents and that they may try to sell me or borrow money for the farm. I asked her what was going on and she said that Ed's father had a mild heart attack last year contributing to a bad year on the farm. I asked her what she thought of the farm and she said they leased her place and normally they made a good profit and the farm was well run. I asked why they did not give it to Ed and she said that he wanted to be a veterinarian and was not interested in farming. I asked her how close the town was to the farm and she said it was only 5 miles out now that the town was growing.

Sunday at 2:00 PM, Matt and Marsha showed up followed shortly by Walt. Robin and Ed arrived with his parents a half-hour later. I liked Ed's father, Ed Sr. from the get go. He was down to earth and had a wiry sense of humor. Before Ed could bring up the subject, I asked him how his farm was doing. He said that this year they might make a little profit and would at least break even but that he was thinking of selling out. I asked him what the problem was and he said that he had some money saved up and with what he could get from the farm; he could retire comfortably which is what his doctor had recommended.